Black Belt Theatre: Flaming Swords Review

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(More customer reviews)Not sure what the problem is but if you want it all you need to do is visit Spinning Disc Direct dot com and you will see this title there as well as many others. Thanks!

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Black Belt Theatre: Choy Lay Fut/Tiger's Claw Review

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(More customer reviews)Now first the picture quality. Choy Lee Fat is somewhat widescreened with bad picture. I have seen worse and have to say that personally, I had no problem with it. It is somewhat widescreened and dubbed in English so I don't have to squint to read the subtitles. Tiger's Claw is full screened and picture isn't as bad as CLF. Though I have to say the dubbign is much worse on Tiger's Claw.
CHOY LEE FUT KUNG FU- I will review be reviewing the Rarescope version here since it is much better than the Groundzero version. It is a bit longer on top of other things that make it much better.
Cliff Lok stars as a young man who is taken on secretly by a teacher of Choi Lee Fut. Some practicioners have told me that Cliff Lok was not suited for this role and while he is not quite as fluid as some of the greats his form is still terrific and his acrobatics are very good. The movie starts out showing Philip Ko as the evil warlord who takes down a group of rebels and 2 teachers of kung fu survive, one being a monk. Cliff Lok goes to learn from the monk after he has learned all he can from the first teacher. The movie is just above average all the way through with some good comedy. You will recognize the cross eyed officer form Jackie Chan's 'Young Master'. "Your sword!". He is funny just looking at him. I was rolling on the floor he had his shirt off and asked Cliff to wipe his sweat off for him.
The best part of the movie is when one of the greatest female fighters ever shows up. Yang Pan Pan just starts tearing up everybody. While the movie is pretty good all the way through, it is not great. Luckily the final fight gets is outstanding. It starts off with the girl vs.Phillip Ko and then CLiff Lok. Total of about 10 minutes and some great action going on. The end of the fight is billiant. They shows the various techniques that Lok is doing subtitled on screen and it is slow mo for about three minutes. Truly awesome stuff. 4.5/5
Rarescope has given us this movie fully letterboxed and though the picture is faded and there is noticeable damage on the film print it still looks about twice as good as the Groudzero version. The subtitles can be read pretty easily most of the time. The original Mandarin track is the way to go and has GREAT sound quality. The Engish dubbing is fine though the sound quality doesn't compare a lick to the Mandarin.
Special feature included is a Cliff Lok interview and also he is being intervied form the late great director of the movie- Chan Siu-pang. Lok looks amazing even at being at least 50 and gives a very good interview. Rarescope does a good thing in my opinion and has us waiting for part 2 of the interview when they release Lok's 'Best of Shaolin Kung Fu'. I would be lieing if I said I was not ecstatic about that future release.
There is also a small photo gallery form the movie with some black and white pics. There is also the same Rarescope trailers we saw on their first release. I am waiting anyday now to preorder '3 Famous Constables'(which I heard will come out under another name), 'Ninjas in Ancient China', 'and 'Sword of Justice'. Rarescope(BCI) has proven to be one of the best martial arts DVD companies and I eagerly await more and more.
TIGER'S CLAW-this is your run of the mill kung fu flick. Cliff Lok starts out the movie beating down everyone and then he goes home to rest with his wife. He then hears about this guy who always used to win his fights, he breaks the Tiger-actor Shih Kien(guy with the claw in Enter the Dragon) out of jail and tells him he did so so that they could fight. While I know you are yawning right now, shih kien puts on a very good acting performance that I wasn't really expecting. The kung fu is pretty sloppy but does get pretty good in the final fight. I was told by a kung fu friend of mine that shih kien is using 7 mantis style. I have studied shaolin kung fu and maybe that is why I thought 'Choy Lee Fat'(the movie) was so good, but while the mantis style is used well in this, it is just too sloppily choreographed. But my mantis friend thinks it is great, and I have neevr really tried mantis, so defintely pick it up for his opinion! The end in Tiger's Claw is a little too standard but I enjoyed the fact they actually put real emotions in to it and made it an almost enjoyable story. I give it a 2.5.
So I got this double pack for $4.99 at the used store. I cannot recommend this though becasue rarescope has released this now, but get it for Tiger's Claw if you want, a very good double feature.

