First impressions show potential, but there’s some terrible acting and terrible music — it’s like one big pop/trash music parade. Hopefully it’ll get better when the plot thickens.
By the half way mark, it’s clear this movie is put together to instil a particular kind of insecure discombobulated dysfunctional reckless-yet-sheepish emo attitude upon a mostly juvenile audience. The characters are unconvincing as martial artists, and they’re below average as actors in general. The music is of terribly taste. The script is half intriguing though. It oozes a cheap TV drama feel. Aside from a short appearance in the first 10 minutes, we don’t see Jackie Chan again until the second half of the movie, from around 50 minutes in, at which point the movie takes a turn for the better. Jackie Chan is an extremely old man here — only semi recognisable. Before the first hour is out, Ralph Macchio also appears. Talk about a wasted first half of the movie, and an unexpected significant uplift for the last half hour.
I’m going to rate this movie Below Average, although by half an hour in it was almost certain to be set for an even lower rating than that. Everyone needs sacking except Jackie and Macchio — the other actors and the whole crew behind the scenes need replacing. This movie represents a cool concept, poorly executed.
The star of the movie is Ben Wang, playing Li ‘Stuffed Crust’ Fong. As you can tell, it’s a less serious movie than Ralph Macchio’s original Karate Kid trilogy, or the one Jackie Chan made with Jaden Smith. It’s almost a parody like the recent series Ralph Macchio was involved in. Ben Wang’s character doesn’t come across as an action hero we can get behind — he comes across as an apologetic bed wetter. He’s not a leader, he’s a follower — he’s the complete wrong end of the spectrum for this kind of role. His demeanour is all wrong, but that’s probably the intention of the producers. He’s clearly not a serious martial artist in real life — a stuntman is probably doing all his acrobatic moves. Having said that, he’s got far better structure than Ralph Macchio who literally couldn’t be any worse thus has clearly never really done any karate in his life even though he made his name off it many decades ago.
Semi-reasonable semi-weak tournament scenes at the end. Semi-funny parody-style banter at the very end as we meet another old character from Cobra Kai in William Zabka.
The first 10 minutes are cleverly designed to build a backstory to this movie, and while it starts off a bit messy, Tom Cruise‘s presence sharpens it up nicely. By 10 minutes in it’s clear Tom Cruise is playing Major William Cage, some top marketing guy for the military who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty, and upon attempting to blackmail a general, finds himself railroaded to the frontline with his rank stripped and nobody believing his story.
By 20 minutes in, the Major is getting his first taste of battle on the front line and it’s a bit of a nightmare, but it’s well executed, and it soon becomes something quite intriguing, when 5 minutes later he dies and his day restarts and everything becomes Déjà Vu. Then 5 minutes later still – now half an hour in – the day restarts again, so it’s now the third instance of the same day. This time he’s less confused, and tries very hard to prove himself and alert everyone what’s going on, but fails only ends up with a taped up mouth. He also tries fighting the aliens proactively using his limited foresight, but dies pretty quickly. Then we see him die quickly again. Then on the fifth attempt he tries talking to the lead female – the Angel of Verdun, Sergeant Rita Vrataski, played by Emily Blunt – and it’s already clear that he’s been here many times before, the movie’s just skipped several iterations. One the next full reset, we see him try a different tact. He subtly proves his strange abilities to predict the future, and assures everyone he’s not trying to avoid the war – he’s now acting enthusiastic and friendly but not controversial at all – this is of course a rouse to gain everyone’s trust so they all lower their guard and he’s free to do what he needs to do – this time it’s meeting up with the woman who told him to come find her when he wakes up. It seems she has the same ability as he does, and knows all about it. There’s a few nice touches of humour here too.
By 50 minutes in, William Cage (Tom Cruise) and Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) have met Rita’s friend, a top scientist who understands how this alien enemy operates, and what’s causing the day to keep resetting, and everything becomes clear, or at least as clear as it ever will be. Rita starts training Tom in combat skills, which he’s gravely lacking, and she tells him he needs to make sure he dies every day, else he’s out of the game.
It gets a bit tense, gritty and uncomfortable towards the end of the first hour, and it’s safe to say, most of the fun is already gone now. But there’s still nearly an hour left to go. For this reason, although this movie showed great potential to be arguably the best action hero movie ever made, in the end I’m going to settle for a rating of Very Good, which is no mean feat of course.
