Jackie Chan DVD - Page 9

Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 25 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

excellent style 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

this movie's plot is weak and steriotypical, the dubbing is [bad] and Jackie barely smiles, but the kung fu, which is what I bought it for in the first place, is excellent.

I study both the snake and the crane styles of shaolin and I must say, aside form all the cartwheels and usuall razzle dazzle of movie kung fu, the coreography, (which Chan was highly involved in) was excellent and mostly true to the real styles of shaolin.

If you like alot of action, blood and childish swear words dubbed in to movie then buy this.

It's excellent

Editorial Review:

Jackie Chan apprenticed in a series of straight-faced martial arts revenge films before he found his true calling as the clown prince of kung fu in Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and the original Drunken Master. The sprawling clan-war conspiracy adventure Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin is one of his best pre-fame efforts, a tale of tenuous alliances and double-crosses, with cocky young warrior Jackie in the middle stirring up trouble. The sly rascal in the den of thieves, however, is actually an honorable young acolyte on a mission of vengeance. It's the usual story, with a little more comedy and plenty of old "strike and pose" fight scenes energized by Jackie's youthful athleticism. The opening theme song was cribbed from the same music library that supplied Monty Python and the Holy Grail. --Sean Axmaker

Police Story/Police Story, Vol. 2

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Jackie Chan Adventures - The Search For The Talisman

List Price: $9.95 By: Sony Pictures Amazon Marketplace: 13 new & used starting at $2.65

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

One more thing! 3 out of 5 stars.
19 of 19 people found this review helpful.

Having taped Jackie Chan Adventures on both Kids WB! and Cartoon Network, and having recently purchased all three JCA DVDs used (never pay retail!) I can WITHOUT A DOUBT say that these episodes are intact AND that they are edited.

Wha?! You ask.

Depends on the episode. Some are completely intact. Some are missing from a few seconds to a few minutes. This has more to do with each DVD's combining three episodes into a "movie". While some complain that the intros are missings, this is not completely accurate as some are and some are not. Some actually have trimmed scenes... Where these DVDs really deviate is by playing one opening credit, all three episodes in "movie format", then all three "Ask Jackie" spots and finally a combined ending credits. Strangely, though they use the opening theme music during the end credits as adopted in later seasons NOT the "Chan is the Man" song originally used.

Why Columbia/Tri-Star (Sony distributes the show, but not the DVDs) chose to go with the "movie format" instead of just a straight-forward Episode 1, Episode 2, etc. and then stopped making the DVDs with Episode 9 is beyond me. I would like to see a Season One, Season Two, Season Three, and Season Four box set (especially since JCA has been picked up for a fifth season) with each episode being treated as an individual, hence my only giving these DVDs three stars each.

Editorial Review:

JACKIE CHAN'S ADVENTURES is the exciting new animated series from world-famous action hero Jackie Chan. You've never seen Jackie like this! Archeologist Jackie Chan's eleven-year-old niece Jade proves action runs in the family when she arrives from Hong Kong to live with Jackie and his wise, old uncle in San Francisco. Meanwhile, Jackie has found an ancient Chinese talisman, and now he's got government agents and gangsters chasing after him. Soon, Jackie and Jade learn the secret powers of the Rooster talisman and must use magic and martial arts to stop the villainous Valmont and his thugs from stealing the powerful prize for their own purposes. When Jackie and Jade travel to Mexico to find the next talisman, Jackie ends up in the ring with world class wrestler El Toro Fuerte. He quickly discovers the Ox talisman but Valmont's goons are on his tail. Jackie and Jade team up with the mighty wrestler to battle the bad guys in a championship match of good vs. evil.

Dragon Fist

Amazon Price: $12.98 List Price: $12.98 Temporarily out of stock. Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your credit card will not be charged until we ship the item. By: Beverly Wilshire Amazon Marketplace: 3 new & used starting at $3.97

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

The best handwork Jackie Chan has ever performed 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

During an awesome opening tournament scene with Hsu Hsia taking on all comers, he gets killed, and his student played by Jackie Chan goes to take revenge. He goes with his master's wife and daughter to find the killer. But when he gets there, we find out that this man is very sorry for what he did. There's a bit more to the story, but I don't want to give it away. It's not a great story, but darker than most kung fu movies. I didn't see Jackie smile once. He gives a great acting performance, and an even better fighting performance. This is the most hate I have ever seen from Jackie. No comedy, he just tears people up with his awesome kung fu.

Yen Shi Kwan, Eagle Han Ying, James Tien and Chui Fat also star, and they all give fine performances. This is the best I have ever seen James Tien look next to his performance in Bone Crushing Kid. Jackie worked him really hard on this movie.

3.5/5

The Columbia Tristar DVD has awesome picture quality, a good sounding Chinese dub, and the original oldschool English dub (not one of those crappy dubs you hear sometimes). This version is cut, so if you want to see it uncut you should get the PAL Hong Kong Legends version.

Jackie Chan: Triple Punch Collection

List Price: $6.98 By: Vintage Home Ent. Amazon Marketplace: 18 new & used starting at $1.84

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Fun, Goofy Kung-Fu Movies 3 out of 5 stars.
21 of 21 people found this review helpful.

First things first: only one of the three movies on this DVD ("The Young Master") actually stars Jackie Chan. The others where either had action choreography done by him ("36 Crazy Fists") or have a short cameo ("Fantasy Mission Force.")
"Young Master" is an enjoyable movie, similar in tone and style to his relatively early "Drunken Master" period. The first half has its lulls, but the second half picks up with some terrific action and comedy.
"36 Crazy Fists" actually has footage of Jackie doing choreography tacked on at the beginning, adding sleaziness to this hilariously bad epic. Obviously intended as a rip-off of "Drunken Master," this is truly awful, but it's entertaining in an odd sort of way.
Chan apparantly did "Fantasy Mission Force" as a favour to Jimmy Wang-Yu, who helped get him out of a contract. This is a completely wild, insane movie, full of Amazon women, odd references to American movies, a singing hobo, and even vampires! It's wonderfully stupid in every conceivable way, although, truth be told, the final battle between Jimmy Wang-Yu and Chan is relatively exciting.
Like most DVDs that try to cram three movies on them, this looks pretty atrocious. "Fantasy Mission Force" and "36 Crazy Fists" are both panned-and-scanned, and they look very claustrophobic. "Young Master" is in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, making it the best looking of the bunch. It still, however, looks smeary, faded, and fuzzy. As an extra feature, there is an average Jackie Chan biography, as well as some "film facts" in the form of liner notes.

Jackie Chan Is the Prisoner

List Price: $19.94 By: Sony Pictures Amazon Marketplace: 38 new & used starting at $1.88

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

An Offer Jackie Couldn't Refuse, But Maybe You Should 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Bottom line: Jackie Chan owed Jimmy Wang Yu a favor, but apparently so do a lot of people. I wouldn't recommend this movie, but do recommend reading about how it came about in Jackie's autobiography "I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action".

great 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

i thought this was a great movie as the sceme gets deeper , i liked it alot as jacky chan was not the main character in the film but a host of characters put together make this a great film

Jackie Chan's great bit part 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This movie followed the typical 'jail house' plot line with both a cop and a gangster's murderer on the inside forming an unspoken, unportrayed alliance. The cinemography was average for a high budget martial arts flick (better than I expected it to be), and there is a delightful selection of great actors present. The title is quite misleading, as Jackie Chan may well be the least represented of the big names, and it left me wondering for the first 15 minutes if the publisher confused actors, as it took about that long for his first appearance. That being said, a change of title would likely raise the average rating of this movie, and I could see it easily gaining 3.5-4 stars.

As alluded to earlier, Jackie Chan's roll in this movie is really something of a bit part. He has maybe a dozen lines of dialogue, and three fight scenes to my recollection (not counting the shoot-out). His total screen time is probably about 30 minutes.
The discrepency of the title dealt with, the coreography is fairly good (though not on a par with Jackie's other movies), and the acting is convincing an enjoyable. The plot seems to get forgotten at times, and the direction seems a bit confused between trying to be an action flick and an emotional flick without giving enough screen time to either to satisfy. The dubbing sounds to be performed by native English speakers, and has some colorful dialogue.. unfortunately, the voices were not well chosen to match the actors they represented.

All in all, I enjoyed this movie once I got over the part where I was trying to figure out how Jackie Chan tied into the story. Though the fight scenes do display some enjoyable martial arts, I would be quite hesitant to call this a martial arts movie; similarly, while there are several action scenes, I also doubt I would call this an action movie. Ultimately, it seemed to be a movie without focus... foruntately, the actors carried it and you are able to get engrossed just by watching the antics on a moment-by-moment basis.

Editorial Review:

A classic Jackie Chan martial arts movie.

A Touch of Zen

List Price: $19.95 By: TAI Seng Entertainment - Model: 601641267847 Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $19.95

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

SIMPLE, ELEGANT MIX OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY, INCREDIBLE UNSPOILED SCENERY AND ACTION 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

In the first ten minutes I thought it was just okay;
then it did nothing but get better for the next 177 minutes. Director King Hu was a visionary;no wonder so many contemporary movies have explicitly and liberally lifted his ideas.

Unlike so many martial arts' movies, character reigns;
the plot is intricate, evolving and and motivates the action.
And the natural locations make me want to take a very long walk around China. A feeling of reality and naturalness prevails in every scene.

If you buy this, and you should, read the bio of King Hu Jing-Chaun; amazing what he's done and the lasting impact of his work. His genius really shines in Touch of Zen.

One of King Hu's masterpieces 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Sublime and sprawling, A TOUCH OF ZEN is perhaps the greatest in King Hu's series of ground-breaking, metaphysical period dramas.

Vaguely, A TOUCH OF ZEN is a martial arts film, and it's greatest influence was on other HK martial arts films (and later international crossovers like CROUCHING TIGER, HERO and HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS). But it approaches being martial arts as Tarkovsky would have done it - the film is set up in three methodically paced, long sections (it's a 3 hour film), which all feature a bit of action but devote more attention to character, landscape and narrative. The focus of each section falls upon different characters, with the central character in each section embodying different virtues: the humility and creativity of the artist (the focus of the first act), courage and confidence in the second act, and an assured enlightenment in the third. The three acts are linked by tightly controlled and far more explosive bursts of action in an otherwise meditatively paced film.

Hu explores other elements as well - the first act, mostly devoted to the artist, eases viewers into a framework of intrigues that will shape the plot; this section of the film is very slow, but in hypnotic (and definitely not dull) fashion, with an abundance of careful set detail and some rather astounding landscape photography. Here, palace intrigues and suggestions of the supernatural (A TOUCH OF ZEN is loosely adapted from a number of Pu Songling's gently surreal stories, collected in "Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio") drive the slowly coalescing plot. Intriguingly, the ghost story elements explored early in the film are satirized a bit later, adding a discrete layer of obtuse irony and genre commentary to the overall proceedings.

Gradually shifting into a second act, which moves the focus to an imperial fugitive (Yang Huizhen) who is being tracked in the area. Here another of Hu's advances surfaces - Hu had a knack for creating strong and complex female characters, and the fugitive seen here is one of the most memorable; definitely a touchstone for Ang Lee, among many others.

A TOUCH OF ZEN is divided with an intermission (on the DVD - more on this later) into two halves, and this 'second act' falls on either side of this division. A semi-famous, and much imitated, action sequence is to be found here.

During the third act, the focus shifts again, to a group of monks that make a brief but memorable appearance earlier, and - as the level of action gradually rises, so does the level of mysticality, with Hu's complex and highly personal take on Buddhism recalling Andrei Tarkovsky's similarly mystical and oblique Christianity.

