Savate

An excellent off beat Western , loosely based on a real events and real character, Joseph Chalaemont, who was a key figure in the evolution of the French Boxing - Savate.

Good acting, good Martial arts and great western filming

This movie should have been made in the 1970's.

Then they could have got away with the wooden acting, the ludicrously cliche-d plot, and the frankly obsolete fight scenes.

Oliver G is obviously a talented martial artist: which makes wasting him in this movie even more of a crime. Compared to the latest Jet Li movies or some of the new bullet-time films (e.g. The Matrix, Swordfish) this film strikes with the speed of a snoozing earthworm.

Let me give you an example. Final fight scene...big baddie just about out on his feet...our hero, a bullet in his leg, is standing on one foot kicking the bounder right-left about the head. Technically very good stuff: balance, poise, position etc etc. But realistic? Not even close. I put it to you, Oliver, that if you've kicked him in the head six times already, and he hasn't gone down, then you need to change your tactics a little. Why doesn't he just boot him between the legs and then stamp on his head to finish him? It's what he did to our hero's best pal earlier in the film! Just cos Savate is a kicking style with many impressive high kicks in its repetoire doesn't mean you don't kick someone lower down. You thigh kicked him a moment ago...why not try something a little bit more direct?

This may sound a bit extreme, but poor fight choreography in what's billed as an exciting martial arts masterpiece is bad for the genre as a whole. Say I'm new to chop-sockey's. I see, buy or rent Savate. I'm disappointed. I don't go and see, buy, rent a martial arts movie ever again.

Come on, people, try a little harder please!

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

I'd imagine Olivier Gruner is a man who frequently ponders on the fates Lady Luck draws out for those in life.I mean,he's french,he's a top kickboxing champion and he has questionable acting ability (justified by his laughable emoting in certain parts of this movie).So what gives?Jean Claude Van Damme enjoys a large part of his career as a top ranking Hollywood action star,and all he ever acheives is a career in low budget,STV action movies.What you gonna do,huh?

The plot here has him in 1865 as mysterious army officer Josepth Charlemont,who rides through Texas in full Clint-Eastwood-High-Plains-Drifter style fashion,simply to 'pass through' (you mean there wasn't a shortcut he could have used?).However,when corrupt landowner Jack Benedict (choosing not to be credited,R Lee Ermey (he must have had a gas bill or something to pay.Oh,and,by the way,it's probably just my imagination,but is that not Bloodsport's Donald Gibb as a burly,bearded nearby homeowner?)) and his henchmen try to force people to sell their homes,he decides to teach them all a lesson.And not of the classroom kind.

The expected iffy performances and leaden production values aside,an interesting premise is not done much justice by a bland,witless script which all the fancy kickboxing action and pleasant scenery in the world really can't save.

These things are,however,welcome distractions,which,along with the compatable running time and some unintentional hilarity,make Savate all the more of a rewarding experience.**

Directed by Isaac Florentine (the guy gav martial arts fans Boyka n Undisputed series). I first saw this in the late 90s on cable tv. Fans of martial arts can watch it once. Enough action to satisfy martial arts. The lead guy Oliver Gruner is a talented martial artist. The epic fly scene shudnt b miss by anyone. Bad acting by Ashley Laurence (Hellraiser movies). James Brolin looks as if he doesn't kno what he is doing. Some cool sun soaked settings for western fans.

"Savate" is the reincarnation of the 1960s /1970s "Spaghetti Western", only this time around Clint Eastwood has been replaced by Oliver Gruner, and gunplay mostly supplanted by kick boxing. This uneasy combination sometimes works, but the script is so predictable that it mostly sputters along to a foregone conclusion. The film borrows heavily from Sergio Leone's masterpieces with fly catching, a death similar to Charles Bronson's Brother in "Once Upon a Time in the West", and a land grab due to the railroad coming through. Perhaps the best "borrowed" element is the score, which is extremely Morricone like, and quite good. I'm sure fans of the kickboxing movies will find plenty to criticize , and the Italian Western devotes will have seen it all before. Nevertheless, "Savate" is totally watchable, and certainly better than a lot of the lesser "Spaghetti Westerns." - MERK