Tien (Tony Jaa) takes on an entire army and kicks some major butt in this new clip “Sand Battle” from ONG BAK 3.

Synopsis:

Ong Bak 3 picks up where Ong Bak 2 had left off. Tien is captured and almost beaten to death before he is saved and brought back to the Kana Khone villagers. There he is taught meditation and how to deal with his Karma, but very soon his arch rival returns challenging Tien for a final duel.

ONG BAK 3 is on demand now and will be in theaters on January 14, 2011. Find it on Facebook HERE.

Source: Yahoo! Movies

Three times.  Three times Jackie Chan utters the words Kung Fu in this latest trailer for THE KARATE KID.  Let’s have a little lesson here, folks.  Karate is a form of martial arts.  Kung Fu is all Chinese martial arts under one roof.  So, I guess Karate might have something to do with it.  I really don’t know enough about the sport to notice if Jaden Smith is actually doing any Karate in this trailer or not.

Nonetheless, the movie doesn’t look half bad.  It his all the key points you might want to hit in a trailer about a kid being trained by a maintenance man to take on other little kids.  It might even give too much away, but I’m guessing there aren’t any major plot points that deviate from the original, 1984 film.  Jackie Chan teaches martial arts.  Jaden Smith learns it and does a fine job at acting around it, as well.  I’m not 100% sure what’s in the water over at Will and Jada’s house, but they should definitely keep serving it up.

It’s also nice to hear that late inclusion of “You’re the Best” at the end.  It, actually, just occurred to me that someone is likely to remake that song for the new film.  Not a good idea, but there’s no stopping it at this point.

So, here you go.  Enjoy this 2nd trailer for THE KARATE KID:

THE KARATE KID hits theaters on June 11th.

‘Ong Bak 2: The Beginning’ gets a limited release on October 23rd, so you can judge it for yourselves then. Until that day, though, you can gaze at the trailer, which was just released from Magnet Releasing.

Here’s the description of the film:

Martial arts superstar Tony Jaa stars in and directs this epic tale of revenge set hundreds of years in the past. Featuring a huge cast and hordes of elephants, this prequel takes Jaaā€™s skills to the next level, showcasing him as a master of a wide range of martial arts styles – while proving him to be a promising director as well.

You can check out the trailer right here:

Source: Apple

‘Blood: The Last Vampire’ is a mixed bag when it comes to quality. But despite that I found myself liking it quite a bit. It’s based on an anime OVA and series that came out almost ten years ago, and does a good job of expanding the story of Saya (Gianna Jun), a very old, but eternally young vampire who works with an organization to take out all the remaining vampires in the world.

The agency Saya works for places her in a US military base in Japan during the Vietnam conflict. Since she looks sixteen it’s her job to infiltrate the on base high school and see what she can find. It kind of has a Japanese Buff the Vampire Slayer feel to it at first, but quickly turns into an all out blood bath when Saya discovers there’s a lot more Vampires both in the school, and the local Japanese village.

Along the way Saya teams up with Alice (Allison Miller) who is the daughter of the base’s commanding general. She’s a trouble maker, always rebeling against her father. One day after kendo practice at school she’s attacked by two bully school girls who are actually Vampires. Saya of course comes to the rescue and this is where the movie really starts to pick up. The blood bath that ensues is fantastic. They use the actors themselves, which says a lot considering they’re using mostly unknown actors and actresses. One of the vampire girls is a bit on the heavier side, adding a bit of realism, and she’s just as vicious as the others.

When the agency that uses Saya attacks Alice’s dad, Alice goes on a quest to find out why and what’s really going on. This leads her and Saya to uncover a lot of mysteries about Saya’s past and the movie kind of just goes off in the direction of taking out the head vampire.

It’s clear that the writing stinks right from the start and the acting is pretty subpar. Allison Miller and Gianna Jun do a good job of working together and Gianna gives a really good performance considering she’s never done an English speaking role before. Gianna only has a few roles under her belt and it’s pretty obvious here she did most of, if not all of her own stunts nad sword fighting. The camera is right on her face during many of them, and that’s where the movie shines.

