The Man with the Iron Fists
Dir: RZA
2012
***
It's clear that actor/director/rap star RZA is a fan of the martial arts genre. His 2012 homage to the Chambara movement his a lot of the right notes but doesn't quite work as well as I believe it could have done. The film is 'presented' by Quentin Tarantino which is a misleading term really as he didn't co-produce it, just merely lent his name as way of blessing, possibly after a monetary transaction but maybe out of friendship, who knows, but it is safe to say he was an influence to RZA and his name in the credits and on the poster is there to attract a particular crowd and for the best part I think that crowd of people would agree he got a lot right. RZA's acting isn't very good, the script is fairly dreadful and fight choreography should have been a hell of a lot better but, the story was sound, the characters were interesting and it had many of it's own unique little details that made it an original addition to the genre. Russel Crowe seemed to relish his role as Jack Knife, Lucy Liu was given a change to get a little deeper into a role she's played before and I thought David Bautista as Brass Body was very entertaining. I liked how RZA's character becomes the man with iron fists and I thought the visual effects were pretty impressive. You can see plenty of Tarantino's visual style and Eli Roth's writing but it just doesn't quite gel as well as it could. I think that apart from the awful script, the editing was too jumbled, the narration didn't work, the middle was too slow and RZA just isn't a leading actor but it still has enough charm to give credit to. A generous three stars out of five maybe, but it's better than a two star film.