You may scoff at the prospect of a new Arnie action flick (especially one released in the dumping ground of January), but take a look at the director credit. Kim Jee-woon is one of the elite directors of action in the world. A Bittersweet Life is a near masterpiece; I thought quite highly of The Good, the Bad, the Weird and A Tale of Two Sisters. I Saw the Devil was problematic, but it was certainly suspenseful. Plus, you know, I’m always in the mood for an Arnie action flick, scoffers be damned. Continue reading
Tag Archives: martial arts
Trailer: The Man with the Iron Fists
Via io9. Imdb doesn’t have a release date yet, but I’m looking forward to checking this one out in the theater. It also has a sweet poster: Continue reading
The worst entertainment news you’ll read all day
No, not that Dan Harmon got fired from Community (though that does really, really suck). The worst is that Jackie Chan is officially retiring from action cinema. I’ll have more to say on this later, but right now, I have literal tears in my eyes. This may sound pathetic and overreactive, but it is what it is. I don’t blame the man. If the legendary Jackie Chan says that he’s too old and too beat up to keep fighting for a living, then I believe him. He ought to know. For more than four decades, the man has been putting his body on the line for his audience, and nearly lost his life a few times doing it. He is one of the hardest working performers in the world, and there are few professionals I admire as deeply. So if he’s moving on to other things, his reasons are good enough for me. Except they’re not. Because they’re reminders that Jackie Chan is a mortal, just like the rest of us, and even though he’s not riding off into the sunset just yet, it feels like he’s trading in his spurs for a rocking chair. He’s darn well earned it, and I look forward to seeing him continue to push himself as an actor, even if it’s on the relative safety of his metaphorical front porch. I can still feel sad about it, though. He’s a real-life hero to me, and I hate watching heroes fade away. ☕