With a lacking plot, the main reason to see this film is the intense action. There’s a fight scene in the middle of the film that is one of the coolest, most brutal sword fights I’ve seen in a long time. Saya goes nuts on a massive group of vampires. She’s flipping through the air, slicing them in half, and bisecting them every chance she gets. There are a few chops that will make every guy watching go “Oooooouuuuuch!” All of the blood is digital, giving the film a very 300 type of feel. There’s some of that speed up/slow down type of cinemetography as well.

The biggest problem with the action is that it’s just a little too ambitious for it’s budget. There are a lot of effects that do a good job of conveying an idea, but simply don’t hold up by todays standards. It’s a shame too, because if they were just a bit better, this could have been a massive blockbuster film with a massive cult following.

Daniel-san will now be Dre-san.Ƃ   Mr. Miyagi will now be Mr. Han.Ƃ   Everyone’s going to be Kung-Fu fighting instead of lashing out Karate kicks.Ƃ   However, it’s still going to be called ‘The Karate Kid.’Ƃ   Strange.

Moviehole has learned plot details on the new remake directed by Harald Zwart, produced by Will smith, and starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith.

Here are just a few:

• The film takes place in Beijing
• Mr. Han (Chan) is the maintenance man of the apartment building Dre and his mother, Sherry, have moved into
• Dre is a skateboarding video-game buff
• Mr. Han decides to teach Dre martial arts and the Chinese language after seeing Dre attempt (unsuccessfully) a karate kick while playing a video game
• John Kreese has been replaced by Li Quan Ha, the owner of the Fighting Drago dojo
• Johnny Lawrence has been replaced by Lui Wei Cheng, a bully at Dre’s new school
• The producers behind the film, particularly Will Smith, don’t want to remake the 1984 film as much as they want to work from the same blueprint and create their own film.

“The film has a similar tone to the original movie”, Moviehole’s source reveals. “There are a lot of funny lines – mainly delivered by Jackie Chan. It is actually a good script though, very good in fact. It’s different enough to be considered its own beast too”.

‘The Karate Kid’ or ‘The Kung Fu Kid’ or whatever the final film will be called, comes out on June 11, 2010.

Source: Moviehole

‘Ninja Assassin’ seems to have everything kickass going for it.Ƃ   It’s got a decent director, James McTeigue, one for one as he may be.Ƃ   Joel Silver and the Wachowski’s are behind producing it, so, you know the production levels on this thing are going to blow the roof off.Ƃ   It’s star, Korean pop star, Rain, is really cool, and, as ‘I’m a Cyborg But That’s Okay’ showed us, the guy can act, too.

Today, we bring you the film’s first poster.

Check it out:

‘Ninja Assassin’ comes out on November 25th.

Source: ScreenWEEK

Here are the first two clips released from the new ‘Dragonball: Evolution’ movie. They’re short, but they give you something… even if it’s unwanted. Check out the links below, sorry… I couldn’t find any embeddable clips:

See what the actual Dragonballs look like here.

See a hooded Lord Piccolo with a deep ominous voice and God-like powers here.

Above you see the poster Mondo Tees and The Alamo Drafthouse put out for the midnight screening of Tony Jaa’s highly anticipated ‘Ong Bak 2′.Ƃ   Words cannot describe how sweet this poster is.Ƃ   I was excited to see ‘Ong Bak 2′ before, and, now, I am almost literally salivating waiting to feast my eyes on this film.

Source: Mondo Tees

Yeah, I know… what’s the point? Hey, this movie has some merit. It’s almost guaranteed to get a Razzie nomination next year, right? OK, I am going to cease the brutal attacks on the film (at least until after I see it) and just offer up the images. Enjoy… wait, is that possible?

[source: LatinoReview]

Jackie Chan, the martial arts star who has been doing some kid-friendly flicks lately, is starring in a film that is apparently so violent, the film’s director won’t be releasing it in China.

