2 comments about Tai Chi for Arthritis Part 2 DVD.

1. The first DVD is some what reprised in this one and you can learn just from this DVD although I would recommend a class. This is SUN stile short form TaiChi and large studies have shown a general improvement in balance, confidence, and 60+% reduction in falls. There is some reduction in pain but as you get flare ups it is not as consistent. Works well for most types of arthritis particularly proven to work for osteo and rheumatoid. Effective for all types but not as many big studies.
   
   Provides a gentle exercise regime that almost everyone can benefit from who has arthritis or back problems.



2. I have rheumatoid arthritis and wanted some form of exercise besides walking and swimming that I could do to retain my flexibility. Tai-Chi also has meditative qualities that I like but those are not mentioned in the DVD at all. The pace is slow and sequential. It is repeated 3 times before learning a new move. I found it very user friendly and easy to learn because of the slow repetitive pace. I will order others Dr. Lam might produce.

No comments about The Brave Archer.

5 comments about Fist of the Red Dragon.

1. The fight scenes are excellent, the rest of the movie blows chuncks.



2. If you want to see 'old-school' Kung Fu, then get the classic Shaw Brothers movies starring Gordon Liu and others.
   
   If you want to see the more modern approach, check out the "Once Upon A Time In China" films produced by Tsui Hark and which star Jet Li. The OUATIC series has better acting and much more interesting and inventive fight scenes. The comic relief is also handled much more deftly.
   
   I even found Iron Monkey which has the same director and stars to be a better film. Don't waster your time - there are better movies out there!



3. Like many people have said in earlier reviews, there is a lot of "junk" to get through in the beginning of the movie. First you must endure the notorious aunt, who is indeed very annoying. I like it best when So's dad slaps her teeth out at the end. However, I found that the opium parts were not too bad since they were a central point of the plot (no matter how hobbychobby it may have been). I also wish that wong fei hung could have been a better actor as well, since he seemed to take a second seat to Donnie, even though he is supposed to be the superior fighter. Most parts with Donnie in it are tolerable, if not humerous. Like when he skips around the city dressed as a peasant and throws cooked goose around to the beggars, and when he is locked in a room to break his opium habit, hehe. One particularly entertaining part is when he starts beating that drum in the beginning to defy that female-led clan, and then kicks everyone's ass. I think that the Beggar So character is interesting, so the somewhat dumbed down plot is not all that terrible.
   
   Aside from that, the movie is completely redeemed at the end with Donnie's drunken style, which is without a doubt amazing. It is the sole reason why I like this film so much. If you are a Yen or Yuen fan, then I would suggest buying this movie.



4. Well... Lets see, for starters the acting was horrific. The plot was a little cliche, but the fights were AWESOME. Many of the fights were VERY UNIQUE, but interesting. Although I gave it the 4 stars for the final fight scene with the drunken style fighting. You may find yourself laughing at the horrible acting though.
   
   I recommend 36th Chamber and The Invincible Pole Fighter for a really good plot and fight scenes.



5. I have only one word for this movie: HORRIBLE! The acting was abysmal, the story line was non-existent....but the fighting scenes were actually cool... It's an entertaining movie if you ONLY want to watch it for the fight scenes... If you want more...this is not the movie for you.

5 comments about Magnificent Warriors.

1. Michelle Yeoh stars in this 1980s-style Hong Kong action flick. If you are looking for a great story, I would just rent it if I were you. But, if you like great kick-ass action and lots of stunts, I would recommend buying this movie. Trust me, I bought it myself. I thought I would be disappointed, but fortunately it wasn't bad at all. "Magnificent Warriors" includes great choreographed action, awesome stunts, and most importantly, Michelle Yeoh...man, she can whoop some ass. This movie, as well as "Yes, Madam" is what started the great Hong Kong female-fatale era.

   To keep this review short, if you like to watch 1980s Hong Kong movies with well-choreographed fighting design, get this movie right away. Warning: if you're looking for a Michelle Yeoh action movie with great story, ignore it, and get "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" instead




2. this is a great movie, a ton of action and humor. this is dubbed in english. just a fun movie.



3. Possibly no female action heroine has come closer to achieving Bruce Lee status than Michelle Yeoh. And this is inronic, since she never had any martial arts training until she began her movie career. Almost nobody trained in martial arts specifically for one movie goes on to make more, much less achieve the status of martial arts star, but Michelle Yeoh is a pioneer in that respect. This 1987 World War II adventure makes Michelle into a female Indiana Jones (complete with the whip) who, unlike Indiana Jones himself, is blessed with cute-as-a-button-ness
   The baby-faced Michelle plays Fok Ming-Ming, a Chinese pilot/mercenary. She is recruited by the Chinese to head to Northern China to locate Agent 001 (Derek Yee). She must transport the humorous Youda (Lowell Lo), the ruler of Kaal, back to Sourthen China. The Japanese army led by General Toga (Matsui Tesuya), are trying to softne up Youda to Imperealist Japan, hiding the fact that they intend to use Kaal as a site for a new poison gas factory. Ming and Agent 001 agree to help fight off the Japanese invaders, leading to many black-eyes, both Chinese and Japanese.
   