After a solid 20 minutes of gritty drama and uncomfortable action, the mood picks up with half an hour to go as the Major & Sergeant come up with a new plan and head to HQ to get what they need. Unfortunately though, this refreshing uplift only lasts a few minutes before it gets gritty again and doesn’t let up till the very end. Nevertheless, we can’t discount the great entertainment value of the first hour, making this a Very Good action hero movie on a par with Denzel’s equally great movie The Equalizer from the same year.
This movie is mildly entertaining. It occasionally features some good acting, including from the lead character Percy Jackson played by Logan Lerman, and occasionally from others too, such as: Grover, Percy’s protective Satyr, played by Brandon T Jackson; and Zeus, chief diety, played by Sean Bean; and even Pierce Brosnan as Mr Brunner aka Chiron, Percy’s mentor centaur/minotaur type thing.
However, this movie is equally full of attempted sacrilege and shallow lackadaisical expressions, just as you’d expect from any bunch of spoilt & corrupted yet naive and skin-deep Hollywood teenagers trying to play dieties for kicks & giggles above all else.
So it’s got its pros & cons like most movies, and I rank it fairly average among action movies rated by this website.
Although it’s full of a mix of mild entertainment and awkward drama, there is eventually a really cool action scene, but it takes until 100 minutes to deliver it. In that moment, Percy proves he’s the real son of Poseidon by unleashing his power over water, to defeat his enemy, the actual lightning thief, Luke, son of Hermes. It only lasts a matter of seconds though – not even a minute – and for this reason, I can’t rate this movie any higher than Bang Average irrespective the potential and quality it displayed occasionally.
Sequel: Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters (2013)
This movie kicks off with a chunky dose of boredom, awkwardness and sacrilege – just as expected. It’s a bit weaker in storyline buildup than the last one, and the cyclops nymph who’s meant to be Percy’s half brother is not appealing to watch (and that’s an understatement). While there is some half decent action in this movie, and some unique plot characteristics, it’s generally a bit below the par set by the first in the series and for this reason it looks set for a decidedly Below Average rating.
This movie has an air of a kids’ TV drama series, with actors and acting standards to match. Unsurprisingly, Pierce Brosnan didn’t come back for this one – his character was a major figure again but played by someone else this time.
Although the teen drama series vibe never really lets up, the action and energy in the latter half of this movie kind of make up for its lack of substance early on, thus bringing the final rating close to average and similar to the original – probably slightly weaker, especially due to the poor start, but not by much, considering the well played back end.
Even while all the comments online are along the lines of “this is terrible compared to the original cartoon series” I personally thought this movie was Very Good (compared to what else is out there). I haven’t seen the original cartoons and have no interest in seeing them either. When I were a young child, maybe I’d have watched the cartoons if they were on TV, but as an adult now, I generally avoid animations – I need movies with real people in them, and this one fits that requirement. Having said that, this movie has a theme very similar to one of my favourite cartoons as a child – Captain Planet. Both have the idea of people who can use individual elemental powers, and a main hero capable of using all the elements together.
Sure, there’s plenty of missed opportunities here, for example, there could have been plenty of kung fu moves that better match the elements. And I’m not a fan of calling air manipulators “air benders” – that’s a bit queer. But flaws aside, this movie still has a lot going for it – especially its highs – especially near the end.
There’s a strong awakening theme with this movie, as the Avatar realises his true potential and his duty to bring harmony between the clans and restore peace in the world.
Noah Ringer stars as Aang, the Avatar – the one person in the world capable of manipulating all four elements.
If you enjoyed this movie, you may also like to watch the Netflix series by the same name – again, it’s not an animation, but it’s still quite juvenile, yet still quite entertaining.
This is a strange movie – 20 mins in and we’re still following around the life of a guy who doesn’t remember anything about his past. He’s played by Kane Kosugi, who wasn’t in the previous Tekken movie (he’s most recognisable as Scott Adkins’ adversary from Ninja II) but based on the name of this movie one might guess he’s the replacement actor for Kazuya Mishima – Heihachi Mishima’s son and Jin Kazama’s father. Not only has he completely forgotten where he is and who he is etc, but he seems to have a bomb implanted inside his chest and if he wants to live he needs to follow the orders of a strange man who calls himself The Minister (played by Rade Šerbedžija) who runs a cult of assassins all bound by the same threat.
It’s not until 25 minutes in that we see the familiar face of Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa who played Heihachi Mishima in the last movie, that the plot appears to be beginning to very slowly unravel. And when I say very slowly, I’m not exaggerating, since another 25 mins later we’re still none-the-wiser as to who this guy is and how he came to be in his current situation.
