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China has given the world a large number of incredible martial arts actors including Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Wu Jing, and Gordon Liu, just to name a few.  During the late 80’s and early 90’s, two martial arts actors came out of nowhere and took the action genre by storm.  Jet Li starred in such films as Once Upon a Time in China and Fist of Legend.  The way the man moved was almost as legendary as Bruce Lee.  But the other one to came out of that same period was none other than Donnie Yen.  Donnie Yen has become one of the most well-known martial arts actors of the past 30 years, and his talents go far beyond just on-screen fighting.  He’s also choreographed fight scenes and directed a small handful of films.  As a fight choreographer, Donnie Yen is in a league of his own.  While he has drawn inspiration from legends like Yuen Woo-Ping, he’s developed a style of on-screen fighting that very few have been able to match.  As a result, Donnie Yen is one of my favorite martial arts actors of all time.  Hopefully, some of the clips below will show you why.

Ip Man – Donnie Yen Vs. Ten Black Belts

Ip Man is a mostly fictional account of real-life Wing Chun Grandmaster Ip Man.  It follows the grandmaster from his time teaching Wing Chun to surviving the Japanese invasion of China.  During one of the demonstrations held by a Japanese general, Ip Man witnesses the cold-blooded murder of one of his fellow masters.  As a result, he challenges not one, not two, but ten of the black belts surrounding the arena.  Most martial arts flicks try not to be defined by their fight scenes, but in Ip Man, the fight scene with the ten black belts does just that.  The movie is fantastic, but this fight sequence has to be hands-down one of the most epic beat-downs I’ve seen in a movie.  Ip Man was one of the main reasons why I started training in Wing Chun in the first place.  So, yeah, this entry means a lot to me in a lot of ways.

Kill Zone(SPL) – Donnie Yen Vs. Sammo Hung

Donnie Yen vs. Sammo Hung was one of the most-wanted match-ups that fans had been wanting for years.  In 2005’s Kill Zone, we get exactly that in one of the most amazing one-on-one fights in decades.  Donnie Yen plays a cop who becomes the leader of a group of cops whose ethics are….questionable.  After failing to take down Sammo Hung’s villainous character, the cops do everything they can to frame him and put him behind bars.  All those shenanigans leads to some of the most fantastic fight sequences in a Hong Kong film.  The final battle between Samme Hung and Donnie Yen is legendary.  I won’t spoil how it actually ends, but let’s just say, I didn’t see it coming.  Kill Zone is well worth the entry if you can find it.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – Donnie Yen Vs. Stormtroopers

I’ve always wanted to see Donnie Yen in a Star Wars film as either a Jedi or a Sith, because that would be awesome.  In Rogue One, Donnie Yen plays Chirrut Imwe, a blind warrior as he volunteers to aid Jyn Erso on what amounts to a suicide mission to find the plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon: The Death Star.  While I would have preferred Yen to actually play a Jedi, his blind character is close enough and the fight with him and the stormtroopers is one of the big highlights of the film.  This film also gives Mr. Yen more mainstream attention.  While a lot of people tend disagree about the film itself, most will agree that Donnie Yen was one of the best parts of the movie.

Highlander: Endgame – Donnie Yen Vs. Adrian Paul

As a huge fan of Highlander, the sequels were really not that good.  I enjoyed them on a certain level, but they never attained the level of greatness that the original film enjoyed.  In my opinion, the best sequel was Highlander: Endgame.  That’s not really saying much, but there many elements in the film that I really liked.  Adrian Paul, Christopher Lambert…..and of course, Donnie Yen.  This was the first movie that I actually saw Donnie Yen in, and it was his first American-made film.  Regardless of what you might think of the story and its villain, you can’t deny that the fight scenes here are some of the best in entire series.  Mr. Yen had a hand, literally, in staging most of the fight scenes.  The best one of which is between him and Adrian Paul in what remains of Connor McLeod’s loft apartment.  It’s fast, furious and fun.

