Movies

One of my prime interests is definitely movies.

If you have visited my theme website dedicated the great director Alfred Hitchcock, you'll know I'm a big fan of the late master and his movies (at least most of them).
I won't go further into Hitch and his movies here - if you're interested in reading more about this subject, please refer to my website dedicated to him. Press the link below to visit the website.

Of course I'm also interested in other directors and other types of movies. I guess you could call me a genuine movie buff - I really enjoy watching movies and reading about moviemaking (the serious and technical stuff, not gossip).
I'm especially enjoying to watch thrillers and action, but I'm also watching a lot of horror and comedy - if they are funny, not just poor taste jokes trying to be funny but failing miserably. But generally speaking I'm watching almost everything, except romance.

Being a martial artist myself means that I'm obviously enjoying to watch action movies involving martial arts. I'm especially enjoying to watch the skills displayed by the true martial artists among the action stars, accomplished practitioners that has been training martial arts for years, acquiring great skills and experience - many of them are even skilled at multiple styles as a result of cross-training. I won't name all the great martial artists among the action stars here, I'll just name some of my personal favourites below.
Of course most of the action stars aren't great actors, but not that bad either - I would call them kind of mediocre. But that doesn't really matter since no one would watch these movies expecting award winning acting performances - we are watching the movies to be entertained, what matters the most are the martial arts skills being displayed and of course the coolness and personal charisma of the stars. By not having too high expectations - e.g. expecting great movies at the same level as the true masterpieces of cinematic history - the movies are great entertainment.

Steven Seagal is one of my favourites. He is a very accomplished martial artist: 7^th degree black belt in Aikido, a Kendo master and a black belt in Karate and Judo as well. Besides being a skilful martial artist he is also very skilled with guns - he used to shoot pistols at a high competitive level (he even used to be the world champion). And he used to work as a celebrity bodyguard. He is definitely the real thing. Of course he is now out of shape and overweight (which is a shame), but he would still be able to take care of himself because Aikido is a style where you don't necessarily have to be physically strong, since you are using the opponent's own power against himself (by using momentum). And the older movies are really great to watch.

Jet Li is also a favourite of mine. He won five national championships in Wushu back in China - he was only 11 when he won his first title. He was also the world champion. Besides being a very skilled Wushu practitioner he is also skilled at numerous other styles, e.g. the five main styles of Tai Chi Chuan. He is also extremely fast - he have to slow down his moves in the movies, in order to let the cameras capture his moves (Bruce Lee also had this "problem"). He is also a very good actor, which is very rare among the action stars.

Chuck Norris is a 10^th degree black belt in Tang Soo Do, an 8^th degree black belt and Grandmaster in Tae Kwon Do (as the first Westerner ever), a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and the founder of two styles of his own: Chun Kuk Do and American Tang Soo Do. He used to be a professional fighter compiling a 65-5 record, he retired as a six times undefeated middleweight world champion in full-contact Karate. He is keeping in shape. His movies aren't great, but he is definitely the real thing.

Bruce Lee is the greatest icon of martial arts cinema and presumably one of the greatest martial artists ever. He studied and trained a lot of different styles (e.g. Wing Chun and boxing) before founding his own style, Jeet Kune Do. Even if you don't like his movies you have to acknowledge his indisputable skills.
He used to say that the best style is no style, which implies that what style(s) a practitioner masters isn't really that important, what matters is how the practitioner choose to train and apply the skills (something I agree in). He is considered to be one of the first dedicated MMA fighters (mixed martial arts, i.e. cross-training in multiple styles).

Jean-Claude Van Damme is also one of the biggest stars of this genre. He is a 1^st degree black belt in Shotokan Karate, in addition to that he has also studied some Kickboxing, Muay Thai and Tae Kwon Do, but not at the same level as he has achieved in Shotokan Karate. In addition to the martial arts training he used to study classical ballet dancing and do a lot of bodybuilding - which would account for the big muscles and the muscular strength, but it won't help as a martial artist where it isn't considered an advantage.
When you look at his martial arts merits he obviously isn't as accomplished as the other names on the list. His highest graduation is the 1^st degree black belt in Shotokan Karate, which isn't much considering Shotokan isn't exactly one of the more advanced Karate styles, which means that it doesn't take as much to become a black belt as it does in other styles. But we have to be cautious when comparing since the level of graduation isn't everything; considering it is definitely possibly to be a self-taught martial artist (if you have the required talent, discipline and dedication to learn by your own), no one really knows how much he has learned on his own since he stopped taking graduations - but of course that would also apply to the other martial artists.

Dolph Lundgren is a 3^rd degree black belt in Kyokushinkai Karate (one of the most effective and advanced Karate styles). As a fighter he was the Swedish, Australian and European heavyweight champion in full-contact Karate. Since Kyokushinkai Karate is one of the most advanced Karate styles, it is one of the most difficult to learn and master - it takes more to achieve a black belt in this style than it does in an easier style such as Shotokan. That would imply that he too (despite having trained in only one style) is a more accomplished martial artist than e.g. Van Damme.

I could have named other skilled martial artists working in the movie industry (e.g. Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung) but I'm trying to keep it as short as possible - and if you are a martial arts cinema fan yourself you'll know who is the real thing and who is just faking it (which doesn't apply to any of the names on my list).

It would be a mistake to judge their skills solely on what we see in the movies, since movie fighting isn't real fighting. It is carefully planned choreography. And of course the producers and director want the choreographer and stunt-coordinator to create something that looks great onscreen, with all those flashy and acrobatic moves that looks great but would never be successful in a real fight (and sometimes the reality is stretched even further by using wires). Of course the martial artists are aware of this, if they ever had to fight for real they would never use those movie fighting moves - they would use the more effective and quicker techniques they also masters, but never gets to show us in the movies because they doesn't look flashy enough onscreen.

I won't get into a debate about who is the best, i.e. who would win in a real fight between these martial arts action stars, because they have very different backgrounds that can't really be compared. And even if I did try my best at comparing their skills it would only be a guess since no one really knows for sure; the only way to validate such a claim would be by having a real fight between them arranged, which would never happen since the real martial artists among them will never fight unless they have to (as a means of self-defense) - this will apply especially to the devoted Buddhists among the stars (e.g. Jet Li) because they aren't allowed to fight (and of course to Bruce Lee since he is dead and obviously no one will be able to fight him).

Of course martial arts movies aren't the only movies I like to watch.
Besides the martial arts actors described above, these actors are among my personal favourites:
Kevin Spacey, Edward Norton, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, Wesley Snipes, John Malkovich, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Sharon Stone, Michelle Rodriguez, Michael Douglas, Connie Nielsen, George Clooney, Viggo Mortensen, Jeff Goldblum, Eddie Murphy, Lance Henriksen, Sandra Bullock, Will Smith, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Michael Madsen, Sir Sean Connery, Keanu Reeves, Johnny Depp, Jeremy Irons, Harvey Keitel, Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Tommy Lee Jones, Vin Diesel, John Travolta, Halle Berry, Julia Roberts, Jodie Foster, Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, Mel Gibson, Colin Farrell, Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas, Tom Hanks, Demi Moore, James Woods, Richard Gere, Andy Garcia, Matt Damon and Ralph Fiennes.

My favourite directors includes names such as:
David Fincher, Ridley Scott, Michael Bay, John Woo, Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Wolfgang Petersen, Rob Cohen, M. Night Shyamalan, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino.

I'm also a big fan of "The Simpsons". Matt Groening is a genius.