DVD Find the Perfect Gift    Send a Gift Certificate
Search 
Home › Action & Adventure › Martial Arts
Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Drunken Master [1979]
Actors & Directors
  • Yuen Woo-Ping
  • Casanova Wong
  • Jackie Chan
  • Hwang Jang Lee
  • Siu Tien Yuen
Release date: 2008-01-28
Run time: 107 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.07

Review Drunken Master [1979] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

Though it wasn't Jackie Chan's first film, Drunken Master is the film that cemented his stardom. Jackie plays the rebellious son of a kung fu master. To teach Jackie the value of discipline, his father apprentices him to another master named So Hi, who has a unique "drunken" fighting style. Jackie chafes at So Hi's rigorous exercises and runs away-only to be brutally humiliated at the hands of a hired killer named Thunderleg. Chastened, Jackie becomes So Hi's devoted student. He soon discovers he will need everything he's learned when Thunderleg is hired to kill his father. In Drunken Master, Jackie is only beginning to cultivate his mixture of action and comedy; here the emphasis is on kung fu acrobatics, but the moves are astounding. The final fight is dizzying and amazingly choreographed by director Yuen Woo-ping (now famous as the fight choreographer for The Matrix). -Bret Fetzer.

Review Contender Entertainment Group / Once Upon A Time In China - Complete Trilogy [1991]
Actors & Directors
  • Mok Sui Chung
  • Tsui Hark
  • Rosamund Kwan
  • Donnie Yen
  • Yuen Biao
  • Jet Li
Release date: 2003-04-07
Run time: 310 min.
RRP: £29.99
Price: £13.95

Review Once Upon A Time In China - Complete Trilogy [1991] / Contender Entertainment Group:


Review Ilc Entertainment / Best Of The Best Collection
Actors & Directors
  • Eric Roberts
  • Chris Penn
  • Phillip Rhee
  • James Earl Jones
Release date: 2007-10-15
Run time: 371 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £9.97

Review Best Of The Best Collection / Ilc Entertainment:


Review Barefootdoctordvds.com / Barefoot Doctor's TAI CHI Workout - Tai Chi Exercises for deep relaxation
Actors & Directors
  • Barefoot Doctor
  • Stephen Russell
  • Jake Seal
Release date: 2007-07-31
Run time: 80 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £14.99

Review Barefoot Doctor's TAI CHI Workout - Tai Chi Exercises for deep relaxation / Barefootdoctordvds.com:


Review Ilc Entertainment / Best Of The Best [1989]
Actors & Directors
  • Sally Kirkland
  • Eric Roberts
  • Chris Penn
  • Phillip Rhee
  • Robert Radler
  • James Earl Jones
Release date: 2002-03-18
Run time: 95 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.83

Review Best Of The Best [1989] / Ilc Entertainment:


Review Contender Entertainment Group / Game of Death (Single Disc) [1979]
Actors & Directors
  • Colleen Camp
  • Bruce Lee
  • Dan Inosanto
Release date: 2008-04-07
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £5.27

Review Game of Death (Single Disc) [1979] / Contender Entertainment Group:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Swordsman II
Actors & Directors
  • Jet Li
  • Michele Reis
  • Brigitte Lin
  • Siu-Tung Ching
Release date: 2005-11-28
Run time: 104 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.96

Review Swordsman II / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review The Water Margin / The Water Margin - Complete
Release date: 2005-02-07
RRP: £99.99
Price: £52.71

Review The Water Margin - Complete / The Water Margin:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Swordsman II
Actors & Directors
  • Michele Reis
  • Jet Li
  • Brigitte Lin
  • Siu-Tung Ching
Release date: 2005-11-28
Run time: 104 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.96

Review Swordsman II / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Contender Entertainment Group / Wing Chun
Actors & Directors
  • Donnie Yen
  • Michelle Yeoh
  • Tsui Siu Keung
  • Yuen Woo-Ping
Release date: 2004-09-20
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £16.99
Price: £3.97

