Dynamite Shaolin Heroes (DVD)

Advantages: inspiring, breath taking
Disadvantages: some stunts are cringe worthy

...minutes. Think "kill bill", think "crouching tiger, hidden dragon", think "hero". Think again. This is for real and so the story behind it is far greater than that of any movie. Shaolin Kung-fu goes back along way into time, the story the monks are trying to tell the audience, through their discipline, is a legandary one. The monks can perform as a team, in which they all move in unisen, but they also display their own unique talents. For example, several of the monks performed their different animal techniques (such as monkey, praying mantis, and eagle), some monks take on tasks such as lying atop beds of nails and resting on spikes. There are no special effects used, so this aspect I would rate at a low level. But special effects in this DVD would be out of context and spoil the whole performance (and the sense... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Good movie, great kung-fu
Disadvantages: English dubbed only, unremovable English/Chinese subtitles

...Shaolin & Wu Tang is a good movie with an excellent end fight scene between three Shaw Brothers legends: Gordon Liu, Adam Cheng and Wang Lung Wei Unfortunately this dvd is pretty terrible. Previously available on VHS in both original Cantonese/English subtitled and English dubbed (with burnt in English subtitles versions, they opted to include only the English dubbed version on this dvd. So you get English audio and English subtitles (+ Chinese subs) at the same time and no, the audio & subs don't match. Not including the original Cantonese audio when it was previously available is just pure laziness even if this is a budget 5.99 RRP title. As with a lot of old kung fu titles, picture quality is equivalent to VHS but at least you can avoid those annoying tape gets chewed up in your VCR occurences. To summarise - Good movie, bad dvd... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Feels fresh, occasional flashes of humor.
Disadvantages: Characters unlikable, situation just isn't funny.

...Napoleon Dynamite rides into to the UK with the kind of success story that so many films try for, and never achieve. A small indie film made on a modest budget, the film, largely thanks to a lacklustre studio season, has pushed itself into the mainstream. A film like this rarely reaches such a wide audience, and so with Garden State (following in november), we have this years pair of cool indie films. At least that's the theory. Napoleon Dynamite so desperately wants to be cool. It tries so hard by being so uncool that it should kind of loop back around again in coolness and become a cult favorite. The problem is that cult films cannot be created. They have to occur naturally. Anyone trying to make their film a cult one is almost certainly destined for failure. Jon Heder plays the eponymous hero, a nerd who is well beyond... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful