Contentar
Best movie of this year hands down!
Breakinger
A Brilliant Conflict
Clarissa Mora
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
Leofwine_draca
SHAOLIN VS. NINJA is a typically nondescript Taiwanese action romp from director Robert Tai. The plot is exactly as it says in the title, charting the fortunes of a Shaolin Temple that gets attacked by a ruthless squad of ninjas. Much low rent action ensues, none of it much cop, even if it is mildly amusing. It's not as much fun as the pure over the top goofiness of something like MAFIA VS. NINJA, which is still the pinnacle of this sub-genre in my mind.Alexander Rei Lo is the peaceful hero spurred into action, with the usual familiar faces appearing along the way. The English dubbing is appalling, the sound effects are completely over the top, and the cheesy choreography takes some beating. Sadly, the whole episode is never quite crazy enough, leaving it unmemorable rather than a classic of its type.
Space_Mafune
In a plot to rob a Chinese Shaolin Temple of its great wealth, Shaolin monks find themselves framed for the murder of the Japanese Emperor's head monk, apparently the doings of a secret ninja force, and now must find a means to prove their innocence before bloodshed erupts between their Japanese Shaolin counterparts and themselves.Where this delivers is in terms of its fighting. There's an impressive tournament challenge at one point conducted between the Chinese Shaolin and their Japanese counterparts that proves very exciting and showcases tremendous martial arts fighting skills both with and without weapons. Whenever fighting is on screen, this one tends to deliver the goods and then some. Where it falters is in terms of its story as there's really no sympathetic heroic lead and the many plot twists and turns tend to get a little confusing. Still if you're a fan of good Martial Arts fighting, you should find much to enjoy here.
longhairhomie
this is for the action.not acting.i know people make fun of the "praise be to buddah" thing but seriously though.the fighting techniques are to be appreciated and maybe even studied if your into martial arts.these monks devote their entire lives to this supreme regimen and style that they incorporate.the weapons fighting is classical ancient style.just like in the ancient battles of the far east. i was mesmerized and i admit to having a few laughs but it was'nt in laughing at the movie.it was rather the type that i do at seeing something so awesome it astounds me to the point of laughing. it was extremely serious.not an upbeat type of flick that you'd expect in the karate kid tradition.no charasmatic characters either. the acting of course is going to seem subpar to many but this is what it's really about when it comes to hard core martial artistry.it's not about having all this plot and drama.i know this explanation is cliche but this is the shaw brothers/wu tang series.it's about all out no nonsense and no show off cry babies.these intricit techniques are to be appreciated and learned from.this is'nt about learning to be an actor.it's more about learning to be a real warrior. rating. 8/10.
Jojosh the Pi
Alexander Lo outdoes his earlier movie "Mafia vs Ninja" in this one.
"Praise be to Buddha."I watched an English language version, which had some of the worst dubbing I've seen--there are many lines where the characters continue to speak for two seconds after the voice is finished."Praise be to Buddha."The choreography you have to see for yourself (but then again, there's not much reason to watch these dumb kung fu flicks except for some good laughs)."Praise be to Buddha."One of the biggest weaknesses of "Shaolin vs Ninja" is that there is not really one main character to follow (theoretically Alexander Lo, but he is absent for a lot of the movie)."Praise be to Buddha."Oh, yeah, and how could I forget? If you like drinking games, why don't you try having a beer everytime the senior monk says, "Praise be to Buddha."? If your brain hasn't atrophied by the end of the movie, you will surely have died of alcohol poisoning."Praise be to Buddha."Rating: 2/10, but only because there's actually worse"Praise be to Buddha."
