cauwboy

The book belongs among the big classics, an easy read and hard to put away as soon as you open it up. It's a very calm and soothing tale that cures the reader just as much as the characters in the book, or at least that's how I felt when I read it.

As for the film it was inevitable for it to follow the book, because that's not how film productions works these days, for the filmmakers, they obviously wants as many as possible to see the film and for that to happen they have to grab their attention somehow, in this case with a three-act structure where there's a very dramatic end and also a lot more stakes with Mary having to leave the place because of misbehaviour. Oh, and then there's the actual garden that now seems to be magical and alive, branches helping Mary when she's climbing over the wall and also healing powers that cures the dog as well as Colin. I can see how that would anger fans of the book, because it's quite obviously not what the author had in mind with the garden but more like Colin being delusional, staying locked in his room all the time, believing that he was ill and not getting any fresh air.

So, having that said, the film should be seen for what it is and not what it could've been. It's really a visual film, the shots of Mary coming to her new room in her uncle's Manor, the long corridors that she explores and also the scenes on the moor, the film really made sure to be beautiful, which it is. As for the garden I was a bit taken away from the experience because of the enhanced plants and oversaturated colors, it didn't bother me too much and it also made sense when the filmmakers decided to make the garden magic instead of just secret.

I also love the soundtrack to this film. I've heard some composers saying that the best soundtrack is the one you don't notice in a film, but I don't agree, when a soundtrack is that good so you want to know who composed it and where to get it, that's when a soundtrack has done something special to me. I'm going to check up on Dario Marianelli's previous works.

I had no problem with the cast either, the children did a good job and Colin Firth is always good, whatever he does. There were times I was thinking that some of it worked better in the book than the film, but that's the curse of knowing the story it's based on.

To sum it all up, it's an okay adaptation with a couple of changes to make it more dramatic and with more fantastical visuals. It would've made more sense to call it The Magic Garden, but that's not how it works in the film industry when you adapt a book to a film.

I think you need to reset your mind when going in for a Shaw Brothers film, because they're just different in style compared to other Hong Kong productions. There's a different kind of fight style that's very stylised and theatrical, there's the music and not least, the famous Shaw Brothers Blood.

For me, having grown up with Golden Harvest films with the likes of Jackie, Sammo and Yuen, the Shaw Brothers films can seem a bit old and cheesy in comparison - but what they do have instead is very much personality, both in the film itself and definitely in all the characters - this film have six different fighters and even without knowing their names you could tell them apart, even if you only see their fighting style, which is really cool - the actual development of unique fighting styles for all of them.

What I didn't like however was the treatment of the good and the bad guys. To me the film had most of its focus on how the bad guys planned on taking out the good guys, while I would rather have wanted the opposite, where the good guys find a way to take out the bad ones. Sure, it becomes a problem when the creators come up with a character having superhuman abilities where no sword or punch can hurt him, but the amount of torture then spent on this, followed by the aftermath of other people around this person meeting their fate just became too much for me. If this film was a puzzle, all the pieces are already there, it's just how they're placed out that didn't work for me.

It would've made more sense if one of the bad guys possessed the superhuman strength and for the good guys to find a way to defeat him, sure, we get a pretty cool montage over how the goodies plans out how to take out their enemies, but to this point I had lost most interest, because the bad guys had caused too much damage that no matter what happened to them, it wouldn't be enough punishment for what they had done. It's also a missed opportunity to not have all the Five Venoms meet up at the end for a final showdown.

I can recommend watching it, but it's not a film I plan on watching again or getting in my film collection.

I remember the episode of a podcast I listened to about the fight between DC and Marvel and how during the 70s DC tried to copy Marvel's formula but just seemed to fail, since they just didn't understand what made Marvel's heroes so special. Well, there could be another episode about Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest, because without knowing too much about Shaw Brother's history, this film makes it quite obvious why they were out of touch while Golden Harvest just continued to deliver hit after hit.

The biggest problem with this film is the main character Fong Sai-Yuk/Fang Shih Yu (Yes, that Fong Sai-Yuk) - to put it simply, he's an idiot, he's really stupid, it's not even fun how stupid he is. He always wants to pick a fight with the Manchus, even if it could cause problem for his own people, he's the oldest in his class (the actor was 27 when this film came out.) and is probably supposed to be in his older teenage years, while the rest of the kids around him is 7-9 years old. He has to use both hands to write letters and also spin the paper around that he's writing on to finish the letters (and I don't think it got to do with the straps that kept him tied up from fighting). The only thing we know for sure is that he's amazing at fighting and there's never anytime you're worried for him, because he's really overpowered, even when it's him against 20-30 enemies, he just laughs it away like it's nothing.

It's really sad, because the fight scenes in this film (and there are many) are really great ones, amazingly choreographed and a nice flow to them. Gordon Liu as the Monk isn't in this film enough, because he's the character that saves this film (or at least tries to) because at the end of the film I just wanted the film to end, because this version of Fong Sai-Yuk was just the worst, no redeeming qualities whatsoever. While Jackie Chan in Drunken Master, Young Master or Dragon Lord starts off as a rascal, those films guides us through as he learns his mistakes and becomes a better person and finally able to defeat the big bad. In this film, Fong Sai-Yuk was just a bully all the way through, he didn't learn anything and the way he defeated the big bad in the end is just awful and cringeworthy.

