The Best of the Martial Arts Films

Talk about underrated! This film is great! If you want " The best of Acting movies", or "The best of Plot driven movies", this is not for you (and you probably can't read too good either). What you will get from this film is a very professionally made documentary that showcases an excellent and incredibly varied selection of martial art fight scenes. In addition, we are also treated to interviews with some of the top actors in martial art films such as: Jackie Chan, Samo Hung and Cynthia Rothrock.

The film begins with the list of stars we're are about to bare witness to. Everyone from Bruce Lee to Van-Damme is here and you know we're in for a treat! After the opening credits there is a fantastic 3 minute or so scene which edits together out-takes of the film (which, of course, are themselves out-takes of other films) under Lalo Schifrin's ingenious score from "Enter The Dragon". Then John Saxon (Bruce Lee's co-star from "Enter The Dragon") takes the floor and gives us a brief overview of what martial-arts are and how they evolved. From then on its action, action, action!

The film is very well paced in that as soon you feel like you've just about had enough of a kung-fu fight scene, it will switch to something more kickboxing based or an interview segment, or even something comedic. You'll learn a lot about some of the lesser known talented stars in the industry and, unless you're already a hardcore fan, probably a lot you didn't know about the bigger stars too.

The only thing that stops this film from getting a straight 10 out of 10 is its slight out datedness and tendency to focus perhaps a bit too exclusively on the Hong Kong industry. It would have been nice to see some of todays stars and up-and-comings like Jet Li or Mark Dacascos, and to be fair Van Damme isn't the only Martial Art star Hollywood has to offer (surely Seagal could've had a mention). But these slight set backs should in no way deter you from seeking this film out. Highly recommended!