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Seen any good Kung-Fu flicks of late?

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    I wouldn't hold your breath!

    I ended up watching Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon and it's still good fun.
    The groping and perving on women is a little awkward these days and the violence against one of the women is pretty painful to watch, as is the humour about transvestites.

    I have to remember these films are from a different time and different country, sometimes.

    Anyway, the action is great and Sammo is in full-on Bruce Lee mode.

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      I haven't seen that for years. I see your point about the humour but even Western media had potentially offensive stuff years ago. Hiphop still has tales of selling crack etc etc. That's not why I'm posting, if you like Sammo doing Bruce Lee I'm guessing you've seen Enter the Fat Dragon? I'm sure you have and you posted it in this thread but it's been years so not sure.

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        Originally posted by Finsbury Girl View Post
        Hmm. The note of 4k DIs for the Police Story movies are making me hold off for a UHD release.

        Imagine a newly remastered Drunken Master set or a OUATIC boxset.......
        Now that’s a series I would really like to see get a proper remaster. Even if it’s just parts 1-3. The Drunken Master Blu-ray that came out a wee while back looks great but I’m not convinced a UHD would add much more visually.

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          I finally saw Man of Tai Chi and I really enjoyed it.

          It's pretty old skool in story but modern in delivery, which is a really nice combo.
          In fact, the story reminded me of The Karate Kid Part II at times!

          Tiger Chen (Tiger Chen) is the sole student of Ling Kong Tai Chi style under his elderly master Yang. While Tiger excels in the physical aspects of his training, he has yet to understand its philosophical aspects, which worries Master Yang. Determined to prove the effectiveness of the style, Tiger competes in the local Wulin Competition.

          He is spotted competing by Donaka (Keanu Reeves), who runs an illegal underground fighting ring that the authorities consistently struggle to catch, and invites him to a job interview. Tiger is tired of his menial delivery job so attends the interview only to be attacked and tested on his fighting ability (and you thought your job interview was tough, [MENTION=1218]Zaki[/MENTION]!), which he passes.

          He then starts fighting for Donaka and starts a downward cycle that leads him to compromising his Tai Chi training to form a new brutal style of fighting. He's then trapped not fulfilling his training, forced into fighting for Donaka and unable to save his master's temple from being condemned.

          How will he escape his predicament? (Spoiler: with lots of fighting.)

          So, this was Reeves' directorial debut and it's pretty good. I love how, since The Matrix, he's had a love of martial arts and integrating it into movie fighting. His work with Chad Stahelski and David Leitch lead to John Wick and fighting with Tiger Chen on Reloaded lead to Man of Tai Chi:


          The story is loosely based around Tiger's real life story and is gripping enough to want to follow to conclusion, but we're here for the fights and there's plenty of it!

          I have to say that Reeves has done a really good job of capturing the action and although the camera moves, it is dynamic, not disorientating. I'm pretty sure he used this clever camera rig to capture the action:



          The fight with Iko Uwais is disappointingly short, but there are plenty of other fights and it's interesting to see Tiger's style deviating from one that's mainly evasion, to making it more brutal and effective against the MMA fighters he is pitted against.

          Reeves is a complete badass in this! He flicks between ruthless, calculating and unhinged. When he finally gets to fight, he looks like an evil Neo, dressed in black and out to kill. He looks massive too, like Raoh (FotNS) or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Game of Death), towering above his opponent and countering everything thrown at him:


          It's not as brutal as something like Headshot, but I really enjoyed it hope Reeves has an opportunity to do another martial arts film, other than Wick.

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            I'd heard a few people say how great RE:BORN is, saying they got the same thrill as seeing The Raid for the first time, so I treated myself, but I came away underwhelmed.

            There's a Metal Gear Solid-style opening and then about 20 minutes of plot, establishing our hero as a shop owner, who looks after his niece and visits a friend, to whom he feels indebted to after he was blinded and crippled after saving his life.

            It's hinted at that he's a badass.

            His old employer comes looking for him and there's a bunch of great sequences in his home town, where assassins try and take him out in a busy shopping square, a cramped side street at night and even in a phone box.




            They then kidnap his niece and the gloves are off. He sets of to the enemy compound with just a couple of mates and funky knife.
            It then feels like there's an hour of him stabbing and slitting throats of an entire army in a forest, which gets a bit repetitive, unfortunately. It also suffers some kung fu tropes like henchmen waiting their turn to get stabbed, not shooting when they have a clear shot and putting guns away for a knife fight.

            The action switches to the base and there's a few more fights, but it's lost its momentum by that point.

            It's okay and there's some great fight choreography, it just felt like they ran out of ideas.
            It's not as good as John Wick or The Raid, which it's compared to, or even Headshot, but it's good to see a modern-day-set Japanese action film.

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              Eureka! is releasing a Project A box set in October. A new 2k restoration and loads of extras.



              Come on peeps get ordering. At this rate we might get Wheels on Meals / Dragons Forever in a Benny “The Jet” Uruqidez box set.

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                Sorry, [MENTION=8265]CMcK[/MENTION], I meant to post that a while back.

                It's great that they're getting re-released with crisper prints, but they just seem to be exactly the same as the Hong Kong Legends versions but without the Bey Logan commentaries.

                If there was a new commentary or interview, I'd be tempted, but I'm struggling to see the point, other than the crisper print, which was alright in the first place, IMHO.

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                  I must admit I rarely watch the extras on discs or listen to the commentary tracks. I just want to see everything looking and sound as good as possible. And at £25 for two films at least they’re sensibly priced.
                  I’ll pass the HKL discs onto my nephew and get him educated in proper action films rather Bayformers CGI ADHD borefests.

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                    Ah, that's perfect then.
                    Sounds like we look for different things in a disc, but still love the actual films!

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                      Remind me not to be a moron and sell these again lol (thinking the VHS versions would be more than good enough) . Got The Magnificent Butcher coming back next week

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                        NICE!

                        I though Dreadnaught was teh rarez?

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                          I can't remember if you like The Matrix, [MENTION=3542]Team Andromeda[/MENTION], but there's a 4K HDR release that's supposed to be really nice.

                          In tonights video I review one of my favorite movies of all time, The Matrix on 4K UHD Blu-Ray. This comes at us with a brand new transfer, Dolby Vision, and...


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                            I love the 1st film and yes they did an amazing job with the 4K transfer, well happy with it

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                              Ah great.
                              I thought if you liked it, you'd have it as I know you love your HD stuff.

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                                Managed to get a copy of long-lost 1972 basher The Insanity Being. I’ve had the poster for a while, but the film was elusive. Thanks to VOD in China, though, companies are going through their archives and selling stuff directly. It’s a subtitled version, too, so bravo.

                                I think a lot of rares and ‘lost’ films will crop up on VOD services in the near future. I know someone in the UK who has sold his reels of a 1974 rarity to a company in a China, who intend to release it.

                                Other titles are within arm’s reach but tantalisingly uncatchable. Judy Lee’s 1976 film The Magic Ring was bought by Celestial, but they’ve no plans to put it out. And talking to one bloke, he says that Cathay’s entire library of negatives were destroyed and that the only copies of their films that still exist are rare Betamax tapes hoarded by collectors. It’s absurd. This was stuff released in the 60s, not 1910.

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