Terrible movie proves the point, that big stars can't save a bad movie. I'm a fan of Russell Crow and Lucy Liu, and Kung-Fu, but I still hated this movie. *** SPOILER *** I recommend you don't see the movie, so I may as well proceed with the spoilers. By the way, one of those two stars gets killed off, that pissed me off right there. Russell Crow's character is quite the lady's man, apparently, despite his massive porcine belly, a bit hard to believe (and see). Most frustrating is that the few interesting fights are put to a stop right away, abruptly. Take the Gemini couple with the interlocking weapons, the first entertaining element in this movie, gets killed off long distance via poison darts in the restaurant fight scene, just as it gets interesting. Yeah, they were fun to watch, let's cut them out of the movie for good. Rick Yune's character, X-Blade has a fun fight early on, that comes to end within a minute before he gets strung up between trees. In between the few worthy fight scenes, there are far too many one-sided fights or pointless slaughter with villains violently dispatching people without effort or torturing and maiming the town blacksmith or Brass Body, the massively muscular evil guy, slicing a child's neck and throwing a 100-lb hooker against the wall. None of that is the least bit entertaining. The brass special effects are pretty cool, but his fight scenes are highly uninteresting as he has no competition until the very end, so again… not entertaining. The tag line about F and U hints at some sense of humor here, but I didn't find any.Read full review
Now, I have watched a variety of "unique" films including hundreds of foreign martial arts movies (The Chef the Butcher and the Swordsman, for one). This movie was just awful. The story was just a mess, the characters were extremely under developed (I still don't know who Russel Crowe's character even was) and the screen play was anything but fluid. The main issue for me however was the RZA. Now although I will give him credit for branching out and trying something new, a few acting classes wouldn't have killed the brother. I mean, he is just AWFUL, to the point where I literally found myself either cringing or trying to translate his garbled dialogue into something palatable. Just writing about his acting makes me cringe. If you watch closely, you will notice he wears the same facial expression throughout the entire movie. I am not joking, watch his face. Variety in vocal levels? Forget it, Mike Tyson could have done a better job. On a plus note, the OST is pretty good. One thing you cannot take away from the RZA is his ability to produce music. The Martial Arts action is also very respectable. If you are looking for a good head banging movie to "veg" out to, this movie isn't too bad. Anything else, move on...quickly.Read full review
With a set up like this, why did I buy this film? I purchased it because I am a fan of Russell's. My only previous viewing of a film like this was Crouching Tiger which was a hit & I liked it 1. IF you hate rap music you will NOT like having to hit the mute button during THE LOAD rap music parts. Terrible 2. Ok, Russell an Oscar winning actor. What was he doing in this mess? A favor to someone? This is beneath him now-needs much better material. It was his first film release in two years & it had to be this mess. 3. Asian actors speaking English to themselves 4. A small spoiler alert-a bad guy wearing SUNGLASSES? Think there were cool in this time frame or something? The story kept jumping around, hard to follow. Let’s get to the the blu ray. Has an extra "A Look Inside" which since the film bombed with critics & at the box office So, the blu ray has this extra, but……. IF you watch it do NOT unless you are a fan of this THREE LETTERS director. It is NOT a making of or anything, it is 3 letters talking about him with BARELY any information on film. Picture quality fine. Unless you like kung fu films you will NOT like this film even if you are a fan of Russell’s or Lucy Liu's. Otherwise, the only names in the cast.Read full review
This was one of the best martial arts movies that I have ever seen I loved it from begin until then.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Quinton Tarantino need I say more . Directed a good martial arts film. All characters and plot are good. It also has Dave Batista and the guy from wu tang clan. Five stars
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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