Movie Actors

tonymcclellan

tonymcclellan

2
Action (rather kung fu/karate) movies are nowhere near as good as they were in years past. Nowadays all we have Jet Li and Jackie Chan, which use a lot more cables and special effects. The 80's and 90's brought us stars like Seagel, Van Damme, Norris, Cynthia Rothrock and Michael Dudikoff. These previous movies I think were much "better" in terms of the martial arts involved. What do you think? Remember Under Siege and Above the Law, every person that Seagel came into contact with had a broken arm or leg. Great for movies.
Anways, what do you think of movies today with movies of this previous era (those that are old enough to remember), and who was an actor/actress that you enjoyed to watch?
 
When your watching a martial artist performing kata/forms then you can tell the diffrence between him and an actor. But even good martial artists are not allowed to hit people in films and I feel that the old 80's films were rubish compaired to what we have today.

Even good fighters like Van Dam look bad in films cos you can see that the foot never touches the face.

I think that the most realistic movie fighter is Jacki Chan. tho he comes from a drama school and not a kung fu school I think his realism is far better than any other martial artist.

I Like the way that fight sceens are not cut together, but filmed in one long shot, that way you can tell he is really doing it. Not like the fights in Batman returns where they cut between each punch.
 
Nice topic!

I don't really like the " flying" martial arts movies. Crouching Tiger hidden dragon may be beautifully shot, I still think I'd liked it more if they wouldn't fly over the roofs. But I do understand that it's part of the story.

As for the old movies, the only ones I enjoyed watching were those of Bruce Lee. Looking at it now, they might not have been movies with great acting or storylines, but the fighting really stood out from the rest of all those cable guys. And ofcourse, anyone who has seen some old footage of Bruce can tell that this guy could really kick ass.

Nowadays, when I'm looking at it from "the most realistic fighting" point of view, I think that Jet Li stands out. He is fast, keeps his moves relatively "simple" (as in no double spin blah blah blah kick, etc) and it really looks well...real. for example in Lethal Weapon 4 or Unleashed. (Though he also had his share of fly-in-the-sky movies)

I like Jacky Chan too, but he's more a comedy actor and though he's extremely talented and agile, I don't think the fighting in his movies is realistic all the time. Doesn't take away that it's astounding to watch ;) But I have to give him one thing: he never played a cable fly guy once (not that I know of anyway)

Other movies I enjoyed that contained fighting were Blade Trinity, The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy. Especially the latter were pretty realistic when it comes to the kick ass stuff. Coming to Blade, I guess I just have a weakness for black guys with cool tatt's wearing great outfits ;)

Anyway, that was my blurb. Wonder if anyone even read all of it :D
 
tonymcclellan said:
Two more...from where?

I never heard of this guy?
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Bad-assed kenpo guy. I thnk his movies are only available on VHS. But, they are pretty COo.oOL.
 
u cant mess with bruce lee man. that guy is legendary. he defined martial arts. hes style is no style. his fighting is just an expression of himself. that is just extraordinary!!!

ong bak was a good film as well!!!! no computer tricks, no wires!!! man that guy is tough. i think if some1 elbowed u in teh face ud go down straight away though! no matter who u r! i mean u certainly wouldnt keep getting up after the 10th elbow to the face!
 
maverick494 said:
As for the old movies, the only ones I enjoyed watching were those of Bruce Lee.
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Remember Bolo Yeung? He was in every freaking movie during the 80s along with some of Bruce's movies. He played the champion of the Kuma Ta in Bloodsport.
 
There's a reason why these movies (Croutching Tiger, Hero, House of Flying Daggers) aren't recieved well from a lot of action fans; these movies aren't just action. The drama is the main emphasis.

Segal is a friggin idiot. His movies suck huge balls. Segal himself is a constipated lunatic.

Bruce Lee was good for his time, but his movies are really lame compared to the films today. Sure he did all his own stuff, but the writing and cinematography was pretty weak...as were most of the products from the 60's and 70's.
 
DUDE! I forgot about ONG BAK!!!

That was the best best best display of martial arts I have ever seen in a film. That guy was fantastic!!!!

Any way I have acctually met the greatest film martial artist of all time. The Dark Lord him self... None other than DARTH VADER!!!

His real name is David Prowse and he owns a resturant near my house.

a little film trivia for you, David Prowse was also in Casino royal, and the TV series of The Saint.
 
TONY YOU READ MY MIND!!! what about when he throwa those circular saw disks thats awesome! And if you look carefully the same guy dies like 30 times.
 
Ong Bak's stunts were entertaining. But it's like they had it just to have it. YOU DON'T HAVE TO RUN ON THE TABLES AND RUIN PEOPLE'S MEALS, JUST RUN AROUND. The plot, dialogue, and characters were soooooooo ****ty. It should have been a video of Tony Jaa doing stunts, instead of trying to pull off a movie.

Personally, I like the Shaolin Temple movies, along with Tai Chi Master (Twin Warriors), Jackie Chan's Drunken Master, and KILL BILL. I haven't seen the older school ones with Gordon Liu and the gang.
 
Surprised no one has mentioned "Iron Monkey". Old school kung fu choreography, like when Jackie Chan was a more of a fighter and less of a stunt man, with new age cinematography. Great action. There are 2 versions of this movie, an old golden harvest production and a newer one done Tarantino style. Both are good.
 
LeiYunFat said:
Personally, I like the Shaolin Temple movies, along with Tai Chi Master (Twin Warriors), Jackie Chan's Drunken Master, and KILL BILL. I haven't seen the older school ones with Gordon Liu and the gang.
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I think I am the only person who doesnt like Kill Bill. I thought it was just dumb, blood shooting out everywhere and crap.
 
Apart from David Caradine (not sure of spelling) everyone else in the film were actors not martialists. so the fighting was a bit off. you can tell between martial artists and actors by the tempo of the fight. Actors will fight to a beat like
1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4

but real martialartists will fight to there own tempo and punch asap, rather than weighting for the beat.

Iron monkey was good, I likes that film.

What we all need to remember is that martial arts in films is not martial arts, its stunt acting camera tricks. Thats why I like Jackie Chan and Ong Bak cos they were more about the stunts and less about the tricks.
 
I just wanted to see what movies and actors stood out. I didnt mean that it had to be realistic. I liked Seagel only because everyone who came near him had a broken limb. I grew up on these movies, and though most werent that high quality, they did provide entertainment.
 
Austin Powers.. "JUDO CHOP!" :p
 
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