The Man With The Iron Fists: The Unrated Cut

Here is also something I may do once in a blue moon: watch an unrated version of something I had already reviewed for this site if it was more than just an additional minute or two of footage. The unrated Blu-Ray of this movie has about 12 additional minutes of footage. First, the original review from November, in italics:

The Man With The Iron Fists (2012)

55% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 40 reviews)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: RZA

Starring: RZA, Russell Crowe, Rick Yune, Dave Bautista, Byron Mann

From: Universal

Here is what I did late last night instead of watching the latter half of the election results. I decided to go to the cinema to forget about all of that for a few hours and to try and have a good time. I had heard rather mixed things about this film, and even the people who I suspect would hold the most interest in it had differing opinions. My knowledge of this sort of movie is rather limited as I haven't seen too much in the genre; Lord knows that RZA has like a million times more knowledge of it than I do, so I hope he would deliver something appropriate. To steal a line from somewhere, it was more like a movie you would see in a Grindhouse 2 that will never happen rather than a classic Hong Kong film from the 70's, but...

The plot isn't exactly complex: there are various clans in China in the 19^th century. A bad man known as Silver Lion takes over his Lion clan and they look to hijack a shipment of gold from the Emperor. They try to do it in a small village (Jungle Village... oh-e-oh-e-oh) where RZA is a blacksmith (and yes they actually do explain how he ended up in China), he has a lover (Jamie Chung) and there are other personalities that get involved, including a huge ripped dude with magical powers (Bautista), the head of a brothel (Lucy Liu) and a British soldier (Crowe).

The story is a mess and you can tell RZA is not what you'd call an experienced director at all, this being his first feature film. But, despite its warts, how the action isn't always filmed the best (although thankfully it isn't that shaky-cam crap) and overall it does seem slight and not as awesome as it could have been, I did manage to enjoy this wacky, strange film where judging by the performances and the story they had to be going for camp and silliness. I certainly wasn't bored, which was a complaint I heard on a site. It was so weird, I had no idea what to expect next so that kept my interest. It was a colorful world, for sure, and also a bloody one. You see a #lot# of blood throughout. As others have said, Crowe is the highlight as the brash opium-smoking Jack Knife. Yes, that's what he calls himself. Then again there are people known as Silver Lion and Brass Body, so there you go.

I do not know if I'd recommend seeing this on the big screen in a first-run theatre but maybe it's best for a dollar joint or a Redbox rental. I am glad I did not hate it after some of the bad reviews I heard. Even the odd mix of songs/score work for it for the most part. I could have done without hearing a Kanye West song but that is mostly because I've always thought of him as a loathsome human being. I am surprised a 20 million dollar wacky kung-fu film got made and released by Universal in 2012; that was a ballsy move and I don't know if it'll work out in terms of the box office. I am glad it happened given that most of what the big studios put out I could not care less about.

I'll be back tomorrow night.

The Movie Censorship website does a great breakdown of saying what the differences between the two cuts are, but like they said, the longer version does not change much aside from additional material and more violence; it's only for those people who enjoyed the theatrical version. My opinion is little changed from what I said above in November. The action scenes seemed easier to follow on the small screen, which is good. I rated the theatrical 3 out of 5 stars on Letterboxd and I'd rate the longer version the same.

Actually having seen some Shaw Brothers movies between November and now, what RZA was going for is now more obvious to me. I still say it does not always work but for sheer wackiness and something different, if you enjoy those Shaw Brothers movies of the 70's, martial arts, and/or really bloody action, then you should give it a shot and you might as well see the unrated version as you'll get more of what you'd like.

I'll be back Wednesday night.