EnterTheDragon Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Every once in a while you come across a piece of movie news that leaves you feeling a little conflicted. On one hand, the mind reels at the thought of somebody trying to replace Bruce Lee in a remake of the legendary martial arts flick, Enter the Dragon. But on the other hand, I'm not about to turn down the chance to stare at Korean pop star Rain for two hours -- I mean, have you seen the abs on this guy? So lustful thoughts aside, it's about time I got to the news, isn't it? Latino Review is reporting that their sources have confirmed that the singer/actor is the front-runner to star in an update of the 1973 classic.

The original film was the first kung fu flick to be produced by a major studio, and starred Lee as a Shaolin martial artist sent undercover to a hidden island in a fight to the death. The film is infamous for being Lee's last before his untimely death at the age of 33, but was also a passion project for Lee who wanted to celebrate Chinese culture and make a kick-ass action flick. I think we can all agree that he succeeded.

Most historians agree that Jaws was the first "summer movie." It was the first time that studios made the connection that summer = summer vacation = kids home from school with disposable allowances. It was also a movie that actually took place during the summer and on the beach. It was also a brilliantly simple film that could be advertised almost exclusively by word of mouth and by a great poster. Hence, it practically invented the term "blockbuster." But just because the studios officially established the summer movie season from then on doesn't mean that people didn't go to the movies during the summer before that. Here's my list of seven great summer releases from the days before the hype.

1. North by Northwest
Released July 17, 1959
Hitchcock released quite a few of his great films in the summer -- including Strangers on a Train, Rear Window and Psycho -- but I like to think that this big, lightweight, but precision-perfect thriller is his best "summer movie," due to its general brightness and upbeat tone and its impressive collection of picturesque locations. (It's like a mini-vacation from your seat.) And, on a hot summer day, Cary Grant in his sleek gray suit is the epitome of cool.

Haven't you ever wanted to strut your stuff down the street while wearing a badge and a gun underneath your weathered, torn-up jacket like Bruce Willis in Die Hard? Or how about one of those bullet jackets across your chest, like Sylvester Stallone in First Blood. Let's face it, each and every one of us has at some point secretly dreamt of being an action star -- and now the website Spinning Hat is looking to turn your dreams into reality (sort of) by introducing a line of Hero Vests, based on three of our favorite on-screen heroes: John McClane (Die Hard), John Rambo (First Blood) and Bruce Lee (Enter the Dragon).

According to the site, each shirt comes in "collectable DVD style gift boxes, and are inspired by various classic moments of action movie history." They're also calling these "ultra realistic", which means you might not want to walk into an office tower wearing the John McClane shirt since folks may expect you to save the day should the tower suddenly be taken over by a group of awesomely accented terrorists. Same goes for that Rambo shirt -- something tells me airport security may have a tiny problem with it.

Check out all three Hero Vests below, and you can purchase one or more over here for around $18.



[via The Awesomer]

There are comedy pitches so insane that they go past 'crazy,' around the sphere of possibility to 'brilliant' and back again. Watching the trailer for Balls of Fury -- a comedy backed by many of the minds behind Comedy Central's Reno 911! -- I felt something like awe at the audacity of the pitch: They're making a ping pong comedy ... with the same plot as Enter the Dragon? For those of you not in the know, Enter the Dragon was the final film Bruce Lee completed before his untimely death in 1973; the plot involved a group of martial artists being asked to take part in a tournament at the secret island fortress of a shadowy criminal mastermind. Some come to the tournament for riches; some come for the juice; but one man (Lee) comes to infiltrate the island on behalf of an intelligence service -- and avenge the death of a loved one at the hands of the criminal mastermind. ...

And that's the plot of Balls of Fury -- only with ping pong in the place of martial arts, the husky-yet-funny Dan Fogler in the place of Bruce Lee, Christopher Walken in the role of the criminal mastermind. Co-writers Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant have thrown some broad comedy stuff into Balls of Fury's mix -- mining laughs from portly people falling down or people taking ping pong balls to the head or sudden reversals of fortune. But they also have some very specific stuff that mocks Enter the Dragon -- everything from sound effects to set design to a weird-but-brilliant riff on one of Enter the Dragon's creepier moments, where the criminal mastermind host offers his guests sex slaves for the evenings of their stay. ...

And yes, it's hard to make a sex slave joke work, but Lennon and Garant manage to pull it off. Fogler (playing ex-Olympian ping pong player Randy Dakota) -- who manages to play grandiose swagger and a sweet sense of insecurity in the part -- is a big part of Balls of Fury's success; he's like a kinder, gentler version of early Jack Black, less manic and more sympathetic. He's also surrounded by a supporting cast who work with the film, and who all seem to be on-board with the film's overall arc. George Lopez plays the FBI agent who recruits Randy with something like restraint; James Hong (best remembered as the insanely over-the-top David Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China) plays the ping pong mentor who gets Randy back in the game; Maggie Q plays Hong's daughter and Randy's sparring partner.