I really don't want to watch this film ever again.

As I go through the user reviews here, it's obvious that many are disappointed that it's not like the animated film from the 90s - it still needs to be said that it was a good choice of the filmmakers to do something new instead of a scene-by-scene remake like The Lion King (2019). So let's see the film for what it is and not what people wanted it to be.

Going through the cast alone, it's obvious that this film gathered a lot of amazing actors. Yifei Liu, Donnie Yen, Jet Li, Li Gong, Pei-Pei Cheng. These are some really big names in the Chinese cinema. We also have the two writers behind the new Planet of the Apes trilogy that came out during the 2010s, plus two other screenwriters that don't have any known credits before this film. And then there's the director, Niki Caro, known for emotional dramas based on real events. Oh, and all of this is produced by Disney.

Disney is such a difficult word, because usually when something gets done by Disney, it's almost certain that it will be a big hit or at least seen by a lot more than if a smaller studio did it. But then again, if you think of any famous director and then put their names together with Disney, it still ends up more like a Disney film than a film by that director alone, it's like their soul is slowly ripped away from the films by Disney and I feel it's the same with Mulan.

It made a lot of sense when the news was announced that Niki was hired as an director and that they were going to make the film more realistic, no songs, no magical creatures, closer to reality - that sounds like something that would fit with Niki's other films and it would also be Disney's most mature film about a girl becoming a man, becoming a warrior, becoming a woman. But then something must've happened. There's a witch that can turn into a bird and Mulan got a strong "chi" that works like the force. I have a hard time believing that this is what Niki had in mind when she wanted to make this film more realistic, then good for her, but to me it ends up becoming the opposite.

Others have already pointed out that there was never any worry that Mulan was in any real danger, because she was so strong to begin with, having strong chi, she started off great and never developed, unless you call that scene where she takes off her armor as development. I have a hard time seeing how young girls (and boys) can see themselves in someone like this Mulan when she's already so strong and special, instead of having her starting off as nobody and becoming that special someone. If anything it only alienates people instead of giving them hope.

Sadly this is yet another disappointment among the many other Disney live-action films, with Niki Caro now joining the group of famous directors like Tim Burton, Kenneth Branagh, Jon Favreau, Marc Forster and Guy Ritchie with much better films outside of Disney's claws.

And seriously! What is up with Jet Li's voice, why did they have to dub him? At least try to find a voice that's close to what he would sounds like, this was just distracting when he suddenly had such a deep, grumbly voice.

Let me begin with saying that I think the casting of this film is genius. I've admired Dev Patel ever since I saw him in Slumdog Millionaire and he hasn't disappointed since.

I also love the whole style of the film, jumping into the film with David narrating his life for an audience and then walking into a screen, entering his life and walking through his childhood as an adult, followed later by him writing out his own life, very creative and fun to look at. It's also a very colorful film, while other adaptations of Dickens novels usually look grey and dull in colors, this film really stood out with a sea of colors, Betsey Trotwood's house, all those interiors was just wonderful to look at. One could frame any screenshot of this film and hang on the walls.

It should be a film I love, yet there is something important that drags it all down for me - The narration. David Copperfield is a very big book by Charles Dickens, and according to goodreads, the book got 882 pages, so it's obvious that there's a lot of story going on for David. And while this films tells the whole history of David, it feels like snippets from each chapter got cut away from this tale, the jumping from events in this film went too quickly and I had difficulties following along many times as the film rushed through important events of David's life like a train not staying at any station.

Usually for a film based on a big book like this, they usually cut off big parts that might not be important enough, or they make it into more than one film (this might not be the right one to split into two films). This film however wanted to both have its cake and eat it as well. It should've been done into a series, or at least a mini-series so it could tell all of what it wanted to tell, flesh out the characters more, they all deserve it, because now you end up not really caring of many of them, because they just didn't get enough time to show us why we should care.

I might revisit the film again in a couple of years to see if my rating was a bit too harsh this time, but I know that even in the future, I will still love the colors of this film.

To begin with I'm a 31 years old man so usually not the target audience for this film - but then again, no matter what film, if it's good, it should attract any age or any gender and there were actually times when this film started to tug at my heart.

The film had a slow start with all wives sending off their men for the war and then their daily activities of... doing nothing, really. As far as I could tell, it was only Sharon Horgan's character that worked at the local shop in the small town they lived in. Everybody else either was at home, playing with their kids or going to the wives activities at the military building. I was probably not focused enough at the beginning of the film, since there was talk about the Falklands on the TV but soon I noticed that there were lots of cellphones and laptops and I had to figure out what time it was really set in. Because seeing so many women not working or just being housewives would probably have made more sense the earlier in time the film would've been set.

The story is quite typical too, Kristin Scott Thomas playing the high-class wife trying to start some serious activities for the wives to focus their minds on so they don't have to just sit at home and worry about their husbands at the war in Afghanistan, and then Sharon Horgan's character that's more relaxed and takes every day as they come. There are some bumpy roads between the two of them, but during the middle of the film, they actually get along together and the highlight of the film must without a doubt be the tunnel scene, it actually made me feel warm and I actually could see myself give the film a high rating from that point.

