Top 5, Bottom 5 Martial Art Movies

[fist of fury]

Originally posted by Kirk





I liked the first one!

You would since you have that jean claude shrine your home. Come on admit he's your hero you wish you could do the splits like that.

 

[bscastro]

My favorites:
1. Enter the Dragon
2. Drunken Master
3. One Upon a Time in China series
4. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
5. Rush Hour

I admit a tendency towards the better production quality movies. I also liked the 1st and 2nd Karate Kids more for the acting than the martial arts. also, gotta love The Last Dragon. You gotta love a bad guy who wears shoulder pads. The old master guy was cool too.

Worst Movies:
1. A bunch of movies with Cynthia Rothrock (can't remember the movies). Just really cheesy, bad acting and sped up fight scenes.
2. The Quest - A couple of good fight scenes (the ones without Jean-Claude Van Damme of course), but overall, a bad movie.
3. Knock-off: I think I watched about 10 minutes of this and couldn't stand it. Jean Claude has not aged well.
4. I actually liked Under Seige, but in general the premises in Segal's plots are a little hard to swallow. "Hi, I'm an environmentalist, who also happens to be a martial arts master." Or "I'm the Admiral's body guard, but I work as the cook on this ship because I don't want anyone to know I'm his bodyguard."
5. Sudden Death (I think that was what it was called): "Let's hold the vice president (I think) hostage...and we can do it while he's watching the hockey game." Sorry, got a little carried away.

Bryan

 

[arnisador]

THIS COULD BE BIG: Gymnast takes a giant leap

Some guys might remember that ridiculous 1985 action flick "Gymkata," in which Olympian Kurt Thomas played a gymnast who, after martial arts training, is transformed into a Cold War-era killing machine, "pommeling" hundreds of ninjas with cartoonish ease.

Not surprisingly, University of Illinois at Chicago student Derek Langone had never heard of "Gymkata." But after bailing on a scholarship three years ago, this former high-bar specialist has become Chicago's very own gymnast-turned-fighter, with dreams of becoming a champion in Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA.

 

[Mariachi Joe]

1 Fearless
2 Enter the Dragon
3 Kiss of the Dragon
4 Legend of Drunken Master
5 Ong Bak

Worst
3 ninjas
any Van Dam movie
Steven Segals straight to dvd movies
Mortal Kombat 2

 

[zDom]

Lessee...favs off the top of my head would be something like

Enter the Dragon
Drunken Master
Kung Fu Hustle
Perfect Weapon
Best of the Best

although if I gave it more thought that list would probably change.

I won't name the worst, but those cheapo Cynthia Rothrock flicks along with others that seem to be made by the same production company (and use the same bunch of actors/martial artists) come to mind.

 

[shotokan-kez]

My best 5 are as follows

1. Enter the dragon
2. Best of the Best
3. Kickboxer
4. Fearless
5. Karate kid

Worst 5

1. Kickboxer 3&4
2. The next karate kid
3. American ninja 2
4. Bloodfist
5. No retreat no surrender

 

[Xue Sheng]

This is a rather old post but what amazes me most is I went through every page, and although I could have missed it, in the 5 worst I only saw Gymkata posted once.

 

[Hand Sword]

Hey! The princess was hot!

 

[Drunken_Boxer]

BEST MOVIES
1.DRUNKEN MASTER 1979
2.ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA
3.BEST OF THE BEST 1989 (Classic martial arts movie,starring Eric Roberts and Philip Rhee) =)
4.POLICE STORY 1985
5.THE CROW 1994

WORST MOVIES
1.LUCKY STARS GO PLACES(OKAY THE END FIGHT WITH THE TKD GUY AGAINST SAMMO WAS TIGHT,BUT THATS ALL)
2.MORTAL KOMBAT ANNIHILATION (NAH....)
3.TIGER CLAW 3
4.WAKE OF DEATH
5.ANYTHING BE STEAVEN SEAGEL....

 

[jazkiljok]

Eastern Condors
Supercop
Ong Bak
Hard Times
Once upon a time in China (pt 2)


Worst: anything with names like rothrock, lundgren, speakman, swayze, seagal, van damme attached.

 

[Marvin]

dont have top 5


5 worst:
brazillian brawl
gymkata
crippled masters
any Segall after Above the law
any Van Damme

 

[Seahawk Guy]

I have to say that I found it strange that nobody mentioned (either as best, or worst) Big Trouble in Little China.

