Martial Fantasy Movies

[gmattson]

had a booth at a "Health fair" in town. A taichi guy brought over a Thai martial art "stunt" person, who wanted me to check out his DVD. He named off a couple of films he "choreographed" and one he had a small part in.

The DVD was filled with the type of action shots seen in most fight scenes today, especially similar to the "kill bill" movie.

He floored me when he said the actors in these films knew absolutely nothing about MA before the film and how he taught them what they do in 2 weeks!!!!

He said they were experienced actors and dancers who were capable of performing amazing athletic movements without any "martial" focus. In other words, looks nice, but completely ineffective.

Which, I guess, explains how Uma and all those other actors/dancers make what they do look so impressive on film, but all agree, they could never defend themselves using their material. Something to think about why we practice so much vs just learning a new move.

[MikeK]

IMO the only martial arts movie that I liked was Above the Law. That one is so cool it even has Pam Grier in it, who could whoop Uma's skinny beeee-hind.

I'd need a few more beers before Uma looks good to me.

[benzocaine]

Meanwhile, good actors generally are rotten athletes.

The exceptions IMHO would be Tom Cruise in the Last Samurai, and Brad Pitt in Troy. Both have some really good fight sceens.. the former better than the latter.

[Glenn]

Good martial artists generally can't act...Meanwhile, good actors generally are rotten athletes.

Like we watch these movies for the acting ability!

I can't recall ever renting a kung fu flick expecting to be awed by the acting...and my low expectations have yet to be disappointed. But I love watching them anyway.

[Guest]

http://www.swoj.com/redir2.cfm?loc=72&s=3327137

[Guest]

Anyone ever seen any of Jeff Speakmans movies? I heard he is pretty good but his movies are scarce.

[JimHawkins]

And god please help me every time I have to look at Bruce Lee getting serious in a movie.

Hate having to defend Bruce all the time but it's in my contract..

I don't think Bruce was a bad actor at all, though his use of English and Western expression may have been off a little. Bruce was classically trained as an actor to some extent and played roles in Hong Kong moves since he was a child. His father was an actor in the Chinese Opera and I don't recall but his mother may have been too.

[Glenn]

Anyone ever seen any of Jeff Speakmans movies? I heard he is pretty good but his movies are scarce.

Yes, I rented a few of his back in the 90s. The choriography tended to be pretty good, but he lacked the charisma for much stardom...although he is still doing about a movie a year. He tended to highlight escrima-stick fighting in his early movies. The last one of his I remember seeing was "Running Red". His best of the ones I've seen was "Perfect Weapon"
http://imdb.com/name/nm0817275/

[TSDguy]

I thought my two suggestions were both good mixes of acting talent and athleticism. They're both borderline unchallenged in terms of movie martial arts abilities, and they both have several pretty good dramas under their (black) belts.

Another actor I thought did a good job of being athletic is the beauty to my left in the Tomb Raider series.

Edit: Just remember they were both in Hero, which was absolutely gorgeous, although it was admittedly the main love interests and the directing that made it.

And edit 2: Even Van Damme is a better actor than Keanu.

[Guest]

Perfect weapon... thats the one I heard about. I am going to have to find that one.

[f.Channell]

No one brought up my man Steven Seagall.
He took the "chi" out of aikido and substituted "woop ass".

F.

[Gene DeMambro]

He said they were experienced actors and dancers who were capable of performing amazing athletic movements without any "martial" focus.

Michelle Yeoh was never a trained martial artist, but has been a dancer since she was a toddler. Always relied on on-set trainers to coach her through her MA roles.

Uma can get drunk with me anytime!

Gene

[Glenn]

Similar to Speakman, another actor who has quietly made a lot of decent MA movies but is virtually unknown is Jeff Wincott. His movies were MA focused in the early to mid 90s.
http://imdb.com/name/nm0934637/

Two of my favorites in this category are Lorenzo Lamas, particularly his "Renegade" TV series, and Adrian Paul, particular his "Highlander: The Series" TV series.
Lamas:
http://imdb.com/name/nm0001444/
Paul:
http://imdb.com/name/nm0001600/

There are many others: Oliver Gruner, Dolph Lundgren, Sasha Mitchell.

In many ways I tend to like the little-known MA movies by these guys over the popular movies by the big names like van Damme and Seagal.

I agree that Uma is frankly a little too slight for the role, and so doesn't pass the sniff test

Concerning actors/actresses who are hardly credible at portraying master fighters, "Highlander: The Series" was full of them. Adrian Paul had the ability and portrayed it well, but a lot of the guest actors/actresses did not. Particularly Elizabeth Gracen, who had a regular reappearing role throughout the 6 years of "Highlander: The Series" followed by the lead role in the 1 year sequel series "Highlander: The Raven". Even though her performance in fight scenes got better during those 7 years, I could just never buy into her being the tough sword and hapkido expert, vanguishing opponents and taking their heads.

But Gracen portrayed other aspects of her character's nature very well, which helped make up for the unconvincing fight scenes. Roger Daltry of the Who may have been less than convincing at being a master swordsman in the series, but he was good at portraying the humorous/mischevious nature of his character.

[AAAhmed46]

Wesley snipes is a trained martial artist(capoira), and ive seen him in drama roles....well once. He played an old man, but was pretty good to me.