But then came the end of the second act where they suddenly added a forced argument between the two leads and then they had bad times for 10 minutes before they ended up becoming best friends again. I know it's considered spoilers, but it's so badly done and over so quickly that it doesn't even matter. Kristin's character could've easily have gotten her breakdown at anytime of the film without the arguement, and Sharon's character didn't have to suddenly switch character when she pushed her choir members - it all felt so forced and stupid and it's what made me lower the score.

Also, there was a missed opportunity with the big song they performed to show the men they sang for, or focusing the camera on the person which text they had used, making it more personal, but to me it was just a mix of everything and mostly Kristin and her husband being emotional. There were also parts with the character Dawn that didn't sing, more like miming, that I thought would have her own little development. Same with Ruby with her deep voice - sure, they told her that she was an alto, but then didn't do much more about it.

What saves the film is the performances from Kristin and Sharon, they had a great chemistry together and I really cheered for both of them the whole film through. The other ladies were also fun as well with their own kinds of personalities, even if some could've gotten some more screen time. Also a lot of fun seeing Jason Flemyng in such a sweet, cuddly role as he played, the bumbly military guy being there for the ladies - not the usual role I'm used to seeing him as, but I'm happy that he did.

You know what you're getting with this film and if you're fine with that, then just enjoy the film.

When I watch those old screwball comedies like 'Bringing Up Baby' or 'His Girl Friday' and say to myself, why don't they do comedies like these anymore, but then, watching a film like this, I just realize how they've been there all of the time. Frank Oz is a very good director of comedy and the main reason why I decided to watch this film. Little Shop of Horrors being my favorite of his and What about Bob? as the least, it's obvious that Frank does make something new with each film he picks to direct.

I am not going to go into the plot of the film, because you already know that from the synopsis from this page, however, what needs to be said is that Goldie Hawn was 47 years old when this film came out, watching this film, it's hard to believe, since she really comes off like 10-15 years younger than that. She's really hot and there's even a joke in the film that she makes any boring piece of clothing look sexy on her body, which is true. What's also surprising is that Steve Martin was also 47 years old when this film came out (I know!) and he looks like he was the same age for 30 years, but nobody can blame this film for the big age difference between the two leads, like so many other films.

The film's strongest part is the actors. Steve and Goldie really got great chemistry between each other and it only makes more sense that they did another film together as well. Dana Delany got the thankless role as "The Other Woman" but manages it okay, being the more boring option for what Steve's character could've ended up with. And then the parents - I might've found the first half of the film a bit slow and hard to find the characters, but when the third act kicks in, that's when the real fun happens - both with Steve's parents as well as Goldie's, I did have some laughing out loud moments because of them. Like another review on this site mentioned, when the 'Tura Lura Lura'-song happens, I couldn't stop giggling over how awkward and funny it was at the same time.

It's not a film I might want to watch again, the script didn't feel as tight as it could be and I'm sure pushing it together into a 90 minutes feature would've made it more smooth to watch. Rom-com usually isn't my go-to genre, but I would happily recommend this one, both to Goldie, Steve and Frank fans.

I'm not really sure why Yuen Biao never had the same popularity as Jackie or Sammo, after films like 'Project A' and 'Wheels on Meals', one would think that Yuen would become just as big of a name as those other two. I did watch 'Righting Wrongs' not too long ago and sadly it wasn't a memorable film, but probably most because of the direction and also that they had taken out most of the comedy from that film. This film however is like the good old Hong Kong action comedy you're used with from Jackie and it shows both Yuen's comedic skills as well as his amazing martial art.

The story is a crazy mix between Highlander, Demoliton Man and Terminator with two men from a different time ending up in present time, one good and one really bad. We get to see some silly, cute scenes with Yuen's character trying to accept and learn the customs of today's society and also a bit of romantic comedy with Maggie Cheung, done like they only do it in Hong Kong, mostly portraying the woman as a liar, a cheater or someone with a bad personality and only becomes good when she got to prove her love for her hero. It's a dated view on women, but you just have to accept the film for what it is - I don't think many people would watch this film for the romantic parts.

What everyone should watch this film for, is the great action between Yuen and Wah Yuen (the landlord from Kung Fu Hustle) playing the baddest of the bad, a rapist and a murderer, brutally murdering the people he rape by breaking their arms and legs, it a bit too much sometimes, but also the bigger reasons why Yuen is in such a hurry to stop him.

I was very entertained by the film and even chuckled a couple of times through the film. I can only hope it will get a proper release on bluray someday so it gain some more popularity to show off what Yuen Biao did when he wasn't doing films with Jackie and Sammo. I would warmly recommend this film.

I really hope there will be a updated documentary of Jackie Chan in the future, having both done more films by now and also with people appreciating the art even more now. There are lots of interesting interviews in the film, but they're either cut down very short or with a voice-over dub on both Jackie's father as well as Sammo Hung, I would've love to hear more from those two.

This short documentary is also very 90s in its editing and style; americanized and shallow, without much depth. For the time it was released it was probably a great piece for those that wanted to know more about Jackie, but now with the internet, you can find so much more about him and his films. I didn't learn anything new from this documentary, but Jackie is always a great presence, both in front and behind the camera.

