Dragon Tiger Gate - 2 Disc Ultimate Edition [DVD]

If you like fast paced Kung Fu movies where the fights are fast and furious, you will love this.

I like films where you can see most of the fight action, and prefer sparing use of wires. This film does not disappoint. The big fights at the end are so exciting and really well shot.

Nothing interferes with the storytelling, flashbacks and fights move the story forward without feeling tacked on or clunky, the acting is great and there are a few chucklesome moments as well.

All in all, I loved this film.

I'm not going to harp on about this one for too long as everyone that probably desperately wanted to see it has most likely done so, and most of the story info can be found elsewhere on this page. So here's a quick point by point of the good and bad of Dragon Tiger Gate which culminates in a rather useful conclusion at the end:

THE GOOD:
- Some brilliant fight scenes in huge sets that get torn right up.
- Some obviously quite talented fighters.
- Some inventive camera work: at one point you get every view possible of a massive fight in a liitle resteraunt, and when the shots get clogged with henchmen the camera, rather niftily, swings above the action to give you a top down view of every room the fight is happening in. great stuff.
- Some good use of wires - not too much.
- Some okay acting, not the best but good enough to help you feel for the characters.

THE BAD:
- Hideous, really vomit worthy, trendy hair doos on every character that are more laughable than cool. The guy with the mad, blonde, spikey fringe job has the exact same doo as my 50 year old auntie. I know they're supposed to look like thier comic book counterparts but some things work in comics and not on screen. I can't see how having a fringe covering your eyes, like an emo dulux dog, would help you fight 200 bad guys, ridiculous!
- There sure is some talent one display here, but some of the fighters, I felt, just scraped in because they looked the part - but talking the talk and walking the walk an all that. No one in the film really compares to the likes of Sonny Chiba, Jet Li or Brucey boy (Except Donnie of course!).
- The script could have used some work, you can often see the actors finding it hard to even look at each other, through thier fringes, and say the lines seriously.
- Some of the special effects are a little cheap looking.
- That spinny kick move was far too power rangers and far too pathetic - the bad guy just slaps him away!

CONCLUSION:
A kung fu blast and a half but just a little too cheesy to take seriously if you're over a certain age (and maybe if your under that undefined age, but i'd have loved this without question and given it five stars when I was 15). Some really spectacular fights do take the stilton edge off and make you wish you could kick a guy across a hall. All in all a satisfying romp but nowhere near the best martial arts film i've seen, not by a mile and a half.

This is to be watched by people who like there Fantasy style martial arts films. I however have neve rbeen a fan of these kind of films (Hero, Crouching Tiger ETC) so I was overally impressed by this movie.

I found the film very complicated and hard to follow, the CGI seemed pretty sloppy at times and the charcters all had very stupid hair.

The three good things in this movie are, Donnie Yen, Kenji Kawai music score and the fight sequences (well most of them).

Id rather watch Yen in films like IP Man and Flashpoint