Mad Max: Fury Road premiered another trailer at comic con, and it was awesome. In the wake of Tom Hardy kickin' some ass again (he just came of a really interesting, but tame solo project called Locke, which I should re-watch and review at some point), it seemed appropriate to go back and watch his high point as a budding action star. This heated up in 2011 with Warrior.
Warrior is a fairly conventional sports movie. Two estranged brothers enter a Mixed Martial Arts contest. Brendan Conlan (Joel Edgerton) is a classic underdog trying to earn money for his family. He makes his way through the tournament by outworking his opponents and generally being scrappy. Brendan's fights are a lot of fun, and you find yourself scared for him a few times, a testament to a solid performance from Joel Edgerton.
His brother-Tommy (Tom Hardy) is more or less the opposite of his brother. He is a loner with no friends and a vague past. Tommy essentially goes around and beats the tar out of anyone foolish enough to challenge him. This leads to, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest ass-kicking sequences in recent cinematic history (see below).
In the middle of this is their father: Paddy Conlon (Nick Nolte). He's a recovering alcoholic and both brothers aren't looking to reconcile anytime soon. Paddy Conlon is the most compelling aspect of Warrior. He gives the movie a strong emotional core and Nick Nolte's Academy Award nomination was well deserved. Paddy's pain and regret about what he's done to alienate both his sons is heartbreaking at times.
Warrior comes together nicely at the end. Viewers will be satisfied, if not entirely surprised by the outcome.
Here is the aforementioned fight scene. If disagree with me and think it's no good, send your complaints to Michael Bay.
Tom Hardy has proven his action chops before in movies like Bronson, Dark Knight Rises, and Warrior. Now he's starring in a reboot of another beloved action franchise: Mad Max: Fury Road. If it's anything like some of his other projects, Fury Road could be the start of something great. Check out the trailer below:
At its outset, The League seemed like it would be another generic comedy show that delivered one or two big laughs but never really blossomed into anything worth your time. The premise of a bunch of guys addicted to fantasy football doesn't seem very fresh. However, The League quite quickly showed its true colors as a comedic force. Itmay never reach the heights of Louie or Modern Family, but The League is an oft ignored laughter goldmine. The writers consistently come up with engaging plots, and the cast is fantastic.
It is difficult to pin down which character brings the most laughter. Andre, Paul Scheer, is a classic dope. He is consistently and hilariously lame. The best thing about Andre is he gives everyone else a nice big target to aim at. Taco, Jon Lajoie, is also excellent. He is the Kramer of the group. His mannerisms are so strange that either the writers are creative masterminds or he is based on a real person (also like Kramer, thanks to Cracked for this).
Everyone brings something to the table. Comedy Central made a great choice giving the man who plays Ruxin, Nick Kroll, his own show. On The Kroll Show, he brings to life a ton of different characters and is joined by a recurring star on The League: Jason Mantzoukas.
Mantzoukas' character: Rafi is my nomination for best character on The League. He comes on screen like an whirlwind of depravity fueled by equal parts drugs and innate insanity. Rafi's sole purpose is to be endlessly disgusting and horrible and somehow it has become the highlight of an already great show.
My feud with Michael Bay continues to grow. Ok, this isn't a feud because a feud technically requires both parties to be aware of its existence. However, as I stated a while ago, Michael Bay is just awful. I considered just making an article on how bad he is for the movie industry, but I don't really need to state the obvious. Anyway...
Poor Mark Wahlberg. Michael Bay really is trying to ruin you, isn't he? I just re-watched Pain and Gain, Michael Bay's previous movie that didn't involve weird racist robots, in order to study up on what not to do when creating a movie. It was pretty forgettable. It was so forgettable, that I just now realized Marky Mark starred in both Transmorphers 4 and P&G.
This is going to be a short post, because I want to occupy my mind with a movie less awful than Transformers 4-insert literally any other movie here. I like Wahlberg as an actor. He needs to spend more time working on the Entourage movie, which has a chance at being pretty good in a guilty pleasure sort of way, and less time with Michael Bay. Hopefully, I'm not the only one who thinks this way. Because he's talented. Here's Mark being Dignam, because why not.
The BBC is consistently coming out with excellent television. There are too many great shows to mention them all here, but these 3 are perhaps the best.
Note: For purposes of respect, I'll try my hardest to say series instead of season in this article. It won't be easy...
