Movie Talk - The Rush Hour Movies

Well, I’ve gotten to the final post for this themed month. I knew that I was planning on watching some Jackie Chan movies, but I didn’t know where else to go. Suddenly, Chris Tucker busted into the room, talked with that voice of his for a few minutes, and threw the Rush Hour Trilogy into my face. Okay, that actually didn’t happen, but that sounds better than me remembering that I haven’t talked about these movies yet!

The first Rush Hour movie is what probably made me aware of Jackie Chan. It was either that or Rumble in the Bronx. It also made me aware of Chris Tucker who I really wasn’t watching when I was young. Rush Hour was released in 1998, Rush Hour 2 came out in 2001, and Rush Hour 3 was released after a six-year wait in 2007. Al three of them were directed by Brett Ratner and were a financial success. I only saw them at home when they were released on video/DVD. It’s a series that I’ve been meaning to get back to. So, do these movies hold up now in 2020? Well… yay and nay.

Movie Talk - Bruceploitation Part 7: Bruce Lee's Deadly Manuals of Death!

Well, the Kato costume finally shows up on someone... I'm not counting that "documentary" either.

Well, it’s that time. Every January, I delve into the archives of kung fu movies and look for ones that fit within the phenomenon known as Bruceploitation. Now, I’ve explained what this is in previous posts, but if this is your first one, here’s a quick description. When Bruce Lee died in 1973, studios were trying to cash in on the craze. They’d churn out movies about his life, revamps of his previous movies, really weird movies, and movies that centered on his death. You had guys with stage names like Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Dragon Lee, and Bruce Lea kicking butt and taking names.

It’s a weird subgenre and I think I’m almost done. I’ve found some really bad ones, but there have been some nice gems here. When I do eventually end this segment, I’ll list the best ones off. I’m not there yet, though. Today, I got six movies for this post. I was going to do seven, but I think I had enough of these movies for now. I even got one that actually has no Bruce impersonator, though I don’t know if it makes it good or not. I also have one that has “Bruce Lee” fight “Superman.” Guess which one I’m going  to talk about first.

TV Talk - Wu Assassins

Next up for the month is a bit of a late edition. Originally, I was going to look at some movies that featured actor Iko Uwais from The Raid movies. He’s done quite a bit since then. He and the director of the Raid movies also had a precursor to The Raid called Merantau. I was going to watch this and a couple of other movies, but I remembered that this show was on Netflix and decided to finish it out.

Wu Assassins is a pretty recent addition to Netflix. It was greenlit in 2018, and it eventually made it to Netflix on August 8^th, 2019. Uwais was brought in immediately as the main star, and he also served as a fight choreographer and coordinator on the show. I didn’t recognize too many faces from the show. I did recognize Lewis Tan from a couple of things. Bryan Mann was another recognizable face, but it took a while to remember what he was in. He’s appeared in quite a few things. The role I should’ve recognized him for was his time as Ryu in the 1990’s Street Fighter movie. Also, actors Mark Dascasos, Summer Glau, Tommy Flannagan, and Kevin Durand appear in roles.

Wu Assassins takes place in San Francisco and revolves around Kai Jin (Uwais), a Chinatown chef. He ends up being chosen as the next Wu Assassin by the spirit of the first Wu Assassin. Basically, his job is to take down the Wu Warlords. The Warlords have control of the elements like fire, water, wood, metal, and earth. What Kai doesn’t know at first is that Uncle Six, his adopted father and Chinese Triad boss, has control of the Fire Wu. He also has to deal undercover cops, shady friends, The Triad, other gangsters vying for power, an annoying friend who’s an addict, and a mentoring spirit who can kinda be grating at times. Oh yeah, there’s a whole lotta butt-kicking going on!

Tales from the $3.99 Bin! - Detective Comics #950-956: League of Shadows

Next up for the month is a go-around into the DC universe. For this story, I got two pretty skilled martial artists: Lady Shiva and Cassandra Cain. Lady Shiva was created by Dennis O’Neill and Ric Estrada. She first appeared in Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter #5 from 1975. She’s gone toe-to-toe with the best fighters in the DCU. She’s considered to be one the best and is even better than Batman. Yes, Batman isn’t the greatest at everything, folks. I’m getting tired of the whole “I can do anything with prep time” version of Batman. Even though she’s mostly a villain, she’s even trained folk like Bruce Wayne and Tim Drake.

