The first scrobble for this title is still propagating, but a community review is already indexed below.
Reviews
Longform community posts about this title
"Man of Tai Chi", un film d'action de Keanu Reeves@iptrucs3131d
L'histoire : Tiger, un talentueux combattant de Tai Chi, livreur en dehors du ring, se voit offrir des combats excessivement rémunérés par un riche entrepreneur à Hong-Kong. Pour sauver le temple de son maître et faire reconnaître le Tai Chi comme discipline de combat, le jeune Tiger ferme les yeux sur la légalité de ces rencontres et tombe sous le joug de Donaka Mark, son étrange et mystérieux bienfaiteur.
Mon avis : Ce film de Keanu Reeves (dans lequel il tient également un rôle) est une franche réussite. L'histoire est certes assez conventionnelle mais les combats sont magnifiques et l'ensemble tout à fait remarquable. De plus, cela fait connaître un peu plus le Tai Chi et c'est tant mieux. Quant à Tiger Hu Chen, il est tout simplement prodigieux !
›Man of Tai Chi (2013) - Movie Review@coldsteem3208d
Today was a lazy day. I paged through the movies available on Showtime On Demand and settled on Man of Tai Chi. Keanu Reeves is hit or miss for me. He has had great success recently with his John Wick movies where he successfully pulls off a badass role. Enough so, that I gave this film a shot. Fair warning, it is a rainy day movie at best.
Tiger (Tiger Hu Chen) lives a mundane life. He works, takes care of his parents and studies Tai Chi at a local temple. He is the last student of his order. His form of Tai Chi has balance. It is a martial art, but one of balance. Tiger takes the opportunity to fight in an underground internet "fight club" in order to take care of his temple and his parents. The choice forces him into a commitment to Donaka Mark (Keanu Reeves). The commitment is not one that Tiger can merely walk away from. Fights become death matches as Tiger struggles to determine how to channel his chi.
Man of Tai Chi is your typical Karate Kid movie. Or Fight Club for that matter. The plot is thin, relying instead on a hackneyed Hollywood plot to deliver choreographed fight sequences. Like a modern day western. The good guys and bad guys are clearly delineated, with a conflicted protagonist. The story was as basic and predictable as a story can be. If you like watching martial arts, then this film may hold your interest. If not, skip it. The underlying story has no redeeming qualities. The dialogue is trite and vanilla. The narrative arc is okay, with decent pacing. But way too predictable. The characters are two-dimensional. Even the lead role. Ulitmately, as a story, Man of Tai Chi fails. As martial arts, it is mildly entertaining.
To put things in perspective, Man of Tai Chi cost 25 million dollars to make. It cleared a paltry $64,000 it's opening weekend in the United States. It has only recouped 5 million dollars in the United States and likely lost money worldwide. The film has decent effects, but there is no way I would have bankrolled this film for 25 million based on the story. The film does not have much objectionable material, other than the ruthless (but not bloody) violence. There are some "death scenes" in the film related to the fight club. The violence was adequate to earn the film an R rating. The violence is less than a typical fighter video game, so the age restriction is a bit strict in my opinion. I don't find much to worry about with this film as it pertains to younger viewers.
If you have two hours to kill, Man of Tai Chi is a mindless action film to fill the gap. I was debating whether to find something else to watch, but stuck it out. It wasn't horrible, but certainly had a lot of room for improvement. I hate flat characters. I can watch a slow paced film that are character driven and find them to be engaging. But fast paced films with flat characters aren't as satisfying. The sweet spot is in the middle somewhere. In the end, this is just a vehicle to show some martial arts choreography. Simplistic action film. Okay for a rainy day if there is nothing else on. 5.5/10.
