Fearless

[Mr Punch]

The problem with watching movies like Fearless is... it was crap!

Well, not really crap but vastly overrated, pompous, terrible effects, a hackneyed storyline which offered nothing new, patchy direction, some meaningless plot devices and characters, and overlong. Jet Li is so up himself I'll be glad when he stops making martial arts movies cos in the last couple he's tried to make a message and it's wound up being the ultimate cheese without the benefit of knowing it was so, like the old skool fu flicks.

HOFD was beautiful to watch but a completely empty movie.

Give me Tony Jaa or Jackie anyday (tho of course Jackie likes a good turkey as much as the next man) - at least they don't have the pompous moralistic BS or seen-it-all-before-in-CTHD-or-Hero artwank and just know how to make an entertaining chop sockey number.

[Samurai Jack]

Not to be a downer, but the reason I don't watch kungfu movies is because for the most part they're lame. As a martial artist, I find fake-movie-foo to be insulting. As an intelligent movie goer, I find bad stories, with poor character development, and shoddy acting to be a waste of my life.

Here's a thought; why not make good movies featuring excellent *real* martial artists who can act?

****, I'm a stick in the mud.

[Samurai Jack]

But I'm going to watch Fearless.

[jethro]

Character development?

These movies are definitely not for you. I just like to watch the beauty of them dance on screen. Or the way that Sammo sped up the camera exactly the right way. Or maybe the super cheesy stories like the nude woman fighting in Ninja the Final Duel. Or watching Chang Shan seem like the biggest badass ever on sceen even though he never made a movie that would have costed mroe than $50,000. Or seeign this new wave of beautiful movies that Zhang Zimou is doing...

[jigahus]

Character development?

These movies are definitely not for you. I just like to watch the beauty of them dance on screen. Or the way that Sammo sped up the camera exactly the right way. Or maybe the super cheesy stories like the nude woman fighting in Ninja the Final Duel. Or watching Chang Shan seem like the biggest badass ever on sceen even though he never made a movie that would have costed mroe than $50,000. Or seeign this new wave of beautiful movies that Zhang Zimou is doing...

*Goes to check out Ninja the Final Duel*

[onyomi]

The problem with watching movies like Fearless is... it was crap!

Exactly. I already payed to see it in Taiwan, I'm not going to pay to see it in America. Also, House of Flying Daggers and Hero weren't nearly as good as Crouching Tiger.

I hate to be a downer, but there are so many better Jet Li movies. Some of the scenery is nice and it's got a pretty good, albeit drawn-out message, but the martial arts action is totally cut and paste. I used to really like Yuan Heping, but I'm starting to feel like if you've seen one of his movies you've seen them all. He not only doesn't make any attempt to have Huo Yuanjia use something resembling Mizong-quan, Huo Yuanjia's fighting style seems to be pretty unremarkable, generic acrobatic stuff. See Iron Monkey instead--better action, more action. Or Jet Li's version of Fist of Fury--also much more, better, creative martial arts action, imho...

[Eddie]

I liked fearless. We've had it down here for a long time already.
Is the american version dubbed in english?

[GeneChing]

We have one more exclusive e-zine article for you on Jet Li's FEARLESS. See FEARLESS: If YU Build It, The JET Will Come by Dr. Craig Reid

[BM2]

My seven year old son enjoyed it although he said he wished it was in English.

[Faruq]

Oh snap! I've got to get down to Chinatown and get me a copy of Fearless!

The problem is, some of us live in or near Chinatowns, and we get to buy the DVD's almost a year before it is released to the Western world. I had Ong Bak in Thai, as well as Tom Yum Goong, and Fearless. BTW, I thought house of flying dagers was amazing.

[Samurai Jack]

I definately recommend the Chinese version if you can find it. I was somehow under the impression due to the KFM article that the kungfu would be real, not wushu. Unfortunatly it was lame wire-fu as usual. I cringed through out the sword fight with the Samurai as well. It was embarrassing. Even the English boxer was doing movie-fu for crying out loud! The story was obviously chopped up to the point of being butchered beyond recognition for the American version. It just jumped from one fight to the next with a little dialogue hardly justifying the message of the film, nor describing the history of the Jing Wu organization it proported to be about.

Like I said, if they want these movies to do well here, they could try making them *good*.

[jigahus]

I already paid to see The Protector. I've done my part in supporting martial art movies coming out this year.

[GeneChing]

...it's a question of whether you want to keep seeing martial arts movies on the big screen. Hollywood distributors don't distinguish between the martial arts movies. They just lump them all together in their neat little box and when a new one comes along, they look at how the previous ones did. I doubt most distributors even know that Jet is from China and Jaa is from Thailand. I doubt they make any distinction at all. If you haven't seen it, you should go out and support it if you can, just on principle. You should do that with any martial arts movie. I love seeing martial arts movies on the big screen, even crappy ones. I always support martial arts films when I can, even if I know going into that it's going to suck. Sometimes martial arts movies are even better when they suck.

That being said, if you want to see Fearless for free tonight and are local to us, we're doing a free screening of Fearless.

[Tim_W68]

I already saw it twice and will buy it when it come to DVD!!!!!!!!

[jethro]

Fearless was the best martial arts movie I think I have ever seen. It was a true epic. I hope that when the extended edition DVD comes out I can securely call it the best but more than that, I hope the extended DVD comes out.