Man of Tai Chi

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source: Man of Tai Chi

I like Keanu Reeves and I love martial arts movies and I went to this without knowing what to expect. It starts out very violent and dark setting the tone for the rest of the film. It quickly became apparent why this isn't showing in theaters in the USA (I watched in the Philippines). Most of the dialog isn't in English and this movie has plenty of cheesy moments, the cheesiest is probably when Keanu suddenly growls into the camera. I am sure they would insist that be cut out if it were to be theatrically released in the USA. People in the theater started laughing. This movie has a story that has been done in a lot of other films and seems to borrow heavily from Karate Kid III. Keanu's character is a rich, voyeuristic, evil guy but they never give any reasons why he is such an evil man, other than the script says he should be evil. Most of the scenes of Keanu are just him watching Tiger with a serious look on his face until he finally gets off his butt towards the end of the film. Tiger Chen lacks the look and charisma of a leading man. The bottom line is this is a film that you would expect Steven Seagal to make, not Keanu Reeves. I guess Keanu has been too busy making movies so he hasn't had the time to watch movies, otherwise he would know this has been done a million times before, mostly in straight to video movies in the early 90's.

Well after waiting ages to see what Mr Reeves has come up with i was pleasantly surprised! The acting was good the story a little different and the fight scenes were great. Using Tai Chi in the form of a martial art and together with some great philosophy this turned out to be a solid performance all round. Both Keanu and Chen Lin-Hu gave it their all and it was great to see Keanu using his old skills again not quite the Matrix but he still kicks ass. Some of the fight scenes were a little short but amazing styles were used to try to break Tai Chi. Fight clubs have been done to death so i was hoping to see something original in that respect but alas they stuck to the same formula. All in all a good film with amazing fighting and nice to see Keanu and Chen back together!! come on Chen we need to see more of you!!

The titular "Man of Tai Chi" refers to Tiger Chen, a dutiful son and student who wanted to show the world that the martial art form of Tai Chi is not simply for show, but also for combat. When ruthless underground fight club promoter Keanu Reeves witnesses Tiger's innocence behind his awesome skills, he knew he had the perfect star for his evil show -- someone ripe for corruption into the dark side. This film is as much about the philosophy of Tai Chi as it was about the exciting fight scenes. The story had promise. Unfortunately, this film had many negatives that weigh it down. The main protagonist Tiger Chen simply did not have enough charisma for the big screen. He comes alive only during the fight scenes, which were very good. But in every other scene though, he does not. He only had one expression on his face, the one with knit eyebrows. They just knit a little tighter together to denote his evil phase. I was really surprised to see Keanu Reeves associated with this type of film, and that he chose this genre to be his directorial debut. As director, his execution of the story is OK, considering that this film was tri-lingual. But overall, it was only basic, not that impressive. As actor, he was one-note and dull as the antagonist. His climactic fight scene was rightfully exciting, but Keanu himself looked awkward, especially his kicks. All I can say is that this could have been a much better film if the casting of the lead was better. But I guess it would not be easy to find an excellent tai chi fighter, who looked good on screen, and acted well. Well, as things go in the movie business, they can always remake this film when they do find such a man.

The scenario/plot is similar to any cheesy and tasteless 80s action movie (can't include martial ART in the description here) with a bit of modern visual/camera style and music. Below average actors all along the movie (especially the fighters, the police team) and a very very very stereotyped and ridiculous performance from Reeves into a silent evil "master". The sole purpose of this movie seems to give a chance to Keanu to be into a martial/art movie again, with a badass role while almost everything else around that has been done just in a stylish but without soul way. As per the philosophical aspect, it's about a 13/14 years old level with ultra basic concept which was NOT developed as such. A ridiculous result and a shame to include Tai Chi in its name.

Just awful. Boring, predictable and overall less original than popcorn itself. Was there a real need for a random clone of Asian B movies from the 70's? Not at all. Peculiar martial arts choreography probably arranged by Eddie Izzard, silly story, Reeves' acting is pitiful, disrespectful towards the audience and more annoying than funny (trying to look terrible growling at the camera? Are you nuts?). No excuses, he directed this crock of manure. Sorry, I really wanted to like this one but simply could not. *growls at the screen*

I'm not sure what all these mentions of a great story or tales of good morals are about. True, the movie does have a few excellent fight scenes, and some fine use of atmospheric music, but there's nothing new involved. Its just fight after fight seemingly getting harder as "Tiger" the Tai Chi man, moves through the tournaments. And then... there's Keanu Reeves. Personally I've never thought Reeves could act, and true to form he's as wooden as a post in this again. Hes always given me the impression someone has removed his brain and he walks the planet like some sort of movie zombie. Hey, maybe he should star in a zombie movie next time? Might be good. Erm, or perhaps not. As it is, Reeves is atrocious in this, it might have been excusable if he was just playing a wooden character to suit the movie role required, but he's the same in every movie he's been in. Let's face it, Reeves became famous because he was a hit with the ladies many years ago, that was the only reason he got where he is (or was). He can't act, full stop. There's a scene in this where he growls into the camera, I nearly pee'd myself laughing at it. The film picks up a gear towards the end when the police triangulate where the underground broadcasts of the fights are coming from and Tai Chi man goes through his lauded moral change. We get treated to an awful cheesy speech by Keanu who explains to him how they enjoyed watching this change, but it's all pretty silly really. I won't give away the ending, but safe to say it's a little hard to take in lol. Maybe the movie will go down better in the Eastern world, but I can't see too many getting blown away by Mr Reeves efforts in the West.

Keanu keanu keanu ... silly silly movie .. tried hard to like it .. but it's just really a painful to watch & terribly awful directing debut! Fight scenes are nothing spectacular.. storyline was very predictable and acting-wise? don't even go there! :o)) .. should stick in front of the camera, not behind, just for the sake of helping old friend (Tiger Chen) ...hope they'll reboot the next Matrix! the end credits scenery & soundtrack is really soothing though ... 1 star of 10 (that's being a generous Matrix big fan) (spoiler) and that 'screaming' on the camera thing ... please!! ... not sure what was he thinking when he decided to include that! very cringe-worthy seconds!