It’s not until near the end of the first hour that we finally learn, beyond doubt, that the lead character who we’ve been following around for nearly an hour, who’s lost his memory, is indeed Kazuya Mishima, when he remembers the location of his old apartment suite – he asks the receptionist what name he checked in under, and heard he used the initials K M. That still leaves a lot of unanswered questions, but at least we’re making progress since it’s already two thirds of the way through the movie. The big reveal doesn’t actually happen until 10 minutes before the end of the movie, and even then it’s not a big reveal – it’s bare minimum to keep the air of mystery going even beyond the end of the movie.
One thing’s clear though – this movie has a very different genre to the original Tekken movie, which had a much faster tempo and practically none of this slowly unravelling mystery vibe. It works quite well here though – it stays quite intriguing from start to finish, if you’ve not seen it before or at least can’t remember how it goes. The general standard of production, the quality of the action scenes, and the power of the mystery factor are all quite effective here. The acting isn’t terrible either.
It’s quite good from an educational standpoint too, for those who can read the subtle undertones and can already see the synergy with the kinds of methods used by shady agencies to control people in the real world. When I say quite good, I mean it offers a basic level of something to think about, minus the usual warp factors, which is refreshing.
Having said that, there’s still such little going on here, that I can’t fairly rate it on a par with the original. Especially when it comes to rewatching this movie – if you have any memory of what’s going on, that already leaves practically no substance left to enjoy upon rewatching it. For this reason I have to rate it Below Average but only just. There are a lot of respectable movies in & around this kind of rating, so I wouldn’t call it a failure per se – it’s just not something to be recommending too much.
The lead female in this movie – a fellow assassin called Rhona Anders played by Kelly Wenham – has the constant facial expression of a tantrum-throwing teenager, and the voice of a middle to upper class Brit trying to talk like a commoner, so typical of domestic British TV dramas. She’s also built with a stronger frame than the lead male – very butch, no finesse, just like her voice – as if she comes from WWE, and the other females in this movie are no different – this theme hasn’t changed since the first movie. The other main woman in this movie is the landlord of a cheap hotel, called Laura, played by Paige Lindquist, who has a quiet and alluring demeanour but is still physically butch enough to overpower the lead male.
This movie gets off to a dark, gritty start that’s quite hard to watch; but this may be a necessary evil to build up towards what happens later in the movie. It’s definitely focused more on the gritty side, than the coolness, compared to the original, but it makes use of modern sound and visual effects for a deeper impact than the original movie from 1995 which was very cool but lacked seriousness, depth & grounding. This movie has a generally higher quality of production than the original, even if a less cool plot, and it has a higher quality of acting generally, even if the characters are less funky. Overall there’s a much more serious tone this time round, but that doesn’t mean it lacks cool effects, it’s just very careful and conservative with their use, and makes a real statement any time the special effects come out.
Throughout the first half hour this movie’s plot develops nicely – it gets increasingly intriguing and you end up kind of hooked. By 25 minutes in, things have become quite clear – we can see who the star of the show is, and some of the other main characters, and what general direction the movie is taking.
45 mins in, things get a bit dark & depressing again. The dark patches continue to be mixed in with uplifting elements for a good half an hour until everyone fights and the lead character’s powers come out for the first time, which is closely followed by the same thing happening to his comrade Jax, then things start to get quite exciting again. The lead character in this movie is not Liu kang this time, although he is a major supporting character here. The lead character this time round is Cole Young (played quite well by Lewis Tan) – a descendant of Scorpion whose entire bloodline was thought to be killed by Sub-Zero but one baby remained, looked after by Raiden, then Scorpion came back from the dead to help his descendant defeat Sub-Zero in the 90th minute, helping to create an epic final battle.
The cast is comprised of a mix between strong, weak and mediocre actors. Strong actors here, aside from Lewis Tan in the lead role, include Joe Taslim playing Sub-Zero very well, and Hiroyuki Sanada playing Scorpion quite well too. Josh Lawson also does a decent job as Kano, and Mehcad Brooks is not bad in the role of Jax.
Raiden (leader of the good guys), Shang Tsung (leader of the bad guys), Liu Kang (good guy) and Sonya Blade (good girl) are all key characters here too, but their respective actors didn’t impress me. Random stuntmen could have probably done their jobs just as good if not better.
