Despite all our bright eyed looking to the future lately, here at STS we’re still a bunch of miserable old bastards – a fact resolutely hammered home by the recent news that Jackie Chan is now old enough to play Mr.Miyagi. The greatest Martial artist of our youth – after China O’Brien – reduced to playing a wrinkly Yoda analogue. Add to this the fact that he’s accompanied by Jaden Smith -meaning The Fresh Prince is old enough to have a son -and we can almost hear the undertakers sizing us up as we dodder down the street.
Now, other blogs might try to age with dignity, but inspired by Jackie, we’ve decided to fight the ageing process to the death, and in order to take out such a dastardly opponent, we’ll need the finest martial arts movie makers can possibly conjure! If you made it through that convoluted opening paragraph then you might just be tough enough to check out The Greatest Movie Martial Arts!
It’s fair to say that the studio took a gamble appointing Guy Ritchie to head up this sumptuous return to Holmsian London -the director’s previous, Rocknrolla took a piffling $6M in the US – but you can certainly see where the idea came from –who better to guide us on a romp through the gas lit streets than Guy bonafide mockney bowbells me old son Ritchie dotchaknow missus. It’s woolly thinking, and it reaps its own rewards, turning Conan-Doyle’s most famous creation into a semi action hero with downplayed detective skills and an appalling case of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen syndrome.
