J-LO, Krav Maga Mama

[vincefuess]

Has anybody seen the Jennifer Lopez movie where she's a battered housewife and studies Krav Maga to fight back? (The name eludes me at the moment)

I read the article about her in BBM, and it was the usual drivel with her trainers gushing over how hard she worked and what a great and talented student she was, and all the blah blah blah stuff you would expect from people promoting a movie they are involved with...

The article gives the impression that the producers were "looking" for a martial art that hadn't been exposed to the masses in movie form, maybe hoping to generate some sort of renewed MA interest- it felt sort of cheap and gimmicky to me (though I will admit that my opinion is colored by the fact I am not a J-Lo fan...).

As for Krav Maga, I know very little of the art itself. It seems every country has got to have it's "signature" martial art, with this one being the unarmed combat methods of the Isreali military (though I don't recall ever seeing ANY Isreali military action not done with tanks and M-16's). I have heard goos things and bad things about the art, it seems very simplistic from the techs I have seen.

Does anybody have any experience with Krav Maga? Anybody seen the J-Lo flick? Are Krav Maga schools gonna start popping up like McDonalds? Does anybody wanna just bash J-Lo? Heck, I'm game for ALL of it...

 

[arnisador]

Originally posted by vincefuess

Has anybody seen the Jennifer Lopez movie where she's a battered housewife and studies Krav Maga to fight back? (The name eludes me at the moment)

See this thread on Enough.

The article gives the impression that the producers were "looking" for a martial art that hadn't been exposed to the masses in movie form, maybe hoping to generate some sort of renewed MA interest

It wouldn't suprise me--compare the use of Kali in The Bourne identity.

Does anybody have any experience with Krav Maga?

There have been some threads on it in this and the Kenpo forum; use the Search facility to find them.

 

[mantis]

movies always screw up martial arts, unless you have a real martial artist like jet li to act..
actors cannot get the flexibility found in real martial artists, especially asian martial artists, and that's why everything looks like 'whatevers-boxing' style!

 

[arnisador]

Much of the time, yes...but some fake it better than others. Look at Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon--the ingenue had no martial arts training at the time, I understand!

 

[theletch1]

Much of the time, yes...but some fake it better than others. Look at Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon--the ingenue had no martial arts training at the time, I understand!

My understanding of Chow Yun Fat's history is that he has no martial arts training but after watching several of his movies (I love his movies) I almost have to say that I'd be happy to be able to "fake" it that well.

Even trained martial artist in the movies are forced to change their core style to make it good movie material. Speakman and Segal both had to slow down their moves and Segal had to add a good deal of strikes to his Ten-shen aikido to make it movie material. When it comes to martial arts in the movies I always remind myself that it's entertainment first and perhaps a platform to showcase a style second.

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

Hard boiled ruled!

 

[mantis]

My understanding of Chow Yun Fat's history is that he has no martial arts training but after watching several of his movies (I love his movies) I almost have to say that I'd be happy to be able to "fake" it that well.

Even trained martial artist in the movies are forced to change their core style to make it good movie material. Speakman and Segal both had to slow down their moves and Segal had to add a good deal of strikes to his Ten-shen aikido to make it movie material. When it comes to martial arts in the movies I always remind myself that it's entertainment first and perhaps a platform to showcase a style second.

that's true but not always the case
Tony Jaa tailored the movie around his art
his dream was to show authentic Muay Thai to the world
and he did.. amazingly i think

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

that's true but not always the case
Tony Jaa tailored the movie around his art
his dream was to show authentic Muay Thai to the world
and he did.. amazingly i think

I don't know, you have to be extraordinary in some way; I mean look at Paulo Tocha

 

[arnisador]

When it comes to martial arts in the movies I always remind myself that it's entertainment first and perhaps a platform to showcase a style second.

Yep, same here. I enjoyed seeing some aikido in Steven Seagal's work but had to always remind myself that I was getting a distorted view of it!

 

[Loki]

How do you make Krav Maga silver screen friendly? IMO, since KM is a no-nonsense style, the only way to make it look interesting on the screen is add nonsense to it, which is what the movie did.

*SPOILER WARNING*
In the end of the movie, when her husband chokes her against the wall and tells her how all her training is worthless, she proves him right by performing a release from a choke done while being pushed. Even my mom saw that all she had to do was knee the guy in the balls.
*END OF SPOILER*

Obviously including Krav Maga in any Hollywood movie generates automatic interest in it, but as an actual practitioner of the style, I feel it was degraded by the movie.

 

[BlueDragon1981]

The movie J-Lo is in is called Enough.

It is actually one thing that got a number of people looking into Krav Magna.

Movies don't portray MA that well most of the time....but they do expose it and bring people into it.....Karate Kid.....that really caused an Explosion.

 

[Jerry]

In the end of the movie, when her husband chokes her against the wall and tells her how all her training is worthless

That's the part in every Bruce Lee movie where he tells them they have lousy Kung-Fu?

"You have insulted Shaolin... now we must fight!"

 

[Shaolinwind]

Does anybody wanna just bash J-Lo? ...

Yes. But It's just too easy.

 

[Flying Crane]

Obviously including Krav Maga in any Hollywood movie generates automatic interest in it, but as an actual practitioner of the style, I feel it was degraded by the movie.

I felt the same way about Only The Strong and capoeira.