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Chinese Stuntman (Dubbed In English) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Chinese stuntman is the same movie as Counter Attack. I accidentally ordered both movies. However, the amazing stick fighting scene with Ho Chung Tao versus Dan Inosanto is worth the money.
This movie is a true classic. A must have for Dan Inosanto (Bruce Lee's friend in real life) and Ho Chung Tao (Bruce Li) fans.
I rate this movie 5 stars-
great action!!
Fast fact: Dan Inosanto was born Daniel Arca Inosanto on July 24, 1936. He is a Filipino Martial Arts instructor who is a foremost authority on Jeet Kun Do (Bruce Lee's art).
Dan Inosanto has appeared in other movies including: The Warrior Within, Fight Science, Modern Warrior, and The Path of the Dragon.
Of course, Ho Chung Tao has appeared in about 30 movies including Iron Dragon Strikes Back and The Chinese Connection II.-

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Dance Of The Drunk Mantis / From China With Death Review

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(More customer reviews)... Despite
the fact that the DVD is from a VHS source (almost all the
old school movies are, esp. those released by Ground Zero),
this double feature offers the chance to see two of Woo Ping's
excellent early efforts. Dance of the Drunken Mantis stars Whang Jang Li and Simon Yuen (Sam the Seed), and is a classic old schooler. It easily carries its weight. From China with Death (aka Wits to Wits)is a'modern day' action flick set in the 70's and is a kung-fu comedy starring the prolific Wu Ma, Henry Yu Yung and Corey Yuen (who is also in Dance of th DM). Corey Yuen directed flicks like Savior of the Soul, Letter to my Father (Jet li), Fong Sai Yuk 1 & 2 (also Jet Li) and many other of Hong Kong's best action movies. In short, these are well worth it for any fan of hong kong/action cinema.

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Black Belt Theatre, Vol. 9: Snuff Bottle Connection Review

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(More customer reviews)Snuff bottle connection , aka Secret Rivals 3 in South Africa was always one of my favourite karate movies of the late 70's.However the DVD transfer does no justice to this movie.Who ever did the transfer to DVD needs to see an optician as almost half the movie is out of frame and this really spoils everything.Well if you prepared to watch it like that,I feel the company should drop the price to about $4.99 maximum.Do yourself a favour buy Invincible Armour instead.A classic in its true form.

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Kung Fu Theater Review

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(More customer reviews)Wang Yu was never one of the best kung fu stars. He could handle it but wasn't up to par with any of the real martial arts stars from back in the day.
FAST FISTS-Wang Yu is very likeable as always and though this movie doesn't have great kung fu and isn't real exciting, it is a well done story. Wang Yu is the leader of the Red Lantern gang. They rob from the rich and give to the poor. They come across a lady who is travelling to perform in a show and instead of robbing them the lady's wit gets her by. Jimmy escorts the lady to the show and insists on watching her dnace. From here it becomes pretty standard Wang Yu. He is wanted and people are after him. When the girl runs away with him they send out men looking for him.
I have to say that all of the fights were pretty good for 1972 or 1973. The final fight is a bit of a stinker but still fun throughout.
The movie is presented in a 16:9 format and has a very watchable picture quality. 3/5
18 SHAOLIN RIDERS-Wow oh wow what a boring movie. I figured this would be the exciting one but I was way wrong. The back of the DVD says that the movie has Wong Tao, Nick Cheung, Judy Lee, Lo Lieh, Fong Yeh, and Bruce Liang is in it and does the choreography. Well Judy Lee doesn't fight, and I didn't see Bruce Liang and Fong Yeh in this movie. To top it off, it's not the Nick Cheung from 'Karado'(aka Super Kung Fu Kid), but the Nick Cheung who played Fong Sai-Yuk in Donnie Yen's 'Kung Fu Master' TV show. So the movie is as boring as can be but I guarantee any fan of the genre will enjoy the last 25 minutes. The very end is like a cross between Chen Sing's 'Shaolin Monk' and Zimou's 'House of Flying Daggers'. It is pretty freaking cool.
There are some sound issues but overall the movie is more than watchable. Presented in a 16:9 format which is about 100 times better than full screen. 2.5/5.
THE BIG RASCAL-Again, the back of the DVD is incorrect and says that Chi Kuan-Chun's brother is Jimmy Lee from 'Rebellious Reign'. I don't know who his brother is but it is not Jimmy Lee. So the movie is about his brother getting picked on, he teaches him kung fu. They rise up from being workers at a crappy job and become gangsters. They start out helping out the owner of a brothel and then they end up protecting it, then they take out the competition. It is a very badly done story. There is this one guy who we see at the start of the movie and it ends up being pretty funny how he just keeps sending more of his brothers to take out Kuan-Chun. The first guy I swear is Yuen Biao. The fights don't get any better than this one though. Kuan-Chun looks very good but no one else stands out AT ALL. The fights are sadly below average but are still watchable and got me through the movie.
Full screened with a watchable picture though pretty scratched up. 2/5.
THE HERO OF THE TIME-Now this is a weird flick. It starts out looking real cool with Lung Fei beign the master of the Golden Skin technique. Then it ends up being a lot like 18 Shaolin Riders. Not quite as boring, but the kung fu isn't as good. Unfortunately it doesn't have a spectacular ending but the fu is watchable overall.
16:9 format. Decent picture. 1.5/5.
I figured this set ould be a better deal than those 2 packs Brentwood has like 'Attack of The Venoms'/'Men on the Hour' but I was wrong.

