Month: April 2016

When I first started doing The Best, I had no idea that I would start having a lot of ideas on what to do with this particular series.  As I said when I first started The Best, I consider it a celebration of cinema and the things that movies have brought to the world.  My first few posts were of what I felt where the best film composers in the world.  For this next topic, I’m going to be discussing the best martial arts films in the world.  Considering how many of these films are coming out of some very unusual places, I’ve decided that I’m going to do it by country.  I will be getting to China, eventually, but considering their history with the martial arts and martial arts films, that country is going to take several posts.  There’s a lot of really good movies over there.  Right now I’m going to start with countries where the martial arts films aren’t exactly super famous.  I’m going to start in South America with The Best Martial Arts Movies: Chile.

The reason I’m doing Chile first is primarily because of Marko Zaror.  This guy basically came out of nowhere and took the martial arts movie world by storm.  He’s not only a good actor, but he is an amazing martial artist and stuntman.  For a guy that is 6’2″, he’s got some really crazy moves.  He doesn’t need wires to do all those crazy acrobatics.  He’s been seen in a number of action films from Chile, but he’s also landed himself in a number of US made films like Undisputed III and Machete Kills.  It’s absolutely astonishing where some of these guys come from.

Kiltro

Kiltro was Marko Zaror’s first real lead role.  While a lot of the movie was kind of slow, the fight scenes were incredibly choreographed and filmed.  This alley fight is one of the two real highlights of the film.  It’s absolutely bonkers.  The fight with the main villain is also really good.  This guy doesn’t need stunt doubles, he IS the stunt double.  Kiltro is definitely worth checking out.  While he did stunt-work in movies like The Rundown, it was the movies that he was allowed to star that really made him shine.

Mirageman

A year after Kiltro was released, Zaror starred in his own little “superhero” flick called Mirageman.  Putting on a mask and jacket and kind of looking like a real ghetto-style Spider-Man, Zaror takes on the criminals and the corrupt, eventually running afoul of the local crime lord.  A lot of these movies are basically showcases for what Marko Zaror can do, physically, and make no mistake about it, he’s a human special effect.  Mirageman was a pretty goofy, but decent little way to pass the time.  Honestly, I would really love for him to star in a real big-budget Marvel or DC movie.

Redeemer

This is one where I felt that Marko Zaror really pulled his weight, not just in the fight scenes, but dramatically as well.  He stars as a man with a troubled past(is there any other kind?)who wanders from town to town in search of redemption.  In order to redeem himself, he aids the people who can’t fight for themselves.  And as one tends to do when doing something like that, he attracts the attention of not only the local drug lord, but another mysterious assassin to whom he has a personal connection.  It’s a very wild movie that does have a sense of humor, but it’s definitely one of the more intense movies that Zaror has made.  It’s certainly one of the most violent as the opening fight scene suggests.  People get trashed.  It’s absolutely one of my favorite martial arts movies out there, and I think it deserves a lot of attention.

Mr. Zaror has made other movies that I haven’t gotten around to seeing yet, but I will.  I think the guy is an understated and very underrated martial arts actor.  He’s great at playing bad guys too.  Check out the aforementioned Undisputed III.  He goes up against Scott Adkins and has an epic final battle.  I know that all these movies star the same actor, but to be honest, there really weren’t a whole lot of action movies in Chile.  So, Zaror’s a bit of a trail-blazer.  Overall, the stuff that he’s done is pretty good.

