mmalariem

Imagine if you will, a martial arts movie with the feel of an Alfred Hitchcock plot. The Black Tavern is one of those movies that draws you in with a simple singing of a song by a beggar who tells a tale of a fortune in gems easy for the picking which is being transported by an old gentleman and his two daughters. As he sings the diners in the restaurant each start to pay close attention to the words of the song and greed sets in and you know that they all of them plan on going after the treasure chest of jewels.

What is so fun though, is that no one is who they appear to be. It is a cast of cut throats and thieves and no one trusts and is suspicious of the next guy. The fun starts when the old timer and his daughters along with their "hero" who comes to their defense when the first band robbers attempt to get their hands on the treasure and end of at the Black Tavern for food and refuge for the night, the movie takes off from here and never lets up for one moment!!!

The fighting scenes will have you on the edge of your seat and if you are like me, covering your eyes a little as it gets a bit gory and gruesome but that too fits along with scheme of things in this classic Shaw Brothers movie. It is one that should not be missed by Karate fans and and Shaw Brother fans alike!

I guess I wasn't expecting to see so many changes. While I did enjoy gist of the plot, the shock factor of what was going on internally with my favorite gang of Mutants took away a lot from the movie for me.

I don't want to say too much if you haven't seen it already and as far as movies go, it was enjoyable but nothing close to X-Men 1 or 2. The action wasn't as intense or thrilling and I just didn't like all the new plot twist directly involving the internal structure of the crew. (Once you see the movie, you'll know what I mean).

On a more upbeat note, I thought Kelsey Grammar's character, Hank McCoy was a welcomed addition (in fact, he should have been around in 1 and 2 if you ask me) and I wished there had been more interaction between him and Wolverine.

Magneto was his usual mean self, living up to his bad guy antics.

On a whole I'd have to say if you are a X-Men fan you've got to go see this one just on g.p. I mean, what choice do you have? After all this is one that completes the trilogy.