The New Doctor Who
Not watching Doctor Who has often been one of the biggest gaps in my TV knowledge. However, thanks the never-ending brilliance of the BBC, there is another iteration of the Doctor coming to TV. Peter Capaldi (The Thick of It, In the Loop) is fantastic and everyone who is up to date on the show seems extremely excited. Doctor Who is next on my to-watch list, and it should be on yours too.
Here's an awesome preview to get you pumped:
Luther Movie
For fans of extremely intense police procedurals, look no further than Luther. The unforgettable Idris Elba plays DCI John Luther, a ruthless detective who craftily handles some of the most unnerving villains you're likely to find on TV.
Season 3 just finished airing a few days ago, and unfortunately it will be the program's last series. Ruth Wilson, who plays Alice Morgan, a sociopathic killer who became something of an anti-hero; is getting a spin-off show which should be good. However, the best news of all is the upcoming Luther is getting a movie to cap off the events of series 3.
Some TV shows don't lend themselves to movies very well. Infamously, a few TV executives, who should find other work, wanted to turn Game of Thrones into several movies, thank god that didn't happen. However, Luther translates nicely to the big screen. He is a deliberate character, and the episodes are all almost an hour long already. It shouldn't be too much of a stretch.
Sherlock's Future
It seems like Sherlock is everyone American's favorite drama from across the pond. There are several good reasons for this. Two of them being Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock Holmes) and Martin Freeman (Dr. Watson).
Just like Luther, Sherlock has very long episodes. It is been on TV for a long time, and will likely finish with a feature film. However, that won't be for at least two years. An extra long special is shooting in early 2015, and with another series on the way later in the year.
I can't offer much in the way of predictive content, but here is a best-of Sherlock that will have to do for now.
Wentworth Miller is an actor with an interesting career. Although it was fairly short, he left a strong, positive impression. Undoubtedly viewers will miss him now that he's now turned to screenwriting (hopefully not for good).
Miller's first big project, Prison Break, was an excellent show for the first season, and pretty repetitive from then on. However, it seems the cloud of the last few seasons of Prison Break seems to have obscured what made the show great in the first place: Michael Scofield. The first season had numerous strengths: T-Bag was incredibly unsettling and the creative plot made for very interesting story possibilities, but everything was built on Michael Scofield. Wentworth Miller's semi-creepy interpretation was the saving grace of a character that could have turned out very two-dimensional. It's a shame Prison Break didn't have enough fuel to keep giving him a good story to work with.
The real disappointment where Wentworth Miller is concerned is his earlier appearance on Joan of Arcadia. For those who don't know, JoA was a show that aired in the early 2000s about a girl who could talk to God. God would take the form of a seemingly random person, like a janitor or police officer, and give her "mini-crusades" to perform. It was Amber Tamblyn's first big appearance and a great show. Unfortunately it was abruptly cut-short after only two seasons to make way for (groaning) Ghost Whisperer. The show's writers scrambled to find a way to satisfactorily end the program, and they somehow perfectly manufactured a short arc involving the introduction of the show's version of Satan.
Guess who they found to play the sinister character? If you guessed Betty White you were wrong. It was Wentworth Miller! He was phenomenal. Although his character only appeared in the final two episodes, he dominated the screen. It goes to show that, although he was great as a force for good on Prison Break, Miller really is meant to play the villain. Ryan Hunter was another person that God had revealed himself to. However, Ryan had a different, less grateful response to God's presence. As you can imagine, this makes for an interesting confrontation with Joan.
The scenes worth watching start on 2:40, but watch the entirety if you want a better perspective.
Like its comedic ancestor, Arrested Development, Archer has a lot of running gags. These jokes are what make Archer the amazing production it is today. Many of the gags on this list started in the first season and are still going strong in the fifth.
5. Woodhouse's Punishments
Unfortunately for Woodhouse, Archer "devises bizarre punishments" a lot. This one has to be the most disgusting though.
4. "Phrasing"
The running gag in which characters phrase things in ways that could be construed sexually is right from Tobias in Arrested Development. This bit is hilarious and it really showcases the creativity of the Archer writing staff. It looks like they may have ended it in season five. Hopefully, that's not the case.
3. "LANAAAAA!"