   It's nice to see a Hong Kong movie without much wire-work that still manages to impress with the choreography, and the incredible inpact of landing blows. In her interview on the DVD, Michelle describes the experience of making MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS as having been "possibly the one time when I said I would never do another action film." No surprising, considering that the original three-week shooting schedule in Taiwan extended to three months, and the filmmakers also had to endure a huge earthquake while working. Michelle remembers MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS not as a fun movie experience, but "very challenging."
   
   But what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, and Michelee has made one hell of a kung fu/World War II movie that helped pave the way for her many subsequent roles. And having Tae Kwon Do legend Hwang jang-lee in with you is always a major plus, but his fight with Michelle is probebly the best one he's put out since battling Jackie Chan in DRUNKEN MASTER.
   
   There are many magnificent wariors in the Hong Kong movie industry, and MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS proved Michelle, even in her youth and rookie-ness in martial arts movies, to be one of them.



4. There's an interview (in English) with MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS star Michelle Yeoh on the 20th Century Fox dvd. Not having seen the James Bond flick `Tomorrow Never Dies,' or a Hong Kong action flick, I watched this movie unfamiliar with the star or the genre she was working in. What the heck, though - it's a war movie, so I figured there'd be something familiar to latch onto. The most welcome thing I heard on the interview was Yeoh's recognition that action is closely related to dance (Yeoh has ballet in her background,) a truth she learned when making this movie. If this is a typical example of Hong Kong action movies it seems she's not the only person in that industry who realizes there's a vital rhythm to be achieved when cutting an action sequence.
   
   MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS was made in 1987, and Yeoh's character seems modeled on Indiana Jones. She wears a leather jacket, wields a nasty bull-whip, and hops around China in a canary yellow bi-plane. Yeoh's character is a soldier of fortune who is hired to travel deep into Mongolia and pluck a local governor with valuable information from the clutches of the evil, occupying Japanese. Naturally there are bad guys around every corner, impossibly acrobatic and tenacious bad guys, who must be battled into submission. The action is non-stop, the fight choreography extremely impressive, and the plot sturdily serviceable. The Japanese want to build a poison gas factory in the region, and in the meantime they're amusing themselves by testing the lethal toxin on defenseless locals. There are a couple of thousand Japanese troops around the city, impossible odds under normal circumstances, but more or less even odds when Michelle and crew start cracking the whip. As in the western action flicks I'm familiar with, the day extras break like matchsticks when Michelle's fists (and feet) start flying. Others - the bad guys with lines of dialogues and names listed in the end credits, are a little - okay, a lot - harder to take down. They're as tough as shoe leather and resilient as graphite, able to withstand a flurry of physical punishment that would leave a bull water buffalo whimpering for mercy.
   
   Bottom line - MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS is a fun action flick, heavy emphasis on the action, that takes for granted our female heroine will save her comrades without missing a beat or stopping to pat herself on the back. The core story may not be terribly complex, but it doesn't let you down, either. Strong recommendation for this one.



5. Now the movie startrs out showing michelle as a bodyguard for a warlord who is going to sell weapons. We find out right away it is going to be a slapstick movie so watch michelle yeoh slash her whip at anyone who comes close to her. If the story would have been a bit better, I easily would have gave this a 5. But when her father is in trouble and then we find out it was just a way to test michelle, I didn't care one bit. Stupid reason to put in some jawdropping martial arts is just fine with me. SO the ma's are good, but the stunts are on a whole nother level. Michelle will do some unbelievable maneuvers with her whip, and all of a sudden we realized that she wrapped somebody up and another hong kong stunt man dies. I mean how are they allowed to do this crazy stuff!!!!! I actually got a little scared for the stunt men when watchign this, but hey, it's all about the finished product, and there are certainly no dissapointments in this movie.
   