Review Wing Chun / Contender Entertainment Group:


Review Shaolin Workout: Shaolin Warrior / Shaolin Workout - Shaolin Warrior Vol.1 - Beginners
Release date: 2008-03-03
RRP: £22.99
Price: £10.89

Review Shaolin Workout - Shaolin Warrior Vol.1 - Beginners / Shaolin Workout: Shaolin Warrior:


Review Warner Home Video / Bloodsport [1986] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Donald Gibb
  • Forest Whitaker
  • Newt Arnold
  • Leah Ayres
  • Norman Burton
  • Jean-Claude Van Damme
Release date: 2002-10-01
Run time: 92 min.
Price: £2.91

Review Bloodsport [1986] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:

A well-oiled Jean-Claude Van Damme makes his starring debut in what may be one of the few kickboxing films to be based on a true story. The Muscles from Brussels plays Frank Dux, the first Westerner ever to win the extreme "whupfest" known as the Kumatai (a long-running, no-holds-barred fighting tournament in Hong Kong). While a bit deficient in the script department (to say the least), this undeniably exciting flick succeeds by letting Van Damme play to his strengths: namely, minimal acting and a lot of impossibly acrobatic splits while kicking people in the head. Bloodsport is a guilty-pleasure testosterone blast of the highest order, with a memorable villain (the massive Bolo Yeung from Enter the Dragon) and a multitude of well-choreographed fight scenes. An embarrassed-looking Forest Whitaker cameos as a hapless (and non-kickboxing) cop. -Andrew Wright A well-oiled Jean-Claude Van Damme makes his starring debut in Bloodsport, which may be one of the few kickboxing films to be based on a true story. The Muscles from Brussels plays Frank Dux, the first Westerner ever to win the extreme "whupfest" known as the Kumatai (a long-running, no-holds-barred fighting tournament in Hong Kong). While a bit deficient in the script department (to say the least), this undeniably exciting flick succeeds by letting Van Damme play to his strengths: namely, minimal acting and a lot of impossibly acrobatic splits while kicking people in the head. It's a guilty pleasure testosterone blast of the highest order, with a memorable villain (the massive Bolo Yeung from Enter the Dragon), and a multitude of well-choreographed fight scenes. An embarrassed-looking Forest Whitaker cameos as a hapless (and non-kickboxing) cop. [+]
-Andrew Wright.

Review Warner Home Video / Bloodsport [1987]
Actors & Directors
  • Jean-Claude Van Damme
  • Norman Burton
  • Leah Ayres
  • Newt Arnold
  • Forest Whitaker
  • Donald Gibb
Release date: 2003-02-24
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £9.00

Review Bloodsport [1987] / Warner Home Video:

A well-oiled Jean-Claude Van Damme makes his starring debut in what may be one of the few kickboxing films to be based on a true story. The Muscles from Brussels plays Frank Dux, the first Westerner ever to win the extreme "whupfest" known as the Kumatai (a long-running, no-holds-barred fighting tournament in Hong Kong). While a bit deficient in the script department (to say the least), this undeniably exciting flick succeeds by letting Van Damme play to his strengths: namely, minimal acting and a lot of impossibly acrobatic splits while kicking people in the head. Bloodsport is a guilty-pleasure testosterone blast of the highest order, with a memorable villain (the massive Bolo Yeung from Enter the Dragon) and a multitude of well-choreographed fight scenes. An embarrassed-looking Forest Whitaker cameos as a hapless (and non-kickboxing) cop. -Andrew Wright A well-oiled Jean-Claude Van Damme makes his starring debut in Bloodsport, which may be one of the few kickboxing films to be based on a true story. The Muscles from Brussels plays Frank Dux, the first Westerner ever to win the extreme "whupfest" known as the Kumatai (a long-running, no-holds-barred fighting tournament in Hong Kong). While a bit deficient in the script department (to say the least), this undeniably exciting flick succeeds by letting Van Damme play to his strengths: namely, minimal acting and a lot of impossibly acrobatic splits while kicking people in the head. It's a guilty pleasure testosterone blast of the highest order, with a memorable villain (the massive Bolo Yeung from Enter the Dragon), and a multitude of well-choreographed fight scenes. An embarrassed-looking Forest Whitaker cameos as a hapless (and non-kickboxing) cop. [+]
-Andrew Wright.

