It's kinda wild to see the director of Hellraiser 2 screw up practical gore this badly... Tony Randel also wrote and produced the New World cut of Godzilla 1985, believe it or not.
The One Piece adaptation is looking like it might actually be decent, so I'll begin the process of biting my tongue. I won't dig my teeth in deep quite yet, it needs to come out first, but what I've seen of it isn't awful. Which is genuinely shocking considering the track record.
Speaking of good sountrack, the anime may be long as hell and full of re-used animation, but it got some of the best voice acting and soundtracks in all of anime history imo
Great review! I'm a casual north star fan but couldn't sit through this one even though I love B-movies. I totally agree about the camera work, it made it even more awkward haha. Oh man I love One Piece but I really don't have high hopes for the live action version. I still find it strange that they decided to create it when they haven't even finished the Manga/anime yet
One of my most prominent thoughts while watching this movie even as a young teenager back then was, "Who talks like that??" Having been a fan of the animated film, this thing was a huge letdown for me. I really liked Chris Penn in it though. His line delivery was probably the best in the film, though his goofy one-liners made him a lot less intimidating than I think they were going for. My best guess is he was originally supposed to be Jagi but they didn't have enough room in the runtime to make him that important, so he just became the "head thug." I would almost have preferred him to be the main villain in this film with a lead-in to going after Shin later. Costas Mandylor just didn't do it for me as Shin. I don't think his heart was in it because he really borked this role, even though he's got actual acting skills.
I would love to defend the Rurouni Kenshin live action films, as they're solid stories all on their own. The actors and actresses perform admirably, the action is well done, the music isn't bad, and the adaptation from the source material, while not always fun and interesting, is more grounded, and some story beats don't appear at all, but it makes these films feel a lot more original. A lot of villains don't appear or are reworked to make more sense in a real-world setting, which is fine. TLDR: While being a primarily budget take on the manga, the Samurai X films are well done and work beautifully as their own telling of Kenshin's journey.
There is one scene in the movie that really feels like a page from the manga. The part where Ken whoops those three raiders. Specifically the part where he kicks a guy in the jaw, it snaps it to the side, he tries to set it back before collapsing, then Ken breaks another guy's back over the toply. More of the movie should have been like that but afterwards it's more of a traditional martial art movie.
Riki-oh was great it was what fist of the North should have been 👍🏾 & fist of the North Star original anime TV series was good too( about a 150 episodes 😆) & better than the anime movie
I mostly experienced FOTNS throught the 86 movie and tv series and while I think it overall is still decent I will say some parts of it have aged, my go to example is how dirty the series does Mamiya. And story wise I felt it lost all steam after the final showdown between Kenshiro and Raoh, pretty much it felt like a conclusion both narratively and thematically to the series and so I just couldn't finish the asura arc. As for this movie, which I've mostly seen clips of, it seems to suffer from the fact that some stuff just doesn't work in live action and didn't really adapt them to fit, like instead of fast flurries of punches maybe focus on fewer but more impact strikes.
Nothing good ever came of Gary Daniels. No mighty oak ever sprung from his seed. Also, Malcom McDowell and Costas Mandylor really will turn up for anything so long as there's half a bottle of scotch and a bacon sandwich in it for them, won't they?
“You already dead.” - Kenneth ‘Kenshiro’ White, the far off distant future year of 2005.
It's kinda wild to see the director of Hellraiser 2 screw up practical gore this badly...
Tony Randel also wrote and produced the New World cut of Godzilla 1985, believe it or not.
Heyyyyyy!!! Look who it is!
The One Piece adaptation is looking like it might actually be decent, so I'll begin the process of biting my tongue. I won't dig my teeth in deep quite yet, it needs to come out first, but what I've seen of it isn't awful. Which is genuinely shocking considering the track record.
Well shit.
That first riff of you are shock is such a tease.
Speaking of good sountrack, the anime may be long as hell and full of re-used animation, but it got some of the best voice acting and soundtracks in all of anime history imo
Several tracks from it were used in the video, love all the incidental music from that show.
