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I saw the trailer and had my expectations set pretty high. In many ways I felt like this movie was more of a test run for Keanu. The story line was very generic but I love the big name Hong Kong actors. I wish he utilized them more but I guess for a kung fu movie cops can only have a minor sub- plot.

The movie's greatest strength was the amazing cinematography of each action sequence. I love how I can identify each style of fighting and enjoyed the clarity of each strike, grab and throw. Too bad Keanu can't pull out his matrix-self and show us he still got it.

I enjoyed this movie very much even with its flaws it is a solid kung fu movie. Kung fu movies are released fewer and fewer each year, and I hope Keanu can turn into a great kung-fu movie director and still continue his acting.

I didn't really know anything about Man of Tai Chi when I watched it. I was in a mood for something; I just didn't know what. I was stunned to discover Keanu Reeves in the film and even more stunned to learn it was his directorial debut.

I've always liked Keanu Reeves films, because I was almost always entertained. Everyone has a few flubs here and there; so his few are easily forgiven.

I, myself, am a big fan of foreign films. In many cases, it's because the story lines are fresher and morals are deeper.

That being said, if you're looking for an award winning film this isn't it and it's not meant to be. I was looking to be entertained, in that aspect, Reeves delivered.

I've seen the complaints about the performances, choreography, etc. As a director he had a full plate, especially for a debut. The language barrier alone would have been difficult enough to adapt to.

I'm not going to give any details about the film. I will say that this is a film you have to have a taste for. I do like the message behind the film though, which is for you to decide on your own. Everyone can come to their own conclusion, because we can find different meanings in everything.

This was a great movie, I am not sure what the others are whining about saying it is the worst movie in Hollywood. Clearly you do not know what bad movies are. This was a great flick! If you enjoy Ip Man or you are one of those guys who watches Chinese movies with English subtitles. You will enjoy this movie. There a clear progressiveness to the movie, nothing too cheesy or corny. Actions scenes were great! Decent story line. The main actor was good for someone who I have not seen before. Overall good flick to watch at home. Do not be discouraged to watch this movie because some "idiot" wrote that it was the worst movie. I would recommend this movie if you like Donnie Yen or Jet li.

This is a martial arts film directed by Keanu Reeves about delivery man Chen Lin-Hu (Tiger Hu Chen) who is skillful in Tai Chi that was led to join an illegal fight club, headed by Donaka Mark (Keanu Reeves). Chen needs the money from the club to save his master's ancient temple from being razed, but Mark eventually wants Chen to start fighting battles that only ends in the death of the opponent, which is something that goes against the Tai Chi philosophy that Chen was taught.

While a good message delivered about the meditation and philosophy of the Tai Chi skill, with plenty of martial arts action mixed in, this movie lacks a compelling story and good acting. Keanu Reeves and Tiger Chen each gave a very mediocre and wooden performance - no emotion and substance. Mark's video cameraman tried too hard to be the hipster of the movie, attempting to sound cool and ghetto at the same time, which was really irritating; I think it rubs salt in the wound to the already sub-par acting. The subplot about police detective Sun Jingshi (Karen Mok) pursuing Mark was pretty entertaining, but not emphasized enough. The story could have been more captivating if more focus was placed on the police investigating the fight club; however, it was overshadowed by the excessive fight scenes. This made the movie pretty predictable and lacking suspense.

The fight sequences though, especially with Chen and his master, were pretty awesome to watch. It does make the movie go a little faster, which is sometimes dragged by the slow-moving plot.

Overall, if you enjoy nothing but martial arts action, this film is for you. But, if you like a good balance of martial arts and drama, than this film falls just short of that.

Grade C

MAN OF TAI CHI marks a collaboration between Hollywood and China as the studios join forces to make a traditional tournament-based martial arts flick. The film is directed by and stars Keanu Reeves as an evil millionaire who mounts violent fight tournaments and broadcasts them to internet viewers in a bid for fame and fortune.

