Last Kung Fu Monk

Honestly, the trailer looked cool so i rented this movie of Xbox Live. So the first thing to get in your face is the wooden and terrible acting. The main protagonist is a Shaolin Monk, so that is excusable, i was not expecting him to be a chatter box, but the rest of the cast are so awful in there line deliveries minus maybe the actress who play Sarah that is half decent, but the rest are bad... like really bad. So thats already a strike against the movie. Also there is quite a lot of character development in the first 30 minutes so a good acting would had really help and the excuse of "you don't watch a kung fu movie for acting" kinda felt flat.

What about the action? The action is very good. I dunno if this is made to be an homage to the old kung fu movies, but the sound effects really reminded me of this. The moves at time seem to not hurt hard as i would expect (Thais are really good at this) but the choreography's are very good and enjoyable.

What about the plot? That is one major question mark... If the beginning is actually pretty straight forward and easy to follow, it then become kinda weird, i want this review to remain spoiler free but you never really get to know who is the bad guy and why he is bad. Its kinda like having that generic guy in a suit for the purpose of having one.

All and all... well i enjoyed the fights, the lead "actor" showed potential and could do something pretty good under a better direction and with a better script.

If your one of those huge fans of Kung Fu movies, i would say give it a shot, but thats as far as i would recommend. Show potential... but thats it.

One of the first Mainland of China movies that got released worldwide in 2010. Last Kung Fu Monk is a drama with kung fu about handle different situations in a different surroundings.

Meet mr Li Long, a Shaolin monk that leave his beliefs and move to America to find his brother. Instead he hear the news that his brother and his wife died in a car accident. His brother has a son though and Li volunteered to take care of him. To make money, Li befriend a Shaolin fan named Dave who tells him he can help him to open up a kung fu school. What Li doesn't know is Dave is connected with the Russian Mafia and the Russian mafia boss wants his money back for tribute the schools fundings.

When the movie came out on 1st October 2010 in the cinema I just thought this movie was just ok, and didn't even put it as a top 20 favorite. But now after 8 years since the release the movie starts to grow on me, and nowadays the cinema is filled with stereotypes hero movies and crappy CGI style, this movie has started to grow on me so much that it is on my top 5 list of my favorite movies of 2010s.

And to compare with nowadays, this movie doesn't deserve the harsh treatment as it got through the early years, this movie is it own movie, and to compare with other Chinese mainland movies, this movie is lighthearted and not much propaganda and quite a cute movie to watch.

I have raised the bar of this movie now and give it a 10/10 because it deserves it.

At the start of the movie in China as Shaolins are trained, everything is blue. I'm not quite sure what is going on. More recent scenes are mostly blue and make no sense to me. But the quality of acting in the China scenes is higher than in the United States.

So how will it all turn out? I'll bet you already know.

The fighting is excellent, and probably the main reason to watch. There is, however, some unnecessary blood, and some innocent people get seriously hurt or killed. I should mention that I saw the acclaimed "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" the day before I saw this, but I enjoyed this movie more.

Peng Zhang Li has a pleasant personality but shows little emotion unless he is fighting. As a teacher he is very serious but kind. You have to see the outtakes, though. There he smiles a lot and even laughs. Everyone seemed to be enjoying making this movie.

Kristen Dougherty is so sweet and attractive, I'd like to see more of her and was pleased she had a large role. That's not to say she's a talented actress, but she would make a good office worker. She and her co-star had one of my favorite bloopers at the end.

Michael seemed kind of spoiled but was pleasant enough. His scenes with his uncle entertained.

Cusamano is an acquired taste. He's not automatically likable.

If you like martial arts fights, this is pretty good. If you like relationships too, this movie has that. There are better movies for both.

I've seen a lot of decent Kung-fu movies, however this is not one of them. If you are expecting a Jackie Chan kind of martial arts comedy, then this is not for you (even though they do have the outtakes at the end of the film). Where Jackie Chan films are generally quite humorous, the only humor in this film comes from how bad the acting is. The fight scenes are not bad, but the horrific acting cancels them out, such that you end up at the end of the film wishing you had spent the time doing something else. The main actress is quite cute, however the storyline is so far fetched as to be comical. Seriously, do not waste your time with this flick and watch a Jackie Chan movie instead. You'll be glad you did.

When I purchased this 2010 Kung Fu action movie from Amazon, I had no idea what it was, nor did I know anyone on the cast list. But being a Kung Fu movie was more than enough to catch my interest. And the fact that it was about maybe £2 or £3 with shipping, then it wasn't a massive loss if the movie was not a great one.

And now I have managed to finally get around to watch it, and I can in all honesty say that this movie was nowhere near as good or entertaining as I had hoped for. Sure, I didn't have much expectations to begin with, but this movie still managed to disappoint. And why is that? Well, because of the storyline and the lack of proper acting talent throughout the movie.

The action in "Last Kung Fu Monk" was quite good, and there was a lot of it. And it should be said that Peng Zhang Li does have some impressive martial arts skills and manages to deliver a nice display of his talent. However, his martial arts could only carry the movie so far, because his acting was downright wooden and rigid.

I managed to get somewhere near 45 minutes into the movie before I had to give up out of sheer boredom. The lack of proper acting performances were really wearing and tearing at me, and it was ultimately this which made me give up on the movie. The fighting was good, but it was hardly nowhere near enough to keep the movie afloat.

If you enjoy movies where the main character is forced into fighting in underground fighting rings, then there far better movies available. "Last Kung Fu Monk" doesn't really offer anything which haven't been seen in countless other martial arts movies in the past.

I am rating "Last Kung Fu Monk" a mere three out of ten stars rating solely for the martial arts in the movie.