So there are obviously people that loves this film, there are also those that don't like it at all. I'm somewhere between, the actors where fun to watch, John Lithgow as the mad villain and Jeff Goldblum as... well, same old Jeff. The film got this cult film vibe hanging over it, people that grew up with the film that have a close connection with it. As for me, I wasn't even born when this film came out, so I don't have that kind of connection with it. But I'm sure there are films I grew up with that I have a deep connection to that others consider trash, it's all from person to person.

As for this film, the rolling text at the beginning paint up Buckaroo as a pretty fantastic person, but what we see is pretty normal stuff, even if we usually don't see a character run from a surgery to beating a record in speed with a fast car and then playing with his badass band. But yet it all feels so normal, and Peter Weller isn't selling his character as the kind of crazy genius that he is - he's very slow and cool and just not that wacky that I figured someone like that would be. It's more the characters around him that steals the light from him.

And then there's the aliens and the plot. You have a problem when the good aliens and the bad aliens look the same, and the whole plot is just making less and less sense, maybe I wasn't focused enough while watching it, but I didn't really worry too much about any kind of character in the film, nor did I care about Buckaroo's love interest that turned out to just be a damsel in distress.

As much as I love a wacky sci-fi, comedy, adventure, romance - this film just wasn't enough to satisfy me. But I fully understand if some people love it, the same way I love Flash Gordon, it all depends on when you saw it in your life.

I got myself a special treat with a double feature, first 'Yes Madam' and then this film. While the first film was a fun action comedy, this film was very much darker and brutal in its narration. It's done by the same director and both films got Cynthia in them, but then there's not many other similarities.

I've only seen a few films with Rothrock, but she's a cool B-actress, doing a lot of pointing with her finger, and it's wonderful to see Yuen do a film of his own without Jackie or Sammo around. It's just that this film had the same problem as 'The Iron-Fisted Monk'. For the lead to protect the good people of the film, they pretty much fail and pretty much everyone of importance die, and when it get that far, you begin to lose interest, because what does it even matter if the bad guy win or lose if every good person is already dead? I really found the death of the lazy cop guy as distasteful. His colleagues didn't seem to be that sad about it and when his dad sees his dead soon, they try to make some strange kind of gag where the blanket over the dead body isn't long enough for him and then also putting a cigarette between the corpse's lips - it made me cringe a bit.

It's not fair calling it a bad film, because the fight scenes is still very good, not amazing like other films the two leads have done. The final stunt with the airplane gave me Tom Cruise vibes, and this was back in the 80s, which is cool that someone did it before Tom. The best scene in the film for me is when the bad guys are trying to crash their cars into Yuen's character in a parking house. It was 'car fu' before it was a thing and it would be the thing I would use if I would want to show anything amazing from this film, otherwise it's not a film I might return to, because it was just so depressing and sad at the end, no reaction you want when watching an 80s Hong Kong film, categorized Action Comedy Crime on imdb.

Such a strange film. Like others have pointed out before, it's not really fair for Francis Ford Coppola to have made so many masterpieces during the 70s, where would someone even go from there? I can see that he would want to do something new, instead of just another gangster film like his Godfather films, mixing it with the 1920s jazz nightclubs and the race problems going on back then. The film isn't another Godfather, even if it got the same director or Mario Puzo working on the story.

I've seen some reviews on here loving this film and giving it another chance, but the big trouble with the film for me is how it can't decide what it wants to be. It's about Richard Gere's character playing the trumpet, James Remar as a very mad gangster that's jealous on everything and everyone, Nicolas Cage at the beginning of his career as a crazy wanna-be gangster and then Gregory Hines together with his brother trying to make a living with their tap dance act. I fully agree with Gene Siskel's review that Gere feels very emotionless in this film, I couldn't connect with his character at all. Remar's gangster boss was too cartoony bad for my liking and I didn't see him as a threat, just pathetic how he couldn't control his temper.

However, the best people in the film is easily Bob Hoskins and Fred Gwynne as the multi-talented mob boss, nightclub owner and producer and Gwynne as his bodyguard, they were always so serious between each other, but I really could feel how much they cared for each other - the golden watch scene alone makes it worth to watch the whole film. I was also disappointed in how little Laurence Fishburne we got. I was sure his character would have an important role in the film, because his presence in the film oozed of coolness and tension, but barely anything in the end, sadly.

The strength in the film, other than Hoskins and Gwynne, is in the music, the dance, the set design, the clothes - it's a fine film to look at and to listen to, but without enough love towards the characters, you will easily leave this film cold. And what's up with that ending? It doesn't fit into the film at all, and I loved every second of it. The bad guys die, the good-bad guy gets sent to jail, the good guys find love - heck, even the mother teaches a black girl tap dance properly. I wanted to see that film instead, but then we probably wouldn't have had any gangsters in the film. I know it sounds mean towards the film we got, but I would've liked to see Bob Fosse's The Cotton Club, a lot more dance and music and more focus on the romance and less on the gangster stuff. But I guess that would just have been another Cabaret then.

