Best Martial Artist in the movies!

memphis

soma wrote:

Dunno bout the rest of you.. but I loved this film. (with the exception of the cringe-inducing last 5 mins..).

Yeah, I agree, would be among my top 20 favourite films at the moment tbh.

pearsquasher

"The Twilight Samurai" and "When the last sword is Drawn" are both set in the same era as "The Last Samurai" and are worth checking out for a look at Samurai sword stuff without the Hollywood cheeze factor. (The Japanese cheeze factor is prevalent though!)

Of course nothing surpasses Kurasawa's films for realtime, non-acrobatic, sword action.... with zero cheeze either!

tony77

EVEN Carradine is better than morons like van damme,morita,seagal,and the master of cheese poofs,tony jaa,yes im not impressed by this guy,I hate him,he can´t act,and even though his movements are pretty neat and good,he has idiot face,ong bak is the biggest steaming pile of crap i have ever seen!

barochoc

I'm just going to reply to you memphis because some people are losing the plot in here. Came across this by accident & just had to give my 2 cents.
You say best MA Actor!!! That would put Snipes on the top for me because he's the only one in there that can act.
He has fantastic MA skills & generally they come across well in the movies.
Nobody can deny the Daddy of MA movies is Bruce Lee.
Bruce wasn't around long enough to improve an already hard to beat display of MA in his movies.
There are a lot of big MA fans in here. I have always liked & enjoyed MA competitions & movies (even Segal, Van Damme etc) but MMA is the future.
People in here will argue that Jui Jitsu is better than Ninjitsu & so on & so on.
The bottom line is Mano el Mano, i'd put my money on the MMA guy as opposed to the Karate, Kempo or Jui Jitsu guy.
For that reason I would have no hesitation in crowning Bruce Lee the best MA & MMA fighter in the movies as his principles were MMA (Mixed Martial Arts)
He could fight most of the top students of any MA school & take a victory as he had the ability to adapt & change to suit the conditions.
He is considered the Daddy of MMA by most MMA people today because of his understanding & interest in many MA's in order to perfect his skills & improve his knowledge.
Jackie Chan has to be respected as the most energetic MA actor out there. He has no problems with looking stupid if he thinks people will enjoy it or laugh. He likes comedy & is good at it. He can't be put in the same catagory as most hardcore MA movie actors.
He deserves his own title as best Action-MA actor because thats what he is.
Other than pulling out the DVD collection & naming a few more Asian MA actors I don't think any have done for MA movies what Bruce Lee & Jackie Chan have done. They are the two most recognised in the world by far.
Last but not least, Jet Lee has amazing screen presence at times & has been in some great movies. Kiss of the Dragon has to be my favorite of the non Asian movies.
Tony Jaa is one to watch, incredable pace & opened my eyes to Muai Thai which I always believed to be a very brutal & non technical MA. Not anymore. It has to be one of the single most effective forms of MA in the world as is has devastating & brutal techniques in toe to toe combat & in clinch. Say what you like but most MMA fighters used Muai Thai, Wrestling & Brazilian Jui Jitsu as the three most effective forms to be a great alround fighter.

DrunkenMaster

This is a tiny sample dedicated to all those who still think that Jackie Chan is just a movie entertainer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvmCIr_sw_E

If this is not a real fighter , tell me what the hell is suppose to be one, he is damn fit and lightning fast, and as I said this is just a small sample of only boxing fighting style, and probably not the best to show. I just know I would never fight him...
The video is from a normal training day in 2001, in the set of "The Medallion"
It is rather short, but really worth watching - Please enjoy!

john kavanagh

DrunkenMaster wrote:

If this is not a real fighter , tell me what the hell is suppose to be one

someone who wins fights that are not staged? cro cop, silva, fedor et al?

bjj-fighter

Tony Jaa is by far the best but they would all get destoyed by any MMA fighter or even someone who just knows BJJ

How can you call this fighting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd1_ok9zh3I

DrunkenMaster

bjj-fighter wrote:

Tony Jaa is by far the best but they would all get destoyed by any MMA fighter or even someone who just knows BJJ

How can you call this fighting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd1_ok9zh3I

Yes, Seven Seagal is another action movie fighter, who is a real fighter in real life, a 7th Dan Aikido.
Don't be fooled by martial artists like Tony Jaa, he has not demonstrated anything yet.