What MAN OF TAI CHI has going for it are the plentiful fight sequences, all of them expertly choreographed by Yuen-Woo Ping. It's hard to go wrong with tournament-style films - they're a staple of B-movies, after all - and the almost constant stream of hard-hitting fights makes this great fun to sit through.

There's little more to it than the action, however, seeing as the film is deeply flawed. Reeves's debut direction is applaudable, but they could have picked a better person than a composer to write the trite, predictable storyline. Elsewhere, Tiger Hu Chen proves to be a charisma-free leading man, despite his impressive tai chi skills, while Karen Mok overacts for all her worth. Simon Yam is barely in it despite being prominently billed. Worst of all, Iko Uwais makes a cameo appearance and doesn't even get to fight - the dumbest decision in the entire movie. My recommendation is to watch it for the fights but don't go in expecting much else, because you won't get it.

I read the reviews from regular users. I feel some missed the point here in this movie. I happen to be experienced at what is taught inside secret societies and underground fighting. Tai Chi is a foundation and a central skill of fighting and meaning. The fight with Tiger Chen and his master is definitely the most impressive. I gave it 7 out of 10 because the lesson he learned that self-control, meditation and humbling yourself makes you more of a winner and better fighter. He learned that finally. His master cared about him deeply and you can tell when he was so concerned about him using his skills for the wrong reasons. Many of the users that would give this a lower score due to the fact of Keanu Reeves and his first directing debut were taking a side trip and missing the movie. Whatever director you have you cannot foil the skills and charisma of Tiger Chen and his master, plus the moral lessons in this film. It was not a perfect film, but you have to notice how incredibly fluid and fast this guy is and in which proves Tai Chi is more than just a style of meditation and moves. However, this also comes with learning control and not letting yourself be moved by possessed anger. I will tell you the moves were authentic, real and had little wire work, barely any. They were real masters of Tai Chi Kung Fu, both Tiger and his master I can tell you that. Anyone that cannot see that has not been in front of this going on outside of a movie like I have. Remember his teacher said he had to slow down and empty himself. It is not all about fighting and speed. It is about using your Katas, focus for your entire movements and being able to transfer and use your Chi instead of just your physical body. In all of this and the lessons, it was a ten score.

This one came and went in the theater so fast that I blinked and missed it. So, this is a review of the DVD. Excellent martial arts (which is what we watch martial arts for, right?) It never dragged for even a moment, since about 99% of the screen time was full of fighting. Well, maybe that is an exaggeration. When the young hero, Tiger was not battling with his fists and feet, he was battling his inner demons. Which, if you are Buddhist, is the same thing. ALL martial arts movies made in the orient are Buddhist parables, but this one is especially nice for westerners who are not familiar with the religion, since it lays it all out nice and neatly the way Alan Watts does in his books.

Chen Lin-Hu was very good in this role, convincing technique and acting ability, I hope he gets more roles in the future. As for Keanu, I was very disappointed at how shallow and unconvincing he was. His lines were at times laughable. I know he is not known for his academy award winning performances, but these were on a new level of cheesiness. The fight scenes were all great, great martial art choreography, except for the last one, did they change choreographers? It was terrible! The over use of "wire-fu' was so obvious in the last scene it ruined it for me. It seems like such a wasted opportunity to bring martial art movies to newer audiences, as the concept (although not new) was solid, but i doubt it will entice them.

I liked what I saw in the trailer, but was still not sure what Keanu Reeves would do as a director. I have heard from him in many interviews how he is a 'kung-fu film nut' but you can never be sure if actors are serious in interview or not. Once you see this movie, you can tell just how much of a kung-fu film nut he actually is. He used the camera very well in every single fight scene, none of the shaky-cam stuff we see in most action and kung-fu movies today - where the speed of the camera makes the pacing of the fight. On the contrary in Man of Tai Chi Reeves keeps the camera stationary, or only slowly panning in the fight scenes, he also used a lot fewer quick-camera cuts. Essentially he allowed the impressiveness of the moves and styles themselves to shine through. If you choreograph the fights well enough the camera does not need to be moving fast, in fact it could sit in one place and not move at all and the fight is still impressive. He still need to work a bit on his dramatic direction but he has fight scenes down pat. If he somehow reads this, or someone who knows him does - don't change a thing with your fight direction.