Hong Kong director Derek Yee told the Associated Press today that he considered toning down the violence in the new film ‘Shinjuku Incident’ so that it could pass censors in China where there is not ratings system in effect. Yee then went on to say he decided against cutting his film for fear that it would hurt the integrity of the film.

Yee said the $25 million Chinese-language movie, in which Chan plays a refugee who escapes to Japan and becomes a killer for the mob, has scenes that show characters getting a hand chopped off and pierced with knives.

“We tried to cut the violent scenes to meet the requirements of the Chinese market, but producers I invited to watch that version thought it was incomplete,” he said.

Yee said Chan, who invested in the movie, agreed with his decision.

It’s awesome to see a filmmaker stand up for his film despite what the censors might think.Ƃ   It’s also good to see Chan getting back to his roots and star in an ultra-violent actioner.Ƃ   Can’t wait to see this one.

‘Shinjuku Incident’ will be released in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia on April 2 and in Japan on May 1.

Source: Yahoo/Associated Press

I just stumbled across a new photo of Vega from ‘Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li’. Enjoy..

We were checking out the contact sheet for film makers at SXSW and there is a contact listed for the ‘Ong Bak 2′ rep, so that means we will HOPEFULLY be seeing ‘Ong Bak 2′ at SXSW 2009! Great score…

Chad:

So on Thursday, Fathom Events held a special presentation of ‘Sword of the Stranger’ (Sutorejia: Mukƃ “ hadan). In spite of some technical difficulties with the theater, the movie was great. The movie was being broadcast via satellite and was very dark, making some of the exciting action sequences hard to see clearly. The story was not as complex and convoluted in comparison to some of the anime greats like ‘Akira’ and ‘Ghost in the Shell’. It was straight forward and easy to understand. Which, I’m sure will help it’s appeal to the general audiences out there.

The story follows a young orphan who is running for his life from the Ming Dynasty. The Ming, as they are referred to in the film, have some nasty plans for the boy’s blood. The boy Kotaro and his faithful dog Tobimaru are racing across Japan to Mangaku Temple, a Buddhist monastery where brother Shoan said they would be safe. On his journey, the pair meet up with a wandering Ronin, samurai warrior without a master, who drops in on them while they are trying to have dinner. With Tobimaru’s help, the Warrior, who we find out later has given up his name and goes by “No Name”, joins their party. Moments later, the three are attacked by two of the Japanese soldiers assigned to help the Ming capture the boy. Kotaro eventually hires No Name to help get him to the monastery safely with one caveat; that he help save Tobimaru who was poisoned while saving No Name from a Ming dagger. Let me make one disclaimer for those of you who, like myself, love dogs and tend to avoid movies where dogs die. The dog lives, though it is a close call.

All in all this is an exciting movie. The story has some heart-warming sections where No Name and Kotaro become friends. These were few and far between but they really helped. They added an the intensity to the action by enthralling the audience with a true concern over how the fight sequences turn out. I really felt for the characters.

At one point No Name, striving through most of the movie to keep a vow he made to himself, lashes out in an effort to save Kotaro and the audience actually applauded, in the middle of the movie. I know. I know. I don’t blame them. If I didn’t find clapping in a movie distasteful myself, I might have as well. It was just the intensity of the scene that everyone was feeling.

Check out the official website at Bandai

Sword of the Stranger is definitely worth checking out when the DVD is released. I’ll see you in line!

Jean Claude Van Damme’s first starring role was in ‘Bloodsport’ and is immediately made him into an international action star. One would imagine this would lead to a slew of sequels, and it did, but Van Damme had nothing to do with them and they didn’t have the same appeal as the original. So, there’s some news coming from TotalFilm.com and it has both good and bad sides.

In a recent interview with TotalFilm.com, Van Damme divulged that he really wants to do a “true” sequel to ‘Bloodsport’. He elaborated that he’s interested in telling a more mature story about the fighter, now older, perhaps even that he’s abusing his son. Does this sound bad? Personally, I say go for it! I admire filmmakers who choose to tackle “controversial” subject matter, such as Kevin Bacon who does it repeatedly.