I'm usually very picky about which films I buy for my private film collection, because I have limited amount of space and no free spot for bad films, so I guess it was a bit of a gamble buying the film box from Eureka Video with three of Sammo Hung's films. But, then again, with Sammo, you know you'll get entertainment and some good kung fu. And kung fu you got, from beginning to end, you can't really complain about this film not having enough fights, it's filled with it from beginning to end.

So why do I only give it a 7 when the fight scenes are so great? The fight scenes alone are 9-10 points worthy and I was entertained all the time a fight started. The story however was shifting in tone all the time, from light-hearted comedy to brutal murder. Growing up with film from US and England, I guess I have a limited view of how comedies and actions should work. Although, I've seen quite a few Hong Kong action comedies from the 80s and they did get less violent for the next decade. Just like the other films in the Sammo-box, there's some deaths that just doesn't feel necessary compared to what the rest of the story is.

The film also take place in an alternate universe where people are slow-minded and easily fooled. Obviously it wouldn't have been a film if people would've explained stuff to the end, instead Sammo beats up a stranger because someone else called that person a thief. That person then tell his master that's a kung fu fighter that Sammo called him a "phony" and lots of other bad things about his school. The Kung Fu master then goes to Sammo's Master and begins to fight him even before asking if any of it is true. Sure, we get an amazing fight scene involving a brush. But looking through the film, there are so many liars that get away easily while some other people end up in brutal fights because of them.

I really loved the relation between the drunk beggar and Sammo's character and reminded me of Drunken Master (same director). His comments during the fights as well as his silly grin made me chuckle a lot throughout the film. I also think that the titles of this film and another film from the box, The Iron-Fisted Monk (1977), had some strange titles to them. We didn't see Sammo do much butchery at all in this film, just carrying some pigs in the beginning of the film. And the Iron-fisted monk, there wasn't really a specific iron-fist through the film, just lots of normal punches. At least this film had some more special fists/palms to it and would probably make more sense if it was called "The Iron-fisted butcher" or something like that.

A slight spoiler ahead - but was the father of the rapist/murder son really a bad guy? All he wanted was to avenge his goddaughter and son for their deaths, and it looked to me that he never really got anything explained to him what really happened.

Don't think too much about the story while watching the film, enjoy the fights.

"The longer you stay on the shot, greater the pressure" - is something we're familiar with when it comes to directors like Tarkovsky, he doesn't shy away from staying with his camera on a scene for as long as necessary. With this film, I did felt quite intimidating with the first shot of the film of an older man's face staring into the camera, lying down and giving off the impression (to me) that he had woken up. The shot lasts for about 8 minutes.

We then follow a monk throughout the rest of the film, walking in ultra-slow-motion, the longest one was probably how walked down stairs during 14 minutes, lots of people passing by him, some watching him, some ignoring him and just moving on. At first I was into this, actually finding the shots really beautiful and soothing to rest my eyes upon, but I then ended up falling asleep, not only once, but twice, having to go back to the spot where I think I fell asleep.

The most disappointing thing to me however is that this is categorized as a drama, the monk is actually played by an actor and so is the old man that we sometimes see just watching either the monk or nothing at all. I've seen documentaries before with monks walking like this, the most famous one from Godfrey Reggio's QATSI trilogy, a trilogy moving in a very rapid pace to fast music. This film however is more like scenes from Roy Andersson's films, the camera locked on a spot and then something taking place in front of it, only that this film got no plot, it got no music and in the end I didn't really learn anything at all from it, compared to the QATSI films. It could've been a great "opposite-film" to those films with its slow pace and a message to the people to slow down, take it easy, but in the end I just ended up being a bit bored and disappointed by the whole experience.

I did however give the film 5 stars out of 10, because some of the shots are just fantastic with it's natural lighting, especially the staircase scene with the rim light around the monk and the sparkling points on the railings.

Sammo Hung - an actor, director, producer who already starred in films at the age of nine according to this site, there's no doubt this guy got loads of talent and he would really shine with his future films during the 80s. This film was his first directorial debut and it's really well directed with amazing choreographed fight scenes and quick edits that doesn't let the film feel slow at any time.

However, the biggest problem for me with this film is the plot of the film as well as the message. Sammo's character gets bullied and beaten up in a flashback scene and it's why he joins a temple to train martial art so he can defend himself and others from bullies. However, as soon as he comes upon a bad guy that bullies some kids in the village, Sammo ends up beating him and then sits on him, being just as bad as the bullies himself, somehow I believe that the temple he trained at wouldn't approve of such behavior, but instead defend those in need and nothing else. We do learn that Sammo's character is a bit of a troublemaker, which might be why he's the way he is.

We also experience a very cruel rape scene early on in the film with the leader of the bad guys raping a woman who later takes her own life because of it. The brother of the rape victim promise to revenge her death but... well...

****SPOILERS**** ... towards the end of the film, not only do the bad guys kill the brother's mother, but also rape his wife and kills her. And at the massacre at the dye factory, he, together with all of his co-workers gets more or less butchered and killed - and this is where I lost my motivation with the plot - what's left for Sammo and his monk friend to even fight for when everyone - everything's dead. It felt like the harm was already done so what good was it that they even had the fight at the end with the bad guys. I also think the "Big Brother" from the Imperial Court got the worse punishment than the main bad guy, having his eyes ripped out.