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Five Deadly Venoms (1999) Review

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(More customer reviews)Shaw Brothers Movie Studios director, Chang Cheh's 1978 tour-de-force Kung Fu extravaganza. This film set the stage for nearly 20+ more movies starring the 'Venoms' to follow in an attempt to quench the world-wide thirst of fans of this, the first 'Venoms' movie. Long out of print and only found in the possession of private Kung-Fu film collectors, the current commercially available VHS of 'The 5 Deadly Venoms' by EPI, is struck from a good quality master print, and is uncut and formatted in LBX (letterbox), which is a real treat to Kung Fu movie fans. The story centers around the last student of the dying master of 'The Poison Clan', who is sent out to find the last 5 secret members of the clan, all of whom have trained in a special 'Poison' technique. Some of the clan members have gone bad, and the student must locate and destroy them with the help of good members, if he can find them! The script, acting, choreography, costumes, and sets are fantastic. This film combines bare-chested Kung-Fu supermen back-flipping through the air while weilding exotic Chinese weapons and performing unbelievable feats of physical strength, skill, and speed, with a twisting plot of deceit, revenge, and corruption; all against a fantastic & deadly 14th century backround. The 5 Deadly Venoms stars Kuo Chui (Lizard), Sun Chien (Scorpion), Lo Meng (Toad), Wei Pai (Snake), Lu Feng (Centipede), and Chiang Sheng as 'Yan Tieh', the last disciple of the Poison Clan master. A 'Must Have' for any Kung Fu movie fan as The 5 Deadly Venoms is truely an all time classic.

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The dying master of the powerful Poison Clan dispatches his last pupil on a crucial mission. Worried that the skills he has taught are being used to evil ends, he orders the Yan Tieh to trace a retired colleague and warn him that the fortune he amassed from the clan activities is under threat from five of his former pupils. Each an expert in his own lethal combat style, the five comprise a truly invincible force. Yan must discover the whereabouts and true identities of these deadly masked warriors and decide which, if any, can be trusted.

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Kung Fu Theater: Mr. X and Ninja Connection Review

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(More customer reviews)Despite being hailed as the best karate fighter ever, Joe Lewis' long-extinct onscreen career was less epic. After attaining mixed results with the likes of Jaguar Lives and Force: Five, he seemed finished with fighting for the camera but returned to pictures seven years after his most recent project under direction of B-movie guru and cinematic junk purveyor Godfrey Ho. Why align himself with the man responsible for such scrap classics as Ninja Terminator? - your guess is as good as mine, but be assured that unless you're up for a full dose of Ho's seat-of-the-pants production techniques and serious underutilization of one of martial arts' top stars, you're in for disappointment.
May Buddha help me try to piece the plot of this convoluted flick together! I'll admit that it's been a few weeks since I've seen the film, but even while it was playing, it was difficult to make heads or tails of what any of the characters were doing. From what I can gather, a truce between the Yakuza and the Triads is broken with the wedding massacre of a godfather's family. The lone survivor is an heir called Alex (Alex Man, Hong Kong 1941) who swears revenge on his family's killers.
Did you notice that I didn't mention Joe Lewis' character in the plot? Sure, Joe plays a fairly prominent supporting role as an assassin hired by someone to take out somebody, but you never get the impression that he's in the same storyline as the other characters because - classic Ho tactic, here - the movie is comprised of scenes from another feature into which Lewis' additionally-shot scenes were edited. While Alex is running around trying to exact his revenge, Lewis spends most of his time chatting with Chaplin Chang (assistant director of Enter the Dragon) and going on sniping missions. He and Alex never even meet, making it really feel like you're watching two different movies...and neither are very good.
Both 'sides' of the film feature poor picture quality, lackluster editing, and bad voiceovers, but because there's more of it, it's the Alex Man adventure that suffers exceedingly. It feels like it's trying to be Hard Boiled, but long instances of boring dialogue thoroughly outweigh its action scenes; even when a gun/swordfight does take place, it's usually not very good. Four big shootouts feature about two hundred guys in suits and sunglasses getting shot up, but overuse of slow-motion and the impression that they too were filmed separately from the main stars negate any coolness the encounters may have gained through scale. Two big swordfights also take place; the second one is surprisingly good but the first is shot in such dim light it's impossible to see what's going on. After wandering around and occasionally shooting people for 69 minutes, Lewis has two hand-to-hand fights against nameless Americans; they're not awful exchanges but pale dreadfully in comparison to his better work (see Death Cage) thanks to some weird choreography and inopportune cutting.
The film ends with Lewis giving Chaplin Chang advice on life and a lot of people having died with little to show for it. By now, the movie is feeling assured that it's proven Joe Lewis to be a badass, but nothing could be further from reality. "Mr. X" is so confusing that you don't even bother to catch anybody's name, and the only guy you do take notice of looks old, uninvolved, and not at all like the kickboxing legend his portrayer is. Perhaps the movie would've been less disappointing if it hadn't been billed as a vehicle for Lewis, but even when watched on proper terms, it's far from satisfying and even further from coherent. There are plenty of filmed-in-Taiwan flicks you can watch before resorting to this one.