I really enjoyed ‘Bloodsport’ and think Van Damme is a great action star, but ever since I saw ‘JCVD‘ I have had a whole new level of respect for him as an actor and a storyteller. ‘JCVD’ shows what Van Damme is truly made of when given the opportunity and reminds me of Rourke’s incredible comeback performance in ‘The Wrestler’. I fully support him returning to his first starring role and making it into something more than just a shallow action movie character.

So, what’s the bad side? You could probably guess, but it’s the fact that Van Damme is experiencing heavy resistance from the studio, who feels his story idea is too dark and is inappropriate. Check out this great little snippet from Van Damme’s interview, talking about the studio’s reaction:

“They told me, ‘No, no, no! You cannot make a movie in America where a father is abusing his son physically! It’s wrong.”

“And you cannot be a guy on drugs doing karate and shit like that.’ I said, ’Why? Why? Tell me why.’

“It’s against the rules of success. But I believe the other rules of success. To show something real.Ć¢ā‚¬ 

[source: TotalFilm.com]

“JijaĆ¢ā‚¬  Yanin Vismistananda plays a young autistic girl, Zen, who grows up next to a Muay Thai boxing studio. Through observation, Zen absorbs the teachings and the techniques of Muay Thai. When her mother’s hospital bills start escalating, Zen and her cousin set out to collect debts from the gangsters that owe her mother money, which leads to an escalating series of death-defying fights.

‘Chocolate’ is certainly one of the better Prachya Pinkaew films, as good as either ‘Ong-Bak’ or ‘Tom yum goo.’ The screenplay is a little ham-fisted but the fight scenes – and let’s just admit that its the fights that people are buying tickets for – well, the fight scenes are amazing. Jaw-dropping execution.

How long will it be before we see a pairing of Tony Jaa and Jija Yanin? It’s bound to happen. Fans of the martial arts genre will be blown away by some of the stunts in ‘Chocolate.’ I’d love to see what Jaa and Yanin are capable of together.

JiJa Yanin is an amazing performer and will undoubtedly be embraced by action fans around the world. ‘Chocolate’ rests upon her shoulders and she carries the film throughout, laying the groundwork for what will hopefully be a fruitful career. Not only is she an accomplished athlete but a charming, engaging performer. When you see the movie, keep an eye out for her impression of Bruce Lee. It’s priceless.

Chocolate opens in limited release February 6.

[Overall: 3.5 stars out of 5]

Considered by many fans, critics and historians to be among the very top of the hill when it comes to Kung Fu movies, this one clearly has had it’s influence on the entire genre. Someone less inclined towards quality martial arts movies may view this the first time and think, “hey… this movie doesn’t have all that much action!”

In this observation, the viewer would be partially accurate. There is “action” in the movie, but it depends on how you define action. In the traditional mainstream sense, the actual fighting scenes (“action”) appear near the end of the film. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of worthy content in the rest of the film. One of the most successful elements of this movie is it’s story. No other martial arts movie has done such a fantastic job of taking the viewer into what a Shaolin monk is made of, what makes them tick, how they became the masters they are?

‘The 36th Chamber of Shaolin’ (Shao Lin san shi liu fang) stars Chia Hui Liu as San Te, a student who becomes disenfranchised with the academic life as he witnesses the oppression brought upon his family and friends by the tyrannical Manchu rule. After witnessing countless people murdered and tortured undeservedly, San Te decides he must travel to Shaolin to learn Kung Fu. His journey is long and an injury to his leg nearly kills him along the way, but he sneaks into the monk’s food cart to make it up the mountain to Shaolin. When they find him, he’s in a coma and the nurse him back to health. Reluctant at first, the monks choose to allow him to stay and live amongst them.