Considering its strengths and highs, I’m going to rate this movie generously, scoring it Pretty Good, which puts it a couple of levels above the original – a serious accomplishment. Now imagine if the four key characters listed above had much stronger actors playing those roles – I’d have to rate it even better, and it would be pretty close to the level of the best action movies ever made.
This movie gets off to a great start, with a funky yet chilling opening delivering vibes reminiscent of The Matrix or Equilibrium which both came out just a few years prior. It’s a relatively simple opening scene but sets the atmosphere very nicely – not perfectly, but not far off either – it’s got to be one of the best opening scenes ever made in an action hero movie I think. You could call it an understated masterpiece thus far.
The following scenes are quite interesting and captivating, and carry an element of the same vibe from the opening scene, but to a lesser degree, as the antagonists pose a real threat to Elektra, and the movie turns out to be Decent but not nearly as good as it could have been. I would rate this movie just one level down from the best action hero movie with a female lead (such as Wonder Woman which has a better plot as well as better peak adrenaline moments, but a similar level of horror and drama creeping in).
Jennifer Garner stars as Elektra in this movie – she’s an assassin with subtle superpowers. Aside from lacking the animalistic side, her character has a lot in common with Halle Berry’s Catwoman which came out the year before this movie, and the year after Daredevil where Elektra was also featured as a major character. That’s three years running of this type of lethal female action movie heroine. There was also Æon Flux in 2005 and Ultraviolet in 2006 – both respectable female assassin movies from around the same time, with similar levels of martial arts and athleticism too, although not on the same level as Marvel’s Elektra and DC’s Catwoman production-wise.
Elektra has some kind of Spidey Sense, like Daredevil’s super hearing ability, giving her an early warning when anyone potentially dangerous is approaching from very far away. But much more than that, she has the ability to see the near future, giving her the chance to change it and catch people by surprise.
That’s not even the height of unrealism in this movie – there are also demons taking the form of ninjas (within the antagonist ninja clan called The Hand) who turn to smoke when they die. And there are some weirder demons looking like oddball mercenaries, having special powers to do certain magic tricks. For example, one called Tattoo, played alright by Christopher Ackerman, has tattoos of animals that come to life. Another, called Typhoid Mary, played adequately by Natassia Malthe, blows kisses and waves hands that suck the life out of plants and people. Then another, called Stone, played alright by Bob Sapp, is big bulletproof black man, like Marvel’s Luke Cage, while also throwing sticks powerfully enough to chop down big trees. This team of weird demons is led by the boss’s son (from The Hand), played adequately by Will Yun Lee whose scenes work well in a way, but he’s also a bit too fresh faced for the role, like some kind of K-Pop boyband member, unlike his father played more convincingly by the scorched face of Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Fortunately, they’re still not quite good enough to kill Elektra.
Garner pulls off the lead role pretty well. She’s a talented actress and is not terribly unattractive either (although the beauty contest in this movie is won by Norwegian-Malaysian actress Natassia Malthe playing Typhoid Mary). Garner’s a bit of a tomboy, but no more so than most female leads of action hero movies. She’s is quite athletically built and this makes her well suited to the role of Elektra – a martial arts expert and assassin who moves like few others in the world can (due to camera tricks).
It’s also good to see Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Shang Tsung from the 90s Mortal Kombat movies) playing the leader of The Hand (the ninja clan that’s been trying to kill or capture Elektra for a long time). He does a great job as usual.
Croatian actor Goran Višnjić (with vibes of a cross between Charlie Sheen and Matt LeBlanc, minus the comedic touch) does a good job as the father of a teenage girl who is being hunted because she’s “the treasure” – the main prodigy child within her generation showing great potential to be a top assassin. Kirsten Prout plays the girl adequately – she’s a decent young actress who has plenty IQ for the role but not nearly so much athletic talent as would be ideal. She has a puffy goldfish face, poor coordination and a gormless bratty demeanour – the sneaky, impatient bratty side of her seems intentional but her lack of athletic poise stands out when she’s meant to be a top ninja prodigy with partly established skills.
Terence Stamp does an alright job as Elektra’s former ninja clan master, called Stick, who comes to her rescue when she’s on the verge of defeat, and takes her back to the dojo along with the father & daughter she was sent to kill but decided to protect – her contract was sponsored by Stick, somehow knowing Elektra would protect them instead of kill them. These are some cool scenes to enjoy – from the near assassination to the protection to the rescue to the training back at the dojo and the feeling of it being a safe place for a while.