Man of Tai Chi is a multilingual martial arts film that features dialogue in Mandarin, English and Hong Kong Cantonese. It stars Keanu Reeves and has him in his directorial debut and co-stars Tiger Chen, Iko Uwais, Karen Mok, and Simon Yam. This film felt like a passion project of Keanu, using his friend and student Tiger Chen in the lead role who's Yuen Wo Ping's protege (one of the inductees on the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong). Karen Mok also does a good job, but I would say the better performances go to Tiger and Keanu. These actors/martial artists know their craft, it's a blessing to witness.

A young martial artist's unparalleled Tai Chi skills land him in a highly lucrative underworld fight club.

Man of Tai Chi offers you a great martial arts movie, not much else than that. I liked it a lot and loved how it was multilingual which I'm quite sure is what Keanu Reeves wanted. It's quite unusual to see Keanu Reeves portraying the antagonist but it was a nice change, it was a good performance and a great directing job, his direction surprised me and it was overall quite great. I think the screenplay was average, nothing more, story's simplistic. The editing differed from good to great, the fight sequences were well edited and made the fight sequences flow so great. But where it shines is truly around the fight sequences, its some terrific martial arts, where you see these actors really perform their own stunts and kung fu. It's what I wanted out of Man of Tai Chi and it was what I got. For a directional debut, Keanu Reeves succeeded in bringing us a great martial arts and action movie, though the box office was a failure I wouldn't say the film was. It lacked in drama but exceeded in its fight sequences. Man of Tai Chi has the potential to gain a fan base of its own, perhaps even a cult following.

One of the most promising martial arts films in recent memory ultimately stumbles and falls, but remains moderately entertaining nonetheless. First, the notion of a lost, 600 year old school of "active" Tai Chi is brilliant, and could have led to a marvellous film. Unfortunately this is not that film. This film is flawed by uneven fight scenes (some excellent, some just silly) and a sudden U-turn about half-way through where the film becomes less about the art of fighting and more about the evil millionaire broadcasting fights on cable (a theme beaten to death in dozens of other films, unworthy of this premise, and starring a somewhat haggard looking-for-work Keaneau Reeves). The final fight scene is simply an embarrassment and one wonders where this would have gone with a better writer? >>>Great line of dialogue: >>>> (Bad guy getting arrested by pretty female cop) In my next life I'll be your boss >>>>(Female Cop as bad guy is dragged off in cuffs) Why not be my mother?((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

HK Police detective Sun Jingshi (Karen Mok) obsessively investigates ruthless wealthy powerful Donaka Mark (Keanu Reeves) who runs an underground fight club. Tiger Chen (Tiger Hu Chen) studies under Tai Chi Master Yang. He is a meek delivery guy in his normal life. Donaka offers him fights for money which he refuses at first. When the 600 year old Temple is under threat from developers, he needs money to fix it up.

The great thing in this movie is the fight choreography. The fights are beautiful dances. It is extremely well done. There is a good character relationship between the teacher and student. It's a descend into the dark side that Darth Vader should have had. That's the good part of the movie. The bad parts are all the affectless acting led by the king Keanu Reeves. His directing debut is competent but shows a monotonous doggedness. He doesn't show much excitement other than the fights. The last fight does have some problems. It's not set up properly. Keanu Reeves needs to show his power before. There isn't much drama here but it's still worth a watch.

There's a lot of reviewers here saying this movie has wooden acting and is full of cliches and has a predictable plot. I'm not going to disagree.

But I'm willing to bet most if not all of these reviewers are westerners and not native chinese. I have a chinese girlfriend and we watch A LOT of king fu movies as she loves them (and hey so do I) all made in China or HK, and I'm telling you this is exactly like one of those movies, in fact it IS one of those movies.