>>> Semi-Spoiler Warning! The remainder of this article divulges much of the plot! <<<

For the first year, San Te is quiet and obedient, but is frustrated that he has been cleaning and doing menial tasks and hasn’t learned one thing about Kung Fu. When he approached one of the higher monks about this concern, the monk replies that he may learn Kung Fu at any time, if he chooses. At this time, San Te is introduced to the 35 Chambers of Shaolin. These are the halls in which monks learn the art of Kung Fu, one crucial lesson at a time. A monk much master the focus of one chamber before he is granted permission to move on to the next. This is a fascinating journey, one that entertains and enlightens. There is a sense of awe in watching a monk develop his skills and knowledge. The process certainly does not occur over night and there are many humorous scenes as we watch San Te fail at his tasks several times before he masters them. However, it’s a truly powerful tale of human perseverance and will as San Te not only masters these skills, but becomes the highest-performing and most advanced of all the monks in training.

The idea behind this film is less about San Te getting revenge on those who have wronged him and his family and more about what is at the heart of Shaolin Kung Fu. When San Te first decides to learn Kung Fu, his goal is to use it to strike back at the unfair rulers. Once he begins his training, he finds himself frustrated with what he feels is unrelated to learning Kung Fu. There are moments of ‘Karate Kid’ (although the influence is obviously the other way around) throughout San Te’s education. Think… “Wax on, wax off.”

The youthful resistance that San Te exudes eventually transforms into a more mature and confident strength. He earns the respect of the other monks who once teased him and is offered the honor of taking charge of one of the chambers if he can best a senior monk and teacher in a spar, using the weapon of his choice. This becomes an integral part of San Te’s formation into a Shaolin monk. He struggles to defeat his opponent, who has developed an effective style of fighting with double swords. San Te begins with a plain bamboo staff, moves onto a metal staff with crescent blades on the ends and after several failed attempts he has an epiphany while practicing. He develops the hinged triple staff, a sort of cross between nun chucks and a staff.

Once San Te has completed his training and proven himself, he is given the choice of chambers. San Te chooses none of the 35 chambers and asks to create a new 36th chamber that would exist outside of the Shaolin temple, whereas he would spread the teachings of Shaolin Kung Fu to the people so that they may defend themselves. San Te is denied and is sent to the village to beg as punishment. When he returns to the village, San Te learns the true lesson of Kung Fu and that one should never use Kung Fu on another unless they are forced into it through self-defense.

The film has been released under the titles Master Killer and Shaolin Master Killer, but neither of these titles properly convey what the movie is really about. Dragon Dynasty released the film on DVD under the title ‘The 36th Chamber of Shaolin’ in June of 2007. It’s a great movie and a great DVD for any true fan of martial arts movies.

DVD Features:

x

Here’s some awesome news about ‘Kill Bill’ directly from Tarantino himself. Apparently, Quentin has a seven-minute sequence not in the original that may end up in the coming uncut Blu-Ray release of both volumes of ‘Kill Bill’ as a single movie with an intermission… as it was originally intended to play. Check out the quote below from Tarantino and check out the full article at Tarantino.info:

“We’ve actually added some things to it. We did a whole little chapter that I wrote and designed for the animated sequence, that we never did, because we figured, back when it was gonna be one big movie, it was going to be too long, so we didn’t do it. So when we were talking about re-releasing it, they asked is there anything you can put in, and I said no I put everything in there, butĆ¢ā‚¬ ¦ there’s one sequence that we wouldn’t even have to shoot! So we got together with Production IG and did it, and it’s really cool. So it’s this little seven minute sequence, it’s really cool, it’s in the O-Ren chapter.Ć¢ā‚¬ 

[source: LatinoReview.com]

As if you have some dying need to get every last bit of info about ‘Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li’ before it comes out in theaters, here are four new pictures from the upcoming movie, all of which focus on, who else… Chun Li. Enjoy!

[Source: BeyondHollywood.com]

There’s been a rise in the Thai filmmaking industry, especially in the action movie genre. The American audience got it’s first significant wide-release taste of this new era of Thai cinema with rising action star Tony Jaa and ‘Ong Bak’. This was followed by ‘The Protector’ and now a sequel to ‘Ong Bak’ is in the works. Tony Jaa is being considered by some to be the next Jackie Chan or Jet Li. However, there is more to this increase in Thai action films than just Tony Jaa.