Review Quantum Leap / Shaolin Warrior - The Way Of Qi Gong
Actors & Directors
  • Shifu Yan Lei
Release date: 2005-12-05
Run time: 60 min.
RRP: £22.99
Price: £10.99

Review Shaolin Warrior - The Way Of Qi Gong / Quantum Leap:


Review DVD Digital Distribution / A.W.O.L Absent Without Leave (AWOL)
Actors & Directors
  • Deborah Rennard
  • Sheldon Lettich
  • Jean-Claude Van Damme
  • Harrison Page
  • Lisa Pelikan
  • Ashley Johnson
Release date: 2008-01-21
RRP: £5.99
Price: £5.99

Review A.W.O.L Absent Without Leave (AWOL) / DVD Digital Distribution:


Review Contender Entertainment Group / Project A [1983]
Actors & Directors
  • Hoi San Lee
  • Yuen Biao
  • Jackie Chan
  • Dick Wei
  • Sammo Hung
  • Jackie Chan
Release date: 2002-06-24
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £2.75

Review Project A [1983] / Contender Entertainment Group:

For people who've discovered Jackie Chan through his American hit Rush Hour and want to learn what his Hong Kong movies are like, Project A is an excellent place to start. Chan plays a sailor in 19th-century Hong Kong; pirates have been terrorizing the seas for months and all efforts to combat them have been sabotaged by the corrupt chief of police and a criminal gang, who are in cahoots with the pirates. But the plot is hardly the point-a Jackie Chan movie is about astonishingly acrobatic action sequences and breathtaking stunts, and Project A has plenty. Of particular interest is a bicycle chase that is more suspenseful than any car chase you've ever seen. Chan is joined by Sammo Hung (star of the US TV series Martial Law) as a shifty con man who comes through when the chips are down. Project A also features Yuen Biao, a frequent co-star in Chan's movies, who's yet another astounding martial artist. But what separates Jackie Chan movies from other kung fu flicks is his sense of humour; every fight scene is punctuated by something-a clever use of a prop or sudden reversal of your expectations-that will make you bark with laughter. Sometimes it's just so exquisitely choreographed that the entire movie seems to float on a cloud of giddy delight. Jackie Chan is often compared to the classic silent comedians for his grace and timing-he lives up to it. -Bret Fetzer.

Review Artificial Eye / Zatoichi [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano
  • Tadanobu Asano
  • 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano
Release date: 2004-07-26
Run time: 111 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £4.54

Review Zatoichi [2004] / Artificial Eye:

Takeshi "Beat" Kitano, the Japanese actor-director best known in the US for his quirky, ulraviolent gangster movies (Fireworks, Brother, Sonatine) and in the UK (among satellite and cable viewers, at least) for the bizarre It's a Knockout-meets-Endurance gameshow Takeshi's Castle, applies his off-kilter sensibility to the samurai genre in The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi. A blind masseur (Kitano with his hair dyed white) wanders into a small town divided up by rival gangs. Though hunched and shuffling, Zatoichi soon reveals his deadly skills as a swordsman. He befriends a pair of geisha girls with secrets of their own and helps them hunt down the bandits who killed their parents. But one of the gangs has just hired a ronin, a masterless samurai, whose fighting skill may equal the blind swordsman's. Zatoichi mixes a melodramatic storyline, deadpan comedy, and dazzling, CGI-enhanced swordfights into a supremely entertaining package. In Japan, Zatoichi is a recurring character in popular action movies, but Kitano places his own unique stamp on the series. -Bret Fetzer.