Iron Monkey: Donnie Yen Vs. Renegade Shaolin Monks

After Highlander, I started looking for more Donnie Yen films and Iron Monkey was the first one I came across.  Donnie Yen plays Wong Kei-Ying, the legendary father of the equally legendary Chinese folk-hero Wong Fei-Hung.  This film was filled to the brim with awesome fight scenes, even if a good number of them used wires, but the film was so bonkers it didn’t really matter.  While some of the kicks in the sequences were accelerated, there was no doubt that Donnie Yen was extremely fast.  The fight with the Shaolin Monks is an absolute blast, and it needs to be seen.

Hero – Donnie Yen vs. Jet Li

While this isn’t the first time that Donnie Yen went up against Jet Li, it’s probably the best known of the two films they did together, the first being Once Upon a Time in China II.  This fight sequence is truly unique in many respects.  The most interesting part of it is how the fight plays out in the minds of the characters, presented in total black and white with music playing.  The way the sequence was shot and choreographed makes it one of the most beautiful fight sequences I’ve seen in a movie.  While there is wire-work and slow-motion, it’s part of what makes the fight so damned interesting.  Hero was one of a small handful of authentic Kung Fu movies that I saw in theaters and it was worth it.

Wu Xia(Dragon) – Donnie Yen Vs. Assassins

Wu Xia was a very interesting film that not only combined the Kung Fu film, but also police procedural and elements of CSI.  It actually worked very well.  We got to see some fights from two different angles, and they end up being very different.  But the best fight sequence, bar none, has to be the fight between Donnie Yen’s character Liu Jinxi and the two assassins that were sent after him.  This is an awesome not just in terms of choreography and stunt-work, but also character development as well.  The assassins force Liu Jinxi to reveal his true identity and that sets up the drama for the rest of the film.  It’s one of best-realized sequences in any Kung Fu movie.

The Lost Bladesman – Donnie Yen vs. Andy On

General Guan Yu was one of the most legendary generals during the The Three Kingdoms period.  Said to have stood at least 6’5″, Guan Yu was apparently an intimidating presence to his enemies.  While Donnie Yen is nowhere near as tall as Guan Yu was reported to be, Yen still manages to be all kinds of awesome.  The guan dau weapon that he wields is a hefty weapon, but it doesn’t seem to phase Donnie Yen at all.  The fight between him and General Kong Xiu, played by Andy On, is short, but it is still very impressive.  While I can’t say for sure that the film is historically accurate, the level of detail and the authenticity of what we see on the screen appears to be genuine.  Still, it’s definitely worth checking out.

At 54 years old, Donnie Yen shows no sign of slowing down.  Even at his age, he’s still faster than most.  I really like the fact that his acting has gotten a lot better, but honestly, Mr. Yen is an absolute phenomenon.  He’s got some more movies coming down the pipe including a fourth Ip Man film as well as the film adaptation of the video game Sleeping Dogs.  Donnie Yen has had an amazing career and continues to impress.  I will continue to pay attention to almost everything that he does.

It’s been a little while since I’ve done a series like this for The Best.  What I’m going to do with this series is go through the number of actors who have some of the best fight scenes.  As you can imagine, this is not going to be a short series, as there is a large number of actors who do their own on-screen fighting.  This is going to take a little while.  My intent with this series is to not only put certain movies and fight scenes in the spotlight, but the actors as well.  If you don’t have the actors, you won’t have the fights.  Am I going to have any rules for this series?  Not strictly speaking.  I’m going to try and limit the number of fight scenes to one or two per film, unless the actor in question doesn’t have a whole lot, in which case, I can make an exception.  Other than that, it’s fair game.

The first actor I’m featuring in this series of The Best Fighters is British martial arts actor Scott Adkins.  An expert in Tae Kwon Do and kickboxing, Scott Adkins made a huge name for himself when he starred in Undisputed II as the angry Russian, Yuri Boyka.  From there, he’s been featured in a number of low-budget direct-to-video action films as well as some pretty high-profile flicks like Doctor Strange.  While I would not consider the man to be a great actor, he’s definitely got some serious screen presence and pummels the living daylights out of his opponents like it’s nobody’s business.  He tends to do most of his own stunts which includes backflips, butterfly twists, and occasionally getting thrown through a wall.  There’s no doubt in my mind that Scott has become a heavy-weight action star in his own right, even if most of his films are direct-to-video.  Some of them are not to be missed by anybody who considers themselves an action movie buff.

