By Dr. Craig D. Reid As the years go by, the biggest challenge facing Chinese martial arts movies is for the fight directors and their choreographers to keep coming up with creative fight scenes that don’t rehash what they’ve been doing for over 30 years. Then with the advent of Hong Kong’s famously mind blowing […]
Martial Arts
HANNA: Action and film outlook? Grimm
By Dr. Craig D. Reid Being associated with various notions and potions, revolving and evolving from the fairy tales and animal wails created by the Brothers Grimm, the non-action packed, somewhat of a vague thriller Hanna, fails in science, strains in action and feigns in suspense. London-borne director Joe Wright tries to pull off a French Luc Besson-ish film with the […]
THE GREEN HORNET: BETTER THAN TRON
By Dr. Craig D. Reid Being a pal of Robert Lee (Bruce Lee’s brother), a well known martial arts film expert (based on fan and critic reactions to my recently released book The Ultimate Guide to the Martial Arts Movies of the 1970s) and a fight choreographer in the Chinese kung fu film industry and Hollywood since 1979, I […]
THE RACISM OF THE EXPENDABLES MAKES THIS FILM EXPENDABLE
By Dr. Craig D. Reid The Expendables is a film that based on what is being written about its box office numbers seems to have some inside backing that tries to make a big deal of a miniscule deal, which once again shows how in some circles in Hollywood, film production wise and media wise […]
SHIN KOYAMADA’S INAUGURAL UNITED STATES MARTIAL ARTS FESTIVAL
By Dr. Craig D. Reid Earlier this year, my wife and I became Board of Directors of the Shin Koyamada Foundation (SKF), a non profit foundation in which one of the goals is to raise funds for their Martial Arts Scholarship Program so kids of lesser means can be given the chance to enroll […]
KARATE KID: THE WRONG, RIGHT AND DISRESPECTFUL
By Dr. Craig D. Reid The Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan starring The Karate Kid (2010) and its predecessor the Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita starring The Karate Kid (1984) has a unique balance of yin-yang philosophy seeped in martial traditions and chances are you’ll probably never recognize it unless you understand martial arts history, […]