Throughout, we have Hu's sense of humor, a sort of greatly modified slapstick providing extra charm - the very playful sense of humor would seem to be a strange addition, but it somehow works, giving an otherwise slow, meditiative film a breezy sense of rhythm. Again, I would point out the influence of Pu Songling (perhaps upon Hu's entire body of work); Songling's work - a classic of Chinese literature, blends spiritualism, surrealism, unexpected humor, political intrigues, horror and hints of the erotic - and Hu is unafraid of blending these seemingly disparate qualities into a vast, and sublime, cinematic endeavor.

This is a beautifully shot film, on my personal short list of the most gorgeous ever, and the US/R1 DVD does present A TOUCH OF ZEN in all of its' widescreen glory. Unfortunately, the film seems to be otherwise unrestored, with an indistinct print and several spots of faded colors distracting from some exquisite compositions and landscape shots of a variety that would've made John Ford jealous (with at least one explicit visual reference to Kurosawa as well). I would hope to see a fully cleaned-up DVD available at some point in the hopefully not-too-distant future.

But - grainy DVD or not - this is something every cinephile out there should see.

-David Alston

Editorial Review:

Ming dynasty noblewoman yang must escape from the evil eunuch hsu. She seeks refuge at a decrepit town where she gets assistance from a naive scholar & a group of mysterious yet powerful monks. Studio: Tai Seng Entertainment Release Date: 08/23/2005 Run time: 187 minutes

Bruce Lee: Martial Arts Master, the Life of Bruce Lee

Amazon Price: $9.98 List Price: $9.98 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Lions Gate - Model: 012236201915 Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $3.62

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Editorial Review:

This documentary covers the short life (1940 to 1973) of martial arts actor Bruce Lee through interviews with his family and his fellow actors. It has been dedicated to his son, Brandon.

Dragons Forever

List Price: $29.95 By: Image Entertainment Amazon Marketplace: 3 new & used starting at $39.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A fitfully amazing, frequently disheartening hodgepodge of action, farce, and romance, slapped together as a costarring vehicle for three of Hong Kong's major movie stars: Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung (who also directed), and Yuen Biao. Its light-footed, try-anything spirit makes it consistently enjoyable, but these wonderful performers are working (to put it kindly) beneath their gifts. Chan plays a womanizing attorney who recruits arms-dealer Hung and madcap inventor Biao to dig up dirt on the corporate sleaze balls he's supposedly defending--industrial polluters (and heroin smugglers) whose effluents threaten the bucolic fish farm of a handsome widow woman. The trio doesn't have many collective scenes, so their Three Musketeers act never really gets off the ground. As always, the fights and stunt work are mind-boggling; the jaunty details are fun: Chan's flick-of-the-wrist trick with a fancy briefcase; Hung's deft run- through of a few choice Cantonese opera moves; and Yuen Biao's Olympic-level acrobatics on, around, and within an industrial steel-tube staircase. --David Chute

Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin (Ws Dub Sub)

List Price: $19.95 By: Sony Pictures Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $14.64

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 25 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

excellent style 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

this movie's plot is weak and steriotypical, the dubbing is [bad] and Jackie barely smiles, but the kung fu, which is what I bought it for in the first place, is excellent.

I study both the snake and the crane styles of shaolin and I must say, aside form all the cartwheels and usuall razzle dazzle of movie kung fu, the coreography, (which Chan was highly involved in) was excellent and mostly true to the real styles of shaolin.

If you like alot of action, blood and childish swear words dubbed in to movie then buy this.

It's excellent

Editorial Review:

Jackie Chan apprenticed in a series of straight-faced martial arts revenge films before he found his true calling as the clown prince of kung fu in Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and the original Drunken Master. The sprawling clan-war conspiracy adventure Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin is one of his best pre-fame efforts, a tale of tenuous alliances and double-crosses, with cocky young warrior Jackie in the middle stirring up trouble. The sly rascal in the den of thieves, however, is actually an honorable young acolyte on a mission of vengeance. It's the usual story, with a little more comedy and plenty of old "strike and pose" fight scenes energized by Jackie's youthful athleticism. The opening theme song was cribbed from the same music library that supplied Monty Python and the Holy Grail. --Sean Axmaker