Final thought: Wow. I give Reeves kudos for directing this one.but this is a pretty average movie. FYI.while reading this review please insert whichever Keanu Reeves line reading of Wow you like the most.whenever you see Wow in the review.

Much like its director it is a film of limited talents but what it does it does very well.

There is something refreshingly old fashioned about it, not only in its seen-it-all-before plot but also in its general execution.

For Reeves bow behind the camera he shuns Hollywood and heads East to create a back-to-basics action movie.

His talents bring him to the attention of Donaka Mark (Reeves in a rare villain role) who.

There are more fight scenes than dialogue, somewhere there is a plot, it features a martial art that isnt a martial art and it has old Ent face acting and directing.

Well, slap me silly and call me Suzan, but this actually was fun.

Three things make this work really well, two of which feature Keanu Reeves which, to me at least, is a bit of a shocker.

The way Reeves choreographs them and presents them to us is visceral, exciting and hearkens back to the glory days of the martial.

Whenever action stops Man of Tai Chi just becomes under directed in a rather pleasing way and every time it restarts it comes with such concentration and staged (and mostly edited) with rare intelligence and also varied enough not to get monotone like It happens in a film like The Raid.

I also like the way it feeds on the film rather unusual production subtext: an well-known star debuts as director with a martial arts film set and mostly aimed at Chinese, his foreignness is often at center stage along with the mix of respect and distance which it treats its subject matter.

The film runs out of steam before the end, but it is rather smart and has a truly interesting sensibility.

Man of Tai Chi tells the story of a young martial artist who is gifted in Tai Chi skills but is impatient rebellious when it comes to the philosophical aspects of his style.

Things are set in motion when he is invited to join a highly lucrative underworld fight club for easy money and eventually finds out the sinister intent behind its existence.

Knowing it to be a martial arts film, what I hoped for was competent martial arts sequences and minimal plot.

What I wanted was something without a lot of dialogue and with a lot of physicality.

What I got was a bit of what I wanted and a bit of what I didnt.

The bad parts of this were mostly in the acting, which is redeemed slightly by the absurdity of it all.

Keanu Reeves laughter is so awkward and unnatural that it becomes funny to hear.

If its intentional, it makes his character that much more bizarre.

If its not intentional, its entertaining that that was the best they.

On the surface its your garden variety underground fighting movie, but Keanu infuses so much weirdness, personality and visual panache that it feels entirely unique.

I love that he randomly decided to make his directorial debut as a vehicle for a stuntman friend of his, almost like a meta, but entirely benevolent version of the events that happen in the film.

Tiger Chen has funny charm to him, hes very unimposing, with goofy 80s Jackie Chan action hair.

To put it in perspective Iko Uwais is the worlds friendliest looking action star and when he makes a cameo later on in the film makes.

Final thought: Wow.

FYI.while reading this review please insert whichever Keanu Reeves line reading of Wow you like the most.whenever you see Wow in the review.

Man Of Tai Chi Cast