Reviews

Appropriate that the "hero" is a rapper. The idea of wealth and power makes him sellout his fellow humans quite easily, with the exception of his step brother. The only actor in the movie is the British dude. Debbie Ryan's hot but she's a bad actress.

10 minutes in, turned it off. This is one of those movies where we are supposed to believe that the characters are "important" and innocent bystanders are killed in droves so they can battle on for whatever the CIA considers freedom.

I remember watching this in Chinatown when it came out, back in 1980 (at least in the US) and it was one of the last Shaw brothers movies I made a trek over the bay bridge to see. Unlike many reviewers, I never liked 5 Venoms. Sorry, but walking on walls and the ceiling is just not my idea of kung fu. The was even worse, with silly acrobatics and flips just killed it for me. I was a fan of Fu Sheng, Ti Lung and Chen Kuan Tai, who all seemed to have some omph behind their kung fu (possibly because the all were from schools that sparred) but the venoms struck me as all show. Anyway, Jackie Chan made Young Master, and that was it. Golden Harvest had won, after all. I know the Shaw's tried to crank them out for a few more years, but movies like this were what killed them.

There is an art to fight choreography, and this movies fights are technically "clean" but lack drama and build up. This movie is an example of why Shaw's popularity fell and golden harvest rose. As the years went on, there was a focus on a sort of Chinese opera style of dance acrobatics and the fights lost the umph of earlier movies such a Heroes Two and Shaolin Martial Arts. Also, the plot is a disjointed mess, and despite the fact that it has a "ton of stars" they are given very little to do. They are better films in the same genre, so I would give this one a pass. You would be better off seeking out Avenging Eagle, Shaolin Temple or Disciples of Shaolin. I read somewhere that Disciples was Fu Sheng's favorite film. Another worthy flick is 5 shaolin masters.

Despite the fact that there really aren't the major set piece fights of the Shaolin movies, this is one of the better Shaw bros flicks. It actually has a point, that can be related to even to this day, of workers being exploited by an unfeeling boss. The owner of the factory the hero works in cares more for his fighting insects than the hero. As the story plays out, however unintentional, we see the Manchu villain cares more for his thugs then the heroes employer cares about his workers. Another good reason to see this particular movie is that it was the late Fu Sheng's favorite role/character. Virtually forgotten, at the time in Hong Kong, Fu Sheng was the biggest star in action movies going. Anyway, for $ 7.99, the VCD or DVD is well worth the price to get a glimpse of the HK James Dean at his best, at least in the acting department. For cool fights, though, you may want to see out "5 shaolin master", "ShaoLin Temple" or "Heroes Two".

I have to disagree with the above poster. This is the first of the Hung Gar movies, the flick was a big hit, and helped change how fight scenes were directed in Hong Kong. Before this film, with the exception of Bruce Lee, who was very athletic, most action films were either wanna be Bruce Lee clones- Bruce Liang, Li, Le, etc, with some occasional guys with good kicks etc, or clumsy Gang style knife fights- "Duel" "Vengeance" "Boxer from Shantung". The stars would throw flailing punches and kicks, and some how, with out any kind of skill, defeat an army of guys. Instead of trying to get a guy to look like a JKD stylist (i.e. combining boxing and Karate, not kung fu) they scrapped it for this much more classical style of fighting. Highly choreographed and unrealistic, at least it looked good. It's a movie, it's supposed to look good. As far as the "5 venoms" movies go, that was actually more of a Western Cult movie. At the time that came out, Jackie Chan was starting to break box office records, and the Shaw Brothers were getting beaten out by Golden Harvest and the TV serials.

Tried to get through the dubbed version, so it's a little unfair, but this is a lame, slapstick attempt at humor, that looked like they cranked it out in between other, better films. "You guys still got your outfits on from Shaolin Avengers? Come over and film this-". Movies like this are what really hurt Shaw Brothers and let Golden Harvest eat there lunch, in the long run. At one time, Shaw brothers would film actors in two or three movies in one day, as they constantly cranked out movies. Some were great, for what they were, but others, such as this, really look like an after thought. One of the reasons is that they wanted to save time, so if you were made up for a period movie, you may be doing two different flicks in one day.

This was a huge deal in the SF Bay Area, back in a time when there was no Jet Li or Chow Yung Fat, yet it was still reviewed in the hip weekly papers and Chronicle. This film, along with Heroes Two and Shao Lin Martial Arts almost brought some critical respect for the Genre when it seemed all but dead after Bruce Lee died. Sadly, it didn't take off, and Chang Cheh cranked out as many stiffs as he did Masterpieces. Hell, he wasn't making movies for western audiences, anyway.I just remember how stunned the theater owners were when all these white hippie intellectual couples showed up at the Great Star theater in droves to see this flick. The one thing that is lacking is in the fighting scenes you never see the Tiger Crane fist technique, only punches and palm strikes. They must have realized that something was missing, because every Fu Sheng Shao Lin movie, and damn near every movie about Shaolin, had the tiger Crane moves after this. Just so you know, there were actually 5 systems out of the temple that survived the burning, but you would never know it from these flicks.