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The Man With the Iron Fists is a movie that was 'presented' (not produced) by Quentin Tarantino and directed by RZA. It centers on the story of a black blacksmith in China, who is trying to leave his hostile home village that's entrenched in between good ol' clan wars.
If you are seeking to be entertained, look no further. RZA blends the 'hip-hop samurai' type of music and feel -prevalent in a lot of anime in recent years -with the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-floating-around-style of fighting to create a high-flying (no pun intended) and adventurous parody of the genres with a Spaguetti Western flare. Needless to say, visually this movie is great in many respects.
However, beyond that, the movie suffers from more than a few noticeable stumbling points. The first being dialogue. Not only is the writing over-simplified, but the fact that some of the Chinese characters have Oriental-English accents while others speak perfectly clear English is something that will distract some viewers from the already simple plot. In addition, the main antagonist Silver Lion is portrayed as the funny one-liner villain, but there are times when his role feels overdone and out of place during the more serious scenes. Perhaps this harkens back to the older Kung-fu movie time other reviewers mentioned, but for me it was distracting.
Another caveat is the characters. They didn't feel very memorable, which is again probably due to the dialogue. The exception here is Russel Crowe's character, who exhibits wit, style, and the fact he sticks out like a sore thumb in a charming way. While I feel he did an extraordinary job in executing this role, I'm not exactly sure how his career will be affected in the long-run from this... You'll know what I mean.
Lastly, there were gaps in terms of the suspension of belief. While these types of movies are going to exhibit combat and visuals that are uncanny, a few of the developments toward the end, including one bad guy in particular, just felt like huge leaps of faith without any sort of explanation at all. I don't want to spoil anything, but again I think you'll know what I mean as you watch.
Now before I sound overly critical, let me tip my hat off to RZA. Not only did he direct the movie. He wrote it, helped compose the soundtrack, and starred as the blacksmith. This truly is RZA's movie in every sense of the phrase.
With so many responsibilities on one person, I can't help but critique this movie with admiration for it. It may not be on the Tarantino level, but if this is a beginning path for RZA I am excited to see what he comes up with next. Watch TMWTIF with the right expectations. If you're expecting Kill Bill or Pulp Fiction, take it down a good notch. If you're expecting a parody of exaggerated, oriental combat and hip-hop anime with Spaghuetti Western tropes, you're in for an entertaining ride. It's worth a watch, even if it doesn't etch itself into your soul.
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fantastic movie! i saw a lot of very unique and fun kung fu ideas that could only come from a true movie fan such as the rza! there is a brass statue of a man that is in many movies as a training dummy for qi (chi) blocking attacks. in this movie there is the statue and a man with skin that can become brass at will, it links up toward the end in such a cool way i was blown away. i imagine the rza back in the 70's thinking "what if someone had to fight the qi training statue? then they would be really f*&%ed!"i could see where he deliberately paid homage to old kung fu films with some of the camera work, hair and acting styles, this kind of thing might look odd too someone who hasn't seen older kung fu movies as some of it seems corny or stilted (which is how those old movies are, something fans love!). but even so, they would get over it every time one of the AMAZING battles started.
at first the rap music came off as out of place. this is coming from a wu tang clan fan since the 36 chambers, and digital bullet is one of my favorite albums, but they're in ancient china and it's all hip hop style which doesn't really match up, but it grew on me very fast and by the end i was bobbing my head to the beats and enjoying them with the fight scenes. i grew up listening to wu tang, and rza always puts cuts from classic kung fu movies in his music. it's really cool hearing them and then, years later, stumbling over the same lines or music while watching the movie they're from without knowing it ahead of time. it's like: "why do i recognize this? i've never seen this movie... oh yeah! wu tang!" this was the exact opposite of that and it worked pretty well! i'm watching a kung fu movie and thinking "wait a minute, i know that song!"
and the story? phenomenal! really fun stuff going on and lots of surprises. russel crow is a riot in this movie. i was thoroughly entertained. i love buddhism, kung fu, and i dig the rza's music so the scene at the buddhist temple had me smiling from ear to ear.
really great film!
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good movie for a martial arts film. would have like to seen more fighting styles and the other clans in this movie.Honest reviews on The Man with the Iron Fists (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy
It's got no real plot and the action scenes are terrible. The only saving grace is the actors/actresses which seem to want to try and salvage a bad movie, but couldn't help it.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for The Man with the Iron Fists (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy
This movie starts out with a story that seems promising but as it progresses it just falls short of being an interesting movie. I give it 2 1/2 bags of popcorn in my rating.
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