The Best of the Martial Arts Films


Year: 1990
AKA: Deadliest Art: Best of the Martial Arts Films
Cast: Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Cynthia Rothrock, John Saxon, et al
Director: Sandra Weintraub
Running time: 87 minutes



A compilation of fight scenes mostly from Golden Harvest films. I'm pretty sure most of the movies are by Golden Harvest with a few exceptions. How can you be bored of a movie that is basically 87 minutes of fight footage? If you're a HK film fan chances are that you've already seen most of the movies featured here. I've seen all of them with a few exceptions like Broken Oath, Dreadnaught, Zu, and a couple others. The movie is narrated by John Saxon, who is just using his popularity from Enter the Dragon. Stars of the movies get to say a few words like Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, , Robert Clouse, Cynthia Rothrock, and Keith Cooke. Keith who? Who Cooke? Who who? The fights shown are pretty good, and a lot of them seem to be from Jackie, Sammo, and Yuen Biao films. Some of the fight are cut short or edited to cut out unnecessary stuff. I made a list of films featured in the movie, here it is in no particular order.

Winners and Sinners
Eastern Condors
Encounter of the Spooky Kind
Game of Death
Dreadnaught
Duel to the Death
Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain
The Big Boss
Warriors Two
The Master (TV show)
Knockabout
Broken Oath
Hand of Death
China O'Brien
No Retreat, No Surrender
Millionaires Express
Lady Whirlwind
Righting Wrongs
When Tae Kwondo Strikes
Armor of God
Dragons Forever
Wheels on Meals
Mr Canton and Lady Rose
My Lucky Stars
Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars
Magnificent Butcher

I think that's all. There is one error in the movie. They show the Jackie vs. Benny "The Jet" Uriquidez fight from Dragons Forever and say it's from Wheels on Meals. Then later when they show the Jackie vs. Benny fight from Wheels they say it's a rematch. Anyone knows the Wheels fight is the first pairing of the two and Dragons Forever has the rematch. There is also some "behind the scenes" footage of China O'Brien, but it's lame. As I said if you're fan of HK films then you've probably already seen all the movies featured here. I have, but still enjoy watching it. You get all the good fight scenes without having to watch all the various movies. The best part of the movie is that there is no pesky plot to follow, you just sit back and watch some fightin'. But when has a martial arts movie ever had a plot?

"Review" by Keith