Beanbioca
As Good As It Gets
Pacionsbo
Absolutely Fantastic
Derrick Gibbons
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
Leofwine_draca
THE AVENGING FIST follows many modern-day Chinese films by having a central cast of young, attractive actors and chucking in a couple of old hands in minor scenes. The old hands this time around are former sparring partners Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, who both made many fantastic films during the 1980s. Here, they're relegated to minor, almost demeaning parts (certainly in Sammo's case) but nevertheless turn out to be the best things in the movie.The plot to this is a muddled and confused one, in which there are lots of clichéd genre elements mixed together. There's a central father-turned-evil storyline lifted straight from STAR WARS that vies for attention with some Nazi-style bad guys (are there any other?), a well-animated but inexplicable CGI beastie, tournament battles, hover boards and a Power Glove that gives its wearer lots of, well, power. The storyline really only exists to hang together a load of disparate action scenes, which are chock full of computer wizardry, mainly of the MATRIX type – slow motion, cameras spinning round. There are lots of pretty colours too but it all becomes headache inducing (rather than cool) after about five minutes.The young cast are bland and uninspiring, and once again there are no up-and-comers to look out for; nobody here shines. The best actor is Yuen Biao, appearing either behind a silver mask or as a hologram for much of the movie, and he does get to kick ass in a couple of scenes; undoubtedly these are the best in the film. Sammo is present in a sadly non-fighting role as a police detective whose watch tells him how long he's got left to live! Other than the appearance of these genre stalwarts, THE AVENGING FIST is a crashing bore.
Jordan-M
"The Avenging Fist" is one of the many HK Special Effect movies to come out over the last few years. It stands out on its own points, though - like the fact that it takes place in the future as opposed to the present or past - which means that there's characters jumping around on flying cars and through neon lights.The main focus of the story is that of Nova, an agressive young man who feels the need to fight (don't we all?) and is trying to get his hands on a "Power Glove" - not of the Nintendo variety - which increases the user's fighting ability considerably. Nova also has a father who disappeared during the development of the Power Glove, who left Nova records of a fighting style called, of all things, the "Avenging Fists."After several events, Nova manages to obtain a power glove and proceeds to unleash serious adolescent justice upon faceless baddies. Of course, Nova can't do it all by himself - so a bartender/street fighter by the name of "Iron Surfer" comes into play.Personally, I think the movie should've been about Iron Surfer (Stephen Fung). Not only does he look a lot more cool and intense than Nova, but he also doesn't have all of the family melodrama that's included in Nova's story. Iron Surfer's just a guy who wants to love a cute girl and beat the life out of anyone/thing that gets in his way... even a surprisingly well animated CG monster. Unfortunately, Iron Surfer just gets turned into a crutch for Nova to take on the main villain with.Yuen Biao has a decent sized role in this movie, but I was wanting to see more of him. Perhaps there should be a prequel with him and Ekin Cheng (who has a cameo as a younger Sammo Hung) that better explains the origins of the prevalent power gloves/avenging fists... It's unlikely, though.Regardless, this movie very well accomplishes the SFX action spectacular it set out to be. You could go without seeing it and sleep comfortably at night, but if you're a sucker for these kinds of movies, give it a thorough viewing. "The Avenging Fist" is just fine.
Lester Mak (leekandham)
Take Demolition Man, Final Fantasy, The Matrix, Star Wars, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and put into a food blender. Mix well for an hour an a half, pour into container, put in the fridge for a little while, serve with icing sugar...In watching this film, you easily can make comparisons with the five films listed above and more, as The Avenging Fist has taken many of the ideas off them and crammed them into this fast-and-furious, high adrenalin, backside-kicking thriller. Oh, and add in 'Tekken' for good measure as well, although the end credits explicitly state that this film was not based on Tekken and not endorsed by Namco.Tekken, sorry, The Avenging Fist tells of Nova, a son of a police officer who was the master of the Avenging Fist, a series of martial arts moves that were highly lethal. Whilst at the police force, Nova's father was brainwashed by Combat 21, who steals the Power Glove that, to cut a long story short, gives him powers literally untapped by anyone else. Twenty years on, Nova learns of his father's fate, and he seeks to prevent Combat 21's world domination plans.Ultimately, a film of this description is always going to be targeted at a younger audience, and inevitably a certain amount of cheesiness and unimaginative fantasy are both always going to appear. But, the film does go beyond that. Computer graphics reminiscent of The Matrix and Final Fantasy and choreographed martial arts of CTHD quality add immensely to the film. Also a little bit of subplot (yes it has some!) does go a long way too in the movie.But one of interesting decisions in the film were the choice of leads, who are a young bunch, and yet were teamed up with veterans of the the martial arts genre. With the success of The Stormriders and the like, you might have expected Ekin Cheng to lead the cast. But all credit to Wang Leehom and Stephen Fung as they did an excellent performance. I would have loved to have seen more of Kristy Yang, though.Ultimately, the young cast do equal the performances of the veterans, and despite all the criticism I seem to have written more about than I probably should have, it is a thoroughly enjoyable film. One for a good-spirited evening.
acc1979
This is such a lousy movie man. Not worth watching it at all in my opinion. When i was in Honh Kong this Christmas i thought it would have been cool and awesome but it was off very fast. The rating there were bad and i thought no way. I was disappointed when it was off that fast and really want to watch it one day. Then just yesterday Feburary 2, 2002 my sister brought it on dvd and i was so surprised that is out so fast. I watch it and it bore me to death for the whole hour and a half. No bright spot in this movie at all in my mind and no wonder it was off the theatre so damn fast and the rating was right on. Out of 10 in my opinion i rated it 2.5 and a D- movie. Not worth paying to watch it but renting it is fine to me. Is a science fiction type movie and the action sucks like crap. No acting, plot and it make no sense. I hated the movie the one but this is even worse cause at least Jet Li can fight. The only thing is a bright spot at least it has a pretty girl to watch in Gigi Leung. That's it.