As for Cassandra Cain, she first appeared in Batman #567 from 1999. She ended up becoming Batgirl for a few years, then someone decided to make her a villain for no reason. Anyway, that went away, she had called herself the Black Bat right before Flashpoint happened. After Flashpoint, all of that history was gone and she was brought back to square zero. Instead of becoming Batgirl, she ended up taking the name of Orphan during DC’s Rebirth phase. In either continuity, Cassandra is a premier top fighter in the DCU. Even Batman said he can’t beat her.

I think these two are fine characters overall, but I do like that two women are the best DCU fighters. I know some Batman fans are now staring darts at me right now. These two have gone to blows in the past. I know they did in Cassandra’s own book from the 2000’s and somewhat recently in the story I’ll be covering today. Today, it’s the “League of Shadows” arc from Detective Comics #950-956. When Rebirth started, Detective Comics essentially became a “Batman Team” book with other Batman-related characters being on the team. I’ll list the creative team below.

Weird Star Trek Episodes - The Icarus Factor aka "Daddy Issues With a Dose of THE EVOLUTION OF THE MARTIAL ARTS!"

"Whoever wins this round of American Gladiators will run through The Eliminator!"

Next up for the month, I thought I’d revisit the Star Trek universe to see what fighting goes on over there. Yeah, the Federation may be a utopia where humanity has ascended into greatness or whatever that juice Picard was drinking during TNG’s first season. Oh yeah, that reminds me… someone’s coming back to TV this week! That’ll be exciting, but let me get this out of the way first.

“The Icarus Factor” was a Season 2 episode from TNG. Things were admittedly better in this season, but the show wasn’t there yet. Some changes occurred like Geordi and Worf getting promotions, Riker getting that awesome beard, and the ship getting a new doctor that barely any fans like. Dr. Pulaski was… ‘aight, but I see why folk hate her. She took some getting used to. This episode also introduces a couple of things: Anbo-jitsu (THE ULTIMATE EVOLUTION IN THE MARTIAL ARTS… and yeah, I’m putting that in caps), and Klingon painsticks.

TV Talk - Marvel's Defenders

Before I get to some good ‘ole Bruceploitation, I thought I’d share my thoughts on something major from Marvel. I was thinking on what I haven’t covered on here involving the martial arts side of Marvel, and then the Defenders popped into my head. It has the Hand, Marvel’s own group of evil ninjas, after all. Yeah, I forgot about the big crossover between the 4 Marvel Netflix shows. There may be a few reasons why, but I’ll get to them later. Also, I may be talking about a Marvel event that uses those characters in a similar fashion called Shadowland on my other blog. That’ll come… eventually.

Anyway, Defenders was the big crossover event that was supposed to bring in characters from Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. Heck, it mostly came from bits that tied into Daredevil’s and Iron Fist’s stories. They were building toward their eventual meeting in the same way everything led to the Avengers. We had characters like Jessica Jones and Luke Cage meet each other. We even had Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) be kinda of a link between most of the series. I was sort of psyched for it even though the previous series (Iron Fist Season 1) wasn’t that good. So, what did happen in this 8-episode mini that debuted on August 18^th, 2017?

Defenders takes place a few months after the end of Daredevil’s second season and a month after the end of Iron Fist’s first season. All of the heroes are dealing with their own personal trials. They all end up on a path that brings them together and that path is the Hand. It looks like they’re up to their old tricks again and it looks like the majors heads, led by Alexandria (Sigourney Weaver), are going to do some bad stuff to New York. It’s also revealed that they have a secret weapon: Elektra, Matt’s supposedly dead girlfriend. Will these Defenders be able to stop the nefarious goals of the Hand?

Favorites - 10 Favorite Tekken Characters

When the 2010’s rolled around, I don’t know what happened between me and fighting games. For years, I was more or less an avid fan of fighting games. There was the Street Fighter series, Mortal Kombat, Virtua Fighter, and of course, Tekken. I guess I got burnt out on the franchise since I barely played any of Tekken 6. I barely touched the modern MK games. I think the only fighting franchise I gave any attention to was Netherrealm’s Injustice series.

Let me get back to Tekken, though. I had gotten the latest game, Tekken 7, some time ago. I hadn’t cracked open the case for months until we got to the holiday season. I had more time off for work than I realized, so I popped that baby in. I guess I needed to get some things off my chest, and honestly, it had been too long since I’ve kicked butt as Eddy Gordo. I don’t know what happened, but it felt like going home for the first time. Anyway, I thought I’d just off my favorite characters from the franchise.  This is just me gushing on my  faves. These are the ones who got the coolest moves, got good backstories, and just look pretty cool. It’s also not in order, but the best are up top.