Ninja II: Shadow of a Tear – Scott Adkins Vs. Tim Man

Ninja II: Shadow of a Tear is what I would call a serious throwback to the hard-hitting action films of the mid-to-late 80s.  Not only is the fight choreography fast, furious and brutal, it’s also done completely without wires.  This fight scene between Scott Adkins and Tim Man(also the fight choreographer) is a perfect showcase for the talent on display in the entire movie.  The story is a simple revenge tale that wastes little time in getting to the good stuff.  While the first film was alright, it suffered from having some pretty silly visual effects and some wire-work.  Ninja II: Shadow of a Tear is the real deal, and it comes highly recommended.

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning – Scott Adkins Vs. Andrei Arlovski(Warning: This one does get very violent, especially at the end)

While the Scott Adkins-led Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning doesn’t feature a lot of Scott’s traditional acrobatics, we get to see him in of the most brutal fight scenes I’ve seen in years.  Going up against MMA legend Andrei Arlovski, Scott not only gets tackled threw a window, but gets the snot beat out of him before he unleashes his own brand of fury.  Utilizing bats, weights and bowling balls, this fight against Arlovski has to be one of the most vicious and brutal fight scenes in the entire Universal Soldier franchise.  It’s not the only fight, either, but it is definitely one of the best.

Undisputed III – Scott Adkins Vs. Lateef Crowder

While Undisputed II was Scott Adkins first appearance as Yuri Boyka, this is the first time that he plays the character in a lead role.  There’s a reason for that, Scott is awesome as Boyka.  Whenever the guy slips into a Russian accent, you know some shit’s gonna go down.  Undisputed III has a lot of great fights, and a lot of them involve Scott, but this one with the Capoeira expert Lateef Crowder has to be one of the biggest highlights of the film.  It’s astounding, not only because Scott has a flair for acrobatics, but his opponent is just as good.  The difference in fighting styles allows for some amount of unpredictability which has one of the most satisfying conclusions to any fight that I’ve seen.

Accident Man: Scott Adkins Vs. Amy Johnston

A personal project for Scott Adkins, Accident Man is based on a comic book of the same name which debuted in Britain some years ago.  Scott plays a man who is a part of a secret group of assassins.  Scott’s specialty is making his assassinations look like accidents.  This is actually a pretty good movie.  Usually, Scott Adkins plays folks who don’t say a whole lot, but in Accident Man, his character rarely shuts up, which leads to some pretty hilarious, yet awesome moments.  While the film definitely has some really awesome fight scenes, especially between him and Michael Jai White and Ray Park, it’s this fight scene with Amy Johnston’s character that really steals the show.  It’s awesome, because Amy Johnston pretty much gives Scott a run for his money in this scene.  It’s well-staged and it’s really awesome to see Amy Johnston give as good she gets.  This fight is definitely a high-light of the film.

Special Forces: Scott Adkins Vs. Vladislavas Jacukevicius

Special Forces was one of Scott’s earlier roles as a supporting cast member.  To be fair, the film itself is rather flawed and very weak in terms of the narrative and overall action.  However, it’s this fight sequence between Scott and the character of Zaman that elevates what is other-wise a very ho-hum film.  The fight choreography has a distinct Hong Kong flair to it and it hits pretty hard.  Zaman puts up a pretty good fight, but Scott’s character ultimately triumphs.  I don’t think it was intended for Scott Adkins to steal the show in Special Forces, but he did.  I don’t think Special Forces was an awful film, but it’s definitely one of the weaker efforts from director Isaac Florentine.

Boyka: Undisputed – Scott Adkins Vs. Tim Man and Andreas Nguyen

In his third Undisputed film, Scott Adkins once again takes on the role of Yuri Boyka, this time on a quest for redemption after accidentally killing a man in the ring.  Learning that the fighter had a wife, Boyka attempts to seek her forgiveness, but realizes that she is in the “employ” of a notorious Russian gangster.  Striking a deal to free her from her debt, Boyka has to participate in another series of underground fights.  Of the Undisputed films, this one is the best, I think.  Not only does it have some amazing fight sequences, it also has a pretty good story and gives Boyka a shot at real redemption.  Scott Adkins knocks it out of the park with this one.  Of all the fights in this film, this one with the brothers is incredibly wild.  Tim Man, once again, is the fight choreographer, but he also plays one of the brothers in one of the coolest fight scenes ever.

