Martial art movies

Crann na Beatha

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skipper_G

JT26 wrote: »

What would you recommend from the last 10 years?

Ip Man is well worth a look, there's 3 films in the series. Stars Donnie Yen. If you can dig a samurai film check out 13 assassins, epic film builds up into a glorious crescendo for the ending

sonic85

the raid: redemption and the raid 2: berandal. ong bak is a bit outside your 10 year limit but I thought it was great. it had a couple of sequels too but they weren't quite as good as the first one. still worth a watch though.

skipper_G

sonic85 wrote: »

the raid: redemption and the raid 2: berandal. ong bak is a bit outside your 10 year limit but I thought it was great. it had a couple of sequels too but they weren't quite as good as the first one. still worth a watch though.

Ong Bak yes! second that one

TerrorFirmer

One I thought was really under-rated was the Mark Dacascos film 'Drive'. Really surprised me.

Ong Bak and The Raid also definitely get my vote.

More fluffy fair would be 'Never Back Down', quite enjoyable in a really cliche, predictable way. Warrior is the serious take on that film.

Not a martial arts movie but the newer Universal Soldier movies are solid and have some really raw close quarters one-shot takes.

nix

Defo must watches mentioned above but I actually didnt like Ong Bak much, its got some decent fights but at nearly two hours long its hard to sit through without wanting to skip to the fighting, the story is dire. And it put me off wanting to watch the other Ong baks, though im sure i will at a later stage.

I much preferred Tony in Kill Zone 2 which is another long one itself, another 2 hour movie but the story was was alot more bearable (probably because its more modern) and it has Jin Zhang who is also in IP Man 3 and is great in both.

If you want to drown yourself in Kung fu movies i also recommend checking out Dragon (with donnie yen), True legend and The Grandmaster

ziedth

It could only be the raid 1 & 2 for me. It's a pity the raid 2 is a little on the long side as they would be a great nights viewing back to back as it picks up where the first one finishes.

In my opinion anyway they are head and shoulders above the rest.

Fysh

If you like The Raid 1 & 2 you can check out Merantau - it's Gareth Evans' first film and stars Iko Uwais (Rama). Not quite as polished as the Raid films, but still pretty damn good, not far off Ong Bak.

Also, Chocolate is worth a look. Essentially, an autistic teenage girl has learned Muay Thai from watching Tony Jaa films, and ends up going on an epic beat-em-all-up quest. A bit slow to start but great fun once it gets going.

Speaking of Tony Jaa, I saw Skin Trade on Netflix the other day. Disappointing, tbh. Storywise it was a clumsier version of Merantau, and it never really felt like Jaa was properly used. His main fights are with Michael Jai White and Dolph Lundgren, but neither really felt like he was properly letting loose. Compare it to the Jaa vs Capoerista fight in the Warrior King for an example of Jaa vs a much bigger opponent in a fight that feels properly visceral and unconstrained.

If you're game for martial arts and parkour in a film check out District 13 (aka Banlieu 13). If you enjoy it, there's a sequel that's pretty good, though skews a bit more OTT than the first film.

Lastly, Yayan Ruhian (Mad Dog in The Raid and Prakoso in The Raid 2, and co-fight-choreographer for both) is the star of Yakuza Apocalypse, a new film from Takashi Miike. Might be worth a look - it's on my list of films to catch soon as I think Ruhian is a fantastic martial artist and Miike is a great director with a unique style and flair. (It's not within the last 10 years, but his Ichi The Killer is a memorably demented film that's well worth watching.)

Fysh

ziedth wrote: »

It could only be the raid 1 & 2 for me. It's a pity the raid 2 is a little on the long side as they would be a great nights viewing back to back as it picks up where the first one finishes.

In my opinion anyway they are head and shoulders above the rest.

Someone has fan-edited The Raid 2 into a standalone film where Yuda is no longer an undercover cop but just a thug who befriends Uco in prison and then joins his dad's organisation. It's much faster paced than the original cut and is about the same length as The Raid, so might be worth checking out.

conorhal

I'd second 'Chocolate', it's entertaining and kick ass.

mikhail

I quite liked Keanu Reeves' directorial debut, Man of Tai Chi. It stars Tiger Hu Chen, who was a stuntman in The Matrix. The story is nothing special, but the fight scenes are great. They're really well coreographed, which allows Reeves shoot them in wide, steady shots - none of the usual choppy editing B.S. so many films use to hide crappy coreography.

ziedth

Fysh wrote: »

Someone has fan-edited The Raid 2 into a standalone film where Yuda is no longer an undercover cop but just a thug who befriends Uco in prison and then joins his dad's organisation. It's much faster paced than the original cut and is about the same length as The Raid, so might be worth checking out.

Hmm that actually sounds quite good. To be fair the undercover storyline isn't bad or too much of a drag it's just paced so differently to the first one that it's odd to watch. Not worse as it has the better ending (Kitchen fight is the best fight scene every shot IMO).

District 13 is actually a great shout. Just be sure to watch the subtitled version as the dubbed acents in that version are just awful there actually is a bored line line O'Irish accent thrown in there. Very very entertaining film though. Paul Walk did a remake of sorts called Brick Mansions that was pretty cat.

I was just looking at IMDB there and they boys from the raid and a couple of.other very good actors appear to be in a film called beyond Skyline..... the poster looks pretty cool if nothing else

skipper_G

OP if you can go back couple more years than 10 I'd also recommend Hero.
Stars Jet Li and directed by Zhang Yimou, one of my favourite films of all time. Awash with colour, a sweeping score and some beautiful photography and of course the fight scenes. Li and Donnie Yen have a particular sequence that is very memorable

Potential-Monke

Kudos to those who recommended Chocolate. What a fantastic little film. It's like The Raid for PG15, with a better story and some fantastic acting. Really impressed by it. Slow to start, but once she gets going, it's near on relentless.