18 Fingers of Death!

Going by the previous comment here I thought this movie would be comical exploration into the kung-fu world. What a mistake that was! The only laughs I got were at the expense of the acting and the script (if there even was a script, often it felt as though the entire movie was being ad-libbed by a first-year college movie class). Although there are numerous references to classic kung-fu movies, they don't come across as a tongue-in-cheek homage, but rather a pathetic attempt to legitimise the meaningless content. There are plenty of low brow jokes which only serve reinforce the weak script and poorly written characters, with nothing original or witty as a saving grace. A waste of time & money.

The idea of a mockumentary on creating a stereotypical low-budget martial arts movie is great. This movie definitely had some potential - some of Lew's lines on the aspects of these martial arts movies are great! But the whole thing is just too corny to be genuinely funny. Silly celebrity sound-alike names really take away from the celebrity impersonators ("Steven Seafood"? Why not just like, "Steven Seagull," or just use his real name? I think laws on parody would have had them covered).

Add to that very poor editing, with lines obviously recorded afterwards and edited in (they even overlap what the on screen character is saying) and a "fart fight" scene, and the whole thing just goes down the chutes.

It's really unfortunate that some of the best scenes are in the trailer! It opened promisingly enough ("I'm Deadly Thug #1!") but just couldn't keep up. Worth a rent maybe, but that's about it.

This movie supposed to be funny ??? it ain't even near to the definition of the word ! it is by far the worst comedy i've ever seen !! at first i thought that it can't be that bad, just that the start is just lame, and later on the movie will be funny,,,, but hey, my mistake...it even got worse !!

I couldn't even bare to watch it till the end, it got so boring, and stupid !!

If you like to sleep in front of the TV , then go out and buy or rent this movie, and you are guaranteed to have a goodnight sleep !

I guess they didn't know what to do with the money, so they made this, to annoy the movie fans, and to laugh at those who find this junk hilarious !

I really couldn't see it all at once, toked me 3 days...the thing that kept me seeing it was that at times humor was kinda nice and made me laugh but the fart things and some childish humor just toked it all away...and left me wonder why is Pat Morita there, was sad to see him in the movie...Lorenzo Lamas made me laugh imitating "Antonio Bandanas". Most are bad actors, the images are like a pure home made video...and by GOD the gayness of some jokes are really bad! O.o I can never(i think) give 1 out of 10 to a movie cause there's always some effort and some money and time spent doing one. So i give it 3/10 for the jokes that actually made me laugh.

An amiable and amusing mockumentary, 18 FINGERS OF DEATH stands roughly in the same relation to Kung Fu movies as SPINAL TAP does to rock music. Low rent action star Buford Lee (James Lew, familiar from supporting roles BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS and TRAFFIC), sporting a certifiable Bruce Lee accent, is trying to get his new martial arts film 18 FINGERS.. off the ground. His travails are recorded by first time documentary maker, ever enthusiastic fan Ronald Mack (Maurice Patten). Along the way there are gentle parodies of martial arts heroes 'Stephen Seafood' 'Chuck Snorris' and most memorably, 'Antonio Bandana' etc, extracts from Buford's previous releases and scenes of the rehearsal and shooting of his latest one. Much of the acting on offer here is fine and the cinematography is excellent too (my DVD box claims the ratio is 4:3 but it is actually 1.85:1). The relationship between Lee and Mack is what gives the film its gravity – one especially relishes the scene when the star proudly shows him his collection of treasured Kung Fu memorabilia, including 'the actual socks worn by Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon' (sadly unwashed) - and the obvious affection shown the genre by the principals shines through constantly. It's a shame that the film somewhat runs out of steam at the end, especially once Mack has left the story. Occasionally too, jokes could have been sharper, a fact especially true of the late, extended fight scene between Bandana and Lee which plays out the old farting routine for too long, its introduction a sure sign that invention is flagging. One misses the insane surreality which appeared in KUNG POW its absence due, perhaps wisely, to 18 FINGERS' recognition that such elements would appear somewhat jarring in the context of a supposed factual format. But the buoyant Patten is a real find, one of the best things in the picture in fact, clearly a talent to watch, Lew's more restrained performance allowing his co star his head. On my copy some of the action scenes seemed a bit dark, but this is not too much of a distraction. All in all, this is worth watching, with no real slow patches, although as one might expect martial arts fans – and lovers of straight-to-video chock socky - will laugh the most.