L'Homme aux poings de fer

"We had decided to leave this place, but it turns out that the universe had other plans." When a legend of a golden treasure is heard of a group of various warriors come to a village. When an evil faction looks to take control it is up to the local blacksmith (RZA) and a rogue British soldier (Crowe) to stop them and protect the village. I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of movies like this. I have never really been into martial arts type movies although I have seen some really good ones. That said, while not being all that amazing of a movie itself this one was super entertaining and had some interesting fight sequences that I really enjoyed. The movie is way over the top and unbelievable, but it fit in this movie. If you are looking for an Oscar worthy type martial arts movie then I recommend 13 Assassins or War Of Arrows. This movie is really just visually fun and the fighting is entertaining, which is good sometimes. I liked it more then I expected. Overall, better then anticipated, martial arts fans may really like this. I say B.

I have recently been reading reviews of this film and I think people have been suffering from overly high expectations. It is NOT Django! It is a tongue in cheek take on old school martial arts films and I for one enjoyed it a lot. The fight scenes were outrageous and rightfully so. If you appreciate the beauty of Asian women then you are in for a real treat with this film. The plot wasn't deep but it wasn't meant to be. It is just a bit of fun and nostalgic for the films made by such production companies as golden harvest. Sometimes a guy wants to watch a movie and not have to think and this is the perfect film for that.

I found it interesting that Russell Crowe was in this film. He must have quite a sense of humour. Casting Batista I thought was pretty good as the character suited him well. Lucy Liu is always sassy and I the other actors brought some much needed humour to the movie.

Okay so I read a lot of reviews on IMDb before deciding whether or not to watch a movie, but this is my first time writing a review. Because I was really interesting in seeing a movie by RZA and the preview made it look like a Tarantino kill bill-esque movie, which I really like. I felt I had to review this movie because the rating is currently pretty low. I watch a lot a movies and am really into writing and screen writing, so of course I wasn't expecting an exceptionally scripted or written movie.

In the past couple of days I have seen a few movies I wasn't too excited about seeing, but I'm running out of new ones. I saw Abraham Lincoln Vampire hunter, Alex Cross, and Sinister. I just watched this movie this morning and although all of those movies are very different, I was by far the most entertained by TMWTIF. I though Russel Crowe did a pretty good job with what he was given, and RZA did okay as actor and I really like when he narrated. Also the fight scenes soundtrack is really cool, with good wu-tang beats and a few verses. It was pretty cool seeing the Kung-fu fighting with the rap playing, pretty different.

All in all, if your looking for a movie with a really good storyline, plot, and script, then you probably shouldn't watch this movie. If you just want something to put on that's really cool to look at, with good music, attractive Asian women, and really good fight scenes then you probably won't be disappointed. It's a fun movie and deserves a little better rep. I'd watch a sequel.

Firstly, a disclaimer: All in all, this movie succeeds in what it sets out to do. It's a homage to grindhouse Kung Fu movies of the 70's and 80's and it succeeds very well in being just that kind of film. People go around saying how crap it was, but let's remind ourselves, not every movie is trying to be a masterpiece, and your subjective expectations don't mean this is a bad movie. Everyone went in expecting to see Kill Bill for some reason, because it was produced by Tarantino.

At any rate, the film has quite a nice plot, reminiscent of the movies it tries to pay homage to. It's a simple plot, not many twists and turns to it, but it does draw you in. It has drama, it plays on base emotions like greed and lust for power, and it involves a bloody multi-faction war. Basically, the governor of a Chinese province is transporting some gold (for no specific reason, I assumed it was collected taxes or army wages), and assigns a warrior clan (the Lions) with protecting the shipment while it passes through their area, which is infested with several crime syndicates. The Lions clan leader is murdered by his lieutenants as they want to claim the gold for themselves. Later on, the story starts involving another warrior clan that is protecting the gold (Geminis), a crime syndicate (Wolves), a mercenary army (Jackals), a blacksmith (RZA) that just wants to leave with his beloved woman, a whore house where said woman works (The Blossom House), a mysterious assassin (Poison Dagger), a mysterious cowboy (Jack Knife, played by Russel Crowe) and the son of the murdered Lions clan leader (Zen Yi or X-Blade).

The film contains several fight scenes and violent acts and if you are an action fan, you are gonna enjoy this. The cinematography is quite good, especially in the final battle scene. The acting is excellent for the most part (except RZA at some parts) and considering this was intended to resemble a grindhouse b-movie film. I especially enjoyed the obese Russel Crowe in the role of Jack Knife.

Overall, it's a good watch if you don't go in expecting to see the masterpiece of the year in Kung Fu movies, or a parody along the lines of Black Dynamite. It was certainly much more enjoyable than Argo 7/10

The film had potential with a decent storyline and all-star cast, but fails to pull in the viewer to care about the characters or outcome of the story.The movie far too often goes for cheap,juvenile sexual exploitation.The target audience for the movie seems geared towards males 16-24 and no one else.I've also noticed that the more people see the film the ratings here on IMDb decline.RZA also has very little acting skills and it was a major reason why the movie falls flat. Russell Crowe and Lucy Lui did a fair performance,but even they couldn't salvage the movie.I'm being very critical with my review b/c it's unfortunate to see a movie that had the potential,but didn't live up to it.