This is probably the most identifiable of all the jokes on this list. Here's a pop quiz. What does Archer say each time Lana (and Cyril) finally responds? I missed one. I'll give you a hint, they're not all "Danger Zone".
2. Brett Getting Shot
This literally started on day one (well episode 1). Unfortunately, it's over for certain now, but at least Brett died doing what he loved...
1. Archer's Voicemails
The writers really sunk a lot of thought into these. Archer's annoying voicemail messages plague his colleagues constantly. Unfortunately, there's not a usable clip of his ultimate voicemail prank in season 5-he redirects the phone to the sound system of the house of the person who's calling-but this compilation is awesome anyway.
Comment below with other great Archer running gags I may have missed.
I've already talked about severalgreatshows that are up and coming in the animated TV world (Home Movies had a very sentimental ending already, but whatever it still counts). With those in mind, let's talk about South Park who is, somewhat under the radar, producing an unprecedented number of episodes. At the time of this article, 247 episodes to be exact. And they're under contract for three more seasons. The fact that I don't hear people raving about this more often boggles my mind.
It wouldn't be nearly as much of an accomplishment if the quality of the show hadn't stayed consistent. How in the world has South Park managed to go so long without falling prey to what-I'm-going-to-call "the Simpsons syndrome"? What I mean by "the Simpsons syndrome is a show being on so long that it has lost the entire original spark that made it good and must delve into a never ending pit of celebrity guests to fill air time.
All shows, comedies especially, go through a lifecycle. They are born during pilot season-or in the minds of HBO execs.-grow over the course of 3-6 seasons, and ultimately die once the writers are tired and lead actors want to do movies.
However, some shows stay on the air well past their prime, the American Office for instance, and sometimes uniquely well-well past their prime, like the Simpsons, who now have hundreds of episodes that are mostly terrible. This pretty reasonable list, courtesy of BBC News, is the 10 best Simpsons episodes to air. Only one of them occurs after 2000-The Monkey Suit which aired in 2006. Keep in mind that this list was made in 2010 and I've unfortunately done the research to confirm that nothing of note has come after.
It is important to remember, The Simpsons is still one of the greatest comedies of all time. Its first 9 seasons were so good that there are books written about the subject as well as college courses (thanks Amazon and Mother Nature Network) that I'm sure filled up quickly. For a few glorious hours in a recent sociology class I took, the professor lectured about The Simpsons and the profound impact it had on American culture and national identity. It is a good show.
So how is South Park not getting more attention? It is already far beyond the point where The Simpsons declined sharply in quality. Sure, the recent seasons have had a few weird moments-Cartman's kitty technique was especially weird. However, for the most part, South Park has been just as amazing as its early years. Everything has stayed fresh.
It helps that Matt Stone and Trey Parker are much more topical than they were in the days of Trapper Keeper and Mecha-Steisand. Using current events more helps alleviate the creative burden on the writers. But somehow they keep going, week after week. Several years ago, the two even came out with an insanely successful play you probably heard about called The Book of Mormon. I finally managed to secure tickets to one of the final shows last year and it was incredible-the scent of South Park humor was everywhere in that play.
Since I have no idea how they keep going, I think it's time we call Matt Stone and Trey Parker creative geniuses and be done with it. I don't know what else they could do to prove it.
Ip Man (or The Ip Man Cometh as I affectionately think of it) is the second installment of my long running one week series: Martial Arts Movie Mondays. If a person needed to find 1 word to describe Ip Man it would be: fun. It was a fairly predictable tale of one man rising from the conquered: in this case the Chinese, to defy oppressors: the occupying Japanese army. The dialogue was not particularly interesting, although that could be due to poor subtitle translation. In general each character was fairly two-dimensional, although if we're being honest, martial arts movies aren't generally the place for complicated story arcs.
Ip Man is a great movie because of other points. Donnie Yen plays the titular character and he does an excellent job. Yen does the warrior-poet type very well, and he seamlessly handles a variety of different complex choreography challenges. There are several entertaining villains with varying Kung-Fu abilities and they all lose in spectacular fashion. Each one is fun to root against and it's very satisfying when they inevitably get their ass kicked. The final fight with the sinister Japanese general is just great.
The one thing that actually annoyed me about this movie was its inconsistency with the main character's name. He is sometimes referred to as "Ip Man", and sometimes as "The Ip Man". Either his name is Ip Man or he is a man with the qualities of Ip, whatever that means. Now I'm just rambling, but watch the movie (it's on Netflix) and see if it doesn't bother you too.