This is how you remake a film: update it; change the name; make it just unrecognizable enough to not ruin the original while still retaining the basic storyline. The formula worked in the golden age of Hollywood -- yes there were plenty of remakes then, too -- and it could work for Warner Independent Pictures, the studio behind a planned redo of Enter the Dragon. The new version will be modernized, retitled Awaken the Dragon and it will barely appear to be connected with the Kung Fu classic starring Bruce Lee. Like Enter, Awaken will deal with underground fighting clubs, but other than featuring martial arts it seems totally different -- in an appreciably fresh way. Rather than focusing on an undercover fighter, Awake will follow an FBI agent on the trail of a rogue Shaolin monk. It's now basically a noir film set in the world of Kung Fu. Maybe they should extend the title to Awaken the Dragon from the Big Sleep.

To write and direct the semi-remake, WIP has hired Kurt Sutter, who claims to be a huge film noir fan. So far we haven't seen any feature work from the guy, but fans of TV's The Shield may be fans of his work. He's a co-executive producer of the show and he's written plenty of episodes, directed one as well. He also has another TV project coming soon to the FX channel, a dramatic series about outlaw motorcycle clubs. As far as feature scripts, he's worked on The Punisher 2 (or whatever it's called, since it isn't a sequel), a thriller for Warner Bros. called The Unforgettable and Inland Saints, which is being directed by Joel Schumacher. Awaken the Dragon will be Sutter's feature directorial debut, and he says he's going to make it "more Raging Bull than Crouching Tiger [Hidden Dragon]" -- at least in terms of the "viciousness" of its fight sequences. Instead of casting a known martial arts star for the role of the rogue monk, Sutter will be looking to discover someone new. The FBI agent, however, will be played by an American star.

In a previous post, I detailed my fondness for old school Kung-Fu films like Enter the Dragon and The 36th Chamber or Shaolin; guys beating the crap out of each other -- complete with over-done sound effects and out-of-sync dialog -- and other mayhem of that nature. The point of the previous post -- other than to thrill you with my knowledge of Los Angeles TV history -- was to highlight a great list of the top ten mano-a-mano fight scenes of all time. Well, for those of you who loved the last post (all twelve or so of you judging from the number of comments) you're in luck because I'm back with yet another list. This time around its the top ten fight scenes of all time.

I know this list may sound similar to the last one but bear with me: While the last one dealt with one man against another, this new list deals with larger numbers of people, or groups, engaged in combat. Or, as the rules for the list state over at the site that compiled it: "It has to be individuals or a group fighting in (reasonably) close quarters, so no vehicle combat (Mad Max 2), no space battles (Return of the Jedi) and no epic warfare or sieges (The Return of the King)." Sounds simple enough, right? Fortunately, it is.

Some of the fights highlighted on this list include Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan vs Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, the corridor fight in Chan wook-Park's Oldboy -- wherein our hero takes out a bunch of baddies all while confined to a narrow corridor -- and one of my personal favorites: the Girl Scout fight in Airplane -- brutal and hilarious at the same time. At the number one spot they put Arnold vs The Predator in Predator. Now, I like Predator but I question putting it at number one. Looking at the list I think I would put the scene from Phantom Menace near or at the top. It's an exciting scene that sets the stage for Obi-Wan's development as a Jedi and a man. On top of that, it showcases some amazing fight choreography and swordplay. It's an outstanding scene in a not-so-great movie that I think deserves to be recognized.

What's your favorite movie fight scene?

When I was growing up I was a huge fan of martial arts movies and Kung Fu movies, in particular -- still am, actually. Maybe its because we didn't have cable and only got a few channels with the rabbit ears perched on top of our 20' television. Fortuately, two of the channels we did get were 5 and 13 from Los Angeles. Back in those days when -- believe it or not -- there were only three TV networks, channels 5 and 13 were independent and showed pretty much whatever they wanted. One of the things they showed frequently were martial arts movies.

In fact, channel 13 even had a weekly showcase for these movies called "Kung Fu Theater" complete with over-done sounds effects and out-of-sync dialog -- what many people refer to today as "chopsockey" cinema. During that time I watched many fun movies including The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Five Deadly Venoms and several films featuring the great Bruce Lee, including Game of Death and the classic Enter the Dragon. So, as a big fan of martial arts films and well-choreographed fight scenes with guys kicking the crap out of each other, I was pretty interested to see this Double Viking article featuring the top ten mano-a-mano fight scenes of all time.

Some of the fights they list in their top ten include Rocky vs Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, Neo vs Agent Smith in The Matrix and one of my personal favorites: Nada vs Frank in John Carpenter's They Live. While I do agree with most of the choices, I'm not entirely sure about the order. I might have placed Nada vs Frank higher on the list due to its shear brutality and the fact that both the actors, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Keith David, did their own fighting without the aid of stunt doubles. Still, a pretty good list and, with the included videos, a great way to see some terrific fights scenes. Enjoy.

What's your favorite movie fight scene?