Kung Fu Killer

This rocks! Can't believe Spike went all the way to China to do one of its movies. Most of their stuff is lame but this looks like a real movie. Not a big Fan of Darryl Hannah but she did okay. Carradine was good, looked pretty strong. The Chinese girls were HOT. The story was solid but the best part was the action. Some of the fighting was insane and bloody so I got my moneys worth. Spike usually plays buckets of these old martial art movies but its good to see they're making them now. I'm just wondering what's the deal with the two movies. Was this supposed to be a series or something? If it is then maybe I'll watch it. My only complaint is they didn't show more of the hot girls.

Kung Fu Killer stars David Carradine as another 'Caine' type character from his beloved Kung Fu series.

The television movie is actually co-written by David Seidler who would go on to win an Oscar for Best Screenplay for his next film, The King's Speech.

Carradine plays a Caucasian monk called Crane in Shanghai who infiltrates the criminal underworld to find the killers of his spiritual female Grandmaster and thus gain his vengeance.

Carradine was rather long in the tooth for some of the martial arts scenes but he acquits himself well. He joins up in this film with his Kill Bill accomplice, Daryl Hannah who plays a nightclub singer and romantic interest. Hannah is rather wasted in the glamour role especially given how vicious and striking she was in Kill Bill.

Carradine has enough charisma to keep us the audience interested, after all we end up reminiscing about his Kung Fu series from our boyhood.

The television film has a few good set pieces, the plot is rather hokey and the film is rather pedestrian even dull in places.

"Kung Fu Killer"'s main drawing card is that it reunites two big names from "Kill Bill" - David Carradine and Daryl Hannah - but let's face it, this is not the shining moment in either of their careers: Carradine is getting too old and static to participate in continuous action scenes, and Hannah has a rather thankless "object of desire" role. The real reason for which I would recommend seeing this film is the presence of Anya as a henchwoman. Apparently she had a near-fatal car accident in 2003, but she returned to her career, and despite a couple of remaining scars, she still looks stunningly beautiful. She also seems to have worked on both her martial arts skills (impressive) and her acting (arguably the best in the film - though her character suffers at points from poor writing, and it seems as if the writers wanted to suggest that she is lesbian but not go "all the way"). The story is kind of slow and plain, but the production values are passable, and there is some good fighting at certain points; I liked how the choreographers incorporated choking / grappling techniques in the fights - particularly when Lin Tong Hsu (the Head Siren) used them! (**)

Excellent. Only someone who is a fan of the genre would understand what the filmmakers wanted to achieve. C'mon, it's supposed to be dark and violent.Shanghai, 1935, get it? It's smart blend of action and film noir with fantastic tips of the hat to classic films like Five Fingers of Death. The opening is perhaps one of the most staggering (and yes, violent) in recent memory, and, like the the ending, trulyepic. This director pulled out all the stops and he shows an effortless mastery of action and emotion.

Carradine's performance is dark, nuanced, his fighting is ruthless. Now that's not to say it isn't flawed in some ways as most films are when they take these kinds of chances, but kudos to some really bold film-making. My advice to the naysayers is to grow a pair, bone up on this genre and appreciate good film-making.

"White Crane" (Kung Fu Killer) is to me classic David Carradine doing his legendary "Kung Fu" only he's older. If any of you remember his TV shows "Kung Fu" in the 70's and "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues" of the 90's in which Carradine fights in a majestic and powerful way and shares with you his words of wisdom then you should love this, if you have been brought up on the films of Jackie Chan and Jet Li where they jump around like they are on something hitting their opponents a dozen times without defeating them but some how winning in the end then you may not appreciate this style of Kung Fu movie. Daryl Hannah does a good job as a 1930s singer and looks the part and Osric Chau is excellent as a young Kung Fu student.