DrunkenMaster

Check this out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_YIvxln3g


Jackie Chan vs Benny Urquidez (Wheels on Meals) 1984
Possibly the greatest action scene of all time. Great skill, great choreography, great timing, great pacing, graet climax
They really hit one to each other. All of the moves in this scene are effective real-life techniques!!

Please, enjoy!

batman_oh

that steven seagal clip is hilarious
worse looking than most of his films, they seem to be running at him and doin flips

SorGan

DrunkenMaster wrote:

Yes, Seven Seagal is another action movie fighter, who is a real fighter in real life, a 7th Dan Aikido.
Don't be fooled by martial artists like Tony Jaa, he has not demonstrated anything yet.

ah the oul run at him and grab his wrists attack, then colapse into a roll or breakfall....nice pjs though:D

Valmont

In one of the lethal weapons, mel gibson finished nick nolte in the final fight with a triangle choke and in the prison movie hell, Van Damme finished his opponent with a key lock from a scarf hold using his legs.

Good to see BJJ represented in the movies!

Oh yeah Steven Seagal is fookin brilliant:D

Dyr

Valmont wrote:

In one of the lethal weapons, mel gibson finished nick nolte in the final fight with a triangle choke

Nick nolte? It was gary busey and that was rorion gracie who choreographed the fight scene

???

It has to be Tony Jaa.

Valmont

Bambi wrote:

Nick nolte? It was gary busey and that was rorion gracie who choreographed the fight scene

haha I could have sworn it was Nick Nolte, and I didn't say anything about the choreographer:rolleyes: . Now that I think of it, wouldn't some variation of a flying submission have been better?:p

DrunkenMaster

??? wrote:

It has to be Tony Jaa.

The guy really SUCKS on screen, and as MA he cannot add anything fresh or original to us, in my opinion he will be always outshone by the real masters like Bruce , Jackie or even Jet

FiannaGym.com

You see I thought the title of this thread was "Best martial artist in the movies", reading the replies it was obviously "Best entertainer in the martial arts genre" sorry.

If the title had been "Best martial artist in the movies" its obvioulsy Bruce Lee for being a generous and passionate teacher, massivaly important inovater (remember he won challenge matches by chasing kung fu masters, scoring a take down and side choking them - in the 60s!), brought Martial arts to the masses, as well as being probably the best FIGHTER on that list.

Next, you'd be an idiot not to say Jet Li, he demoed for Presedent Nixon on the white house lawn when he was six or eight or something. His Wu Shu is second to none.

Jackie CHan is a fantastic performer, he does great stunt. But he's an opera performer and the worlds best stunt man. Not quite the well rounded martial artist the Lee is.

Tony Jaa right now is producing the kind of entertaining stuff Jakie Chan used to. I love Jackie Chan and I love watchin his movies. Yeah Drunken Master is amazing. TOny Jaa suffers from too few film syndrome at the moment, I think in a few years he'll be one of the top dogs. Even Jackie Chan sort of passed the torch in the Warrior King.

Genki Sudo makes films and I'm happy he'd beat everyone mentioned on the list so far but of course, Tito makes films and Chuck, as well as other UFC fighters were in Cradel to the Grave.

So the whole argument stems from what you mean by martial artist and I don't think anyone in the movies comes close to Bruce Lee.