Released: January 2016

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Rated R

Run Time: 153 Minutes

Distributor: Fox Studios

Genre: Western, Drama, Thriller

Cast:
Leonardo DiCaprio: Hugh Glass
Tom Hardy: John Fitzgerald
Domhnall Gleeson: Captain Andrew Henry
Will Poulter: Bridger
Forrest Goodluck: Hawk
Duane Howard: Elk Dog

I have to confess something:  When I first saw Leonardo DiCaprio’s face in the movie, Titanic, I didn’t think much of what I thought was a baby-faced twit.  I thought this guy couldn’t possibly be a great actor.  After finding real success in films like Romeo And Juliet, Blood Diamond, The Departed, Django Unchained, and Inception, my mind changed rather quickly.  This man has such an incredible range, it’s really hard to deny his talent.  He’s showed time and time again, that when given a proper role, he knocks it out of the park every single time.  I have no idea why he hasn’t been nominated for an Academy Award or a Golden Globe for his achievements.  Well, Mr. DiCaprio’s efforts have paid off.  He’s won an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor In A Leading Role, as well as a Golden Globe for the exact same thing.  I’ll get into that a little later, but let’s just say all the hype surrounding The Revenant has paid off.

Based on true events surrounding the legendary frontiersman and fur trapper, Hugh Glass, The Revenant tells the story of a man who was betrayed by one of his team members and left for dead.  Instead of dying, he fights back and hunts for the man who tried to kill him.  The story of Hugh Glass is a violent one taking place in the Northern frontier of the United States during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  The accuracy of Hugh Glass’s account has been a subject of much debate since there was no writing from Glass himself to corroborate his account.  Regardless, Hugh Glass’s story is an incredible tale of survival in the harshest conditions while on a quest for revenge.  This is an incredibly epic film.  It starts out with an incredibly bloody and violent battle with the Arikara.  From there it’s a trek through the wilderness to find safe haven at a nearby American settlement.  This is not a story for the weak-hearted.  It’s violent, bloody and brutal, but it does serve to illustrate how it was 200 years ago.  I had never really known that much about Hugh Glass before The Revenant was announced, so I took the time to research the man.  How the man survived was extraordinary.

All the hype surrounding this film is well-deserved.  It is a fantastic piece of cinema that grabs you and doesn’t let go.  There’s a lot of great things to talk about here.  I already discussed the story, so I’m going to discuss the cinematography next.  Wow.  This is probably one of the most beautiful movies I’ve seen in a while.  The film was shot mostly on location in Alberta, Canada, and the environment there is incredible.  From the forests to the rivers, it really gives you that sense of isolation that was prevalent back in the day.  There are some CGI shots, but that’s really to enhance the spectacle of the film’s environments.  The Revenant won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for good reason.  The shots are wide and spectacular.  I mentioned that Leonardo DiCaprio won an Oscar AND a Golden Globe for Best Actor.  I’ll tell you why:  His performance in The Revenant is beyond incredible.  He gets down and dirty and does most of his own stunts.  The character’s encounter with a bear is brutal, leaving the character unable to speak after having his throat slashed.  Because of that, DiCaprio has to express himself in other ways, and he’s absolutely phenomenal.  Tom Hardy is also amazing.  I’ve always been a big fan of Tom Hardy.  He disappears into whatever role he gets.  He delves so deep into the character, you can barely recognize Hardy at all.  That’s the mark of a great actor.  Everyone else does a really good job, including Domhnall Gleeson, who also appeared in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The action, while fairly sparse, hits fast and hits HARD.  This is one of the most brutal Triple-A movies I’ve seen in years.  Again, there’s a purpose to the violence, because that’s just how things were during that time.  It was NOT pleasant.  It was a very hard life for many of these men who ended up dying violently, either to animals or to the natives.  So, that’s an element that really allows the reality of the situation to sink in.  The music is exceptional as it is a collaboration between Ryuichi Sakamoto and Carston Nicolai.  It hits the right notes of bleakness and despair.  The film would also not have been as successful if it had been without the aid of actual Native Americans.  They help to make the whole story and film as authentic as possible.  So, kudos to them for willing to help make this film a reality.

