Favorite movie fight scenes

[James Y]

CGI blood. One of the worst things about the new fangled film technology. Ruins a movie imho. Coen Brother's True Grit? CGI blood. Imagine if Stanley Kubrick tried that in The Shining?

One Shot: The Final Duel from Sanjuro

https://youtu.be/UkkF6Zz67TE

Sanjuro is a great film. And yes, I also hate CGI blood. Although there are some good movies that have some include CGI blood scenes, they would be so much better without it.

Jim

[James Y]

Hard-Boiled (1992. Directed by John Woo; starring Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. Hospital shootout scene.

This is only a tiny portion of the final battle, but from 0:05 to 2:48 is the famous long, uncut sequence involving action, explosions, dialogue, and moving from floor to floor, which was incredibly difficult to set up and shoot. One screw-up by one person would have ruined the entire sequence. Since this movie, other action movies have utilized difficult long sequences, even ones that are possibly longer, but I don't think any have approached the raw complexity of this scene, combined with the quality of acting. This was also done without the help of CGI.

IMO, Hard-Boiled was John Woo's best-directed movie, and certainly MUCH better than anything he later directed in Hollywood. But like many of Woo's "shoot-'em-up" films, the guns have the odd, magical habit of seeming to (almost) never run out of bullets.

https://youtu.be/x-38RwW-Y2w

Jim

[James Y]

Eastern Condors (1987), starring Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, etc. End fight scene (actually, this is the very last part of a longer final battle).

https://youtu.be/ncjnTJWLCRM

Jim

[shunsui]

Not much of a fight. More of a character study.



https://youtu.be/zXvwq-cxGZw

Let's try again.

https://youtu.be/jjxDa6Ac7kY

[shunsui]

A shy girl named 5.

https://youtu.be/i5ecPwiBLMc

[bearrowland]

There's gotta be some '80's Van Damme here!

[James Y]

There's gotta be some '80's Van Damme here!

Ask and you shall receive!

No Retreat, No Surrender (1986). Starring Kurt McKinney, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Pete "Sugarfoot" Cunningham, etc. End fights.

This was Van Damme's first-ever appearance in an American movie. The movie was directed by Hong Kong director Corey Yuen, a classmate of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung. I'm not really a Van Damme fan, but this movie remains a guilty pleasure of mine, and it's my favorite Van Damme performance. This movie is pure '80s B-film goodness, with all the corny acting and familiar '80s stereotypes. It almost looks like a spoof of the '80s, but for some reason I've always liked it.

I always thought it was weird that they hired a tall guy to play the referee. He towers over Van Damme (who isn't overly tall to begin with) and the other fighters. You would think they'd have hired a shorter guy as the ref to make Van Damme look bigger.

https://youtu.be/3US1MSUlFs0


Jim

[wrdwrght]

Open Range (2003) gunfight (https://youtu.be/xcfNCH2_oA8). No ballet, just imprecise brutality and, I judge, close to real, except for Hollywood’s exaggeration of Newtonian physics.

[bearrowland]

Outstanding Jim!!

[James Y]

Outstanding Jim!!

Glad you enjoyed it, bearrowland! :)

Jim

[James Y]

The Raid 2: Berandal (Indonesia, 2014). Kitchen fight. Iko Uwais vs Cecep Arif Rahman.

The Raid 2 (and its predecessor, The Raid: Redemption) is a great movie all-around movie (storyline, acting, action, etc.). IMO, this fight scene features the best onscreen karambit fight in a movie.

https://youtu.be/XAUj0cpxt-I

Jim

[James Y]

Goodfellas (1990). Ray Liotta, beatdown scene.

If we want to discuss realism in fight scenes, this scene is VERY realistic. In truth, many (or most) real "fights" are mostly one-sided beatdowns.

https://youtu.be/DrnpgwQ0ZBQ

Jim

[James Y]

Way Of The Dragon (1972); Bruce Lee vs Chuck Norris.

I mentioned this classic onscreen matchup in post #1, and I should have posted it much earlier. Although I feel that the Jackie Chan vs Benny Urquidez fight scene outdid this one, without this fight scene, many of the great one-on-one martial arts fight scenes wouldn't have existed. This scene was (and still is) revolutionary for its time, and is still influential today. IMO, it's Bruce Lee's best fight scene, and also the best that Norris ever looked onscreen (in a fight scene). And it all had to do with Bruce Lee and his keen mind for choreography and understanding of cinema.

In recent years, Norris has become critical of Lee, when in reality he should be kissing Lee's behind and showing appreciation. Because without Bruce Lee, there would have been no "Chuck Norris, the movie/TV star," and he would have spent his life as a relatively unknown (to the general public) karate teacher/ex-karate champion; nor would he have had the platform to do many of the other things he has accomplished since then.

https://youtu.be/f-q5FLtlUOI

Jim

[James Y]

Knockabout (1979); Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung vs Lau Kar-Wing. Complete final fight. Sorry, only French subtitles.

This was Yuen Biao's first starring role. He was a junior classmate of Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, etc., in the Peking (Beijing) Opera school in Hong Kong. Yuen Biao had arguably the greatest raw physical talent and natural athleticism of all of them.

Sammo Hung, the portly actor who also directed, was best known in the West as the young, long-haired monk who Bruce Lee outclassed at the beginning of Enter The Dragon. But Sammo was already a fine choreographer himself, who went on to become one of the best and most innovative directors and martial arts/action stars of all time.

The villain, played by Lau Kar-Wing, was one of the Lau Brothers, and part of a famous martial arts family in Hong Kong.

https://youtu.be/Id3ENcTdY7Q

The sheer difficulty and complexity of this fight scene becomes more obvious once it moves into the restaurant:

https://youtu.be/ISInKOC-AOQ

Jim

[James Y]

Aliens (1986), Sigourney Weaver. Final fight: Ripely vs The Queen Alien, parts 1&2:

https://youtu.be/lIqqtr6lRlU



https://youtu.be/OdjtATZW7qM

Jim

[Doc Dan]

The last of gunfight at the ending of Shane is epic.

[James Y]

Out For Justice (1991), final fight; Gino vs Richie (Steven Seagal vs William Forsythe).

https://youtu.be/yf_8ivZV2HM

Jim

[James Y]

Blood And Bone (2009), final fight; Michael Jai White vs Matt Mullins.

https://youtu.be/FXRb1-ld2sc

Jim

[bearrowland]

Oh yeah some Seagal action!!

[James Y]

Oh yeah some Seagal action!!

Marked For Death (1990), final fight; Steven Seagal vs Basil Wallace.

I used to like Steven Seagal, up through the first Under Siege movie. After that, he and his stuff went all to ****. My favorite Seagal movies were Out For Justice and this one, Marked For Death. Basil Wallace, as Screwface, was Seagal's toughest onscreen opponent, at least during the period of Seagal's ascension. The most amusing things about some of Seagal's early movies were the catchphrases, in an era (1980s to around the mid-'90s) when every Hollywood action movie hero used them. They were as indispensable to the movies as the action itself.

https://youtu.be/ZObnyBWAZSI

Jim

*edited because I had accidentally written Out For Justice as the title.