   So we find out that michelle has come to town to meet up with a couple of other secret agent to rescue lord Yoda. yeah, seriously. Now there is a commander who is playing Yoda like a puppet, but when you got guys like HWANG JANG LEE and LO MENG coverign your back, I would't be too scared of anyone finding out either. It took liek over an hour before Silevrfox fights, but when he does, man oh man. This is the newest movie(87 I think) I have ever seen Hwang in and his legs LOOK BETTER THAN EVER. In fact i actually saw a couple of REALLY scared looks on Michelle when she ahd to fight with with. You can see him actually slowign down at some points because nto only michelle, but NOBODY could ever keep up with his kicks. I figured he would only have like a couple minutes of fight time, but I got WAY more than I bargained for. Unfortuantely Lo Meng doesn't really fight.
   
   So I HIGHLY recommend this hong kong action/kung fu movie. And remember in the aviator when howard hughes wanted to go where there is clouds to shoot so he can show how fast the planes are going? Well, in hong kong cinema, you just speed up the filming:)
   
   Now the dvd release itself EASILY gets a 5/5. IT HAS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH ACTION DIRECTOR STEVE TUNG WAI AND MICHELLE, AND THEY ACTUALLY TALK ABOUT THE MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No comments about Invincible Shaolin.

5 comments about Double Dragon.

1. I absolutely LOVE this movie. It's wicked funny and has two pieces of eye candy (Scott Wolf and Marc Dacascos). I don't know how anyone couldn't love this movie. I hope that some more copies of it are in stock soon because I consider this movie a must have!



2. Freakin sickest movie i have ever seen with friggin sweet lines like "i can see you" "no you cant". Then the guy gets a pole in his eye. Dude go see this movie, no need to rent it just buy it right away. Buy six copies and give them to all your friends you friggin hobo.



3. im a big fan of the Double Dragon series, i had been waiting for months til the movie came out, after awhile this movie is such disapointment
   come on, who cares about me medals? who cares about the super power? we want decent, authentic martial arts movie, we want the true double dragon spirit, man, what a joke, without the medals, the 2 double dragons are 2 weakest guy in da world, they had to run away from their enemies in every fight til they can get their medals, come on, man, we dont want Tom&Jerry
   we want double dragon!!!
   what a joke, why do u ppl made a movie that based on the cartoon that based on the video game, the DD original spirit somehow lost in this new cartoon, and now you were making a movie based on it?
   why didnt u ppl just make a movie straight out of the video game, throw in some good martial arts, make the DD the 2 greatest fighter in the world, make them travelling around the world beating the hell out of everyboby, maybe everyone will buy it and you ppl will have to make DD da movie 2, 3, 4... who knows? after this disaster, the DD series went down like hell...
   this series was so great, why? you ppl are to blame
   all i want to do to you ppl is punch u in da faces, and stuff the stupid medals down ur throats...
   magic medals piss me off!!!!!!!!!!



4. Most video game based movies are bombs and this one stands out above some of the ones that cames before it. Mark Darascos is a great martial-artist and this film gives just a taste of what he can do.



5. This is the movie world's LL Cool J!!!!
   If it weren't for Mac and Me, I'd say this movie was the greatest of all time!!!
   People, wake up!!!
   You're so used to seeing garbage like Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, Star Wars, House of the Dead, etc you don't know what a good movie actually is!!!
   Buy this and watch it with your family on Thanksgiving, you won't be sorry!!!!
   
   OH, almost forgot.... I strongly recommend renting this movie along with The Mangler, you won't be sorry!!!

No comments about The Ultimate Gordon Liu Collection DVD Set (4 Assassins/Shaolin Vs. Wu Tang/Master of Disaster/Shaolin Martial Arts).

No comments about Naked Weapon.

5 comments about Black Belt Jones 2 - The Tattoo Connection.

1. i remember watching this 70s jim kelly classic on saturday afternoon tv in new york when a local tv station played kung fu movies every week. ah those were the good ol' days of the late 70s/80s. THE TATTOO CONNECTION sticks out as the best of those kung fu flicks i have seen. i remember jim kelly ... as an agent named lucas sent overseas to find some diamond. i remember some goofy disco theme song titled 'diamond'. i remember a good car chase scene with kelly at some lumber or junk yard. i remember kelly making love to an asian girl while switching drinks where 1 contained a drug meant for him but the girl wound up drinking it and got high. i remember jim kelly telling his bosses that he's "the black six million dollar man". i remember in the bad dubbing 1 of the bad guys called kelly not lucas but "black man!" racist! i remember the climax on a ship and kelly kicking rear. what else? that's all i know. i am just happy that TATTOO CONNECTION will be out on dvd in april (why so many delays after original dates of feb., march 25 and now april 22?!) and i will buy it. hope it will be widescreen and remastered. i will have a good time. congrats to pathfinder video for releasing this treasure, ok 3 1/2 stars. if only they can put out other old kung fu classics like STREETS GANGS OF HONG KONG, STONER (w/ george lazenby post-007), DUEL OF THE IRON FIST. A HARD WAY TO DIE, SLAUGHTER IN SAN FRANCISCO with chuck norris, & ROOTS OF EVIL (with christian anders---who?).