Savage Dog – Scott Adkins Vs. Cung Le

A very different kind of action film, Savage Dog forgoes any of Scott’s acrobatics for a more grounded and realistic fighting style.  Scott Adkins plays Martin Tillman, a former Irish soldier on the run from the British while hiding in Vietnam.  While I think that Savage Dog has issues in terms of pacing and the over-use of narration and slow-motion, there’s no denying that this film is definitely gritty, brutal and absolutely fantastic to watch.  The action sequences are incredibly well-staged and the fights are vicious.  The fight between Scott and former MMA champion Cung Le is awesome.  While the fight’s conclusion is anti-climactic, the fight between these two is phenomenal.  Cung Le’s character clearly has the upper-hand in most of the fight.  It’s a hard-hitting movie, but Savage Dog is absolutely worth your time if you love action movies.

Scott Adkins is one of the best direct-to-video action stars ever.  While I wouldn’t say he has the charisma of some like say…Jean-Claude Van Damme, Adkins more than holds his own.  He’s taken on some of the biggest names in the industry including Jackie Chan.  While he’s had some bit parts on some pretty big productions like Doctor Strange and Zero Dark Thirty, his best stuff will most likely be found on home video releases like the Undisputed sequels, Savage Dog, Hard Target 2, and Accident Man.  Whenever this guy puts out a movie, I tend to pay attention.  Anyone who is a fan of action films should pay attention to this guy.

Ever since I picked up my first DVD player way back in 2000, I’ve had a bit of an obsession with special features on those discs.  Why?  Because the show bits and pieces of what happens behind-the-screens.  You’ve also got interviews with the cast and crew that shows a little bit more insight into the making of a film.  One of the most interesting special features that was introduced on DVD’s was the full-feature commentary.  This usually involves the director and maybe some cast and crew members getting together and discussing the scene as it happens.  Obviously, you’ve also got your standard trailers and previews.  Most DVDs had quite a bit of features on those discs.  Some of those discs also had extended cuts of the film that were never previously released.  The best example of special features is the Alien Quadrilogy which was released back in 2003.  It was a 9-disc set.  Each film not only had it’s own disc, but each of those discs housed two versions of the film.  That was not all.  Each film also got a second disc that had extensive behind-the-scenes footage.  The final disc in the set housed all the trailers and promotional materials and stuff that was seen on older Laserdisc copies.  The Alien Quadrilogy ended up being one of the best examples of a DVD Boxed Set.

Between 2006 and 2009, we saw two high-definition formats competing for the market:  HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.  Blu-Ray ultimately won out in the end, but the idea for these new discs was to give people a sharper picture of movies at 1080p, if you had the HDTV for it.  A single Blu-Ray disco could contain up to 50 gigabytes of information, which allowed for much sharper picture, but also better audio quality.  The special features were also carried over from DVDs.  Blu-Rays are now pretty much the standard when it comes to home video entertainment.  However, at some point over the past 7 or 8 years, I’ve seen movie studios try different ways to market their Blu-Ray releases.  Paramount got a serious amount of backlash, because their home video release of Star Trek Into Darkness, had special features spread across different releases.  The special features you got, depended entirely on which store you got the movie from.  It pissed off a lot of people.  Thankfully, that didn’t last very long.  But something has been happening, and it’s something that I really don’t like:  Online-only special features.  I bring this up, because I recently bought The Fate of the Furious on Blu-Ray a couple of days ago.  I found the movie to be very entertaining, and mostly worth the purchase price.  However, on the Blu-Ray sleeve as well as on the back of the case itself, it’s mentioned there is a code to watch the extended version of the film online.  Why the fuck wasn’t the extended version included on the disc?  Now, I understand that people are moving towards digital means of watching movies, which includes streaming.  Amazon does it, Netflix does it, and you’ve got services like Vudu that also provide the same service.  I get it, and I use it from time to time, but I’m an old fashioned kind of guy when it comes to home video.  I prefer having a hard copy.