This film was very brutal and there are so many deaths which Sammo later on would slow down with and also let the people he defends in his future films survive until the end. See the film for Sammo's directorial debut as well as the fight scenes - but be aware that it's a bit disappointing story-wise.

I had heard of this film long ago, but without any famous name attached to it, I just ended up looking over it. Now, some 20 years later, I finally getting through some of the good old Hong Kong classics - and this did not disappoint. It starts strong right away and just moves in a rapid speed throughout the whole film, the runtime feels perfect for this film, I didn't need some extra minutes, it was just perfect in all ways.

And I never thought I would say this, but that kid was awesome. Children in films can be hits and misses but I couldn't stop just loving how sweet this kid was through the whole film and also those amazing martial art moves the kid had, I was so amazed that I got tears in my eyes.

Looking up who made the film it shouldn't surprise me that it was the director to Drunken Master, probably my favorite Jackie Chan film, and this is by far the best Donnie Yen film. It seems like the director have worked with quite a few of the big names in Hong Kong - Sammo Hung and Jet Li too - so I got some other hidden gems to discover as well. I'm just stunned right now - it's really that amazing.

I watched this film as a kid and loved it, but I loved pretty much any film with Jackie Chan back then. Watching this film again now made me unsure about its quality. It's a film of its time with Jackie, Yuen and Sammo in Spain (even if it feels more italian to me - and their neighbor is even italian). Let me begin with saying that it's a surreal experience with Jackie being named Thomas, Yuen is David and Sammo is Moby. They speak cantonese with all of their customers and there's a mental hospital with chinese people in it. So... why Spain again and not just Hong Kong.

Also, the title of the film just makes me think harder and harder every time I say the title over and over again - Wheels on Meals. It really doesn't make much sense, but it's also because the producers didn't want another film starting with the letter M (Meals on Wheels), since two earlier M-films had flopped. But really, the whole meal thing with this film is just a small side plot, I'm sure there are 100 other titles that would make more sense to the plot of this film.

What works best with this film is always the chemistry between the three leads, they're like The Three Stooges or Laurel and Hardy, just perfect when they're together. The fight scene between Jackie and Benny is probably most memorable with this film, both of them getting so many bruises and blue marks (And also the fact that Benny accidentally hit Jackie for real more than once). You could really feel the pain in both the kicks and punches as well as see it on them both. It might only be 5 minutes in the end, but it's the biggest reason I see to see this film again.

However, the whole plot with the millionaire's heiress and both Yuen and Jackie falling for her, even if she pickpockets them both and they simply forgive her for it, because she's pretty just felt lame to me. But it was common in the films back then that as long as you were beautiful, you could get away with pretty much anything. The film also have very little martial art in it compared to the other two Jackie/Sammo/Yuen films - so I would sadly rank this as the least good one, with Project A as the best and Dragons Forever closer to this one.

After having watched Project A and Wheels on Meals, I couldn't help having some high hopes for this last one with the three leads together for a final time. I guess I'm a bit disappointed over how simple it was, but then again, it's what you should expect from a Hong Kong Action Comedy from the 80s.

The film is split into three parts - introducing the three leads, two of the leads romancing the women and final part the fight with the bad guys. I'm sure there could be ways to make the film more smooth in it's storytelling, but we're not really introduced to the main baddies reason for being bad until the last part of the film. Instead they make silly gags about Yuen trying to hide a listening bug device in one of the womens apartment, helping Jackie out, or just Yuen attacking Jackie during one of his dates. Sure, we get great fights these times, but you don't really feel like there's much on stake these time. Although, even I have to admit that when the three of them fight each other, I got some Three Stooges vibes, in the best way possible, I laughed out loud over how greatly choreographed it all was. However, the weakest part of the film was the whole romantic section between Jackie and his love interest as well as Sammo and his - poor Yuen just had to be the comic relief in the end. The romantic part slowed the whole film down and caused a hiccup in the otherwise fast-moving narration.

The best part however is the third act, the famous fight(s) in the bad boss' factory. You can tell that Sammo as a director knows how to use his actors right, Wah Yuen is amazing and laugh-out-loud funny with his sneaky kicks and keeping the cigar in his mouth all the time, too bad we don't got more of him. We also got Benny Urquidez as the boss' henchman, I've only seen two films with him, but damn, I will never forget his face, looking so intimidating and really giving Jackie a challenge until the end. I rate the last part of this film 10 out of 10, but sadly the middle drags it down. Still, it's a great ending to this trilogy.

I didn't really know anything about this film before I started to watch it, the poster was bonkers with a scared jaguar on a blonde jungle woman's back and an angry ape in the background terrorizing citizens of a big city. The actual film isn't as exciting as that. Some rich men going to the library to find out about a mythical ape in the Indian jungles that they want for themselves and make money from. They find an unlucky explorer, Chen Zhenfeng, to do their work for them while the main-baddie enjoy his time in India with hugging easily-dressed ladies and drinking.

Chen not only finds the ape, but also a blonde jungle woman that was raised by the ape, and somehow he convinces her to take her and the ape to Hong Kong. While in Hong Kong, things goes from bad to worse with the jungle woman running away from horny men on the streets, the ape going mad and destroys buildings, cars, anything it can find - and everything it hits explodes.

