Finest Fights: Unleashed (2005)

Here's a new, albeit very belated, entry in our beloved Finest Fights series. As always, your friends at Code Redd Net are dedicated to occasionally bringing you the very best in cinematic butt-kickings.

Morgan Freeman needs to be in more kung fu flicks, for real.

Unleashed is one of the great Jet Li films. And this is likely the best fight scene to ever take place in a really small bathroom.

Finest Fights: Gorgeous (1999)

Life has been busy for you pals at Code Redd Net. We apologize for our inattention and promise to be more prolific once the academic busywork winds down. In the meantime, please enjoy this fantastic fight scene from Jackie Chan's Gorgeous. It may not be our favorite Chan film, but this is certainly one of his best scenes.

Finest Fights: CZ12 (2012)

For over two years, Code Redd Net's Finest Fights series has brought you the very best of action cinema available on the web. For real, I mean it, we started this business over two years ago. Finest Fights rolls on this week with a selection from Jackie Chan's latest, and potentially his last, action film.

In limited release today is Jackie Chan's CZ12, aka Chinese Zodiac. Though I haven't seen the version being released to North America, I purchased a copy of the film on DVD from my local Chinatown market. It's not very good. There's about 20 minutes of quality material near the end of the film, but the rest of it is decidedly mediocre. It's not Tuxedo bad, but it's not far off from it either, and at least the Tuxedo was short. CZ12 is overlong, meandering, and childish. This is by far the best scene in the entire film, but it's not nearly enough to save the rest of the film. But I suppose that's what Finest Fights is for: bringing to you the best in action cinema, condensed and filtered for optimum enjoyment. Look for a full review of CZ12 soon.

Finest Fights: The Defender (1994)

For almost two years, Finest Fights has brought you a carefully curated selection of action cinema's best battles. Perennial favorite Jet Li returns in this installment, lifted from the finale of The Defender (1994).

This is not a particularly good Jet Li movie, but the conclusion is fairly wicked. All that stuff with the gas reminds me of the final boss in Rise to Honor, always a good thing to be reminded of. Speaking of which, why not?

Finest Fights: Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000)

Finest Fights returns to present you with some of Bruce Lee's best work, in full and uncut, as it was presented in the documentary A Warrior's Journey. This is a long clip, but totally worth watching in full. If you've never seen this before, grab some popcorn and settle in.

True, this is more Enter the Dragon than Game of Death, but
you get the idea. Gex 64. Time flies, man.

"I hope you don't mind us moving our man, so that the two of us can have more room to groove."

Finest Fights: The Protector (2005)

Remember that series where we post videos of our favorite fight scenes on YouTube? This is it. Get ready for some rumbling in non-Canadian metropolitan areas.

It's like Touch of Evil (1958), but with way more Muay Thai.

Finest Fights: The Myth (2005)

It's been some time since we did one of these, but you know the drill: we bring you some of our favorite fight scenes from YouTube, like this weird one from The Myth.

Maybe not Jackie's best work, but it's the only scene worth remembering from that film, that's for sure.

Classic Chan: Who Am I? (1998)

I hope everyone enjoyed the last review in this series, Mr. Nice Guy, provided in a delicious video format by Thrasher. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly encourage you to give your eyes and ears some much needed nourishment. And not only that, in the next installment of Classic Chan, Thrasher will be thoroughly reviewing one of Jackie's sillier episodes, Gorgeous.

Crazy Legs

One of the outstanding things about Who Am I? is that I feel more of an emotional connection with the struggle of Jackie than I can with most of his other films. In Police Story, we aren't shown the evils committed by the drug traffickers; we are just to assume that they are bad people. The same largely goes for Supercop. Yet, in Who Am I?, Jackie is affronted personally by the villain, a CIA operative who betrayed him and his team of special operators. He is the only survivor of the team and loses his memory in the process. This gives me more of a reason to cheer Jackie on. I want to see him regain his memory and defeat the traitor, whereas I'm left rather indifferent to whether he catches bad guys in the previously mentioned films. But just like before, Jackie provides a variety of action scenes so none of them feel stale or boring. Beyond his amazing martial arts skills, he entertains in an early scene where he displays MacGyver-like qualities, as well as his non-vocal comedy, in treating wounds, creating an IV, and repairing a rallycar. During an interrogation, he escapes with the extra handicap of being handcuffed. And though the car-chase may be an overused situation in the action genre, Jackie uses it sparingly and when he does, it can be a treat. Also of note in this scene is how Jackie's persona has somewhat changed for the American audience. In films like Police Story or Supercop, Jackie wasn't a stranger to firearms and killing people with them. We can see the contrast here when he helps his pursuers when their car is about to drop off the side of a building. Likewise, earlier in the movie the special ops guys used a gun that shot a net. How compassionate and kid-friendly! Overall, the pacing is friendly and it never feels like an action scene is overdue. The tension can be felt mounting, culminating in what is easily one of Jackie's finest fights (shown below). In sum, I feel like Who Am I? is one of Jackie's more memorable efforts, plagued only by some awkward scenes (such as Jackie's shouting of "Who am I?" into the distance) and revelations that make little sense in terms of the plot ("Oh by the way, I work for the CIA."). But Jackie Chan has never been known for dramatic effects. Regardless, Who Am I? excellently demonstrates what he is known for and is a very solid action movie.

Finest Fights: Romeo Must Die (2000)

Still bringing you the best fight scenes available on YouTube, only now, we bring 'em intermittently.

In honor of this week's NFL kickoff, here's Jet Li trying his best to be a running back in Romeo Must Die:

Finest Fights: Game of Death (1978)

Still bringing you the best fight scenes available on YouTube, only now, we bring 'em intermittently.

Here's a great battle from a horrible, rush-job of a movie, Bruce Lee's "last" film, Game of Death. This is one of the few highlights from the movie, and one of few scenes actually featuring Bruce, as he and NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar brawl.

Finest Fights: Jackie Chan's Thunderball

Still bringing you the best fight scenes available on YouTube, only now, we bring 'em intermittently.

While working on my review of Thunderball for our ongoing James Bond retrospective, I was reminded of this (partially) underwater fight scene from Jackie Chan's First Strike:

Finest Fights: Police Story 2 (1988)

Still bringing you the best fight scenes available on YouTube, only now, we bring 'em intermittently.

I just got done watching Police Story 2, and while it's not quite on the level of the original, I must say I've been waiting a long time to see a fight scene take place in a playground. This one doesn't disappoint, not at all.