And as much as I really dont like Van Dumb, and as stupid as the movie was, I really liked the fight scenes in Bloodsport.

 

[zDom]

And as much as I really dont like Van Dumb, and as stupid as the movie was, I really liked the fight scenes in Bloodsport.

Me too.

 

[IWishToLearn]

Not sure I have a top 5. I have a top couple tho.
1)Drunken Master 2 (Released stateside chopped up & redone as Legend of the Drunken Master)
2)Fist of Legend
3)Ong Bok

Sorry - not a Bruce Lee fan.

 

[The Elemental]

Okay, here goes

Top 5 (In terms of kickass none stop movies)

1. Enter The Dragon
2. Drunken Master 2 (Jackie Chan at his best)
3. Once Upon A Time in China 2 (Jet Li's masterpiece)
4. Fist Of Legend
5. Ong Bak (Although not the best stoyline but the fight scenes were amazing)

The Matrix, Kung Fu Hustle, Blood Fist 1 and 2, Ninja Turtles, Sho Kosugi films, wuxia films and several others get honorable mentioning

Top 5 (In terms of storyline)

1. A Touch Of Zen (love the story, it was interesting)
2. Swordsman 1 and 2 (A true Wuxia classic)
3. Duel To Death (Classic Chinese vs Japanase movie except the Japanese aren't really bad guys here.
4. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Classic)
5. Hero

Best Of The Best 1, Karate Kid 1, Chinese Stuntman...etc get honorable mentioning

Bottom 5:

1. All Egyptian Martial Art movies (Yes, we make the worst MA movies ever)
2. Most 1990's low budget American MA movie
3. Knockoff
4. Bad sequels to decent American MA movies (Best Of The Best 3/4, Karate 3...etc)
5. 3 Nnjas: High Noon At Megamountain (I kinda liked the first movie, the rest were silly).

 

[Grenadier]

Best 5 in my book (in no particular order)

Enter the Dragon
Fist of Fury (renamed the Chinese Connection)
The Big Boss (renamed Fists of Fury)
Way of the Dragon (renamed Return of the Dragon)
Fist of Legend

Honorable mention goes to "Two Champions of Shaolin" simply because that was one of the best jobs of choreographing massive group fight scenes.

Worst 5

Gymkata
Best of the Best series after the original one
Any of the Tiger Claw series
TC2000
Shootfighter

The original Best of the Best was actually a heart-warming movie, although I did get a bit of a chuckle after seeing how overblown the director made the Korean Nationalism aspect. If the nationalistic tendencies were really that big, then rest assured, the Korean crowd wouldn't have been cheering when the Koreans donated their medals to the Americans... Also, Eric Roberts is a terrible actor. At least Christopher Penn had some redneck humor in him that I found quite funny (yes, coming from a Korean-American).

Nothing against Bolo Yeung, of course, as he's a really nice guy, and still built like a brick outhouse (even though he's in his advanced 60's now). It's just that he's always going to be cast in the role of the cheating thug, and not really a good actor. He's at his best when he beats up on people and gives that menacing grin when he crushes people like a nutcracker.

As for Gymkata, what can I say? It's so bad, that it's actually entertaining when you watch it for its comedy value. Oh look! I'm in the village where a bunch of crazy cannibalistic felons are kept, and they just happen to have the gym horse available so I can do some fancy moves on it to defeat as many of the masses as possible until I get tired! Then I can run through the crowd!

The only redeeming part of the movie was seeing Tetchie Agbayani in there.

 

[Jdokan]

Wow Alot of great flick I forgot about...tough call I have only one that comes to teh top Jeff Speakman " The perfect Weapon".....after that any of Bruce Lee's, Chuck's or early Seagal...
Worst ....To me there really aren't any....

 

[Mariachi Joe]

I had not seen it at the time of my post, but I'm adding it now.
SPL aka Kill Zone here in the U.S. Donnie Yen rocks this one and Sammo Hung can move pretty good for big guy, and Jing Wu isn't half bad himself.

 

[amishman]

Top 5
1. Enter The Dragon
2. Kill Or Be Killed
3. Kill & Kill Again
4. Game Of Death
5. They Call Me Bruce


Worst 5
1. Game Of Death II
2. Game Of Death II
3. Game Of Death II
4. Game Of Death II
5. Game Of Death II