Iron Monkey 2

Iron Monkey would not have been so bad if it had been subtitled instead of dubbed over, but it would still have been awful.

The fight scenes are crappy and everything else is unintentionally funny. The direction is...well... bad. Many things about this movie are BAD. The cinematography, if you can call it that, is choppy, crappy, uneven and fake. Most parts when they are trying to make it look like something is falling into place, it looks like they shot it falling (or CGI'd it) then shot a seperate cut with it in place. Really REALLY crappy movie.

This is one of the worst martial arts movies I have ever seen. It's not even funny, just painfully bad. I'll give it 2/10 just because some of the fight scenes were mediocre, not terrible.

Iron Monkey was great. Zoro, Robin Hood, meets the Matrix and Crouching Tiger. This one is stupid monkey meets Plan Nine from Outer Space.

A huge let down after Iron Monkey. This film is just plain bad. Don't even waste the cost of a rental and your time to see the first few minutes, when you will be certain you've made a mistake.

We tried to give this film a chance, on the strength of Iron Monkey, but in the end it is just awful. The direction is terrible, the fight scenes are dull--trying to be exciting--the acting is either flat or over the top, the film editing makes it impossible to follow the story, and the film quality is miserable.

Enough said? In other words, rent something else tonight.

Just how does the THIS channel find such cinematic crap? I'm wondering if the films in Universal Studios that got destroyed in the fire were any better, & if not, it could be a blessing. But back to "Iron Monkey II." Normally I see substandard kung fu or marital arts films on Spanish-language stations like Telefutura or Telemundo. Somehow I discovered "Iron Monkey 2" on THIS, & unfortunately had to hear the ridiculous English dubbing. The action scenes were decent in comparison to better or worse martial arts movies. Certainly the foley artist has quick ears & quick hands on the buttons. & not a single actor could be recognized, not even the white actors. But this lackluster film was meant to be stumbled upon while channel-surfing, not to be rented or downloaded and seen on a big screen or computer.

Inspector Cool Head (not my translation), an honest cop who suspects a frame on someone accused of murder. It's the kind of movie you keep telling yourself, I'm just going to watch it for another 5 minutes.....next thing you know the movie is over. At times the DVD picture was clean, but more often than not it seemed I was watching a tape in extended play. I would recommend a rental instead of a purchase.

It is possible to enjoy this movie. The first and most important thing to do is to forget that it has anything to do with the movie Iron Monkey. In fact, looking at it I'm not entirely convinced that it was intended to. There is no reason to believe that Donnie Yen's character is supposed to be Wong Kei-Ying. Donnie Yen's character (supposedly the Iron Monkey) isn't even the central character in the movie. I suspect that this may be a case much like American releases entitled Rumble in Hong Kong or Return of the Dragon, trying to cash in on the fame of better, unrelated movies. That's speculation on my part, though.

Still, there is some very good classic-style action in this movie, and if you can't see past the attempt to cash in on another, admittedly better movie, you're missing out. There are some very good action sequences in this movie, comparable to those in the masterpiece Once Upon a Time in China. Yes, the production value is kind of low, but if that upsets you that much you can't be much of a fan of Hong Kong cinema.

There is a lot of talent in this movie and it is definitely worth watching. Sadly, the American DVD release is only available in pan and scan with an English dub. It's always terrible to have the sides of the frame hacked off an action movie, but at least the dub isn't that bad (as they go). If you're a fan of more "old-school" Hong Kong action I'd recommend this movie, especially if you can get a widescreen and subtitled version.