Comment below with reactions or suggestions for other good martial arts flicks.
The art of creating a pilot is tricky because the way American television is created is insane. A show has to compact its entire essence and original cast of characters together into one episode that is enjoyable to watch and feasible to the studio at the same time. Because it's so difficult, a ton of shows get canceled after only a few episodes. That's also why HBO, Showtime and Netflix hardly ever cancel shows. They don't use the pilot process, saving a lot of people stress and disappointment. I don't know what would've happened to Silicon Valley if they weren't allowed to run with it a little.
This is usually easier for sitcoms because they have less story to explain and can land a lot of jokes early without too much character development.
Several programs have made it past mediocre pilots to become great. The Office pilot was pretty terrible and the Seinfeld pilot nearly got it canceled (thanks to Uproxx for this one). Generally, shows that are going to be successful manage to make an okay pilot, and hit their stride soon after.
The best shows, like Mad Men, Walking Dead and Archer instantly hit their stride and glide seamlessly into a storyline. The pilot that most people would agree is the best in recent memory is predictably Breaking Bad. However, I'm going to take the rare step and disagree. I've never been as 100% gaga about Breaking Bad as everyone else. It's a great show, but there's more weakness there than people seem willing to admit.
Instead I offer the Lost pilot as a shining example for every writer to strive for. It expertly does the three things every pilot has to do: introduce the characters and situation, entertain viewers, and leave the audience wanting more.
The first point might be its most impressive accomplishment. The list of main characters in Lost is staggering, second only to Game of Thrones, a show that, thank god, is on HBO and didn't have a pilot. Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Charlie, Claire, Sayid, Jin, Sun, Boone, Hurley. . . the list goes on. Each one of those characters is more or less introduced in a way that makes them easy to remember. Hurley passes out at the sight of blood. Jin yells at Sun and she quickly buttons the top button of her shirt. Most notably Jack runs around doctoring and is pretty much a superhero to everybody. They all play their part in a seamless, organic way.
The situation of the survivors of Oceanic 815 is pretty simple at first: they've crash landed on an uncharted island. Great, memorable visuals like the plane engine exploding and the man with shrapnel in his gut serve to make the dire nature of their condition clear. However, things take an even more interesting turn when the survivors have their first few encounters with the infamous smoke monster, (on any list of most creative TV villains, smokey/the man in black should be close to the top). The early introduction of the mysterious supernatural elements of Lost are where its genius lays.
All of this information is delivered in such an organic and devious manner, that the pilot easily covers the second and third points. Concerning point 2, people will certainly be entertained by the various cast of characters and compelling visuals. For point 3, the uncharted, mystical nature of these characters' surroundings makes their future very uncertain, and so audiences will undoubtedly come back for more.
That's my pitch in favor of the Lost pilot being the best in modern television. Here's some superhero Jack for us to watch and be mutually nostalgic.
I'm going to go try and watch all of Lost now, although I'll probably end up skipping seasons 3 and 4 because ugh...
Comment below with your thoughts on Lost and other great pilots.
For those of you who haven't experienced HBO's newest triumph: Silicon Valley, you're missing out. It's about a group of programmers trying to navigate their creation through the jungle of bicycle meetings and nerd rage that is the California computer scene. Created by the man behind King of the Hill: Mike Judge, this show looks like one of the most promising new comedies on air. Its freshman season ended last month, and boasted great ratings and rave reviews from all but a few tech magazine critics (who were annoyed by the misuse of the hexadecimal times tables. Seriously).
The main reason Sillicon Valley is so good is its cast. T. J. Miller, Thomas Middleditch, Zach Woods, Martin Starr, and Kumail Nanjiani fill out an excellent core group. Together they have years of stand-up comedy experience, and a ton of great appearances on screen. Their combined credits include: In the Loop (the British precursor to Veep), Freaks and Geeks (gone too soon), and Portlandia (weird but brilliant).
T. J. Miller plays the soon-to-be-legendary character Erlich Bachmann (great name right?). He's been flitting around the acting scene for a while (see She's Out of My League), but other than SV, he's best as a comic. Watch Silicon Valley if you think this is hilarious as I do. If you don't think it's hilarious, watch SV anyway.
