The Last Kung Fu Monk (2010)

Who payed the critics

The Worst Film Ever

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

From the dull script, barely there acting and badly written characters makes this one of the most painful movie I've ever seen. Terrible.

LAST KUNG FU MONK is another low budget slice of US/Hong Kong madness from the people who brought you THE RESISTANCE, a story about the Nanjing massacre which was even worse. That film ripped off IP MAN quite extensively, whereas LAST KUNG FU MONK is happy to emulate the likes of ONG BAK and WARRIOR KING quite extensively for its running time.The story is about your average middle-aged kung fu fighting monk who decides to head to New York to help out some buddies. Once there he becomes embroiled in a plot involving some low rent gangster goons and plentiful action ensues. The action sequences are surprisingly decent in places, even though they're constrained by the low budget; they're not up to the level of MERANTAU, but some of the choreography is nice. The Thai Tony Jaa films are the inspiration here and the fights tend to use repetitive music with crashing cymbals that's borrowed in its entirety from WARRIOR KING.Elsewhere, the film suffers from the usual round of really bad acting and amateurish writing. Outside of the action it just isn't very good at all and during the action it's just about acceptable. You do have to laugh at our very ordinary-looking monk's romance with a gorgeous young woman which stretches the bounds of believability even more than his martial arts moves.

I rather like cheaply made kung fu films but not this cheap which is a great shame because I thought the leading protagonist, (and apparently the film's director) Peng Li was actually rather good. I don't think I've seen him in another film previously which comes as quite a surprise given that he managed to secure funding (about $27) for his own debut film.I won't go into the story too much save to say that it is a very familiar theme-good-guy beats up bullies, rescues heroine and generally saves the day. I don't know whether Peng Li is really a Shaolin trained monk but he is obviously very good at what he does. In his katas, his kicks and punches are very fast and powerful and I suspect that with properly focused chi he could do a lot of damage and that's what makes the fight scenes so unbelievable. He is punching and kicking people with no obvious martial art skills who are then bouncing off the floor as if they had been hit with a bag of marshmallows when in reality they wouldn't be getting up again for a long time.I've seen complaints that Peng Li doesn't smile enough or indeed show very much emotion. As a rule, Chinese people don't. Comparisons have been made to Jackie Chan but possibly they don't realise that his slapstick style is just an act for his films. If Peng Li is a Shaolin Monk or if he is pretending to be one then spending three-quarters of your life living in a monastery eating three bowls of rice and fish a day when you're not meditating or fighting with someone, then I wouldn't be smiling much either. I think he plays his part believably.This is a modern kung fu film with an accomplished leading man and it is such a shame that his skills have been largely wasted in this dire nightmare of a film and I just hope that there is someone out there who will give him another chance.

I've seen a lot of decent Kung-fu movies, however this is not one of them. If you are expecting a Jackie Chan kind of martial arts comedy, then this is not for you (even though they do have the outtakes at the end of the film). Where Jackie Chan films are generally quite humorous, the only humor in this film comes from how bad the acting is. The fight scenes are not bad, but the horrific acting cancels them out, such that you end up at the end of the film wishing you had spent the time doing something else. The main actress is quite cute, however the storyline is so far fetched as to be comical. Seriously, do not waste your time with this flick and watch a Jackie Chan movie instead. You'll be glad you did.