But from what people have written on this thread its obviously about the "best entertainer in the Martial Arts genre" haha

Peace

sham69

Have to agree with some of the comments here.
Jet Li is fantastic, very quick.
I have no time for Van Damme, Snipes or Segal to be honest, while their movies can be entertaining sometimes I just can't take them seriously as Martial Artists. Jackie Chan has brought out some amazing movies, Snake in the Eagles Shadow, Drunken Master, Wheels on Meals to name but a few.
The fight scenes between himself and Benny the Jet in Wheels on Meals and again in Dragons Forever are outstanding. Drunken Master 2 has to be one of my all time favourites and possibly (bar police story) is his best movie fight wise. There was and will only ever be one Bruce Lee and he was the best without doubt. Sammo Hung deserves a mention for his ability to fight and for his speed and agility given his size, I am surprised no one mentioned him.

gymrabbit

Van Damme and Chuck Norris are both highly rated full contact Karate Practioneers. Chuck is also a brown belt in BJJ so I'm pretty sure he'd whoop Seagal, Jet Li and Tony Jaa's ass.

Seagal is highly accomplished in Aikido but, well, that's Aikido.

DrunkenMaster

I suppose you already know it, but anyway here it is:

Jackie Chan and Jet Li will star together for the first time in a $70 million family pic that Relativity Media will finance and Casey Silver produces.
Robert Minkoff will direct, while martial arts expert Yuen Woo-Ping ("The Master") will create the action sequences. Shooting is set for April.2007
Chan-Li starrer, known as the untitled J&J project, has been rumored for some time, but Relativity, headed by Ryan Kavanaugh, boarded only recently. John Fusco script is based on the legend of the monkey king and his quest to achieve immortality.
Li is set to play two roles, that of the monkey king and the silent monk. Chan will play the monk T'sa-Ho. The two martial-arts masters have long said they would like to appear together in a film and fight each other. :cool:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117952972.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

Musashi

Had to chase down Jet Lis' (Li Juan Je) pedigree.

"1971: Jet begins training in wushu at an after-school program at the Beijing Sports School.
1974: Jet joins the newly created Beijing Wushu Team and begins competing on a national level.
1974: Was awarded his first Men's National All-Around Championship title at the age of 12.
1975: Men's National All-Around Championship
1976: Men's National All-Around Championship
1977: Men's National All-Around Championship
1978: Men's National All-Around Championship
1979: Retired from professional wushu competition after a knee injury where he ripped his Anterior Crutiate Ligament (ACL) doing the jump inside kick to split.

Jet specialized in the following styles:

chang quan (long fist)
dao (broadsword)
gun (staff)
fanzi quan (tumbling fist)
3-section staff
pu dao (horse chopper)
And in addition, Jet also studied the following styles (some in more depth than others).

taiji quan (the 5 main styles)
xing yi quan
bagua zhang
jian (straightsword)
qiang (spear)
zui quan (drunken fist)
tang lang quan (mantis fist)
ying zhao quan (eagle claw boxing)
zui jian (drunken sword)
shuang dao (double broadswords)
axe
battle axe
double hooks swords
fork
9 section whip
mace
hammer
talon
trident-halberd
long-handled spear
short cudgel
meteor hammer
rope dart ."

Musashi

Double post-sorry!

Black Swan

Not sure of the actor's MA qualifications (may be all choreographed), but the guy who starred in Transporter and Transporter II might be worth another look? Cannot remember his name at this moment.

CerebralCortex

Bruce Lee for the fight sequences in Game of Death

Nothingcompares

Well all of the fight scenes are choroegraphed, regardless of the real-fight capabilites of the actor. Jason Statham is the actor who, to the best of my knowledge, has experience in Boxing and TKD. He's also an olympic standard high diver. Which I think is far more impressive. He's also good mates with Guy Ritchie who's a purple belt in BJJ under Roger Gracie ( I think anyway) as well as being Mr Madonna.

If you like the Transporter you may like Crank which I think is much better. He's also in a film called Chaos, which I haven't seen which also continues the Martial arts actor theme with Ryan Phillipe (black belt WTF TKD) and Wesley Snipes (capoeira amongst other things).

Black Swan

Nothingcompares wrote:

If you like the Transporter you may like Crank which I think is much better.

