Rating: 
Summary: Donnie Yuen Fans' Don't Miss This Film!
Review: This film is definately for the Donnie Yuen and Yuen-Woo Ping fans out there! Although there is wire-work used throughout the film, many of the fights by Donnie directly on the ground use limited wire-work. Donnie is known for preferring not to use wire-work because he says he can make YOU FLY. And indeed viewers are in for a dizzying delight as only the team of Donnie Yuen and Yuen-Woo Ping can deliver! The overall plot as other reviewers have discussed focus on Wong Kei-Ying (Donnie) as he teams up with the Iron Monkey to bring the iron fist of justice against the corrupt and traitorous monk from Shaolin. Also there are couple of surprisingly dramatic moments between Wong-Kei Ying and his son, the young Wong Fei-Hong. This film is definately one worth viewing if not adding to your collection!
Rating: 
Summary: wait for the us theatrical version on dvd - its much better
Review: stay away from the official hong kong/japanese dvd. it is not as good as the us theatrical release of iron monkey. the us version has better sound effects and the image was remastered to improve color and remove artifacts. the background music was also updated on the us release. i suggest waiting for the us version on dvd. i hope they release it soon.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent story and action!
Review: When I first saw the trailers for IRON MONKEY, I thought it was a new film produced after Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Then, I read an article saying it was one of Quentin Tarantino's all-time favorite movies, and he was partly responsible for distributing the film stateside this year. This film was made circa 1993, several years before the Matrix and CTHD. The action scenes do not have all the digital bells and whistles available to filmmakers now, but the effects look seamless nonetheless. I know the soundtrack was remastered, so perhaps some of the frames were digitally updated as well. Anyway, the whole film looks great. I was pleasantly surprised at the humor present in the characters. Not so serious a film as CTHD. The young boy who looks to be maybe 7 years old is quite the martial arts fighter. His scenes fighting adults are more than amazing to watch! Overall, an excellent storyline, fast-paced action and lots of laughs make for a really, really entertaining film. Even if you don't usually watch martial arts cinema!!
Rating:
Summary: Crouching Tiger...More like Crouching Kitten...
Review: Well, you Crouching Tiger fans should take a look at this! This movie is very well done. The effects and coreography are amazing. It was quite an experience to see this movie...it stands out from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon because of the excellent fight scenes and there is much less dialog then in CTHD. Sure, the plot and acting aren't that wonderfull, but then again, this movie is more about the action than the acting. If you liked CTHD, than you will fully enjoy this movie as well.
Rating: 
Summary: East BEATS West!!
Review: Like a page right out of the 60's "Batman and Robin" series, the masked vigilante Iron Monkey, possessing the modus oprandi of Batman and the heart of Robin Hood, is the champion of justice in a small town in 19th century China. Like Batman, he has a dual identity, battling evil and corruption at night while masquerading as a law-abiding citizen by day, he has a bag full of gimmicks, and he has a sidekick. In this episode/movie of the exciting adventures of the eastern Dark Knight and Miss Orchid, the Girl Wonder, corrupted town governor Cheng, the 'Sheriff of Nottingham', with his assistant Chief Fox, a homage to Chief O'Hara, called upon a visiting pugilist warrior and his much-more-famous partner/son (think Green Hornet and Kato) to capture the Dark Knight. Just when the home hero and his visiting counterpart are about to clash in grand spectacle, they joined forces against an evil threat in the form of a renegade Shaolin monk. It does not take a genius to realize that this is no "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and the differences do not stop with the action scenes. While "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a magnificent work in many respects, "Iron Monkey" is not. Aside from the action scenes, there is nothing of substance about the film. Direction and cinematography are lackluster. The storyline is grossly thin, as well as far-fetched and unbelievable. It is unrealistic to think that a pre-teen kid can not only fight but also be able to beat up adults single-handedly; or a villainous monk ascending to a government position despite his checkered past and current ignoble accomplishments, without any opposition whatsoever. Adding to the negatives is bad dubbing. The characters are often heard speaking without moving their lips. Horrible editing of sound and picture only makes matters worse. Yet the only gold mine of this movie, which makes it entertaining despite its many flaws, is the action sequences. They are abundant in quality and quantity. This undoubtedly establishes the standard in which all martial arts films will be judged, which American martial arts action flicks should follow but do not. American martial arts films rely on machismo and natural charisma of the actors to carry the film, an approach that often dies of boredom especially since their fight scenes are frequently one-sided. Chinese martial arts films have breathtaking fight choreographies that emphasize on creativity and improvisation, so even if the same style is utilized the approach makes it look fresh and original. Besides the actors' expressing themselves beautifully in their own unique martial arts background, their repertoire of weapons include ladders, umbrellas, chains, metal balls, wooden benches and ... flaming bamboo poles (you have to see it to believe it!). Not only do all of the main characters participated in the fighting, they were also defined by their own styles on-screen: Iron Monkey being acrobatically-inclined; the Girl Wonder dancing her movements like a ballerina; 'Green Hornet' excessive use of his legs including drawing an arc with the tip of his toes as a pre-fight stance; 'Kato's cockiness and use of bamboo pole, a foreshadow to his future destiny; and the Villain being hands-and-claws for the most part. One can fault an action film for its lack of everything else, but "Iron Monkey" does put films of van Damme and Rothrock's to shame, or to the level of slow-motion tai-ji, or better yet to oblivion. Definitely enjoyable, even if its only for the fight sequences.
