Movie Thread

TheDenizen: Fair enough. Like I said, I couldn't remember for sure who posted about it back then.

Senator Phillips: It wasn't really about the Warped Tour itself, per se, even if that was their ultimate goal. That looks interesting too, though.

I dunno, I feel like I'm not gonna find it again but didn't think it would hurt to ask. Thanks anyway, guys.

Nah, Amazon didn't have that version on blu ray. I just have the regular blu ray cut.

Just checked out Enter the Dragon for the who knows how many-th time. Hard to believe Bruce Lee would have been 79 this year, harder to think of all of the films and more importantly the philosophy we missed out on as humans by losing him so prematurely. Regardless, the film predicted mixed martial arts a good twenty years before pancrase and ufc became mainstream in the exhibition between Lee and Samo Hung. The philosophy stuff at the beginning was very ahead of its time with a focus on transcending the physical aspect of fighting and being in the moment, heavy shit for western audiences in ‘73. Shih Kien as Han was incredible, poor guy spent his massive film career as a bad guy, even in the 50’s as the sinister enemy of the heroic Wong Fei Hung (by Chinese film legend Kwan Tak-Hing), a real nod to the legendary film bad guy in the top villain role. Never mind Jim Kelly, Bob Wall, Bolo Yeung, and a quick cameo by a young Jackie Chan. Such an awesome movie, an amazing cast, real landmark stuff (the mirror room final fight should be recognized by film awards everywhere, crazy stuff!). A one of a kind that sadly Lee didn’t even get to enjoy the success of, but definitely showed Hollywood that there is room for non caucasian film stars, eastern ideas in film, and good stories told in an action medium. Sadly, this genre is pretty much dead, even in Asia (CG fight scenes and people not pouring a lifetime of effort into traditional martial arts anymore) but at least we have the classics to go back to.

That movie is bad ass! The Colosseum fight is stuff of legend, lots of cheesy, funny stuff in that film, too (the chest hair thing, the cat meowing at the start of the fight, and of course THIS). I love that movie, and yeah, Chuck was bad ass in that one



Enter the Dragon is not some Academy Award worthy drivel, it's just a really bad ass martial arts flick that ended up in main stream, non traditional markets and did and said things that hadn't been done or said in non traditional markets till that point. Without Bruce Lee and/or Enter the Dragon, there would have been no Jackie Chan to the extent we know him (if we would have seen him in film at all since Asian studios were frantically searching for the NEXT Bruce Lee when they started pushing Jackie), it helped define martial arts in non traditional markets as something more than throwing a kick during a fight scene and showed different styles, starting the education of the film goers towards an improved understanding of the breadth and depth of martial arts, it introduced the "tournament format" to the West, so maybe no Bloodsport (can you IMAGINE a film world without BLOODSPORT?!?!), the whole taoist/martial philosophy thing was pretty new in western films, and the elevation of non-typical, non-caucasian actors to something more than the stereotypical person that runs the laundry or works at the restaurant in the background into the cool, athletic, skilled action protagonist whose ethnicity was simply a part of his backstory and not a role/class defining limitation. You should check it out, it is pretty bad ass with lots of memorable stuff! 

geese hasn't seen Enter The Dragon?

*world collapses*

All of the Bruce Lee movies are required viewing. He only had 5 starring roles so it's an easy thing to achieve.

The Big Boss, Fist of Fury (aka Chinese Connection), Way of the Dragon (aka Return of the Dragon), Enter the Dragon and Game of Death (Lee died during production of this film, so only about about half of it is him, the rest was filmed using a body double).  For my money Fist of Fury was his best, the scene where he single handedly takes out an entire dojo of karate students is iconic.

Game of Death influenced not only action movies but video games, as Bruce moves up through the levels of a large pagoda, fighting a mini boss on each floor (one of whom is none other than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) before finally meeting up with the main bad guy at the top. I'm not as sold as some others on the idea that Bruce's philosophy was anything special, but his incredible power, explosive speed and raw charismatic screen presence was second to none. Without Bruce Lee, the Golden Era of Hong Kong film making from the mid 70s to mid 80s probably wouldn't have happened.

Fist of Fury is a great movie, the classic Ging Wu story seasoned with a heavy dose of Chinese nationalism! The fight scenes are great in that one, and the story has been done quite a few times (Fist of Legend with Jet Li is another version), but Lee’s version is still my fave (but fist of legend is my favourite Jet Li movie).

Game of Death’s multi level pagoda is an awesome moment in film. What a cool idea, progressively tougher opponents, each with different skill sets, so bad ass! Dan Inosanto representing Filipino martial arts was a cool addition, and Kareem’s scene was cool! The rest of the movie is PAINFUL to watch with the doubles and even a STILL PICTURE that they zoom in on in one scene! Horrific shit, but at least the pagoda scene made it to the big screen.

Yeah, the Carradine thing was horrible, a total slap in the face. I can’t imagine how cool the series would have been with Lee, but I also doubt it would have done well or been accepted at the time. It would have been nice for the show funders to at least TRY Lee out with audiences instead of horrifyingly passing a Caucasian with barely rudimentary or even “the first class is free” martial arts training off as an ASIAN Kung fu master, but those were the times. Never liked Carradine and never understood his appeal. I was kind of pissed when they cast him as Bill, but was pleased when Uma dusted his ass!