My only real gripe with The Revenant is that it seems to run a little too long, but that’s a minor nitpick.  The movie itself is a fantastic piece of cinema that’s been expertly directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu.  His attention to detail and the characters make this film an incredibly compelling experience.  I honestly regret not seeing this one in theaters, but I’m glad to have had the opportunity to see it.  While I don’t think it’s going to be everyone’s cup of tea, I do think that is worth taking a look at.  The film has garnered an incredible following and has been lauded by many to be one of the best films of the year.  I can’t disagree with that.  It’s that damn good.  Great acting, great story and great cinematography are just mere aspects of the epic scale of The Revenant.  Leonardo DiCaprio and company should be proud of what they accomplished here.  My final score is 10/10.  Absolutely amazing.

Released: February 2015

Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson

Rated R

Run Time: 125 Minutes

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Genre: Drama, “Romance”, Unintentional Comedy

Cast:
Dakota Johnson: Anastasia Steele
Jamie Dornan: Christian Grey
Jennifer Ehle: Carla
Eloise Mumford: Kate
Marcia Gay Harden: Mrs. Grey

Fan fiction is what people turn to when their favorite movie/game/book or whatever ends and nothing else comes of it.  They either rely on other fans to craft more stories or expand that particular universe, or they create it themselves.  It happens all the time. We’ve got fan fiction for all sorts of sci-fi and horror movies, and the occasional romance and drama.  Hell, there’s even fan fiction for Twilight, if you can believe that.  This is where E.L. James comes in.  See,  E.L. James wrote a piece of fan-fiction for Twilight, but she decided to change the name of some of the characters and basically make a novel out of it.  That novel ended up getting a movie: Fifty Shades of Grey.  Now, you may have noticed the meme that I used at the top of this post.  That’s the facial expression I was constantly using while watching this movie.  Be warned:  There may be more…memes.

This…farce of a film begins with young English major, Anastasia Steele going to interview playboy billionaire Christian Grey.  After awkwardly asking some questions, Mr. Grey is strangely drawn to Miss Steele.  She’s also attracted to him because he’s tall and good-looking.  Well, one thing leads to another and they start dating.  Soon after, Mr. Grey decides to show her his apartment.  He also shows her his “playroom.”  It’s essentially a BDSM den with whips and ropes and chains.  She seems to be shocked and then intrigued.  You know, any reasonable woman that sees something like that on a first date or something should have some warning bells going off.  I get that people have their kinks and fetishes, but usually you wouldn’t show a woman what you plan to do to her on a second or third date.  Also, the names!  Anastasia Steele?  Really?  That’s a porno stage name.  It’s the same thing with Christian Grey.

I know this movie is supposed to be a drama and taken seriously, but….seriously?  I’ve never read the book, so I couldn’t tell you how accurate the movie is, and I have no plans on reading the book.  From what I understand it’s kind of a porno in word form.  This is definitely NOT a movie for kids, that’s for sure.  There is gratuitous and graphic nudity and sexual content, although, it’s kind of tame when it comes to the BDSM aspect.  Well, considering some of the horror movies I’ve seen, this seems tame.  I realize that I’m not the target audience for a movie like this, but I have to question:  Who IS the target audience?  Eh…it doesn’t matter.  I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time.  You have this naive girl that’s trying to get this sadist to open up to her and he constantly refuses, but basically tells her to be obedient if she wants to have ANY kind of relationship with him.  Call me crazy, but my thought process behind female empowerment was not to be submissive.  This movie basically sets women back 50 or so years.  If the woman was the dominant one in this kind of relationship that would be different, but she’s not.  This goes to the incredibly shoddy writing of E.L James.  The characters are so poorly written and incredibly stereotyped, it’s really hard to take this kind of thing seriously.

