Contour

I caught this film at the Phantasmagoria film festival this weekend and it absolutely blew me away. Contour is easily one of the best martial arts films I've ever seen, and is hilarious to boot. There were a few bits that I felt were a touch out of place, and some of the characters grated a bit, but in terms of amusing characters and red hot action scenes there is very little out there to compete with this, especially not in recent times. The fights have to be seen to believed, including some very funny moments, and they build to a fantastic 3-way final showdown. If you love films like Drive, Drunken Master 2, Dragons Forever and Undisputed 2, then Contour is essential. Great outtake reel too guys, it shows how hard you worked and the sheer passion you have for what you do. Congratulations to everyone involved, you should be very proud indeed.

Saw this at Phantasmagoria over the weekend and really enjoyed it. The action and is amazing, truly mind-blowing stuff. Given the budgetary constraints I'm surprised no one got killed! Add to that the characters are likable and there are some incredibly funny moments. The mix of action and humour really works, and it helped that the audience I saw it with was loving every minute too! It's not as polished as a lot of low budget action films and the structure is a bit off but it's a film with a lot of heart and that makes it impossible not to enjoy. Definitely one to see with a group of friends. I can't wait to see what these guys do next!

THE SECOND COMING!

and it has Martial Arts in it and the Stuntpeople.

WoW!!

Where to start my review!

First this:

BEST Martal Arts movie since 'Drunken Master 2'!!}

The exciting eyeopening feeling I got, when I first witnessed Jackie doing tons of versatile excellently choreographed fights with big stunts and falls, was the same when I witnessed CONTOUR!

Stuntpeople really outdid themselves. This movie is highly ambitious without being bloated or pretentious. I really liked a lot of the humor especially when it was fight/stunt related. Situation comedy. (not all the dialog humor worked for me, but that's not really a problem, since the movie has tons and tons of action sequences)

The fights! Well, Like I mentioned , they're very versatile! They all have the thick pizza bottoms (from my theory about a good pizza as analogy to a great fight sequence) which results in; hardcore kick-boxing thickness. And they're flavored with excellent toppings. Like - Insane falls Outstanding fight flow WICKED camera-work (the one that follows the gun in the air is INSANE) Original ideas (the 'tied up' fight, the 'flying bats' fight)

The fights are all super fast and TOUGH, even the fights with girls (which usually, without offense, are the slower and nicer parts in MA movies; people tend to be more gentle toward girls, which is kinda natural of course ) So yeah, Tyler did a great job too! (although her fights can't hold up against the superior level of fights like Eric vs Dennis or Ed vs everyone or Eric vs Andy etc. etc.)

I really see Stuntpeople have developed their own unique style which also explains why I think Contour is one of the best all-time MA movies.

It has a background of 80ies Yuen Woo Ping choreography to it, with Sammo Hung kinda stunts and Janusz Kaminski kinda camera-work. That combined makes for this shattering cocktail of groundbreaking fight-scenes.

Forget Ong Bak! This is a movie where EVERYONE counts. I really think Stuntpeople is the best MA team at the moment, because it's very fair; it does not really pick one of the players as the best, it's team choreography! A thing that is sorely missing these days. As I see Eric Jacobus as main choreographer on the list I think this is his most important input in this style of Fight sequences. Everybody shines.

The bloopers where hardcore too.

The bad things: Well I don't really need to say bad things! I did not fast forward any part! It had so much style, good comedy, witty performances, changing hairstyles in single scenes, and GREAT enthusiasm in it.

You guys are beyond the Hollywood A list, they don't make action like this in Hollywood.

So once again, Props to the entire team Thank you for this good movie and what the future will hold for Stuntpeople.

This movie is horrendous. Decent fight scenes or not, the acting is REALLY bad, like you can tell they're reading their lines from a card. With painful line delivery by everyone in the cast. Think watching a high school play and cringing at the obvious lack of smoothness in the actor's interactions (weird pauses between different character's lines, combined with hurried line delivery by others). If the movie were all action, this might be forgivable, but a lot of the movie includes plot set-up and Family Guy style, irreverent cut aways (Oh, wow, are they badly done). I'm assuming they were attempting to be funny with these, but it again came off as a bunch of high-schoolers/ college entry students goofing off for the afternoon trying to set up a funny Youtube clip.

Now to the fight scenes. They're not too bad, considering the level of quality seen everywhere else in the film. Nothing great either, certainly not anywhere near the same level as other posters have stated (Nothing like Drunken Master). The fights have an overly staged feel, with LOTS of cuts to different angles with blatantly different positions by those involved.

In sum, the only reason to watch this movie is if you were one of the guy's friends involved with this very, very cheap production. Which guy you may ask? Oh, the same guy who wrote, directed, produced AND stared in this Middle School masterpiece.

Produced on a shoestring budget at anonymous locations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Contour is a powerhouse of amateur martial artists giving their all for the silver screen.

The writing is great because it doesn't take itself seriously. Our dysfunctional heroes are pitted against a cartoony plot centered around the laughable fictional country of Uruvia.

Cinematography. It's really easy to overlook how important this is to a film like this, but the camera-work is superb, framing the fights perfectly.

Editing. As in all martial arts film, sharp scene cuts with split second timing is crucial, and there's spades of it here.

Kick Ass Martial Arts. Oh yeah, these guys are good! There is a well staged stick fight and a brilliant chain fight at the end of the movie.

Kudos to the guys who almost killed themselves making this film.

THANK YOU!