Tag: Kelly Hu

Batman: Soul of the Dragon: Or, Batman with a Kick – Amazon Review

The answer to: “What if you combined Batman and Enter the Dragon?”

SUMMARY

Richard Dragon (Mark Dacascos) is a super spy who trained previously with Bruce Wayne (David Giuntoli) in his youth under the powerful O-Sensei (James “Lo Pan” Hong). Richard discovers that the leader of the terrorist group Kobra, Jeffrey Burr (Josh Keaton), has acquired a mystical gate which previously belonged to O-Sensei. He recruits Bruce Wayne and their fellow students Lady Shiva (Kelly Hu) and Bronze Tiger (Michael Jai White) to help take down Burr and his chief assassin Schlagenfaust (Robin Atkin Downes) by breaking into his island fortress.

One of these things is not like the others, one of these things is Batman.

END SUMMARY

Considering that Bruce Lee actually appeared on the 1960s Batman show, I am blown away that no one has thought to combine a Bruce Lee-style Martial Arts movie with a Batman movie. I mean, a lot of Batman films have martial arts and fight scenes, but the style is completely different. It’s even crazier that it hasn’t happened when you realize that all of the characters featured in this film are recurring characters in the comics and even some other media. The biggest change is that Richard Dragon, who is usually white, is very blatantly redesigned to be Bruce Lee, but other than that most of the characters match their traditional designs. It does help that Bronze Tiger is played by Michael Jai White, whose “Black Dynamite” character is at least partially based on Jim Kelly. 

O-Sensei almost always looks like this, but that’s what old Martial Arts masters look like.

The film actually contains a number of references to the film Enter the Dragon, including having a number of flashbacks to explain everyone’s motivations, making O-Sensei more closely resemble Bruce Lee’s mentor from the film, having Richard Dragon avoid a fight by tricking his opponent similar to how he does in the movie, and even having a pretty strong reference to the Bob Wall fight (down to the bottle). Granted, in order to make some of these moments work, Batman is shown to be a lot more tolerant of his compatriots committing murder than in most incarnations. Ultimately, though, the film’s plot has no real resemblance to anything I’ve seen before, which is for the best. It’s nice to have an original story. 

I do love the 1970s style on everything, too.

Overall, if you are a fan of Batman, old-school martial arts films, or both, this is actually a pretty solid film for you. Check it out. 

If you want to check out some more by the Joker on the Sofa, check out the 100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time, Collection of TV Episodes, Collection of Movie Reviews, or the Joker on the Sofa Reviews.

If you enjoy these, please, like, share, tell your friends, like the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/JokerOnTheSofa/), follow on Twitter @JokerOnTheSofa, and just generally give me a little bump. I’m not getting paid, but I like to get feedback.

Finding ‘Ohana: It’s the Goonies Go Hawaiian – Netflix Review

A group of kids track down an old pirate treasure through booby-trapped caves… in Hawaii.

SUMMARY

Pili (Kea Peahu) is a geocacher from Brooklyn whose mother, Leilani (Kelly Hu), takes her and her brother Ioane “E” (Alex Aiono) to O’ahu for the Summer in order to help out their grandfather Kimo (Branscombe Richmond). When they arrive, Pili finds an old diary belonging to a sailor named Monks (Ricky Garcia), depicting his journey hiding a treasure after he was on a mutineering crew led by Robinson and Brown (Marc Evan Jackson and Chris Parnell). Pili, Ioane, local boy Casper (Owen Vaccaro), and Ioane’s crush Hana (Lindsay Watson) all set off on a journey to find the treasure, hopefully in time to pay off Kimo’s debts so that he can keep his home.

There’s a lot of stuff in the caves.

END SUMMARY

This was a pretty good film, even if it is almost directly a rip-off of the Goonies formula. The kids are all pretty charming and have a nice “four man band” array of personalities, so all of their interactions stay fresh and fun as they work their way through the various traps. There’s a decent amount of character depth for this kind of movie, with a number of solid emotional moments between the characters. It also does a decent job of celebrating Hawaii’s natural beauty and culture.  

Yeah, lot of Goonies here.

There is one thing that the movie does that stands out brilliantly, however, and I honestly would have wanted more of it. During multiple parts of the film, the children speculate about the motivations of the pirates, but the speculation plays out with the pirates saying and doing exactly what the kids say. It looks and feels almost exactly like an episode of Drunk History and the fact that it’s Chris Parnell and Marc Evan Jackson just makes it that much funnier. 

Lot of talent in this reenactment.

Overall, this was a fun movie for young people and it’s not bad for anyone in general. I will say there is one thing about the film that drove me a little nuts, but it requires a Spoiler, so I’m giving you an out.

***SPOILER***

At the end of the movie, they find the treasure and find out that it’s in a tomb. According to Hawaiian tradition, whatever is left in a tomb becomes an offering to the spirits. When Ioane tries to take the treasure anyway, the flames in the tomb turn blue and a horde of Hawaiian ghosts start chasing the kids. Eventually, the kids are spared because one of the spirits was Pili and Ioane’s dead father, who keeps them safe from the other ghosts. This ending was so insane that I almost thought it ruined the movie. Nothing else in the film is supernatural and, rather than leaving this ambiguous, the movie explicitly says that Hawaiian religion is apparently correct and ghosts are real. This was not hinted at by anything in the film before that point. It was unnecessary and off-putting, but fortunately the rest of the movie was pretty good.

If you want to check out some more by the Joker on the Sofa, check out the 100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time, Collection of TV Episodes, Collection of Movie Reviews, or the Joker on the Sofa Reviews.

If you enjoy these, please, like, share, tell your friends, like the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/JokerOnTheSofa/), follow on Twitter @JokerOnTheSofa, and just generally give me a little bump. I’m not getting paid, but I like to get feedback.