   it is june 9, and FINALLY, i bought THE TATTOO CONNECTION which sadly it isn't letterboxed and it is in need of windex w/ its filthy film prints. still, i had a good time. the fighting is surprising ly terrific and jim kelly is very good. to my surprise there is a lotta (A LOT! ) nudity that wasn't in the U.S. print when it first came out in theaters. there is commentary by 2 film critics who sound like a combo of beavis and butthead, dennis miller (one of 'em sounds like him) and MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000. and it is helpful and hilarious. 4 stars! if only those 2 critics can poke fun @ george lazenby's awful acting and kung-fu-ing in STONER.




2. This film is for die hard Jim Kelly fans! "The Tattoo Connection" (TTC) is promoted as "Black Belt Jones 2" although it has no connection with the original Kelly classic. The producers of this title probably used the tie in to entice the casual fan to check this DVD out based on the popularity of "Black Belt Jones." The plot is sketchy as Kelly's secret agent character Lucas is given the assignment of retrieving a stolen diamond some where in Asia. The film never really gathers up enough steam to be considered as a top rate martial arts offering. However, TTC is at its best when Kelly is on the screen (as the star Kelly is notoriously absent during several rather long sequences) chopping up guys and laying down that ultra smooth soul brother rap. The highlight of the film occurs during the climatic fight on a ship were Kelly goes toe to toe with fellow "Enter the Dragon" alumni Bolo Yeung in a fight to the death. Kelly is fit and in fine form through out TTC. It's a shame that he wasn't given more to do in this effort it might have raised the over all quality of the film.



3. This typical Hong Kong 1970's kung fu flick has now been re-released as BLACK BELT JONES 2, although originally released as THE TATTOO CONNECTION.Obviously the distributers have called it BBJ2 to tie in with the popularity of the original movie.This movie is no BBJ but it's quite entertaining if you are a Kelly fan.The film is let down by a scene where a rather choppy fight scene goes horribly wrong,the illusion is ruined and the fight looks fake.What's more, Jim Kelly is hardly in this movie and looks a bit of a fool surrounded by all those unknown Chinese actors.



4. Pathfinder Pictures? Never heard of them. While I'm pleased this movie was released on DVD, I am very disappointed with the overall picture and sound quality. This is one of the worst video transfers I have ever seen and the sound is not far behind. Obviously no money went into restoring this movie for its release on DVD and that's too bad for Jim Kelly fans. Make no mistake; this movie has nothing to do with the martial art's classic Black Belt Jones. Jim Kelly had a supporting role in "Enter the Dragon" and he didn't really get a chance to show us what he could do with his ability. In "The Tattoo Connection" he is the man, but once again this movie doesn't really showcase his martial arts talent either. I struggled to give this movie a 3 star rating but hey it's Jim Kelly. This is a typical 1970's chop socky movie that could have been much better. For martial arts and Kelly fans the fight scene between Kelly and Bolo Yeung is still exciting to watch. The Tattoo Connection is still an entertaining movie, but I definitely think the price is too much considering the poor picture and sound quality from Pathfinder.
   
   On the DVD
   Interactive menus
   Scene access
   Filmographies
   Trailer
   Audio commentary by cinema critics Luke Y. Thompson and Gregory Weinkauf
   Still gallery
   Languages: English, Mandarin Chinese
   On/off subtitles



5. B movie at it's best but KUNG FU. Black Belt Jones is back and HE is the one that is gonna take bruce's place. He got on the train and fell off quick, but Jim Kelly had a few pretty good movies. This is definitelyone of them. Add in Lee Hoi-sang, Dorian Tan(delon tan), Bolo, Sing Chen, tony leung sei hung ( a great action director) and a couple of other stars I can't put a name to, and you have a really alomst good kung fu flick.
   
   So some diamonds are stolen of course and Jim kelly shows up to track down the robbers. He says-"they call me the black 6 milion dollar man". AHHHHH the cheese, it is good cheese, but just liek anything, you can get too much of it. So save a litle for later if you need to, cause this is a classic and may take two sittings to get through the greatness of it. Sadly it gets REALLY borign at the midway point. So finally the ending comes around and is very unspectacular, but you do get 2 good fights, opne with jim and bolo, other with dorian tan and sing chen. All in all, worth a peek if you are a mega fan like me. And if you don't belieev me about the cheese, then here is the evry last line of the movie. "I'll see you on christmas". They may have finished this movie in 2 days time. For real.

No comments about ChiWalking DVD: The Five Mindful Steps for Lifelong Health and Energy.