Yes, that was grand. Of course, we are just talking film in this thread and not real life. The best of the best in MA is probably not a film star.

Nothingcompares

Blue_Lagoon wrote:

Yes, that was grand. Of course, we are just talking film in this thread and not real life. The best of the best in MA is probably not a film star.

Well as fianna says are we talking about the best movie star who also happens to be a movie star or the best martial artist who happens to be a movie star? As I said, Chuck Norris is genuinely good at fighting where as I suspect Steven Seagall isn't.

Roper

Jesus I have to come to the rescue AGAIN.

The Seagull knows you're talking about him, he knows. If you're lucky, he hasn't already got on a plane to come over here and squint at you. Even at that, hes probably just biding his time, giving you more time to talk sh1t about him, then he'll come over and squint, move his hands, squint, make a quip, next stop- Massey's funeral parlour- eh, for you I mean, not him... well maybe for him, because he might come to your funeral, he's into "honour" and all that... but only the removal mass I'd say because he'd probably have to catch another plane to sort out some other Seagull dissers.

Just watch your step folks.

DrunkenMaster

Yep, I have to agree. Seagal is a real master. Maybe he should be consideredas a fighting machine, however he is continuously understimated and low rated. I don't really know why it is. The fact his movies are huge crap is not a reason for people do not respect at all his martial arts skills. Im serious , I can't imagine nor one MMA Fighter who could kick Seagal's ass. The man is damn powerful and effective, yeh he is slow as hell, and he is now old and fat, but once he catch you he won't need speed, he will just kill you if he wanna do it

Monkeyto

Has to be Bruce Lee, Fist of Fury is one the best films of all time, and also Way of the Dragon, and Big Boss, ah forget about it, all his films were great. In the special edition DVD on Game of Death, the extra feature where he's climbing the tower, imagine how that would have turned out if it was finished!!!!!

DarkSilence

Can't believe Jet Li & Tony Jaa were not included!

The Bored One

DrunkenMaster wrote:

Yep, I have to agree. Seagal is a real master. Maybe he should be consideredas a fighting machine, however he is continuously understimated and low rated. I don't really know why it is. The fact his movies are huge crap is not a reason for people do not respect at all his martial arts skills. Im serious , I can't imagine nor one MMA Fighter who could kick Seagal's ass. The man is damn powerful and effective, yeh he is slow as hell, and he is now old and fat, but once he catch you he won't need speed, he will just kill you if he wanna do it

I can imagine several who would beat him. Fedor, Cro-cop and Vanderlei Silva all show up on the list.

memphis

My God, who ressurected this thread. I hadn't seen this posted to in ages.

Anyway, what the heck, yeah, i should've placed Jet Li and Tony Jaa in the poll at the time I posted it.

Tony Jaa is just savage in ONG BAK
and.....
Jet Li is just brilliant, shame though that Fearless (great flick) was his last MA movie though.

Musashi

Was Fearless not his last MA "Epic" and not his last ma movie?


Anyway, I guess the best MAist in movies currently is either Michelle Yeoh (Nyom) or Zang Zi Yi (double nyom!). The poll said MAists not fighters so lets not hear how Crocop or Wanderlai would cripple both these fine ladies

Also, no-ones mentioned Donnie Yen? He was hired to choreograph Blade Two and ended up in it, he's quite handy himself! What about Sonny Chiba?

memphis

Epic and Movie?? didn't know there was a difference?

bjj-fighter

DrunkenMaster wrote:

Yep, I have to agree. Seagal is a real master. Maybe he should be consideredas a fighting machine, however he is continuously understimated and low rated. I don't really know why it is. The fact his movies are huge crap is not a reason for people do not respect at all his martial arts skills. Im serious , I can't imagine nor one MMA Fighter who could kick Seagal's ass. The man is damn powerful and effective, yeh he is slow as hell, and he is now old and fat, but once he catch you he won't need speed, he will just kill you if he wanna do it

hahahahahahahhahahahahahahaha Seagal better than any mma fighter.This is getting like sherdog.TROLL!!!!

