Director: RZA
Starring: RZA, Lucy Liu, Russell Crowe, Jamie Chung
Running Time: 95 minutes
Certificate: 15
Extras: Deleted Scenes: The Saga of Gold Lion; Jack Knife Journey Through Wolf Mountain; Zen Yi and Chan Make Camp; Blacksmith Doctors Zen Yi; Mirror Maze, A Look Inside The Man with the Iron Fists, A Path to the East, On the Set with RZA: The Journey Begins; Casting Legends; Respect The Classics; Visualising the Story; First Person Shooter
In 1993 hip-hop collective The Wu-Tang Clan released their seminal debut album ‘Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)’. Nearly 20 years after the release of this classic LP leader of the Wu-Tang Clan, the RZA, makes his directorial debut with THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS.
From the opening credits it is clear this is a love letter to the kung-fu flicks the RZA and his Wu brethren watched religiously in their formative years. The action scenes are frequent, furious and violent but there is little done to set them up. It’s safe to say dialogue, plot and character development were not at the forefront of the RZA and co-writer Eli Roth’s minds when they sat down to write this movie, resulting in a formulaic plot, and cringe-inducing dialogue. The acting is also not great: the RZA, as the Blacksmith, shows little charisma or emotion as one of the movies lead characters; Lucy Liu appears to be playing a caricature of her character O-Ren Ishii in KILL BILL VOL 1, and Russell Crowe seems drunk in most of his scenes (although his character is supposed to be a drunk, so it could be an excellent bit of method acting on Crowe’s part). The only real surprise is that former WWE superstar, Dave Bautista, as the character Brass body (because he can turn his body to brass, get it?) manages to show a tiny bit more presence than he did when he was a pro-wrestler.
It’s not all bad though. Fight scenes are excellency choreographed and a lot of fun, in particular the scene where the Gemini Killers battle the Wolf Clan. Another thing that really stands out is what made the RZA famous in the first place, music. Hip-hop and classic soul may not sound great matches for a kung fu film set in 19th century china, but the songs, some of which contain snips of dialogue from older kung-fu movies, help set the tone making the action uptempo and fun.
MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS has obvious downfalls, but it’s also very entertaining. Fans of the music of the RZA and Wu Tang Clan will love it. Your general movie going public? Maybe not so much.
THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS is available on Blu-ray and DVD 1st April via Universal
