The Man With The Iron Fists

[baumer]

Discuss

[victoriastone14]

B+

[Deep Wang]

Movie Review Haiku for THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS:Tons of bloody funLots of bat-shit awesomenessWell played The RZA

[Michael Gary Scott]

Just a fun movie and jamie chung is beautiful.

[wileECoyote]

Tried to like it but couldn't. And I'm a fan of the old school Kung Fu movies so I was hoping to see something similar.

[A Marvel Fanboy]

Horrible movie ...

[IndustriousAngel]

B from me

This is obviously a mess, but an entertaining mess - maybe I'm jaded by the supertight Hansel&Gretel which I saw a few days before, but there's a lot of fat that could be trimmed here (the origin story for a start has to go, absolutely stops the film dead in its track). Plus most of the actors are really bad at comedy - even the Russel-Crowe-lookalike they cast as Jack Knife, he hasn't got a single funny bone in his burly body, why, they could have cast Crowe himself and it couldn't have been worse. And some are not only bad at comedy, but bad overall, like RZA or Bautista. Plus the soundtrack is - ok, it's not as grating as Ladyhawke's but they're playing in the same league. And the storyline is convoluted, with too many protagonists and factions. As is the screen sometimes, those split-screen scenes don't really work.

Now, what's to like here?

- Some really nice and original fight choreographies (for instance the widows binding BrassBody)

- Gorgeous sets, bright colors, fun costumes!

- Silly weapons galore

- Girls, girls, girls, about 50 of them, as pretty as they come and scantily-clad too!

- Byron Mann, playing "Silver Lion". Didn't know him at all but he moves through his scenes with wit and elegance like a chinese Christoph Waltz - he got the comedy timing everyone else here is seriously lacking. Every scene he's in is saved by his presence.

- Lucy Liu - she's also able to save her scenes. Between them, they save about half the movie!

- btw, this film was snubbed at the Oscars this year; it should have been the frontrunner for best hairstyling. Shame.

 

Conclusion: an enjoyable mess, consisting mainly of cool scenes loosely connected by a sketchy and convoluted storyline with not very likeable characters. Very much like "Kill Bill" btw, only it's much shorter and therefore more entertaining. Recommended for viewing under the influence.