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.

MY quick rating - 3,8/10. I suppose the fighting scenes were OK but completely unbelievable (and not in the good neat looking wire effects) but overall the story was boring. Same old Asian guy from out of town to beat up the dumb Americans thing. Could be fun but here is some of the worst acting in a long time. I have seen actors that look afraid to say their lines in front of camera, but this movie found EVERY single person afraid to say their lines. This major flaw is coupled with the worst editing possible. Think of how your home movies look and you use the fade button on your 200 dollar camera, that is what this whole movie is for any scene change. It reeks of low quality all around minus Li Zhang who obviously has been trained well. Maybe if this movie was a documentary or based on someone who went through this, it may have been a bit better off, but stand alone fiction, nope, I suggest passing on this one.

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.