In stark contrast to the awesome opening for action movie junkies, the last 5 or 6 minutes of this movie is little more than an extended soppy mess for drama mushes. What a missed opportunity and switch up of genres. These drama-loving directors just can’t help themselves, even when they have 95% of a good action movie completed already. Given the lack of depth to the plot, the excessive dose of horror genre creeping in as the movie matures, and the undesirable soppy ending, I have to rate this movie no better than Decent, on a par with movies like Daredevil (which came out 2 years prior and also featured Jennifer Garner as Elektra in a major supporting role). Just one level down from the best female-led action hero movies of all time (like Wonder Woman), even though from the outset Elektra clearly had the potential to be so much better – it just went gradually downhill as the movie progressed and unfortunately shifted genres from smooth action to borderline horror to soppy drama in the end.
This movie isn’t terrible boring, but the acting is incredibly poor & cheesy, from the dialog to the combat scenes it’s like a bunch of kids put it all together.
The basic concept is an interesting one but the acting and screen combat resemble what you’d expect from Power Rangers.
Jonathan Brandis plays a physically unfit boy struggling with asthma and constantly daydreaming about assisting Chuck Norris in wild battle scenes. Jonathan’s performance is so-so.
Chuck Norris plays the boy’s hero in his dreams, but also appears as his team mate in real life when the boy enters a karate tournament and needs an additional team mate. Chuck’s performance is so-so – I’m not his biggest fan and this is far from his best movie also.
Makoto ‘Mako’ Iwamatsu (from The Big Brawl, 1980) plays the old man from a Chinese restaurant who trains the boy to be a great martial artist. Make does a good job here I think. His role is a bit like Mr Miyagi from The Karate Kid. He’s the real star of this movie I think, although he’s officially the third main character at best – fourth according to the closing credits which ranks the boy’s dad much higher than I would.
Beau Bridges plays the boy’s dad and he gives a non memorable performance in my opinion. His role is really non descript here anyway.
Julia Nickson-Soul plays the boy’s teacher who is also the niece of the old man who trains him up, and the almost-girlfriend of the boy’s father. She does a decent job, I think.
Joe Piscopo plays the eccentrically angry teacher of the boy’s billy; the rival of Chuck Norris; and the leader of the main team who the heroes’ team is competing against. He does alright although his acting is super cheesy, like a cartoon supervillain brought to life.
Danica McKellar plays the boy’s crush and eventual girlfriend. Her performance is mediocre.
John Buchanan plays the main bully who challenges the movie’s main character to compete in the tournament. He gives a fair account of himself, a bit like his teacher did.
That’s all the significant characters in this movie.
I rate it Watchable, and even that’s a stretch considering it got quite boring in the middle, but it warmed up and became watchable again in the second half as the kid’s training became more serious and he accepted his bully’s challenge to compete in a tournament. This movie has shades of The Karate Kid on so many levels, but the cheesy acting and cheap cinematography here does not compare what we get from that classic.
Jackie Chan makes a decent attempt at remaking the classic movie from 1984, with a twist. This time it’s set in China and it’s all about Chinese Kung Fu, not Japanese Karate.
Jackie Chan plays the teacher (Mr Han, the maintenance man) quite well, and Jaden Smith does a decent job as the student (Dre Parker, the new kid in town, being bullied). Supporting cast range from average to pretty good. Zhenwei Wang does a good job as Cheng, the leader of the bullies in this movie, and Yu Rongguang does a good job as Master Li, the aggressive teacher of the bullies.
The movie starts out like a boring drama, slowly setting the scene as Jaden’s character and his mum move to China. It starts to become interesting after 10 minutes, as Jaden’s character meets the maintenance man (played by Jackie Chan). But it doesn’t become really good until 40 minutes in, when Jackie sees Jaden getting beaten up and then reveals himself as Kung Fu expert. From here it’s mostly good action and entertainment, with the exception of an excessively long sobbing drama scene around 90 minutes in. The last 20 minutes are pretty good, as the tournament begins, closely following the format of the original classic but with a few stylistic twists. The very ending is very good, in-keeping with the original.
Overall, not a bad movie to watch if you’re bored and haven’t seen this before or at least in the last few years. I give it a 7/10 because it’s a bit hard to relate to the pre-pubescent lead actor. This movie is nothing to shout about, but it’s not bad entertainment value either. It’s hard to go wrong with Jackie Chan. If not for the boring start and the lengthy sobbing scene it might deserve a 7.5 to match the original classic.
The Karate Kid is a classic martial arts movie – along with its sequels it was responsible for making karate and martial arts in general a lot more popular around the world – building on top of all the Bruce Lee led Kung Fu hype from the decade prior.
