Fist Of The Warrior

"Fist of the Warrior" is one of the latest DTV action films that have little to show other than a cool cover; the fact that it features a photoshopped picture of Ho-Sung "Superstar" Pak showing off tattoos that are queerly absent in the movie should give you an idea of what quality of film you'd be watching if you buy this. See, judging by the back and cover of the DVD case, you'd think that you're going into a nonstop action movie featuring a tattooed guy with a sword, when in fact you'll be lucky if there is two minutes worth of fighting in the film (with no sword), which turns out to be more of a boring dirty cop/gangster drama than anything else. Don't let the fact that this movie debuted at Cannes sway you - the only reason it got in there is because it was produced on a low budget.The story: Lee Choe (Ho-Sung Pak,  The Legend of Drunken Master ) is a martial artist and hitman trying to go legit for his girlfriend Sarah (Robin Paul,  A Tale of Two Pizzas ) when an assassination attempt by his ex-boss/gangster John (Peter Greene,  The Black Donnellys ) leaves her dead and Lee filled with rage. He goes on a rampage through the underworld, looking to take out John, who turns to corrupt detective Craig Barnes (Roger Gueneveur Smith,  American Gangster ) to frame him.Like I said, action fans are lucky if there are two full minutes of martial arts on display. Granted, Pak is legitimately one of the best martial artists in the world and has a very distinctive style of fighting, but he has a total of only four quick scenes to show them off: a quick bar fight, a short montage of him beating up people around the city, a silly encounter with Rosa Blasi ("Strong Medicine"), and the climatic five-on-one battle near the end of the film are generally all pretty cool, but are poorly shot and amateurishly edited. When the fists stop flying, however, we need to fall back on Pak as an actor, which - I'm sorry to say - is not a fun thing to watch at all.Then again, there's not much good acting on display, and Pak's performance is merely the tip of the iceberg: fellow leading star Peter Greene looks unpleasantly confused right up until his death, and Roger Gueneveur Smith tries desperately to inject dramaticism into each any every single scene he's in via dramatic pauses, a hushed voice, and/or prolonged expressions, even if the scene doesn't call for it. The supporting cast generally steals the show: Golden Globe nominee Sherilyn Fenn ("Twin Peaks") as Barnes' alcoholic wife and Antonio Fargas ( Everybody Hates Chris ) as the priest consulted by Lee give the best performances of the bunch. Other notable stars include Michael Dorn ( Star Trek: The Next Generation ), Ed Marinaro ("Sisters"), A. Martinez ("Santa Barbara"), and Brian Thompson ( Cobra ), who do good jobs with their parts but aren't featured enough to leave much of an impression.The rest of the movie is a mish-mash of whodunit, "General Hospital"-esque ham drama, and endless flashbacks featuring Lee and his girlfriend. In all, way too much is going on that doesn't concern the star of the picture, which is probably the biggest case of false advertising that I've come across in some time. Fans of Pak's "WMAC" tour might want to pick this one up for the short fight scenes (might as well check out his previous film, "Book of Swords"), but besides them, the only audience this film will find are the poor souls who buy it with the wrong expectations. I'll say it again: the cover looks cool, the back looks cool, but this movie is approximately only 1/44th martial arts-related...and no, there are no car chases or shootouts to fall back on, either.

This Movie seems cool, but its a waste of money and time. The cover art draws you in and makes you think yeah this going to be a kick ass movie. But its NOT. The plot is good. But not a lot of action and the action moves seem simple and not so entertaining. There was more talking than action and that threw me off big time. So don't waste your time!

This Movie with HoSung Pak and Peter Greene is a well acted action movie. It has a surprising amount of well known actors in the movie, and the action packed sequences leave you on the edge of your seat wanting more. Ho Sung is in amazing shape, and there is eye candy for both men and women in this movie. I remember him from Legend of the Drunken Master with Jackie Chan. He was really good then, and he's really good now. I highly recommend this film!

fair

I wasn't sure when I bought this movie if ti was going to be any good, but I really liked watching this movie.

Well scripted, well acted, but most of all GREAT fight scenes with a great storyline. Ho-Sung Pak is a true martial artist.

Good movie. Happy buyer.

Horrible predictable made for tv

I love martial arts movies, but this was just a complete joke, and more importantly, a fraud. The cover, as you can see, shows a guy (the main character), covered in yakuza tattoos, and holding a katana. Well guess what, in the actual movie, he never uses a katana or any other swords, and he doesn't have any tattoos. Next, to the left of him on the cover, there's a picture of two dudes/martial artists apparently engaged in a fight. Well, neither of them ever show up in the movie, and that fight doesn't exist. Finally, the text on the cover says "Dizzying fight sequences...performed at breakneck speed"...Well, I can tell you that there are barely any fights at all in the entire movie, I think there are like 3 of them or so, and all of them are very very short, and they certainly don't move at "breakneck speed", in fact, they are EXTREMELY slow...You watch the whole hour and half of the movie, hoping and expecting there to be some cool action and fighting, but instead there's maybe like 5 minutes of action in the whole thing, and what's there isn't very good either...There really should be a law against movie creators blatantly and openly lying about the content of their movies like this, the cover and the description is a pure lie, the movie is nothing short of a fraud...Also, for the record, the supposed main character in this movie actually has less screentime than the main badguy, as well as one crooked detective...It's also extremely slow throughout the entire movie, and the plot is lame...It really is pathetic...Avoid this crapfest of a movie at all costs. You have been warned.

Wow, Ho Sung Pak action and had pretty good acting in this one.

Bisher hat der Film ja recht vernichtende Kritiken erhalten. Aufgrund des Trailers (welcher auf einer anderen DVD enthalten war) und des sehr günstigen Preises habe ich mich dennoch für einen Kauf entschieden. Was soll ich sagen: Mir hat der Film wirklich gut gefallen.Die Story ist nicht gerade episch aber für einen Film dieses Kalibers absolut i.O. .Auch wenn die Kampfszenen durchaus etwas länger hätten ausfallen dürfen, sind diese doch sehr nach meinem Geschmack. Nicht unbedingt realistisch, aber auch nicht so (unnötig) blutig, wie bei vielen aktuellen Filmen. Insgesamt nett choreographiert und sehr schon anzuschauen.Wer die alten Karate Tiger / No Retreat No Surrender Filme mag, sollte ruhig mal einen Blick riskieren.

Der Film an sich ist die übliche Rache Story schön brav durch eine Nebengeschichte aufgewertet. Allerdings wird hierbei vergessen den Charakter des Rächers tiefer zu profilieren. Überhaupt scheint er nur zu kämpfen, gesprochene Worte von ihm sind eine Seltenheit. Die Kampf-Szenen sind eher langsam choreografiert, sie können den Film nicht aufwerten.Lasche Story, lahme Kämpfe - allein die Nebengeschichte rettet den 2. Stern.

Une histoire de vengeance, qui sur le fond retient toute mon attention, mais qui sur la forme est plutôt grossièrement adaptée. Un film qui est du niveau d'un téléfilm. A voir, pour "tuer" le temps.