Now, to be fair to Fate, if you bought the film on disc, you don’t have to pay extra for the extended version.  But you DO have to sign up for a digital service.  Again, it’s not necessarily something that you have to pay for, unless you’re buying or renting movies through that service.  If you have a code, you get a free digital copy.  In case you lose your disc or something happens, you still have a copy of the film.  THAT was a smart move.  What pisses me off about some of these special features, is that some of them are exclusive only to certain platforms.  For example, some features you can’t get unless you have an account through iTunes.  Who is the fucking idiot that came up with that game-plan?  The problem with exclusive features or movies, is that some people who don’t want to use those services are left out in the cold.  Some of these movie studios, be it Universal, Fox or Paramount, have a preferred digital platform.  Okay, fine.  If you want to use that platform, knock yourself out, but at least have the same special feature set on the platform be the same that is on the physical disc.  THAT would make more sense to me.  This exclusivity bullshit is pissing me off though, and having certain special features, like an extended cut of a film, be online-only just serves to push people away.  That’s not how you make money.

A little while back, I posted a review on the latest entry into Michael Bay’s Transformers movies: The Last Knight.  I didn’t hate the movie entirely, but it was an absolutely insane shit-show.  If I graded the film based on action alone, I would have given the film a solid 10/10.  The action was phenomenal.  It’s just that the movie surrounding the action wasn’t so hot.  The acting, while mostly passable, failed to connect with the audience and the story was just made absolutely no sense whatsoever.  So…what’s coming up for the franchise?  Paramount has announced a while back that they are planning at least 13 more movies in the Transformers universe, but considering how poorly received The Last Knight was, they may want to rethink that.  We are getting a spin-off which is supposed to be due next year.  It’s going to be about Bumblebee and is supposed to be set in the 80s.  Apparently, they want to give him an actual voice and the design from the animated show.  I’m very curious.  Is it going to be any good?  Hard to say.  Michael Bay is only going to produce the movie, not direct it.  Bumblebee is an interesting enough Transformer to warrant his own movie, so I’m willing to see how that goes.  As for a sequel to The Last Knight?  That’s a little difficult to answer.

Based on the current numbers on Box Office Mojo, Transformers 5 has pulled in well over 400 million dollars world-wide.  The film bombed in the States, pulling in barely over 100 million dollars on a 217 million dollar budget.  If it wasn’t for the international market, The Last Knight would be a complete disaster for Paramount studios.  It’s not even performing as well as Age of Extinction.  Not even close.  What needs to happen for Transformers 6 to be better than the previous effort, is to jettison Michael Bay entirely.  He’s a great action director.  He knows how to frame it and shoot it.  The issue is that he can’t seem to hire proper writers to be able to tell a coherent story or even give us compelling characters.  Not only that, the humor almost always falls flat.  If you took out all the humor and most of the exposition, you would end up with a 2 hour movie.  That’s all we really needed.  Now, we know that Unicron is going to make himself known at some point in the next movie or two.  There’s no getting around it, since they mentioned him multiple times.  How that’s going to happen, I don’t know.  Apparently the big guy is hiding underneath our planet, and the Transformers’ creator, Quintessa, wants to destroy him to give life back to Cybertron.  What the next movie needs to happen is to focus entirely on the Transformers themselves and their potential battle with Unicron.  If you want a good starting off point, check out the original animated Transformers film from 1986.  That film introduced Unicron and made him feel like a legitimate threat.  This is Unicron, for those who don’t know:

What I want to see from Transformers 6, is Michael Bay completely removed from the picture entirely.  I don’t even want him producing the picture.  We also need to hire writers that have at least SOME respect for the source material.  The people that wrote the last 4 movies have done a major disservice to not only the source material, but also the fans as well.  I’m sorry, the only movie that didn’t flat out suck in any way was the first film.  Also, we need to get rid of the human characters.  Nobody goes to a Transformers movie for human drama.  We want to go these movies to see giant shape-shifting robots wreck shit.  So far, the only movie that has managed to deliver on ALL counts is the original animated film, and that’s over 30 years old.  Michael Bay doesn’t even seem to care anymore, as all he sees is dollar signs.  Well, the performance of The Last Knight should tell Paramount Pictures that some adjustments need to be made.  I know that Paramount wants a cinematic universe with Transformers, as that seems to be the “in” thing these days, but if they fuck up Unicron and that particularly story-line, a lot of people, including myself, will stop going to these movies.