The Bored One

bjj-fighter wrote:

hahahahahahahhahahahahahahaha Seagal better than any mma fighter.This is getting like sherdog.TROLL!!!!

I keep running into this story about how Gene LeBell once choked out Stephen Seagal and he wet his pants.
I just start laughing whenever I hear that.

Unpossible

Also, no-ones mentioned Donnie Yen?

Yeah in a HK legends DVD it said that his mom taught Tai Chi in america when he was growing up. He is good, he has faught Jet Li twice onscreen I believe in "Hero" and "Once upon a time in China 2", although in an interview for that second movie he comes off as being a bit arrogant.

Isnt Michelle Yeoh a former beauty queen?

Musashi

Michelle Yeoh was Miss Malaysia in 1983, keeping well!

DrunkenMaster

bjj-fighter wrote:

hahahahahahahhahahahahahahaha Seagal better than any mma fighter.This is getting like sherdog.TROLL!!!!

Man, Just because they're martial arts actors, dont understimate them, in a real fight nobody knows what could happen, it depends on many factors to bear in mind, an even if the challenger is a MMA fighter the result would be uncertain...

kaji

Michelle Yeoh

Richard "Ninja Terminator" Harrison

Or

Michael "The Dude" Dudikoff.



CASE CLOSED.

Pride Fighter

Bruce Lee is by far the greatest. He was an actual martial artist, training in tai-chi since he was 6 and wing-chun in his teens. He thought Chuck Norris everything he knows so he is out of the equation. Jackie Chan WAS a great stuntman and his films from the 80s are fantastic but he said himself he was no martial artist. Jet Li is a former Wu-Shu champ however Wu-Shu is nothing but gymnastics with a stick. Tony Jaa is the greatest living martial arts movie star but probably the greatest martial artist in the movies is Don 'the dragon' Wilson. A multiple kick boxing champ and former amateur wrestler. Shame his films suck. Keep an eye out for fatal deviation. An Irish martial flick that is the funniest film you will ever see.

Marathon Man

One can be a good martial artist in the movies but suck in real life fighting. in this regard i wholeheartedly agree with pride fighter. Bruce Lee is the best martial artist who just so happened to act as well. Jackie chan is a good stuntman and but average at best as a martial artist. Drunken Master's comment that a martial arts actor would have a chance against a mma fighter made me laugh so hard at its ridiculousness. the only living martial arts actor who could/would do well in pride or ufc is don 'the dragon' wilson. jackie chan would be obliterated in these tournaments and it might be just as well since he sold out to hollywood. i'm sure bruce lee is turning in his grave as chan takes roles sterotyping asians that so sickened lee. the successor to lee? i think not.

unreggd

cant believe u included chuck "sh;te" Norris and left out Jet Li!

and what abt Uma Thurman, The HOBL showdown was amazin!!!!!

SorGan

Uma Thurman is wretched
kill bill 1 n 2 were sh1te

dlofnep

DrunkenMaster wrote:

Man, Just because they're martial arts actors, dont understimate them, in a real fight nobody knows what could happen, it depends on many factors to bear in mind, an even if the challenger is a MMA fighter the result would be uncertain...

Seagal is like in his 50's and fat.

MMA competitors are in shape, explosive and are competent in all ranges. Seagal is competent at eating pizza. Do the math.

buck65

[HTML]

SorGan wrote:

Uma Thurman is wretched
kill bill 1 n 2 were sh1te

[/HTML]

Are you insane those 2 films were brilliant...

Don't even bother JOB. If a person can't understand that a highly trained ultra peak super athlete would beat the crap out of a poorly trained fat guy well...;)

EDIT: maybe fatlete is more apt.

dlofnep

columok wrote:

EDIT: maybe fatlete is more apt.

LOL, that's me at the moment.

*gobbles sandwich*