It probably deserves an 8/10 for first time viewing, but I give it 7.5/10 to account for rewatchings from an action hero movie fan’s perspective. Pat Morita does a fantastic job as the old man (Mr Miyagi) who teaches karate to the lead actor; and Ralph Machio does a decent job as the lead actor playing Daniel LaRusso (‘Daniel san’), a boy who’s not very strong and can’t fight well but has a determined attitude and a sensitive mind capable of learning fast, especially under the tutelage of a great teacher like Mr Miyagi. Martin Kove also does a pretty good job as the aggressive karate teacher (Sensei John Kreese) who instructs the bullies, and William Zabka does a fair job as the leader within their crew and the main antagonist in this movie (Johnny Lawrence) who has a history with Daniel’s newfound girlfriend.
Pat’s character was based on Chōjun Miyagi, who is credited as the founder of the Goju-ryu, one of the most popular styles of karate, as well as Fumio Demura, a more accessible modern karate man who Pat spent a lot of time with in order to nail the attitude of this character.
The script writer Robert Mark Kamen really went to town with the creativity involved in teaching Daniel-san how to block punches by having him wax cars, paint fences, etc. This makes for a great scene where a frustrated Daniel-san learns what skills he’s unwittingly acquired, as Mr Miyagi also raises his voice for the first and only time in this movie. There are some brilliant scenes & clips throughout the movie, but there’s also a bit of drama that makes it a bit boring if you rewatch it too often.
Techniques
On a side note, the Wax On and Wax Off techniques are similar to Shuto Uki (knifehand block) in Karate; or Biu Sau (darting hand) in Wing Chun Kung Fu.
Paint Fence up and down would be the Cheung Kiu (long bridge) version of Tai Sau (lifting hand) and Gam Sau (pinning hand) in Wing Chun Kung Fu.
Sand Floor would be Gedan Barai (lowline sweep) in Karate; or Gaang Sau (ploughing hand) in Wing Chun Kung Fu.
The Crane Kick (Crane Technique) is based on a popular Karate move called Mae Tobi Geri 前飛蹴 (Front Jumping Kick) which itself, like all major forms of Japanese & Okinawan Karate as well as Wing Chun Kung Fu, stems from Fujian White Crane Kung Fu.
This movie has plenty of the same creativity that made the previous two a success. Pat Morita does an outstanding job as Mr Miyagi, and Ralph Macchio does a decent job as Daniel-san too. This time the movie is set back in the States, but new rivals emerge in the form of an old student (Terry Silver) of the nasty Cobra Kai sensei (John Kreese), plus a new recruit (Mike Barnes) hired specifically to beat Daniel in the tournament and beat him up in the process.
Thomas Ian Griffith almost steals the show – he does an outstanding job as Terry Silver who makes it his mission to deceive and torment Daniel-san and Mr Miyagi. Sean Kanan does a decent job as Mike Barnes who bullies Daniel-san throughout the movie (as he’s hired to do by Terry Silver), and Martin Kove does a decent job reprising his role as John Kreese too.
Other cast members include Daniel’s new girlfriend Jessica Andrews, the lady from the pottery store across the road (played by Robyn Lively, who does a fair job), and Snake, a student of Terry Silver who is tasked with organising & assisting the bullying (played by Jonathan Avildsen, who does an excellent job, he is very convincing, albeit in a relatively minor role).
Due to creativity maintained, as set by prior movies in this saga, and considering the introduction of great new cast members, plus a strong ending as per usual, this movie deserves a 7.5/10 in my view.
This movie did well to develop the characters the way it did; but if it had a bit less bonsai tree drama, a bit more interesting action, a bit more meaningful philosophy, and a stronger leader female, plus dare I say a stronger lead male playing Daniel-san, this could be a more exciting movie worthy of an 8 or higher. It’s got so many strong ingredients that other movies don’t have. It’s fun to watch the whole series of Karate Kid movies back to back every few years, and these days we have the luxury of topping that off with the new Cobra Kai show which has six seasons out already and is still going strong. I recommend you finish every season of this show before moving on to Jackie Chan’s 2010 remake of The Karate Kid which has none of the same actors and is all about Chinese kung fu really, not Japanese karate.
See also: Cobra Kai – the new satirical action comedy drama TV show
The new Cobra Kai show sees many of the old Karate Kid actors return after several decades away, including: Ralph Macchio who plays a middle aged Daniel-san; William Zabka who plays a middle-aged Johnny Lawrence, Daniel’s nemesis from the original movie; and elderly versions of John Kreese (played by Martin Kove) and Terry Silver (played by Thomas Ian Griffith).
