The Battle Wizard (1977)

Best movie of this year hands down!

One of my all time favorites.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Prior viewer's descriptions of the action offered here have been duly attempted and I won't dispute anything I've read. I will just say, you REALLY have to be in the mood for this.I've been watching Kung Fu movies on TV since the 1970's, and I've seen some pretty wild stuff. But this one dumps a whole kitchen sink of action and effects on you. A lot of it makes no sense and a lot of it looks terrible, but hey, like I said, you have to be in the mood. And as to those cheapy laser beams, just look at American, high-end effects in 1977. Star Wars came out the same year, and the laser effects there were not hugely better than this stuff. Production values as a whole were worlds apart, but the laser beams themselves? Not a big difference.Thank the Red Dragon, or the deity of your choice, for the El Rey Network. It has "Flying, Five Finger, One Armed, Eight Pole, Shaolin, Exploding Death Touch Thursdays". Wonders like this one are now brought to my TV each week. Not every movie can be a classic like Enter the Dragon, but El Rey shows them all with no prejudice. Actually, thank Robert Rodriguez, for putting his reputation and cash on the line to start that channel. I don't know another network that would show us these treasures.In a contest for the strangest Kung Fu movie, I'm not sure which one would win, but this movie, and Hong hai er (The Fantastic Magic Baby) are definitely two of the top contenders.

I must agree with the reviewer who said that this one's ABOVE criticism: you either sit through it or you don't. I did, and I found myself feeling the kind of affection for it that one feels for that Special Child who tries really, really hard but who just doesn't have what it takes to make it to The Special Olympics. When one "gets the finger" in this movie, it means you've been zapped with a finger that fires laser beams; when you have your legs thus removed (by the man who's cheating on his wife with YOUR wife), you end up living in a cave with metal chicken legs and breathing fire (and living with a fanged roommate with lobster claws for hands); when you run into The Red Python and drink his blood (shades of THE BRAVE ARCHER), you acquire super and magical powers and "The Red Dragon Soul"; when you decide you want to marry the comely Miss Mu, it turns out she's your sister; when you find yourself thrown into a bottomless pit, you find yourself face to face with- that's right- a Kong Fu gorilla! It's at this point that THE BATTLE WIZARD proves its worth, that it finally lives up to its promise. If you don't mind some cheese with your corn, if guys in bulky gorilla suits and rubber snakes are your cup of tea, THE BATTLE WIZARD's right up your alley.

Definitely along the lines of "Anything Goes" HK cinema, Battle Wizard starts crazy and remains that way to the very end. Convoluted story, strange characters, garish special effects and a snappy pace keep this film entertaining, that is if you go for this sort of thing. This is the sort of movie that is immune to most commentary just by the obvious disregard the film makers have for normal movie making. Either you watch this sort of film or you don't. The only comment I can make is that whoever edited this film should have been sent back to the butcher shop to resume slicing tripe. It's some of the worst editing I ever have seen in a Shaw production. Fun for an afternoon with friends.

This is one of the crazy ones, along the lines of Buddha's Palm or Holy Flame of the Martial World, though not as fun or inventive. Danny Lee plays a scholar who is uninterested in kung fu, who pursues the "Red Python" which can grant great power. His task is complicated by his philandering father, the cute Lin Chen-chi and her magical snakes, and angry Tanny Tien-ni and her dagger-shooting leg bone.The movie is filled wacky costumes, fake monsters, goofy visual effects, and kung fu "laser" beams. As short as it is, it still gets a bit bogged down in dialogue and exposition. Still, there's enough craziness along the way to hold you until the mind-blowing ending , which features Danny Lee fighting a kung fu gorilla, and a man on retractable metal chicken legs who fires flames out of his mouth. Worth watching, at least for the ending.