Review 4 Front Video / No Retreat, No Surrender [1985]
Actors & Directors
  • Tai Chung Kim
  • Corey Yuen
  • Jean-Claude Van Damme
  • Kathie Sileno
  • J.W. Fails
  • Kurt McKinney
Release date: 2004-06-14
Run time: 79 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.98

Review No Retreat, No Surrender [1985] / 4 Front Video:


Review Ilc Entertainment / Best Of The Best [1989]
Actors & Directors
  • Phillip Rhee
  • Sally Kirkland
  • Chris Penn
  • Robert Radler
  • Eric Roberts
  • James Earl Jones
Release date: 2002-03-18
Run time: 95 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.83

Review Best Of The Best [1989] / Ilc Entertainment:


Review Prism Leisure / Drive [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Brittany Murphy
  • Tracey Walter
  • John Pyper-Ferguson
  • Kadeem Hardison
  • Steve Wang
  • Mark Dacascos
Release date: 2003-05-16
Run time: 112 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.31

Review Drive [1996] / Prism Leisure:

Drive takes the standard American mismatched-buddies action comedy formula and turbo-charges it with furious Hong Kong wirework and martial arts. The result is a three-and-a-half million dollar "B" picture which looks like it cost 10 times more. The perfunctory story crosses Universal Solider (1992) with Rush Hour (1997) as a biologically enhanced Mark Dacascos flees a small army of Hong Kong assassins through California, teaming up with comedian Kadeem Hardison and delivering an almost unbelievable amount of bang per buck. Director Steve Wang stages the action with flair and clarity, the stunts, wirework and fights being exceptionally well-choreographed and shot. With Hardison's patter, two offbeat redneck assassins and a TV show about a frog with Einstein's brain there's abundant surprisingly genial humour, aided by Brittany Murphy's ditzy performance as a Twin Peaks-like teenager with hormones in overdrive. The cyborg aspect simply justifies the superhuman combat, but nevertheless a huge showdown in a retro-space age club is clearly styled after the "Tech Noir" bar sequence in The Terminator (1984), adding motorcycle killersstraight out of Rollerball (1975). Drive captures the rush of Hong Kong action movies yet almost has the feel of a musical, the mayhem replacing song and dance and offering more popcorn entertainment than many a bloated summer blockbuster. On the DVD: For such a low budget movie the 2. 35:1 anamorphically enhanced image puts many far bigger features to shame, being pin-sharp throughout, with strong and accurate colours and minimal grain. The Dolby Digital 5. [+]
1 sound is equally strong, with sound-effects and music both having considerable impact, explosions ripping thorough the room like the latest Arnie shoot 'em up. There is a 47-minute retrospective documentary which is particularly interesting on the way the film was cut and restored for American release-this DVD presenting the director's cut which runs over 16 minutes longer than the US version. Six deleted/extended scenes are presented in a variety of formats, and it's easy to see why they were deleted. Also included are the original theatrical trailer, three photo galleries, cast and crew biographies and interview galleries with director Steve Wang and four of the main stars totalling about 20 minutes of material. The informative commentary track has Wang, Dacascos, Hardison and stunt co-ordinator Koichi Sakamoto revelling in their sheer enthusiasm for the movie and for Hong Kong action in general. -Gary S Dalkin.

Models & Brands:
Drunken Master [1979], Once Upon A Time In China - Complete Trilogy [1991], Best Of The Best Collection, Barefoot Doctor's TAI CHI Workout - Tai Chi Exercises for deep relaxation, Best Of The Best [1989], Game of Death (Single Disc) [1979], Swordsman II, The Water Margin - Complete, Swordsman II, Wing Chun, Shaolin Workout - Shaolin Warrior Vol.1 - Beginners, Bloodsport [1986] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Bloodsport [1987], Shaolin Warrior - The Way Of Qi Gong, A.W.O.L Absent Without Leave (AWOL), Project A [1983], Zatoichi [2004], No Retreat, No Surrender [1985], Best Of The Best [1989], Drive [1996]

Top headlines:
Search 
DVD Rental: try it for free