Great review! I'm a casual north star fan but couldn't sit through this one even though I love B-movies. I totally agree about the camera work, it made it even more awkward haha. Oh man I love One Piece but I really don't have high hopes for the live action version. I still find it strange that they decided to create it when they haven't even finished the Manga/anime yet
Riki-oh is the best live action FOTNS adaption. That ark of the Riki-oh manga was a total clone of Fist of the North Star.
Had no idea this existed. what dimension did you pull this from? gives me double dragon movie vibes.
One of my most prominent thoughts while watching this movie even as a young teenager back then was, "Who talks like that??" Having been a fan of the animated film, this thing was a huge letdown for me. I really liked Chris Penn in it though. His line delivery was probably the best in the film, though his goofy one-liners made him a lot less intimidating than I think they were going for. My best guess is he was originally supposed to be Jagi but they didn't have enough room in the runtime to make him that important, so he just became the "head thug." I would almost have preferred him to be the main villain in this film with a lead-in to going after Shin later. Costas Mandylor just didn't do it for me as Shin. I don't think his heart was in it because he really borked this role, even though he's got actual acting skills.
I would love to defend the Rurouni Kenshin live action films, as they're solid stories all on their own. The actors and actresses perform admirably, the action is well done, the music isn't bad, and the adaptation from the source material, while not always fun and interesting, is more grounded, and some story beats don't appear at all, but it makes these films feel a lot more original. A lot of villains don't appear or are reworked to make more sense in a real-world setting, which is fine.
TLDR: While being a primarily budget take on the manga, the Samurai X films are well done and work beautifully as their own telling of Kenshin's journey.
There is one scene in the movie that really feels like a page from the manga. The part where Ken whoops those three raiders. Specifically the part where he kicks a guy in the jaw, it snaps it to the side, he tries to set it back before collapsing, then Ken breaks another guy's back over the toply. More of the movie should have been like that but afterwards it's more of a traditional martial art movie.
Clint Howard's performance in this movie is amazing. "Ooooh. Look! A baby!"
Review Riki-Oh next! One of the most batshit insane and entertaining movies ever!
The second half is good. It's the the ending was a bit questionable. But they fixed it.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the actual series. The cartoon series cover the whole manga. It’s like 134 episodes
Please do a review of Ricky Oh
Guyver 2 is the exact opposite of this film despite having the exact same origins
Damn years of conditioning from buying ultra man merch has made "19.99" an absurdly cheap price
20 bucks for a game that can apparently provide 30+ hours of content is a deal, I think.
Really prefer the Manga physique. Those arm proportions man, straight up universe.
Looks like Clint Howard is in this one!
Why you didn't see there's characters missing no Ray no raoh no tuky
Riki-oh was great it was what fist of the North should have been 👍🏾 & fist of the North Star original anime TV series was good too( about a 150 episodes 😆) & better than the anime movie
Gary Daniels had a really good fight scene with Jackie Chan in the City Hunter movie
Dudes very talented its just this movie is ass
PLease read the second half of the manga it's worth it in some way
Why would you subjugate yourself to this?
the funny
I mostly experienced FOTNS throught the 86 movie and tv series and while I think it overall is still decent I will say some parts of it have aged, my go to example is how dirty the series does Mamiya. And story wise I felt it lost all steam after the final showdown between Kenshiro and Raoh, pretty much it felt like a conclusion both narratively and thematically to the series and so I just couldn't finish the asura arc.
As for this movie, which I've mostly seen clips of, it seems to suffer from the fact that some stuff just doesn't work in live action and didn't really adapt them to fit, like instead of fast flurries of punches maybe focus on fewer but more impact strikes.
Nothing good ever came of Gary Daniels. No mighty oak ever sprung from his seed. Also, Malcom McDowell and Costas Mandylor really will turn up for anything so long as there's half a bottle of scotch and a bacon sandwich in it for them, won't they?
No mighty oak? Gary's son Kenshiro (yes, that's what he named his son) plays for the Philippine National Football team known as the Azkals.