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Kung Fu: The Complete Series Collection (1972) Review

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(More customer reviews)There are lots of reviews which already talk (extensively) about why Kung Fu was such a great show, and worth owning on DVD. Instead I just wanted to make sure people know what they are getting with this set...
I hesitated to buy this set at first because it had all 3 seasons packaged together, but didn't mention anything about special features, etc. I wanted to make sure I had the commentaries & featurettes that the individual seasons boasted. Eventually, I bought this version because the price difference won me over (just before the holidays it was $35 + super saver shipping!) and I was pleased to find out that the set contained all 3 seasons as they appear individually, as well as a nice little slip cover to store them all together. The individual seasons & this package are the same, except that this one costs far less.

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Kung Fu Theater: Ninja Thunderbolt/Invincible Hero Review

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(More customer reviews)I quite like movies that are so bad, they're good. This isn't one of them. It's just bad. Don't waste your time.

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The Karate Kid (1984) Review

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(More customer reviews)Karate Kid is not what you may think it is. The premise of a young fatherless boy trying to survive a completely new environment is how this movie gets its humanity. For anyone who has ever had to move to a new town, be raised by only one parent, or face overwhelming odds, and almost everyone has done at least one of these, this movie can be related to on many levels. Ralph Macchio plays Daniel, a teenager from New Jersey who is forced to move across the country with his mother and start a new life in a foreign place, California. Setting aside the differences between East & West coast alone, there is plenty for him to realize. When faced with bullies that he doesn't understand, he finds a friend in an unlikely place; Mr. Miagi, a Japanese handyman, played by Pat Morita, who's hides many talents. To say Karate Kid is a story about over coming your fear is to say that life is just a thing we do everyday. This movie mixes a friendship, a romance, a coming of age story, gaining self confidence and learning to appreciate that which you may not understand right away. After getting sufficiently beat up by the bullies more than once, Daniel enlists the help of Miagi and soon finds himself training for a tournament. This may seem outrageous, but Miagi knows it is a much safer place and a more controlled environment for Daniel to defend himself and gain respect. Miagi's training techniques are unique to say the least, and just as Daniel begins to question what is going on, he realizes that Migai really does know what he is doing. The story is good and solid and allows sympathy for both sides of the characters. They fill a void for each other, an obvious father/son, mentor/student relationship. The chemistry between them is very solid. Elizabeth Shue is good in her first major role, playing the sweet rich girl who sees Daniel for the person he is and not for his social status. Although sounding clichéd on the surface, this movie is well done and not superficial. The characters are very real, the emotions are deep and the fear of growing up with bullies hits home for many of us. The ending will have you cheering as Daniel moves his way through the tournament to the final climatic ending. Highly recommended and highly entertaining.

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Kung Fu Theater Collection: 10 Movie Set, Vol. 1 Review

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(More customer reviews)I am only comparing this set to a poor-quality 50-movie set that I got as a gift. The movies in the 50-pack were poorly transferred. It appeared that they just cropped a 4:3 portion of the original screen, so the action often occurred off screen or partially off-screen. Also, the movies weren't that great.
The Kung-Fu Theater set is much better. The transfer is better. You can see all of the action and the picture quality is better (keep in mind these are transfers from film, so you see film artifacts as you watch). The movies themselves are better too. Better fighting, better plots (if you even care), and better actors. I actually recognized a few of them as character actors from other films. For the price, I am pretty happy.

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