It just happens this movie has some English dialogue and casts Keanu Reeves as the token "nasty westerner" - again another typical Chinese movie cliche - I'm guessing before his return to fame in John Wick.

So yeah this movie is cliched and predictable and the acting and dialogue are wooden.....but that's what Chinese action movies are like., in fact I'd say this is top notch as far as this genre is concerned. We just have different standards/expectations in the west.

I finally got around to watching "Man of Tai Chi", albeit three years after it was initially released. And I had some level of expectation to it, I must admit. But I am sad to say that the movie didn't live up to my expectations in the least way.

This marks the most laughable and generic acting performance of Keanu Reeves so far. I have never seen him more out of touch with a movie or seen him seem more distant than he did here. Sure his body was there physically, but his mind was elsewhere. And it was reflected in both his performance, but also in the way that he delivered his dialogue.

The story in "Man of Tai Chi" was quite simplistic, and actually wasn't more than just a shallow story spiced up by martial arts. The story in this movie was just laughable and stupid. And it didn't really help the movie in any way that the dialogue throughout the movie was not impressive.

I must say that I was initially a bit excited about seeing Karen Mok, Simon Yam, Iko Uwais, Tiger Hu Chen and Keanu Reeves together in a martial arts movie. But it was a short lived excitement, because "Man of Tai Chi" was an under mediocre experience, to be bluntly honest.

While we are on the cast talents, then it was really Karen Mok who was carrying the bigger part of the movie, despite not really being the main character. Tiger Chen did alright, but he was just restrained by having nothing worthwhile of a script to work with, and while his martial arts was impressive, it can only do so little to salvage the movie. It was a shame that Simon Yam only had such a small role in the movie, because he is a great actor. Iko Uwais was also deprived of a proper chance to showcase his martial arts as his screen time was limited as well. And on a side note, then it was also a nice treat to see Sam Lee in the movie, despite only having a small role. And as I mentioned above then Keanu Reeves was nowhere near his usual performance level in "Man of Tai Chi".

The martial arts in the movie was quite good, and there was a lot of it. Actually it felt like the movie was crammed with excessive martial arts scenes to make up for the lack of a plausible and entertaining storyline. And while it is enjoyable to watch martial arts, a movie should also have a proper storyline.

"Man of Tai Chi" was a disappointment, and it manages to score a less than mediocre rating of four out of ten stars from me, solely because of the martial arts and the impressive cast. If you enjoy martial arts movies, then there are far, far better choices available.

I actually had an OK time with it. The storyline is very derivative. It's your typical "My master's place is getting shut down. I have to fight for money to get it back for him, and end up losing my way storyline" You've seen it all done plenty of times before. While the story won't resonate with anyone, it does just enough to grab your attention for just over 100 minutes or so, approximately. I highly doubt people that watch this movie are looking for riveting storytelling. Chances are you've come for the fights, and boy, do you get it. It's filled with many exciting fight scenes that don't get redundant or boring. I'll give Keanu credit as a director for making sure the fights stay lively. Tiger Hu Chen has some great intensity. I wouldn't necessarily call him a great actor, but he certainly holds his own in that department. He carries a heavy load in the second half of the film as his characters transforms into a beast that is unleashed. It's filled with emotion and anger. I felt Tiger did a decent job at it. As far as his fighting skills are concerned, he wows with his move set. There was always something new and exciting in his arsenal. He did well in my mind. Keanu Reeves is sadly a different story. I actually like Keanu. He'll never be considered among the great actors, but I always admired him for making it to the top of the business, in spite of what others think. He gets some vehement hate from people and it's unwarranted. He is awful here and seems to be phoning it in at times. Perhaps he was distracted due to his directing duties, but he was awful. His stoic facial expressions were laughable. He's always been rather stoic, but it was too much in this one. I got bored quickly of his blasé approach and his "Does it matter?" attitude. If I can give him one compliment, it's his fighting skills. He is Neo after all.