Rating:
Summary: a much better martial arts movie...
Review: I have to admit when I saw the Iron Monkey trailer the first time I sort of shook my head: here we go again, another silly martial arts movie with people flying around. But the movie really surprised me. It is good, with decent plot and fantastic action scenes. After suffering tremendously from watching Jet Li's recent Hollywood movies (including the incredibly horrible The One), Iron Monkey certainly breathed some fresh air into the martial arts genre. All right, the movie is already eight-year-old but it definitely has not aged at all. The biggest plus of the movie is that the main actors (except the actress who plays Lady Orchid) truly possess amazing fighting and acrobatic skills. This makes even the wire-fu more believable. Donnie Yen and Yu Rongguang rock with their kicks and the girl who plays Wong Fei-hong is also very good. The acting, though not stellar, is rather above average for a martial arts film. Of course they could have cut more the silly governor's scenes. Overall the combination of brilliant actions and not too bad acting makes the film very enjoyable to watch.
I saw Donnie Yen in other films previously (Dragon Inn and Once upon a time in China II, the two films I found not too impressive but entertaining) and remember his fight scenes were pretty good. For some reason I thought he was nothing but another actor who does not know how to fight but pretends to fight (like Zhang Ziyi and Chow Yun-fat, who had some ridiculously fake action scenes in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), and as a consequence I have ignored him for years until I saw Iron Monkey. I am banging my head right now for having never heard of the Iron Monkey movie before and for not knowing earlier that Donnie Yen is a true martial artist and is equally if not more skillful than Jet Li, and that he actually grew up here in Boston! Hopefully I am not too late to recognize his greatness.
Rating:
Summary: Thanks Quentin.
Review: Finally, a version with subtitles and a new score! The only version of this I had seen was a thoroughly entertaining yet laughable dub, accompanied by the same song that's been playing in HK fu-flick videos for the past decade. Catch this on the big screen if you are any sort of fan of the Yuen family. You can now laugh at the jokes rather than the voice acting and the fights are superb. Classic.
Rating:
Summary: Iron Monkey!!! Yuen Woo-Ping's Masterpiece
Review: The Fighting is amazing. The choreographing is spectacular. The plot, although Chinese, makes sense. I love this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Their Has to be a Bad Reveiw in Here Somewhere.
Review: Alright to start I didn't hate this movie because of the subtitles. I loved Crouching Tiger and I enjoy watching it more with the subtitles on. The only reason this movie got 2 stars is because of the amazing fighting which was great, I'll admit that. But that is the only thing and I mean only thing when I say it going for this movie. To people saying it had good acting and direction what were you watching? I sat through crouching tiger at the theater and no one made fun of it, but let me just say Iron Monkey got alot of laughs, and not at the parts when you were supposed to laugh. I would have been making fun of this movie to but I was with a few freinds who thought it was great, I don't know why. The acting was laughable, literally. Let me put it this way; do you ever watch those japanese cartoons and they get ya laughin cause of how the characters act, for example: dragon ball z, pokemon and the rest of them. Well that's what the acting is in this movie, cartoon like. And the story people like so much, hmmmm let me think, did any of you morons hear of Robin Hood! anyways I had to get that off my back, I think there is something wrong with me cause so far I'm the only person to not like this movie, but what can I say, it sucked.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous!
Review: A lighter story line than crouching tiger, hidden dragon but the same spectacular effects and action.
The story kept me interested, and had me laughing out loud.
You have to see this movie!!
|