Honestly, this meme is Anastasia Steele, through and through.  We start figuring out that Christian Grey has a history of being abused so…he is taking it out on women, I guess?  We get so very little information about these characters, it’s embarrassing.  Honestly, most of the characters are just….there, and not much else.  The acting is surprisingly NOT bad, given the material.  Dakota Johnson is a lovely girl and she does the best she can.  Jamie Dornan is suitably creepy as the billionaire.  They even managed to rope Marcia Gay Harden into this film.  The music by Danny Elfman is one of his weakest scores to date, as it’s not particularly memorable.  That’s not to say everything’s bad.  The cinematography is actually quite good.  We get some really great shots of the cities and country-side.  We also get some….interesting close-ups during the…..sessions.  I’m not going to lie, Dakota Johnson is a beautiful woman.  Aside from that the whole thing is just:

And then I was:

Honestly, though:  I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a long time.  I’m not opposed to romantic movies or dramas, but this is a really poor attempt at trying to be both and provocative at the same time.  It’s not even kinky.  What this movie is basically saying is that women are stupid.  They should be insulted by this movie.  As a man, I’M insulted by this movie.  There is nothing intelligent at all here.  There is absolutely no reason to take this movie seriously at all.  The fact that they have 2 more movies planned just has me going:

Memes aside, this is a terrible movie.  It’s a terrible premise from a terrible book by a terrible author.  Why anyone would think this fracas is any good is beyond my mortal abilities of comprehension.  If you’re looking for a great unintentional comedy, you’ve come to the right movie.  But if you’re going to take it seriously:

My final score for 50 Shades of Grey is……..5 ball gags out of 10.

Released: May 1993

Director: Rob Cohen

Rated PG-13

Run Time: 120 Minutes

Genre: Action, Drama, Biography

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Cast:
Jason Scott Lee: Bruce Lee
Lauren Holly: Linda Lee
Robert Wagner: Bill Krieger
Nancy Kwan: Gussie Yang

This post is going to be different than some of the ones that I did before.  Why?  Because I’m going to discuss one of the most influential people in history, not just in the world, but in MY life as well:  Bruce Lee.  Bruce Lee has been an inspiration to so many people in his short life.  He is the reason that people like me have gotten into the martial arts in the first place.  He helped bring Kung Fu to the west and made it cool.  He made Chinese culture cool.  While there are many people in the world of Wing Chun who vehemently disagree with how he founded Jeet Kune Do and the way he taught it as truth, I don’t think anybody can deny that he changed the world, and for the better, I think.  What some people don’t seem to understand is that first and foremost, Bruce Lee was a human being.  He made mistakes.  He made enemies, both in the Chinese world and the West.  But he NEVER gave up on his dream to show the West the beauty of Chinese culture.  He did this not just by teaching Kung Fu, but by making movies.  He made the martial arts accessible.  He believed that everyone should be able to learn Kung Fu, and he defied a lot of traditions to do so.  I, for one, am grateful that he did.  While there have been movies made about the man, it was Rob Cohen’s Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story that got the most attention.

Based on Linda Lee Cadwell’s 1975 book, Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is the story of the legendary martial artist.  From his early life in Hong Kong to his untimely death in 1973, Dragon covers Bruce’s training under Ip Man when he was younger, to when he fell in love with and married Linda Lee.  It also covers his struggle with racism and his desire to teach people Kung Fu.  While there are certainly aspects of Dragon that are definitely fictionalized in an attempt to dramatize Lee’s life, it definitely focuses on the man himself.  It doesn’t just display his martial arts abilities, but it pays attention to who he was and his relationships with people.  I like the fact that the movie focuses on the man and not the physical fighting.  It shows that the man had his ups and downs, but it also showed that he had demons of his own, and that is illustrated literally here.  I guess that’s one thing I didn’t particularly care about, was Bruce’s fight with his demon.  I understand it was a metaphor for conquering his own fears, but I think it could have been done a little bit better.  The story is captivating, emotional and inspirational, like the man himself.  In spite of the film’s flaws, the story is amazing.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story wouldn’t have worked as well, if they didn’t get the right cast.  It was particularly brilliant of Rob Cohen to cast Jason Scott Lee as Bruce Lee, despite not being related.  In 1993, I don’t think anybody else could have done it as well.  Jason has the range in terms of drama, comedy and physicality to bring the role to life, despite not being a martial artist himself.  It’s a shame that his career didn’t take off the way I had hoped it would.  He would star in a live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book in 1994, but I don’t think anybody really paid attention to him outside of Dragon.  It’s too bad, he was really good.  Lauren Holly is fabulous as Linda.  She brought the right amount of charisma and charm that Bruce Lee fell in love with.  While everybody else in the film did a good job, it’s Bruce’s relationship to Linda that is really the forefront of the film.

