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TGM
11-06-2012, 03:59 PM
THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS

Director: RZA

imdb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1258972/)

http://www.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/the-man-with-the-iron-firsts-soundtrack-608x608-1350679045.jpeg

TGM
11-06-2012, 04:03 PM
Well, this movie has its moments, and Russel Crowe was definitely a blast. But overall, this was pretty underwhelming. The action has moments of brilliance whenever the camera pans out and just lets the martial arts take center stage, but then they muddy it all up with extreme close-ups and quick cuts just moments later, making it hard to watch at times. The big final battles also seemed a bit too brief.

Not nearly as crazy as I was expecting, but it was still decent I suppose. Enjoyable enough, and some of the actors definitely tried their best to have fun with it. So a mild yay for this one.

Edit: My full review (http://cwiddop.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-man-with-iron-fists.html)

EyesWideOpen
11-07-2012, 12:52 AM
Well, this movie has its moments, and Russel Crowe was definitely a blast. But overall, this was pretty underwhelming. The action has moments of brilliance whenever the camera pans out and just lets the martial arts take center stage, but then they muddy it all up with extreme close-ups and quick cuts just moments later, making it hard to watch at times.

Agreed pretty much word for word.

megladon8
11-07-2012, 01:26 AM
Is it true that RZA is painfully bad, and needed to speak more clearly?

EyesWideOpen
11-07-2012, 01:30 AM
I had no problem with RZA's acting. It was on par with the rest of the cast and servicable enough for a kung-fu film.

TGM
11-07-2012, 02:25 AM
RZA wasn't bad. He did a decent enough narrating the film at least, though it almost seemed like he was taking things far too seriously for such a silly film whenever he was actually on screen, especially compared to everyone else, who were visibly just having fun with it all.

There weren't any moments where you couldn't understand him though, no.

number8
12-01-2012, 06:11 AM
Sigh.

There really ought to be a law that requires jail time for anyone to hire someone like Cory Yuen to choreograph your fight scenes and then obscuring all of it with quick cuts and random close ups.

I'm yaying it overall because it's really creatively designed and it marks the first time I've ever felt joy watching Russell Crowe, but there's so much potential squandered here. This could've been the Stan Lee-meets-Golden Harvest flick RZA always dreamed of. Instead it feels like something that will one day be ranked alongside the live-action Blood The Last Vampire movie and Kurt Wimmer's Ultraviolet as one of those "oh yeah, this thing, I guess I'll watch it" action movies on Showtime or something.

Daniel Wu appearance was weird. Gordon Liu and Pam Grier were wasted.

Sven
12-06-2012, 05:51 AM
Well, I applaud RZA for going for it, at least.

Skitch
12-07-2012, 11:43 AM
Hoping to see this today.

Skitch
12-07-2012, 07:34 PM
A mixed bag. The plot is cliche and so hurried you can barely keep up with who wants to kill who and why, but it doesn't matter. Everyone wants to kill everyone and there's gold around. This had some delightfully gory bits. Crowe looked like he was having a blast. Rza continues the trend of rappers who are god-awful actors. All in all, I had a grindhousey good time with it, and will enjoy it with beverages next time, from my couch.

Seemed to me a wise choice to keep it 95 minutes instead of the 4-hour epic he wanted.

Scar
02-16-2013, 12:56 PM
I shut it off with 25 minutes to go.

Instead, I shall watch Fearless, and perhaps Iron Monkey.

Dukefrukem
02-27-2013, 01:14 AM
I shut it off with 25 minutes to go.

Instead, I shall watch Fearless, and perhaps Iron Monkey.

Fearless is miles better than this steaming pile. The fighting looked like it was in slow mo, but it really wasn't.

Grouchy
07-24-2013, 02:35 PM
I gave it a Nay even though I really enjoyed some elements - the world-building in this is amazing. I wanted to see more of all the different animal clans. And Russell Crowe is great, truly an unusual performance from him.

But, like 8 says, the fights are great but choppily edited, as is the whole movie in fact. They should have more room to breathe. And after a tremendous build-up, the final sequence comes off as a bit of a disappointment. I've never heard RZA since I'm not into rap, but you can tell this is a passion project for him, so that it's not that good is really sad. But I'll watch anything else he can come up with!

Tarantino as a film director is a genius. As a producer... not so much.

D_Davis
07-24-2013, 05:00 PM
I shut it off with 25 minutes to go.

Instead, I shall watch Fearless, and perhaps Iron Monkey.

Fearless - a modern masterpiece. So freaking great. I really think it'll go down as one of the classics of the genre.

I completely forgot that Man with the Iron Fists even exists.

D_Davis
07-24-2013, 05:02 PM
Sigh.

There really ought to be a law that requires jail time for anyone to hire someone like Cory Yuen to choreograph your fight scenes and then obscuring all of it with quick cuts and random close ups.



Remember The Transporter? On the original DVD, you can watch the unedited Yuen-choreographed fights, and they are about a million times better than what appeared in the final film.