But that’s more for nostalgia than anything. The best thing about this series is the introduction of a new generation of outstanding cast members including Xolo Maridueña (from Blue Beetle) and Tanner Buchanan.
Note though, this show is a bit satirical, not so serious as the movies were. That doesn’t mean the acting is bad, it’s just a different vibe, a different genre now.
Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) does a decent job as Hercules in this movie, although the script is lacking somewhat, so the most magnificent moments aren’t quite as strong they should be. There’s a good amount of action, not much in terms of boring bits, and there are some very strong scenes, some of which weren’t quite as well coordinated or memorable as they were in The Legend Of Hercules from the same year starring Kellan Lutz, while others were a bit better, so I rate this movie about equal to that one – maybe one level below since this movie is a bit less emotive, with a bit less of an action hero vibe. This movie, instead, has a bit more of a “can’t we all just get along” comradery vibe, which works ok in its own way, it just doesn’t knock your socks off.
Much like in The Legend Of Hercules, there are a few decent supporting cast members here, and a few mediocre. If we could some how combine the best of both movies, we may then have ended up with a single very strong Hercules movie in 2014, but instead we got a couple of movies that feel like they’re hitting a mark short of where they should be considering the core plot potential and the lead actor potential of each.
As the plot goes, there are certain nerdy people born with extra sensitivity, who think they’re prone to panic attacks. But if they recognise, appreciate and tap into this hyper-sensitivity, they can become abnormally skilled movers with supernatural reflexes and calculation capabilities. Kind of like Rain Man (with Autism) meets Limitness (on NZT).
I’m not a fan of the mentality pushed early on in this movie, that it’s somehow a good thing, and a superior thing, to be a killer. But to its credit, this mentality kind of gets dispelled later on.
Action wise, it’s pretty strong from the outset. There’s Matrix-style diving through windows in bullet time, and there’s spinning bullets round corners like Beckham bends footballs. Plus there’s a few high-budget high-speed car chases. This is a fast action movie, intermittently. It has many story-setting slow drama scenes too, but fortunately they usually don’t drag on too long.
James McAvoy takes the lead role in this movie. He does a fair enough job. Not the typical macho action hero, but that’s not the vibe this movie was going for. Not to everyone’s taste, but it kind of works OK.
Angelina Jolie (in her early 30s) plays the lead female in this movie. She’s the main selling point of this movie, considering her fame since Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) where she became a household name and soon went on to hook up with Brad Pitt on the set of Mr & Mrs Smith (2005), although she was also in some strong movies in the 90s such as Hackers (1995) where she played the lead female, although she looked a bit different there.
Morgan Freeman plays a major supporting role, in a Morpheus-like position, as the head of the cult of assassins.
Chris Pratt plays a minor supporting role early on in this movie, as a colleague of the lead character. He’s best known to action hero movie fans as the star of the Guardians Of The Galaxy movies. He looks a bit different in Wanted though. Fun fact: he’s been married to Arnie’s daughter, Katherine Schwarzenegger, since 2019.
Overall, I rate this movie as Pretty Good, alongside the likes of Wonder Woman and Ghost In The Shell. The reason I don’t rate it even higher, on a par with movies like Hitman, The Equalizer and The Transporter, is because the lead male character isn’t totally my cup of tea. He’s a bit of a beta-male. Plus, the script has a few too many moments of intentional distastefulness for my liking. It’s a shame, because the goodness in the plot, and many exciting moments in this movie, are worthy of a higher rating; but I guess every Pretty Good movie has some relatively outstanding moments.
Great plot twist half an hour before the end, to keep things very interesting, just when it seemed like the plot was starting to run stale. Great ending too. It’s rare to see an action movie whose creativity and entertainment value doesn’t dwindle towards the end.
Also known as Karate Tiger, this is one of the very few movies that Jean-Claude Van Damme has done where he doesn’t play the benevolent hero role. Kurt McKinney is the hero in this movie and puts on a decent performance, so much that he doesn’t seem at all out of place – Van Damme doesn’t overshadow him at all here. Meanwhile, Van Damme plays the role of the main enemy and does an good job of it.
This movie is packed with uplifting training scenes backed by good soundtracks (although the music varies between versions and some are far better than others). It’s got a low quality of acting by all but the lead characters but is a story you can really enjoy and get motivated by, like many mild-quality martial arts movies are when they have a classic action hero tale, a good lead performance, and good soundtracks. The plot works, although it’s a bit thin.