‘Born to Fight’ was released in 2004 and, while many have never heard of it, was widely released on DVD by Dragon Dynasty in April 2007. The story follows a young agent named Deaw who leaves the force after his partner/commander is killed during a bust. Deaw joins a group of athletes on a trip to a remote rural Thai village to deliver food and supplies and visit with the children. While visiting the village, a group of rebels loyal to an imprisoned general attacks the village and sets up camp. Their plan is to hold the villagers hostage and threaten to kill them if the government does not release the general.

The fascinating thing about ‘Born to Fight’ is that the film builds an incredible human drama as the story of the massacre unfolds. The filmmakers went out of their way to build a relationship between the villagers and the audience and does so effectively, without resorting to sappy, melodramatic techniques. We truly feel touched and care about these people. The lengthy section in the middle of the film when we get an immense dose of how the villagers live, what they’re like and who they are has the feel of a documentary recording real lives during a good will visit from a group of athletes. This sets us up in a unique way to root for those who fight against the rebels.

‘Born to Fight’ opens with a long action sequence depicting the events which lead Deaw (Dan Chupong) to his new life as an athlete. This scene introduces us to the Thai answer to action films, which are laden with incredible stunt work performed in realistic ways without wires or computer effects. Sure, this isn’t anything new. Jackie Chan has been doing this for years. Now that Jackie is getting older, you may have noticed he’s doing more movies that rely on computer effects, but we can’t discount how he started. Tony Jaa and the other Thai action stars like Dan Chupong are picking up the torch where Jackie left it. The stunts in ‘Born to Fight’ are simply amazing and it has more than your average moments that make you say “Oh, that had to hurt!”

Once Deaw and the other athletes find out that the rebels plan to launch a nuclear missile into the heart of Bangkok, they decide that they’d rather risk death by fighting the rebels that sit around as hostages waiting to die as millions of Thai people in Bangkok are incinerated. With this new fire to survive and fight evil, the athletes go on the offensive, showing off their skills and abilities. One of the cool elements of this extended battle portion of the film is the creative way of showing the athletes integrating their sporting disciplines into their fighting style. Soccer players are kicking balls, rocks and tea pots into rebels heads, gymnasts are slinging devastating swinging kicks from bars and beams and of course, Deaw is just plain kicking ass with his acrobatic and deadly martial arts training. At one point, even a little villager girl of about 8 years old is inspired to show her budding Muay Thai talent against one of the rebels. What makes this all work is that it maintains a serious and dramatic tone instead of accentuating the outlandishness of the events taking place on screen.

For a film I was eagerly anticipating when I first went into the viewing, I came out of the viewing even more enthusiastic by how entertaining it was and how professionally made the production turned out. If you enjoyed ‘Ong Bak’ then you’ll likely enjoy ‘Born to Fight’. Give it a chance and you won’t regret it… and stick around during the end credits for some Jackie Chan style stunt out takes that truly illustrate what these filmmakers go through just to entertain us. Oh yeah, and did I mention this Dragon Dynasty release is a two-disc ultimate edition?

DVD Features:

Disc One -

• Movie, plus Feature Commentary with Hong Kong Cinema Expert Bey Logan

Disc Two -

• The Making of an Action Epic, a 60-Minute Documentary
• Action!: On the Set of Born to Fight
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• U.S. Promotional Trailer

With Sundance just about to hit Park City, Sony snatched up the North American rights to the undergrund fighting drama ‘Blood and Bone’ starring Michael Jai White. The film was directed by Ben Ramsey (Love and a Bullet) and the cast includes Eamonn Walker, Julian Sands, Nona Gay and Kimbo Slice.

Story centers on an ex-con (Michael Jai White) who takes the underground fighting world by storm in his quest to fulfill a promise to a dead friend. Michael Andrews penned the screenplay.

Sure, the story sounds a bit like ‘Bloodsport’ but I think it may still have something to look forward to… that something is Michael Jai White. After all, White is a bad ass who actually knows, and practices multiple martial arts — Shotokan, Tae Kwon Do, Kobuo, Goju Ryu, Tang Soo Do, Wushu and Kyokushin. Yeah, you tell him his movie sucks…

[source: Variety.com]