Final Thoughts: It's not gonna resonate long term, but if you're an action or martial arts fan like I am, this will do the job. The fights are so good that it makes you forget the rather unremarkable plot. It's not bad

6/10

Now I was really looking forward to this one, mainly because it's Keanu Reeves directorial debut. And I can just say that it's a passable movie. This incorporates few new ideas, like with the movements of the camera that sometimes goes around in 360. And although the fights seem choreographed there is a bit of rawness to it that I liked. I really wanted to like this movie, since not only because it's Keanu Reeves directorial movie and since he worked on the script on and off for 5yrs. But one of his reason to make this movie was for a friend. Who was his trainer in "The Matrix" trilogy. And because Keanu actually went to China and put a lot of effort into promoting this movie. So I even watched it a second time thinking I might enjoy it a bit more or at least appreciate the effort the second time around. I can say this movie does come off a bit amateurish which is understandable. And it's so darn unintentionally cartoony and corny in a lot of areas. Also some parts just doesn't make any sense at all. Even the villain of this movie Donaka Mark(Keanu Reeves) although not ambiguous and is cool, materialistic and stylish. I just couldn't get his intentions and motives, it tells you but it still doesn't make sense. Keanu Reeves is a fan of the kung-fu genre and although it shows that he put a lot of effort and passion into this project. It just isn't a good movie, it's watchable and has it's moments but that is about it. Also the CGI is downright awful, although it's just very few parts. The soundtrack is however cool.

5.8/10

Man of Tai Chi may not be one of the best martial arts movie made, but i would say, its a good first attempt at directing by one of my more favored actor and an all-around good human being, Keannu Reeves. Though the acting might slightly be bland for the most part (all right then, all through out except for Karen Mok who i adore), but then again you have to admit though it's not exactly Shakespeare we're watching here. Its a pound for pound martial arts movie for action flick aficionados, too much acting or show of emotions would've made it too soft for me or pretentious. I think this movie might as well be Mr. Reeves' love letter to Chinese cinema which apparently influenced him a lot. I'm quite impressed as well that Mr. Reeves has set his Hollywood superstar status aside to make way for the little guy behind all the fancy stunts and high kicks that makes all those Hollywood action movies enjoyable. Kudos to Tiger Chen for the amazing action sequences in this film as well in the other movies he had been in as stunt coordinator and the like. Mr. Chen, is the real thing here. And in conclusion, i would like to say that i know that not all may come to appreciate this movie, only a few will, but i say its an acquired taste. Its entertaining for the most part. I'm glad its not deep which is what i like in an action flick, because i don't want to work that hard when i'm already too exhausted just following the punches thrown in this film. But its a joyride and a spectacle to savor from beginning to end. Again, congratulations Mr. Anderson... the Matrix will be proud.

You surprised me Mr. Keanu Reeves!

I wasn't so interested to watch this movie but decided to give it a go because of Tiger Chen, it was interesting to see him in action, but besides martial arts skills as an actor he doesn't possess Jet Li or Donnie Yen's charisma.

Opening in China in July and slated for a release in the U.S. by Radius at the end of 2013 martial arts film Man of Tai Chi is a directorial debut of Keanu "Neo" Reeves with Tiger Chen as a lead.

This project heralded by China Film Group, is a prime exemplar of a foreign Hollywood star coming to China and making an authentic Chinese martial arts film with a simple and very often used storyline of a man forced to fight in undeground bare-knuckle championships against most talented fighters.