Movie Talk - The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Movies

Next up for the month is a look at a kung fu movie that’s critically acclaimed. Not many in the genre can say that, but this one can. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a movie I’ve heard things about but never saw it until this year. Yeah, I’m kinda lame like that. I think I may have said “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Negro” at some point in my life. I know one reason I didn’t watch it was because it wasn’t dubbed. Also, I know I wasn’t the biggest fan of the wuxia style of martial arts films. It took me a while to get there, folks. I think movies like Iron Monkey, Hero, and Fearless helped get me there.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was released in 2000, and it was directed by Ang Lee. It was based on a novel of the same name. It ended up getting nominated for some major awards. It was even nominated for 10 Academy Awards, and it won four of them. The movie starred some big names like Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh. It also brought acclaim to actress Zhang Ziyi. A sequel was also released a couple of years ago called Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny. It wasn’t as critically acclaimed, but it did bring back Michelle Yeoh in her role. It also stars recognizable names like Donnie Yen and Jason Scott Lee.

TV Talk - Teen Titans: "The Quest"

Well, I’m starting a little late, but better late than never!  Every January, I look at media that features martial arts in some capacity. You got movies, comics, video games, and TV shows that revolve around the art of butt-kicking. Today, I thought I’d look at a show I haven’t talked about here yet: Teen Titans… and I’m not talk about the “Go” variety either. No one wants that crap around here.

Anyway, this show was airing while I was in high school and college. It looked weird since we had DC characters in pretty weird anime world,but It was fun and especially funny. We had the overly serous Robin, the gothness of Raven, the macho-ness of Cyborg, the oddness of Starfire, and the hilarity of Beast Boy.  While it was pretty funny and quirky, it could get pretty dark at times. Today’s not one of them, but maybe I’ll talk about the show later this year. Today’s episode is “The Quest”, the second episode of Season 4.

Random Thoughts #53 - "Toss a coin to your Witcher!"

It's one of those nights. No, I haven't been an accessory to a war crime... I'll save that for that other dude with the weird hair cut.

I just realized that it's been a while since I've done one of these posts. Oh well... at least I got it ready for the end/beginning of the year. So, sit back and I'll spew some Random Thoughts out... oh yeah, The Witcher on Netflix is pretty good. Just know that it is pretty gritty as well, folks.

2019
Well, 2019 has come and gone... yay? This year was an interesting one to be sure. It's had its share of good and bad like any year. Even though its had it's weird points, I can say that I've made it most intact. I even got to do some things I planned to do. I ran/walked an 8K in Thanksgiving. I got my car and some other debt finally paid off. I got some fixing around the house done... mostly. It's still a work in progress. I've also haven't gained too much weight either. I haven't lost much though. I'm actually more or less where I was at the end of last year: 227. Not bad. The family's good, though we've had some losses this year. Also, old age is rearing its head with others.

As for the love life... eh. It's a bit weird right now.  I won't go too into detail with it here, but there was something that happened this year that really threw me for a loop. While it happened earlier in the year, it's still throwing me a bit. Let's just say that things aren't great between me and someone I really care about. Right now, I still feel like crap, though it's probably because it's around the time where you want to be with that special someone. Still, I'm grateful for the time I spent with her. I've learned a lot about myself and where I need to improve.

Alright, enough of that. I ain't going to get too dour on this night!

If there is anything that'll bring a smile to my face... it's those skits.

Plans for 2020
So, what are the plans for 2020? You might be shocked that they are more or less the same from last year. Still, I think I got some new ones as well.

• Be a better person (throw son, boyfriend, co-worker, and other titles under that belt)
• Continue to get out of debt - Now that I've gotten some bills out of the way, I think it's time to center on one of the big ones and kick its keister.
• Lose weight and get healthy - I think this will be one of those continuous goals. I think 181 is an attainable goal, so I gonna start shooting for that. Besides, I know I can get down to 200 eventually.
• Run a 5K - I actually waited till the end of the year to run and I only did that to get my mind off of other things. I ain't waiting till Fall for this one!
• Continue to fix stuff around the house - 'nuff said. I'm also trying to do some things at my parents' house as well.
• Get back into some coding - I've been messing around with Python a bit. I'm learning and I might add a couple more languages.
• Communicate more - Well... 'nuff said.
• Actually get this box of books by my bed read!
• Live life to the fullest
• Finally, actually blog on these sites I have... oh yeah, I was preoccupied

..............................................................

I think that'll do it for this post. I did another post this evening for Star Wars, so I'm outta here. Besides, there's Martial Arts Month to think about. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and have a good 2020.