Fight the Fight (2011)

Memorable, crazy movie

good film but with many flaws

Better Late Then Never

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

I have, essentially, seen this movie many times before. CHOYLEEFUT is a decently-made but ultimately uninventive modern martial arts drama that recycles any number of plot devices and storyline clichés in uninteresting fashion, making for a movie that you can't really complain about but can't laud either. Its cast is interesting enough but both the screenplay and the fight scenes are just waiting to be overlooked and forgotten in the history of kung fu cinema.The story: A young kung fu practitioner (Sammy Hung) bets the school of his father (also his real-life dad Sammo) against a corporate fighting team in martial competition to prove the strength of his family's kung fu.While the title of the film is apt for the fact that choy lee fut is the exploited fighting style of the story, the renaming doesn't detract from the film since it's treated very superficially: the opening and closing titles provide some background and history of the art, but the movie offers next to no insight of its philosophy or even points out how it differs from other styles (though it does feel confident enough to more or less state that it's better than karate). The film builds up to a series of three matches to determine the school's fate, along the way diving into a boring love triangle tangent, and during this time, most of the characters develop little personality, to the point that I didn't even care who won or lost in the end.Along with Sammo Hung, fellow Hong Kong cinema icon Yuen Wah is present, though their roles are largely non-fighting and play to their senior status; it was probably an easy shoot for them. Mostly it's a Gen-X cast at the forefront, featuring Kane Kosugi and Dennis To, and like I said before, none of them really have much of a personality in the film. This carries over to the fight scenes: wrangled by Sam Wong, they peak at times with nice moves, athleticism, and minimal wire-fu (particularly during the fight between Kosugi and gweilo Ian Powers) but nonetheless end up all looking the same thanks to flawed rhythm, too much cutting, and an icky habit of slow-motioning reaction shots.There are a few interesting moments in the film, like when it adopts psychedelic CGI backgrounds for some flashback scenes and the training montage alluding to ROCKY IV. Personally, I like seeing Kane Kosugi perform in general, so his costarring role here was really appreciated. Regardless, the movie really doesn't try for much, with the result that I'll probably forget about it in a fortnight. I can't really justify giving it a lower rating since it's very smoothly produced for its budget, but I can't recommend this to anybody short of die-hard fans of anyone involved.

Honestly i can't believe the reviews before me... This movie ain't bad at all, its a very nice martial art movie. Sure its not Ip Man but c'mon...Of course if you get this for Sammo Hung only, sure you will be disappointed he is not much into it... I originally got it cause his name and face is on the cover, but even tough i was surprise to see he was not that much in it, i tough it was very fun and nice. Sure the romance may be a bit sloppy as some pointed, but if you base your view of the movie on just that, you miss something.Once i realize Ken Kosugi was in, i knew it would be fun, the guy showed some stuff before, and overall i was very entertain by the fighting sequence and overall story.I watched the movie in Cantonese, as i can't stand English dub, i am from Quebec, so speak french, i watch movies in french dubbed normally, and i grew up doing so, so they look perfectly normal to me, but an English dub just feel off to me... an original English version is all fine, but if the movie is in Cantonese, i rather watch it in Cantonese. I would not be surprise to see some people had trouble getting into the movie because they watched it in English.Anyway, i got this by surprise in a video club bin for 5$ and i was surprise to see how good it is, definitely liked it. Actually its been a while i didn't enjoyed a good martial art movie that much...

The first thing I want to point out is that, trust me, Sammy Hung can act. It's just not terribly evident in this movie. Watch the Wing Chun TV series (it's on Crunchyroll) and you will see the incredible range and talent that Sammy has. It doesn't fully show up until halfway into the series, but believe me, he's outstanding.Unfortunately in "Fight the Fight" he gets a character that doesn't have a ton of personality or much to do, really. As for the movie, how do you have Sammo Hung and Yuen Wah in a movie as kung fu Masters and not have them fighting more or doing much training? They have one scene where the two of them fight briefly, but otherwise they are just "there" like window dressing. The story is pretty thin and not terribly well written.The movie is supposed to be about Choy Li Fut but you don't actually see much of it displayed. Sammy and Kane Kosugi are at this school supposedly training, but you don't see a ton of actual training going on. Some of the tournament fighting is tasty, Kane Kosugi has the best moves, but there are times when a guy here or there, Sammy included, gets clobbered and has his arms at his sides - absolutely no defense. I'm no martial arts expert, but that can't be right. The nicest moment in the whole movie for me personally is when Sammo, who plays Sammy's Dad, is kinda wishing him luck as he's going into his big fight and there's this very genuine moment where you know it's Sammo's way of kind of saying publicly how proud he is of his son. It's very brief, but very touching, real life father and son moment.

Choy Li Fut is an actual martial arts style that exist. I never heard of it before. But reading about it on the internet was infinitely more interesting than this poor production. What were they thinking? And how did they manage to get Sammo Hung and Yuen Wah on board? They are martial arts legends. That in itself is more compelling.Now I wasn't expecting a good film.Average with top notch action would have sufficed just as good. And with regret I have to inform that isn't the case. What puzzles me even more is that with this movie they had the chance to inform the viewer about this form of martial arts and really sell it.But fail to do so.No real attempt is made. We simply are shown what you see in most similar movies.A few tedious training sequences, soap opera antics that absolutely nobody is waiting for.And fights so boring that I could not wait for them to be over.There was one redeeming factor. A short dream like sequence where Sammo Hung and Yeun Wah fight each other. Much too short but far better than all the other fights in Choy Lee Fut. To use a quote from this movie:"Don't look too long or you will get nightmares" So true!