... read full review on budomate dot com

Directed by Keanu Reeves. Starring Tiger Chen, Keanu Reeves, Karen Mok, Ye Qing, Yu Hai, Simon Yam, Brian Siswojo, Sam Lee, Michael Tong. (R)

Better known in the States for its influence on health, longevity and meditation, t'ai chi is also a defensive martial art practice, and Chen is a man...of it. Once the mysterious and sinister Donaka Mark (Reeves) witnesses it in action, though, he's determined to recruit Chen to participate in a series of underground fight club-style matches. Notable for being Reeves' directorial debut (as well as a rare villainous role for the actor), this martial arts movie doesn't break any new ground but provides the expected touchstones: uncomplicated story with clear and clean messages/morals, economical use of lackluster dialogue, and lots of fighting, much of it well-staged and choreographed. Generic but serviceable action yarn should satisfy genre fans, but falls well short of classic status. For viewers who like to spend the entire movie playing on their cell phones, the film helpfully provides a brief video towards the end hammering home all of the thematic subtext. Iko Uwais is tragically underused in a throwaway bit part.

66/100

Firstly, for a directorial debut, I think Reeves did well; his style was confident and clean, for the most part. This was a long awaited film, and like many of the films in which he acts, are a little different in some way, not mainstream. Man of Tai Chi (MOTC) is a Chinese film for the Western cinema-going public; an East meets West and a synopsis of Eastern mysticism/martial art/Taoism and morality tale. As such, I think it does exceedingly well. I enjoyed watching the film and recognised from my limited experience of Chinese cinema a few stylistic elements that were well used; ie the "clean" almost PG 13 style of fighting, no blood etc and the multi-layer aspect to a simple story... you have a boy meets girl romance, a black and white moral tale of good vs evil, a social commentary of old vs new China and the difficulty for young people growing up, but also a quite exciting action film with some rather brilliant fighting from the small in stature but not in talent Tiger Hu Chen. Some of the fight scenes, and the look of the film, were reminiscent of The Matrix, with a soupçon of Johnny Mnemonic (Gibson-esque) but also had nods and deep bows to Chinese films such as use of strobe and coloured lighting, long shots, familiar venerable master and acolyte interactions etc. The dialogue was minimal and not complex, often with subtitles in English and it's almost Spartan pared back approach to the material belies the deeper story themes that can be read into it. As a piece of Chinese cinema aimed at the Western audience in order to advertise its potential (Reeves is very involved in expanding the appeal of Chinese cinema, I understand) and broaden its distribution and acceptance in mainstream western cinema, it worked, to my mind. MOTC bridged the gap and like the indomitable Jackie Chan's films made Eastern-style cinema accessible to Western viewers but overall MOTC was less Western in its overall look. I liked it but it had it's flaws; I felt it had some pacing issues and I'm not sure whether variation in scene cut lengths were deliberate to add drama but they didn't really work for me and I'm not 100% sure they were intentional as one was so long it was almost an error. Some of the CGI was very amateurish, and a few SFX felt a little dated, but overall it was modern and cleanly done. I did NOT notice wires in the some of the fight scenes, but apparently some viewers have, which is a shame as I don't think there is any excuse for that in today's cinema. Reeves himself was in front of the camera as well as behind as Donaka Mark the dark and mysterious benefactor/puppeteer who's back story and identity were rather ambiguous. He played the role with creepy insidious control - made himself quite villainous, yet tempting like the Devil himself, luring Tiger deeper and deeper into his web of underground fighting, urging him to kill and forget his Tai Chi master, from whom he was rebelling.. I think Reeves was good but not great, he came across a little too "Bond baddie" - not quite bad enough - with short, clipped one-liners and clichéd speeches and whilst he was clearly a bad character, he was too one-dimensional to be truly malign. He posed a threat but whilst you wanted Tiger to win (for the sake of the temple) you didn't really invest in his relationship with Mark. There were some really quite sinister scenes, however, and Reeves played the character well enough to make his point, but I think he could have equally left the role to someone else to play more malevolently.

I enjoyed this MOTC, and I'm glad it saw it. I'd been waiting a long time though, and whilst had seen a lot of press had NO idea what to expect and wasn't disappointed. I was however unhappy that yet again a Company Films production had issues with distribution that it was impossible to see this film in a theatre in the UK as release was so limited as to be more or less non-existent.

Warning: Photosensitive viewers - there's a long fight scene which utilises strobe lighting.