It was first released in Italy on 20 October 1985, but wasn’t released in the UK & USA until over 6 months later, on 2 May 1986 – hence why IMDB & Wikipedia say it’s a 1985 movie but some sources think it’s a 1986 movie.
Watch it online
You can currently watch the full movie online for free here if you don’t mind about 25 inconvenient advertisement interruptions (or use a download site).
This is one of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s best movies after Bloodsport. Kickboxer was released just one year after Bloodsport and you’ll spot a few resemblances in the training methods and fighting techniques used in this movie.
Dennis Chan Kwok-San treats us to a strong performance as Van Damme’s trainer in this movie.
Kickboxer has a good storyline and good training scenes – it really captures the imagination and draws you in with the help of great soundtracks too. It has a good amount of action, with bits of drama in between. It has a very basic plot that could do with a bit of extra help, and it would benefit from an additional very strong cast member.
Sequels
Kickboxer also has sequels (as it’s a franchise) but they’re not starring Van Damme, with the exception of the sixth instalment and thereafter where he has a supporting role. Generally the sequels are neither similar nor as good as the original – but 6, 7 & 8 are quite star-studded with combat sport celebrities.
This is easily one of Van Damme’s best movies, and in my opinion, it’s his very best. Bloodsport is a masterpiece of a martial arts movie. It seems to have had a great budget for its day, or was at least managed very well to cater for all departments efficiently. It has great acting by Van Damme and pretty much all the extended supporting cast members too. It has a great story, albeit a simple one. It provides great entertainment throughout – it keeps busy and doesn’t have boring or over-predictable patches like Van Damme’s later direct-to-video style movies did. This movie was clearly made with love. Great soundtracks. Ample distinct highly entertaining scenes. The lead antagonist is played by Bolo Yeung from Bruce Lee’s ‘Enter The Dragon’ as he’s a highly credible martial artist with high talent in real life and has sufficient acting ability for the job (this is why he was chosen for a strong role in Bruce Lee’s highest-budget, last-completed movie).
Bloodsport could probably get a perfect 10/10 if it had one or two further outstanding actors in major supporting roles, and if its martial value was far more detailed & accurate (helping viewers learn a lot more about martial arts techniques & principles while watching). Van Damme in real life was a decent kickboxer – before he made his way into the movies, he earnt a living doing odd jobs including being a sparring partner for Chuck Norris. But he lacks the finer skills of Bruce Lee or even Steven Seagal. But he’s a good actor nevertheless – he put his heart into his roles.
If you’re a fan of martial arts movies, particularly Van Damme’s movies, and haven’t yet seen this one, you really need to catch up with this classic. It’s easily re-watchable every year or two.
Action wise, it’s not James Bond, but there’s a lot of fist fighting and a bit of running around. Plot wise, it’s quite zeroed in on a simple concept, but stays quite busy and works fantastically.
This movie was inspired by the alleged real life story of Frank Dux – a martial artist still living & teaching today, although his life story now appears to be almost certainly utterly bogus. I guess we can still thank him for his dodgy story having inspired one of the greatest martial arts movies ever made.
Why this site is needed
When Bloodsport first came out, it received generally negative reviews by mainstream professional critics. Leonard Klady for the LA Times called it a “jungle of cliché” and a “reservoir of bad acting”. Rotten Tomatoes said “Bloodsport is a clichéd, virtually plotless exercise in action movie recycling”. Van Damme was even nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star. But if you ask any modern action movie superstar who inspired them, and what are their favourite movies, there’s a high chance you’ll hear Van Damme and Bloodsport mentioned. In the past few months alone, I’ve heard some of Van Damme’s best classics including Bloodsport & Kickboxer namedropped as all-time favourites by Chris Hemsworth (on Hot Ones), Scott Adkins (on The Art Of Action), and even Carl Froch (on Froch On Fighting). Even my local taxi driver was quick to recommend the same movies. Surely this is proof enough, that it’s not just me who’s the anomaly. It’s actually the professional critics who are terribly out-of-touch. They’re commenting on a genre that they don’t understand. They should stick to criticising other genres, like slow drama, soppy romance and unpleasant horror, and leave the action hero movies to people better qualified to judge them – people who understand their purpose, and appreciate them enough to watch them regularly. People who really know what they’re talking about. People like you & me.
Action Hero Movies