I don't think the creator of this film really understood the message of King Kong when they made this film. It's very cheesy and bad, the ape is obviously a man in a costume, you can see it both on the movements and the eyes. And the jungle woman sure wasn't very strong for having grown up in the jungle, she also learned cantonese very fast when communicating with Chen.

I've read some reviews calling this film 'so-bad-it's-good' but I wouldn't go that far, I might've chuckled 3-4 times throughout the film, but it isn't enough for me to recommend it. Watch it for the third act if you really want to see some miniatures getting destroyed.

You really need to know what you're in for before watching this film, a 70s Children Morning Show, A Chinese Ultraman, Explosions the Movie. It's very campy, very cheesy, the costumes are pretty bad and laughed a lot throughout the film, there were so many crazy things with it that really didn't make any sense and yet the film just moved on with it. For some reason the big bad knew the guy's name that they kidnapped, they knew about the Professor, as if they had met before, and everyone played it with straight faces.

I was never bored watching this film, it was like they squeezed a full season of villains to this superhero, into one film, so much fighting, so many explosions, such sharp cone-bras. It's not for everyone, but if you wanna see an alternative of what a superhero film from the 70s could look like, you really need to give this one a try, haha.

After having had a marathon of all 4 Chinese Ghost Stories after each other, I obviously watched this one last. It surprises me that it's from the same director that did all of the Donnie Yen Ip Man films, it also surprises me that he has said that this wasn't a remake of the previous ones but a new take. This is obviously a remake of the first one with some slight changes where the taoist priest is a demon hunter instead and there was also a love story between the Demon Hunter and the Demon before he performed a magic spell that made her forget about him because "Demons and Demon Hunters can't live together". Otherwise there's the same plot points with a Demon falling in love with a clumsy man and is trapped by a Tree Demon controlling her and other Demons to do her deeds.

If you watch the old ones, you can tell the screenplays in those is a bit wobbly, but what they lack in story, they have more of in charm and effects. Sure, this film got some amazing special effects and martial art scenes, The sword fight between the two Demon Hunters was amazing and I would go as far as saying that it's worth watching the film just for that. There's also the beautiful Yifei Liu as the Demon, on the same level as Joey Wang from the previous ones.

But it also feels like when you clean this film up with fine effects and really great choreographed fight scenes, there's some sort of personality that gets lost in it, if I hadn't seen the first 'A Chinese Ghost Story' before this one, I would probably have been more forgiving, but now it just feels like a pale copy of a better film. It would be like remaking an old 80s classic like Robocop... oh, they did. I would have given it an extra star if it tried to make a new story out of it, instead of just taking the previous one, it's really an ok film otherwise.

I wasn't sure why this film didn't work as well for me as with other films with and by Sammo Hung. It's a Hong Kong version of The Dirty Dozen, collect a group of criminals and send them on a suicide mission in Vietnam. There's a reason why The Dirty Dozen is 2h 30min long, it spends half of its time introducing each of the characters and make you actually care about them when it's time for the actual mission. This film throws us right into the mission with a quick introduction of each character with a freeze frame and a letters printing out their name and the crime they're in prison for. You can also tell that this film is much more serious than Sammo's other films, still, there's a really strange kind of comedy throughout the film, one with a stuttering prisoner that made me cringe a bit and also the Lucky Star actor Charlie Chin, constantly flirting with the ladies.

But what we lose in plot, we get back in the action. The usage of firearms reminds me more of films like Rambo: First Blood Part II or Commando, loads of shooting, very macho and big guns in each arm while they kept on killing enemies. I couldn't say I cared too much how much firepower was used during the film, it somehow felt wrong to see Sammo shoot his enemies with guns. But we also get lots of martial art in the film and when Yuen Biao joins the gang as a local vietnamese who happens to be just as amazing at fighting as Sammo. The Killing Fields' Haing S. Ngor have a small role in the film as well, but I felt like the film didn't know how to use him, so his role was sadly forgotten in the end for what could've brought some more depth to it.

If you could rate different acts of the film alone, the third act is what would get 10 out of 10 stars from me, introducing late in the film the Giggling General (yes, he's named that here on imdb too) played by Wah Yuen, an actor I usually relate to comedies like Kung Fu Hustle, but here he's really creepy, and that giggling starts as something silly and funny soon turns into something very scary and dangerous. The extended fight scene between him and Yuen and Sammo gave me goosebumps, it was amazingly choreographed and the part where you could see Sammo's directing pay off the most.

Sadly the first acts drags the films rating down for me, but watch it for the final fight, it's well worth it. And like pretty much all other 80's HK action films, this one is just over 90 minutes long so it's a quick watch.

I can't believe how so many reviews on this site has given this film such a high rating, they're forgiving and calling it both trashy and fun. It's really neither, it's just really-really bad. I'll admit that I didn't really read anything about this film before I started to watch it, just that it was a Hong Kong film and it was categorized as an Action-Comedy, having the classic Golden Harvest logo showing up at the beginning put me to ease, but then as the film started and moved on, things just got worse and worse.

As soon as the film started I cringed a bit by both the acting as well as the set and thought to myself "Wow, this looks like a porno..." and I didn't have to wait for too long when suddenly it cut to a sex scene, very awkward and made me just uncomfortable. I don't really watch any sex scenes normally, but something about those scenes in this film just looked like the actors performed "air-sex" humping in the air while the other actor did his/her best to act to it.

