Man of Tai Chi

Keanu Reeves played a variety of roles in his career. Good, evil and also neutral. He also directed this movie and I would say it was surprisingly good directing. Surprisingly, because it was his debut and when an actor is debuting as a director, I never know what to expect. Keanu did good. The movie is about fighting, which is quite ironical as Tai-chi as such has not much in common with fighting. However, the fights in this movie are flawless. There is quite a lot of them and the tripod is holding the camera in a way that the tape won’t fall out of it that easily. In case Keanu wasn’t shooting it on a digital. That would hardly have any tape. But it could shake some memory card out of it. Nevertheless, the movie is about fights and that is the most fundamental it has to offer. Everything else is just a bunch of stuff we’ve already seen a thousand times. (05/07/2014)

Keanu Reeves remembered his Matrix days and filmed a movie in China where he played a dark version of Neo without abilities that were quite as cool. Surprisingly, he can't fly and probably can't stop a bullet. The film is rather dark, but it's not that much of a horror. Blood spurting in water jets... probably not everyone's cup of tea. But bones are already breaking in the first scene, and there are quite a few action-packed sequences throughout. The screenplay doesn't offer any surprises; it's a classic Lee-style setup where a group of fighters finds themselves in life-and-death battles led by a madman who revels in death. White and black, good and bad. What more do you want? It’s stylized, though not overly so, and the fights aren't particularly innovative, but considering it's the directorial debut of a well-known actor, it's passable. (02/05/2014)