You would expect a movie about Bruce Lee to include some spectacular fight scenes, and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story delivers on that account.  Be aware that some of the fights that you see in this film didn’t actually happen.  His confrontation with British sailors never happened, nor did the confrontation with his fellow cooks at the restaurant.  That used to spice up the movie, and I think it did the job.  The fights are well-choreographed, and Jason Scott Lee trained with Jerry Poteet in Jeet Kune Do, to give the film an air of authenticity.  One of the most underrated aspects of the film is the musical score by Randy Edelman.  I did a post in my Best Composers series about Randy Edelmen and this was one of the scores that I had mentioned.  It’s an incredibly powerful and moving score that I feel that Bruce Lee would appreciate.  The soundtrack to Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is one of my favorite soundtracks of all time.  It’s….beautiful.

Before I finish up, I would like to discuss Bruce Lee’s influence on my life in general.  When I was younger, I got bullied around a lot, so my parents that it was a good idea to have me study karate so I could defend myself.  So, I ended up training in Shaolin Kempo for a number of years.  While it was initially because of bullying that I started karate, it eventually became more than that.  I had watched Enter The Dragon a number of times, and it was Lee that really got me into the world of martial arts.  While I didn’t stick with karate, it definitely had a long-lasting effect on me.  I became an enormous fan of martial arts films.  The genre is one of my favorites.  Seeing everybody from Jackie Chan to Chuck Norris work their magic, was something to behold.  If it wasn’t for Bruce Lee, I probably never would have expected to get into Wing Chun Kung Fu when I did.  While I haven’t been the most consistent student lately, Wing Chun has left an incredibly positive impact on me.

Bruce Lee changed the world with his philosophy, work ethic and his desire to teach.  As I said before, there are people out there who really don’t agree with what Bruce did with Jeet Kune Do or his way of thinking.  I personally believe that the man intended no harm, but wanted to expose the world to the wonder that is China and its culture.  I can honestly say, along with millions of fans around the world, that he succeeded.  Bruce Lee’s death in 1973 sent shock-waves throughout the entire world.  Nobody had expected this to happen.  At the age of 32, Bruce Lee was taken from us far too soon.  While Enter The Dragon was his greatest film ever, I feel that had he lived, there would have been so much more for him to offer the world.  Bruce achieved so many things during his short time on earth.  There aren’t a whole lot of people out there that can honestly say that.  Bruce had two children, Brandon and Shannon Lee.  Unfortunately, Brandon was also taken from us due to an accident while he was filming The Crow in 1993, the year that Dragon was released.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a wonderful film about a legendary martial artist who was nothing more than a man who achieved extraordinary things.  Bruce Lee’s influence can be felt in almost every aspect of pop culture, movies and philosophy.  While the film isn’t perfect, it’s heart was in the right place and we got to see sides of a great man that we never saw before.  Is the film entirely accurate?  No, a good chunk of it was fictionalized, but it respected the man, and I think that was the intention.  Bruce Lee may not have been the biggest, physically, but he moved mountains.  I can honestly say that 23 years after it’s release, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story stands up as one of the best movies about Bruce Lee.  The film gets an 8.5/10, but Bruce Lee’s accomplishments cannot be measured with a score.  43 years after his death, Bruce Lee still inspires generations of film fans and martial artists alike.  There has never been a person like him and never will be again.

In 2002, The Bruce Lee Foundation was formed by Linda Lee Cadwell and Shannon Lee to help educate and inspire generations of people of all ages.  You can visit the organization at the following locations:

The Bruce Lee Foundation Official Website

The Bruce Lee Foundation Official Facebook Page