The Man With The Iron Fists

The Man with the Iron Fists is a B-movie to its core—the lovechild of kung fu and grindhouse, with a smattering of Western flare. And it’s no wonder—directed and co-written by RZA (of The Wu-Tang Clan), produced by Eli Roth (Grindhouse), and presented by Quentin Tarantino himself, this movie reeks of violence, greed, sex and kitsch from a mile away. A thin plot serves only as an excuse for martial arts and splashy gore—gangs, British soldier Jack Knife (Russell Crowe) and blacksmith-turned hero (the man-with-the-iron-fists) who forges the weapons (RZA), plus a few dozen hookers and their madam (Lucy Liu). Not bad for a first kick at the can on RZA’s part, but even campy hair-dos and slain warriors and split screen shots get tiresome—slash fifteen or so minutes, and this movie would fulfill its desires.           

 

This film tries very hard to capture the magic of grind house kung fu movies and does so with a look that may have been interesting at the time but now comes off as cheap and unprofessional. Every fight scene is so quickly edited that all the action is drained out of any battle. In a movie where very third scene is a fight scene that is bad. The characters are interesting for all of ten seconds and I didn't give a shit what happened to them. 

 

The only way a movie like this can fail is to stop being entertaining and this film wasn't even fun. The stunts all look fake and goofy with unnecessary gore. The wire work is very overextended and also looks stupid. Put all the crappy pieces together and this comes off as an ego piece.

 

Even the weapons that are supposed to make each fight seem like levels in a video game, they also come across looking either more deadly or less deadly as the story requires them to be. Not much makes sense here and a modern hip hop soundtrack does nothing to ground me in any kind of world that could exist - even in the fairytale Eastern revenge Western that director RZA tries to establish.

 

Here his reach definitely extends his grasp. No points for acting in his own production either. This reminds me of a lawyer defending himself - it doesn't often go well. His use of modern slang shows little attention was paid to the story at all.

 

Don't even get me started on the 'flashback' scene.

 

 

Old vets like Russel Crowe and Lucy Lui come off like they are slumming for a lazy payday. Crowe is starting to remind me of worse actors who ply their trade every decade or so in something like the Expendibles.