I'm not sure I should try and explain the plot since it's just really bad. Mad scientist transfer his body to a robot that looks like a muscular human and kidnaps the son to a millionaire and kills our main protagonist, who luckily gets her mind transferred to a robot too that the creators somehow made looking exactly like her former self. After that it's just lots of really boring jokes, dumb acting and bad fight scenes, you can tell from the editing that there actors weren't skilled martial art fighters.

You can tell that the filmmakers has taken some inspiration from Robocop and Terminator, but then completely skipped what made those film great. I know this is a silly softcore comedy, but even Stephen Chow did a better job in his Sixty Million Dollar Man, which I would still call one of his weaker films. For characters being robots, they sure showed lots of emotions and expressions when they got hit during fights, not to mention the whole sex-part, how does that even work when you're a robot? Does it even work that way? I have no idea and it only makes it more mad that I think too much about this film.

I've still given this film 3 out of 10 which might seem kind of me, it's a really bad film, but it's also just over 90 minutes long and had some lazy fight scenes. There are better "Bad films" out there to find, this is not one of them.

Going into this film, I had no idea what to expect. All I knew what that it starred Sammo Hung, that there was a fight with Cynthia Rothrock... and that's about it. I admit that the opening for this film is very strange, Sammo as a simple thief, fighting russians in a snow landscape and being hunted by a bounty hunter, I guess. But after this introduction the plot starts to build more and more...

... we get introduced to the main bad guy played by Paul Chang Chung (who we recognize from earlier Jackie Chan films) planning to rob a train and steal something valuable. And then there's Eric Tsang as the leader of a robber gang, followed by his stupid henchmen (one of them played by Ching-Ying Lam) and this is where I was starting to realize that this film had some famous actors in it. Little did I know that the next introduction was no other than Yuen Biao as a fireman turned police chief in the little town where everything more or less ends up taking place. Some great stunts during a town on fire while the bank robbery take place. Luckily Yuen Biao and his firemen manage to catch two of the robbers which ends up being Hoi Mang and Wu Ma, and now I know for sure that this is a film just filled with candy for an avid Hong Kong action film watcher as me. With the introduction of the train that's headed towards the town, we get introduced to Richard Ng, Billy Lau and two rivaling Kung Fu Masters (Jimmy Wang Yu and Kien Shih) I had pretty much given up keeping count by now, this film just knocked me out with surprise after surprise of cameos and supportive roles.

I complained with previous HK films that they looked like different gags and fight scenes being filmed and then edited together into a full-length film, this feel like a proper film, most of the plots of all the various characters in the film getting linked together at the end and I couldn't really believe how we would be able to fit all of this into a 90 minutes long film.

70 minutes into the film the third act kicks in and we get multiple fights in various styles between all kinds of characters, including Cynthia Rothrock and Richard Norton, it's pretty fantastic how they could press so much content into the last 20 minutes and you would really need to see it more than once to follow along and appreciate all of the fights. And really, for a film I gave 10 out of 10 stars, how could I even complain about anything? Well, with a cast and story like this, it really should've been 30-60 minutes longer, many of the side characters got cut off pretty quickly or got forgotten at the end. But I was never bored at any time through the film and I laughed out loud multiple times during the film and I see no other reason than giving this 10 stars - it's really an action comedy western rollercoaster of a film - just crazy fun fantastic.

When someone say a film is Epic these days, we think about big sets with loads of actors, big battles and massive effects, either special or practical ones. However, if you see Legend of the Mountain you'll experience epic scenery, wide angle shots where the humans take up little of the screen and you see just how massive the skies or mountains really are. Combined with the soothing flute music playing, I really felt like I wanted to dive into the screen and just be there, enjoying the views the calmness and what have you.

As for the plot however, it's where I find the film not finding its feet, being over 3 hours long, it sure fit in a lot into those hours, but it also becomes very difficult to follow exactly what's going on, a couple of flashbacks as well as magic using that shifts from powerful to not so powerful, it's pretty much decided what's best for the story.

Our main guy Ho ends up married to a woman that he don't even remember accepting in the first place, but it's obvious quickly that things aren't what they seem to be. Ho is very naive, always bowing and apologize for the smallest thing and he keeps smiling all the time with his teeth pushed forward, making him look a bit goofy. If the film had have a more sharp and focused protagonist, this film would probably have been over quickly, I became rather tired of Ho's behavior at the end and started to sympathize more with the people around him towards the end. However, the drum battle was really creative and fun and something I've not seen before in films.

But just like everyone else here, we don't watch this film for Ho, we watch it for the amazing directing of King Hu. It's the first film of his I've seen and I really love the whole mood of the film, the cinematography, the music, even if the plot wasn't to my taste, I will definitely rewatch this film again and again, just to experience the scenery and the chinese flute tunes again.

And an extra thumb up for the Masters of Cinema bluray cover, it really fits the whole film so much better, smoke and mysterious vibes - because I could see how other studios would have try to sell this as a fantasy horror film instead, we can see how the different covers look like in the image gallery on this site and I really love MoC's version most.