Review of The Man with the Iron Fists (2012) by Kelly D — 01 Mar 2013

I have occasionally enjoyed this wave of grindhouse pictures, like--"Planet Terror" and "Hobo with a Shotgun." But a lot of them have been disappointments. I'm talking about the boring and overwritten "Death Proof" and the oh-so-irreverent "Machete.".

"The Man with the Iron Fists"--Wu-Tang Clan member RZA's first shot behind the camera, is an exercise in visual and structural ineptitude. The RZA, starring alongside an obese Russell Crowe, in this rather poor grindhouse homage to old Kung Fu movies, narrates the simplistic story of a black blacksmith (RZA) who must protect his village from a deadly band of assassins. Not even a halfway decent final battle sequence, (if you can make it that far), can compensate the insurmountable problems that makes this so laborious to watch. Truthfully, I wanted to enjoy the movie for what it is--an over-top-bloody, action sequence extravaganza--but couldn't. The movie tries to maintain a edginess throughout---graphic fight scenes, blood spatter, etc. but falls short. Levels of debauchery that are simply unpleasant at times (including a disturbingly obese Russell Crowe ripping anal beads from out a prostitute in a bath tub) for example. The last half of the film takes place inside the brothel, and there is not a single shred of female nudity in the film.

The film was entirely filmed in China, and whose original duration exceeded four hours. The RZA suggested dividing the work into two films, however, and not surprisingly, his proposal did not receive any support, thus forced to reduce its length to just over an hour and a half. Therefore, when you remove 145 minutes of a 240 minute film, the first thing that suffers is the story itself. What's left of the story is a mess and no real sense of direction. Characters are in and out of the story line so quickly, the audience doesn't have a chance to be clear on their motivations and alignments.The martial arts sequences consist of a saturation of close-ups, cables, and computer generated effects--that denies the viewer the chance to appreciate the exchange of martial techniques. Considering the background and motivations of the director--and his talented cast--such a waste of unused talent is incomprehensible.

The RZA's directorial debut is not terrible--and yes that's a compliment. For a grindhouse homage it's rather boring at times-- and the scant 95-minute running time seems painfully long. Further evidence that supports the fact that grindhouse trailers are almost always more entertaining than the movies themselves.