The Action movie to End All Action Movies hehehe

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

Yes, two different styles, but still Jet VS Jet.

Is it really that hard to find someone to play the villain? )

Of course ive seen Drive!

Have you seen Only the Strong Wintsun? )

[Vogue Sugarpop]

of course i have, in fact I think i am going over to the store right now, and buy it for 10dollars on DVD. Thanks for reminding me hehe

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

Dacascos was in his best shape in that movie.

And whats with the Sugarpop name? Why not Wintsun! )

[Aradael]

Someone says they don't like wirework and camera tricks in a martial arts movie, but they liked Matrix...Hello!?

Matrix used all of the above and piled computer graphics on top of that. (Check out the making of the Matrix if you doubt it)

Amazing what people will say sometimes. o.O

Personally, I think Jet Li is one of the best movie martial artists out there today. No one alive today can match his speed (sorry to bust a bubble here, not all of his speed is camera tricks) and I thoroughly enjoy his movies.

CTHD was a great movie, but it contained many more elements than the average martial arts moves (namely, plot). The fights were also less about ass kicking than they were about seamless flows of power shifting from one attacker to the other. It was a dramatic element to illustrate the violent lifestyle of the Heroes of China rather than another force-fed pellet for the average beer-addled action junkie.

A movie is only good in my opinion if you can remember details about it a month after you've seen it and still replay them in your mind with pleasure.

[Searyx]

The difference is that the Matrix had a logical reason for it: They were fighting inside a computer program.

Martial arts films don't often have an excuse.

[XadionDarkborn]

Assumption of realistic characteristics in all movies and books must be seen and applied. If the movie/book or shall we say story has a set guideline of rules to follow, and the person who made the story is the one who creates it. This is often lost in movies because they usually don’t explain things etc. like books do. The premise of the Matrix dose give us realistic reason to believe what neo and them do can be done- they also explain that they must learn this they just don’t have it. When things exceed the line of believable reality within the realm of the story you get a bad story because the viewer/reader just dose not believe that the actions can be reasonably done in the story.

Now many people do not like the /American/ Jet Li is because his characters are always exceeding the limits of the assumed reality of the situation created by the story, and that is also why so many people like him.

As things are developed, mostly movies the main plot and actions of the character made by the writer are then taken by numerous numbers of people and replaces, moved, changed and more the ideas of the person who did set up the boundaries of the world the movie is in. Thus bringing us things that do not seem to fit.

This entire assumption…well assumes that the viewer wants to seek out the information and has common sense to see the world of the book or movie or whatever that they can place the characters into their rolls.

So it all comes down to your personal mindset of your viewing/reading to bring you what type of total perspective you get out of your entertainment. If you go see a movie like ‘XXX’ and you are going there expecting to get a “Clear and Present Danger” political intrigue movie, then obviously your going to be disappointed as you try and peace together its fairly decent plot. But if you are going to see an action Rambo movie you will then be annoyed at its annoying government plot that runs thru it. But if your wanting a new age JameBond, then well you are probably going to be happy..anywho….

Many hard core movie watchers see movies 2-4 times, always the first having a totally open mind to taken in the sheer amusement of the movie… the other times its to watch it for the plot or action the rush of things or the mind bending confusion a good plot gives to an eventual way to resolve.

Well this was a long post, sure to be flame like everything but hell is that not the reason!
The short bus is here again, I thought I could get away from them but this time I cant! Blooger goo have fun =D

see what stupid little posts can lead to?

[Aradael]

Logical reasons? In the medium of film entertainment, WHO CARES!?

First off, the "logical reason" you might be searching for is that due to the mysticism surrounding martial arts over 1500 years ago, martial artists were superhuman demi-gods of legend and cultivated that very image by keeping their greatest secrets from the public for centuries. Think about it!

According to Chinese history/mythology, the temple of ShaoLin was almost wiped from the face of the Earth because Emperor K'ang Hsi witnessed their superior combat skills and they refused to come serve him permanently at his palace. Fearful of their abilities, his army slaughtered countless monks in an effort to destroy their power forever. He failed and a handful of monks escaped to continue the teachings of ShaoLin.

Now knowing these stories about the sheer power, speed and skill of martial artists to be a "slight" embellishment, how could anyone possibly wonder WHY they would use wirework, camera tricks and special effects in martial arts movies? Because they wanted to recapture the awe and wonder of these stories! I could watch Chuck Norris kick the crap out of black masked guys for a while but in the end it would be BORING.

Now, watching Jet Li perform anime-style moves by hurling 100lb poles with single palm strikes that shatter a wall because his opponent flips fifty feet into the air to dodge while throwing fireballs etc., that's ENTERTAINMENT.

Some people need to let go of their anal-retentive grasp on physics and simply watch a movie to have fun.

[XadionDarkborn]

hence my point, well one of the many odly associated points in my rather long non fluid post above that seems to go on and on and i need to stop and take a breath here in a


*plop*

[Ritkhan]

Wire work is fine. It just comes down to good movie, bad movie. Crouching Tiger was a good movie with massive wire work. Anything Jet Li has done in the US just plain sucked ass. And it has nothing to do with the wire work. Just bad, boring scripts and bad acting, bad directing, bad production etc.

[Muuru]

Here's where wirework becomes bad: When you can TELL that they're using wires. I mean sure, if someone jumps 50 feet in to the air, obviously *something* is going on. But in crouching tiger, they just like flailed their legs around while their bodies lurched as they were flung through the air attatched to wires. I couldn't watch anynthing involving the "special effects" in that movie. I mean, if you were watching the matrix and in the scene where Neo dodges the bullets, he turned into a polygonal character reminiscent of star-fox, what would YOU say? That's what crouching tiger was like to me :/

[Deris]

I thought the special effects in Crouching Tiger were beautiful - I'd place it as one of the most beautifully (cinematically, and coreographically) done movies in a long time....

Everything about the movie to me is vivid - and the fact that they left the whole thing in Mandarin with subtitles made it that much better.....its one of my favorite movies ) the flailing of the legs was to represent that they were walking on air....

[Ritkhan]

yea they flailed thier legs to represent walking on air, light foot walking etc. If they didnt then it would look like they were flying like superman. It was done well.

[Muuru]

oh, so like double jumping in quake 2? Yeah that looked pwn as well...Did you actually read my post? I mean, if neo had turned into a starfox-like character, would you be in here saying "ITS TO SIGNIFY THAT HES IN A COMPUTER!!!" Of course, not, that's stupid isn't it? I don't care what it was *supposed* to look like or signify, I'm just stating what it DID look like. What it looked like was a bunch of martial artists on wires flinging their legs around, for all WE know they could have been saying "let me down you sons of bitches!" :P I think it would have been much better looking if they had simply gone the route that MOST martial arts films/anime go, and had them be able to jump very high heighs, and very long distances. So instead of "flying" between the rooftops, kicking all the while, they should have been doing quick jumps. That's just my opinion though

[Fris_Leafshadow]

CTHD=Peter Pan. I've got to believe the premise(sp?) of the movie. I won't believe a normal human w/ years of training can jump across a 50 foot lake and only leave 2 small splashes. I can't believe a women can jump 25 feet strait into the air. I can believe a man can climb a rock wall and break off small pieces to throw. I can believe a person can balance on a stalk of banboo, somewhat.

The matrix is very different, they can jump across buildings because they are 'bending' the rules of the computer world. Thus, I can believe the premise.


CTHD was an excelent movie, they made the characters too much of normal man with superhero powers.

[Muuru]

You can believe that with years of training, someone can walk on air...but not jump far? I don't understand your post :/