Flames and Frozen Fractals

Patting themselves on the back for seeing a film that was neither a sequel nor a prequel, the U.S. populace announced Wednesday that they were proud of themselves for watching and enjoying an original movie. “Learning the names of characters I’d never heard of before wasn’t easy, but ultimately I’m glad I did my part to support the arts,” said 34-year-old Darren Mosley of Davenport, IA, echoing the views of moviegoers across the country who braved unfamiliar faces, storylines, and settings to give a film seemingly devoid of any preexisting IP a fair shot.

I'm normally not a fan of movies with excessive violence, but I recently watched two very violent R-rated martial arts movies within the past 30 days that I really enjoyed, so I thought I'd give some recommendations/reviews:

Mortal Kombat 2

Fun, over-the-top and surprisingly lore-faithful, this is the Mortal Kombat movie millennials have been waiting for since the 90s. It has wonderfully creative and exciting fight choreography, particularly the Liu Kang vs Kung Lao fight. Johnny Cage manages to be a likable point-of-view character, without overshadowing the more plot-relevant characters like Kitana. They also used the iconic theme from the 90s movie for the ending credits!

The Furious

Easily the best ensemble martial arts flick of the decade and probably one of the best of all time. The movie blends and balances the brutality of a Tarantino-style Hollywood flick with the artistry and acrobatics of Hong Kong action cinema. If you enjoyed the many martial arts showcased in ATLA, then you'll have a great time seeing the beautiful interplay of styles featured in The Furious: From Kung Fu to Judo to Tae Kwon Do to Muay Thai to Silat to outright bare-knuckle brawling. An absolute chop suey of skillful violence!

The movie was headed up by Director Kenji Tanigaki, who also adapted the shockingly good Rurouni Kenshin live-action movies. It's also worth noting that he's an incredibly responsible martial arts choreographer, as none of the actors sustained any injuries during the making of the film; contrast that to the many bones broken during Hong Kong's golden age of action cinema in the 80s. Additionally, YouTuber and martial artist Brian Le is in the movie, who I feel has the potential to be the next Sammo Hung.

If you have an appetite for blood-pumping popcorn flicks and a strong stomach for gore, I highly recommend both movies, especially The Furious. Also, both films feature the handsome judo expert, Joe Taslim.

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