Some of you may have heard of Rick and Morty, but for those of you who haven't, it's the latest thing to come from Dan Harmon's warped mind. Harmon is also the creator of Community (R.I.P.). R&M is a very strange show, but it has the potential to be as good as Archer. The premise is a hyper-intelligent grandfather has insane adventures on alien worlds and in other dimensions with his endearingly dim-witted 14-year-old grandson named Morty.Not unlike Venture Bros., it's difficult to convey the spirit of the show with a few sentences. So here's a pretty genius clip of Rick and Morty warping through different dimensions all involving chairs, phones, people, and pizza.
If you want to be the first of your friends to get into the next great TV series and help ensure Dan Harmon doesn't have another great project end before its time (sheds a tear); start watching Rick and Morty.
I recently watched The Sting, and The Color of Money. A few days ago I continued the Paul Newman streak with Coolhand Luke. The man is truly a marvel. Mr. Newman brings a James Bond-esque quality to every character he portrays, and each movie is better for it. However, his melancholy is just as powerful. Newman is at his best in Coolhand Luke. In this scene, he has recently found out his mother passed away. To see someone like Newman quietly shed a tear while playing this strange ditty is incredibly powerful.
What are your favorite Paul Newman moments? Comment below...
The Joel and Ethan Coen are everyone's favorite directing duo. They have a long history of amazing films that are all completely unique, so they're a great subject for a movie marathon. A good test for your watching stamina is usually 4. In this case, I'm going with 2 films I have seen, although not recently; and 2 films I've never seen.
True Grit and Inside Llewyn Davis were great, but I've seen both in the last year. The same goes for Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? However, I saw No Country for Old Men and A Serious Man when I was pretty young and never really absorbed anything.
As for films I've not seen, Barton Fink is a perfect choice because I've heard a lot about it. I've always enjoyed John Goodman and John Turturro (forgetting his recent Michael Bay entanglements). I've also chosen The Man Who Wasn't There, because neo-noir is so much fun.
What are your favorite Coen Brothers movies? Comments section is below
Unfortunately, long time fans of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia have had to come to terms with the fact that this excellent show was not going to get recognized with any major awards. It seems the people in charge of nominations are cool with the horrific things that happen in Game of Thrones (which I love) but not cool with the slightly-less horrific things that happen in Sunny-although, to be fair, the gang did leave a dead hooker in a dumpster once. There have been 9 seasons now and they've mostly been excellent. Here are my top Sunny moments so far.
Season 3: Sweet Dee's Dating a Retarded Person-Dayman
This is the first appearance of Dayman, one of the true heroes of our time. The Nightman never stood a chance against his powers of karate and friendship.
Season 4: Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack-Charlie goes insane
In my opinion, this is the best episode in the series so far, in large part because of Charlie is steadily having a mental breakdown throughout. This scene alone should have gotten him some Emmy attention.
Season 6: The Gang Buys a Boat-The implication
This scene is pretty short, but it really signifies the start of a change in Dennis. At the beginning of the series, Dennis was just pretty self-absorbed. However, in season 6, his character started a steady drop into semi-psychosis that ended up with a full-on god complex in Season 8-Charlie Rules the World. Plus Mac's reaction is just hilarious.
Season 6: Charlie Kelly: King of the Rats
This episode is a great one, but it has always stood out especially because it's one of the few times the gang actually did something good for poor Charlie. After this episode, every movie theatre should have decided on a spaghetti policy. Also, note Dennis' maniacal laughter as another sign of his growing insanity.
Season 7: The Gang Goes to the Jersey Shore-Rum Ham
Mac and Frank's short-lived love affair with a ham soaked in rum is one of the weirder things that's ever happened on Sunny. The resemblance to Tom Hanks shouting after Wilson in Cast Away is uncanny and probably intentional, knowing how smart this show can be when it wants to.
Season 8: The Gang Gets Analyzed
This episode was one of their best purely because of its incredible ingenuity. It also serves as a great benchmark for just how far the gang has devolved. Mac's mood swings, Dee's insistence that she was almost cast in The Notebook, and Frank ending his session by yelling "You unzipped me doc!" serve as signs that things aren't going too well for the gang. If Dennis isn't on a government list somewhere by now, I'm sincerely baffled about what the NSA is spying on us for. Unfortunately, I don't have a clip for this because this "moment" is pretty much an entire episode. However, it is on Netflix, just like every other Sunny Episode, so go watch it.
Comment with your favorite Sunny moments, I'm sure I forgot about a dozen.
I thought I would take a second to recognize the miracle that is H. Jon Benjamin's voice. A lot of people know how he's put it to good use in the (finally) Emmy-nominated show Archer. A slightly smaller group watch Bob's Burgers, which is more light-hearted and nearly as good. Two other brief but successful non-appearances were him as the convenience store dude in Family Guy and the magical Masterin the Adult Swim show, Venture Bros (see below for more on that).
He has also appeared a few times in front of the camera. Benjamin had his own short-lived show, Jon Benjamin has a Van, and appeared several times on Important Things with Dmitri Martin (which was canceled too soon).
However, one of his most overlooked performances is also one of his best: Coach McGuirk on another old Adult Swim gem: Home Movies. He was an alcoholic soccer coach determined to do anything but instruct his team on soccer. Think Sterling Archer if he was overweight and nearly unemployed.
McGuirk is mostly defined by his relationship with the main character, Brandon Small, for whom he is an often-misinformed mentor. It was hard to choose one clip, but this sums him up nicely. If you have Netflix, check out Home Movies; all 3 seasonsare on there. There is an endearing innocence to the whole show and the coach is always funny.
If you haven't heard of Venture Bros. shame on you, but you're not alone. It's an excellent show with new episodes every other year airing on Adult Swim. VBs is incredibly weird, funny and complicated. The premise is a story of a family living in a world full of heroes, super scientists, villains, and boy adventurers. Where Venture Bros. succeeds is making all of these characters real people. They have anxiety, problems remembering lines, acne issues, and they fail A LOT. Trying to organize it all are two groups: the OSI or Office of Secret Intelligence and the Guild of Calamitous Intent. There is plenty of infighting and a plethora of varied rivalries. I can't really explain it better than that. It's best just to watch.
The show takes a little getting into, and that, along with its insane production schedule and terrible time slot; has led to bad ratings. Cartoon Network has been close to canceling it several times, but they have a well-known soft spot for weirdness, so Venture Bros. has stayed on the air. However, that can't last forever.
I say we need it because, even with the ton of outstanding TV airing now, there's not enough strange out there. If everything becomes a gritty drama or smart comedy, that will stifle innovation. We want what many are calling the "golden age of TV" to continue right? If your answer is yes, watch this awesome summary the Venture Bros. producers cooked up last year and see if you're not hooked.
Superhero movies dominate the screens these days, but years ago, martial arts stars like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan (and the incomparable Patrick Swayze--just for Roadhouse) were masters of choreographed action. Both genres are great in different ways, but it is sad to see how marginalized the later has become. I've started Martial Arts Movie Mondays in order to appreciate those wonderful gems that existed before Marvel and Christopher Nolan entered the movie-sphere like an invading army.
Jet Li's Fearless came out in 2006, making it one of the last of its kind. I've always loved Jet Li as an actor; Unleashed was excellent and he has carved out a nice space for himself in the Expendables crew (mindless action, but it could be a lot worse).
In Fearless, Li is superb. He plays Huo Yuanjia (yes, I had to look up how to spell that). The movie begins with Li as a full fledged master battling three westerners come to "show them Chinamen how we do it in the west." In three excellently choreographed fights: boxing, lancing and fencing, Li shows great range and continues kicks ass with style every time. Before the final battle with a much more reserved Japanese opponent, the audience is treated to the story of Yuanjia's life, which takes up most of the rest of the film. He starts as a small boy who, after being bullied, decides to become China's greatest master of Wushu--a truly beautiful fighting style if there ever was one. In short, an excellently done, if predictable tale. It is compelling, cool, and a little cheesy, like all good martial arts movies are. The true strength of the movie, not unexpectedly, is its fight choreography. I defy anyone to find a movie not involving Bruce Lee (or Neo, although that is a bit of a stretch) that has fights this well done. Every battle is different, and they're all great. My favorite is probably Yuanjia's clash with a 300 lb. giant boxer, appropriately named Hercules O'Brian, right before the final tournament. The creativity he uses in order to combat the massive difference in size and strength is a ton of fun to watch. Four out of four stars. All I can say is: watch this movie. Note: It's even on Netflix, so now you have no excuse not to watch it.
