ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Leofwine_draca THE MAGNIFICENT BUTCHER is a superior kick-fest that beats any early Jackie Chan film hands down. With the likes of this, THE VICTIM, and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE SPOOKY KIND, I'm surprised that martial arts supremo Sammo Hung didn't earn more respect and international stardom than his frequent co-star. His early offerings provide superior entertainment that do away with the tired clichés and chop-socky action of Jackie Chan's Lo Wei flicks and give the viewer a rollicking good time. THE MAGNIFICENT BUTCHER is an epic kung fu flick which offers everything you could ever want from such a film. There's a complex, twist-a-minute plot, plenty of comedy – of the low-brow, gross-out variety that is nevertheless ten times funnier than any American PIE movie – drama, suspense, horror and, of course, kung fu. As you'd expect from director Yuen Woo-ping, the fights in this flick are outrageously good, always fluid and fast-moving, and best of all, with a minimum of editing; you can actually see what's going on, and that means this film has an edge to all modern-day martial arts films.Sammo Hung is an intensely likable lead, and he admirably holds his own amongst the ensemble cast here. He's athletic, energetic, and willing to take a beating as well as dole one out; he's certainly one of the top five martial artists of all time, and watching him fight is a real pleasure. Lee Hoi San is also excellent as the fleshed-out villain, complete with a 'burning palm' technique that has to be seen to be believed, really doling out the punishment in this one. The supporting cast is chock-a-block with familiar faces: Fung Hark-On, later routinely typecast as a heavy, has his best role as the truly dastardly villain of the piece, whilst Yuen Biao is briefly on hand to show off his acrobatic style. Stealing the whole show, though, is Fan Mui Sang, cast as a drunken beggar; he's a real hoot, funnier even than Sam Seed in DRUNKEN MASTER, and his sheer presence and OTT acting adds to the film no end.Western audiences are often left feeling bemused or annoyed by eastern films, especially on first acquaintance. The eclectic MAGNIFICENT BUTCHER will no doubt confuse some people, mixing as it does solid belly-laughs with moments of high drama and tension that wouldn't be out of place in an adult thriller; for instance, the attempted rape sequence is near the knuckle and pretty shocking. In the end, though, the comedy wins outright, especially with the hilarious sequence in which Hung tries to master the 'Iron Palm' technique – little realising that the instructions he's being fed are for pickling pig's trotters, not a new martial arts style! The highlight of this whole film is the ferocious moment when Hung takes his revenge on Fung Hark-On, in which the screen feels like it is crackling with energy. Watch out for that 'Weird Cat' guy as well – a real psycho.

roninf5-1 With the movie called 'Magnificent Butcher' I thought we would see at least some scenes of Sammo Hung's character practicing his trade. Boy, was I let down. They call him 'Butcher Wing' and I don't think Sammo cut one slice of meat. Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York was dicing up a piece of raw meat (human or otherwise) in almost every scene he was in. Butchering was made integral to the character. That doesn't happen in this movie. I think we see Sammo carry around a couple of dead pigs in the first few minutes and that's it. Disappointing. This has some great Kung-fu fights and funny comedy but it really came up short in the butchering department.

hayabusa-1 The best place to start signing the praises of this truly "magnificent" film is to look at the names of all those involved with the movie. A venerable who's who of Kun Fu movies past and present rounds out this film.The film is directed by Yuen Woo Ping, who would later become the master of fight scenes in such movies as The Matrix, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Once Upon a Time in China series, Kung Fu Hustle, oh and he also directed some great films such as this film and The Buddhist Fist.The film's screenplay is by Wong Jing, who's notorious for his hit or miss HK films. The Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk and Meltdown stand out in my mind as his best films, and from the humor shown throughout this movie it's obvious that Wong Jing had a hand in it, he is definitely "on" in this movie.The Magnificent Butcher stars Sammo Hung, who unless you were living under a rock in the 1970s and 1980s you should know as one of the more competent kung fu movie stars of his era. Sammo plays the title character "Butcher Wing" (Lam Sai-Wing) one of the more notable of the real life disciples of Kung Fu hero, patriot, and Chinese healer Wong Fe-Hung. Butcher Wing getting his niickname as he was a butcher by trade in his day job, which often leads to many funny butcher jargon jokes during kung fu scenes in movies in which Buther Wing is a character. While not as funny as some of the double entendre fight dialouge in Once Upon a Time in China 5, there is a humorous scene in Magnificent Butcher where Sammo gets a lesson in cooking, mistakenly thinking he's getting a kung fu lesson. Sammo holds his own as Butcher Wing he has the build and demeanor for the part, and quite honestly as this is the only movie I know of featuring Butcher Wing as the main character, Sammo Hung as a big name actor was a good choice for the Role.Tak-Hing Kwan makes a brief but memorable appearance in his typical role at the time of Master Wong Fei-Hung. This was THE guy, this is who Chinese movie-goers associated as Wong Fei-Hung before Jet Li revived the role in the Once Upon a Time in China series. Tak-Hing Kwan plays and older, queue-less Wong Fei-Hung, but a Wong Fei-Hung who is still a master physician and martial artist nonetheless. Yes this is the movie with the famous scene of Wong Fei-Hung demonstrating calligraphy as a self defense technique. The movie is worth seeing for this scene alone, even if you're not a fan of Sammo Hung you will get a kick out of Tak-Hing Kwan's defensive calligraphy style.Yuen Biao is also in this gem of a film, one I highly recommend seeing if only to see what Wong Fei-Hung films were like prior to Jet Li. The 1970s and 80s were filled with low budget pure crap films, and rest assured this film is not one of them. This is a rare gem from that era, one that any kung fu fanatic must see.

NyteMan For the fan of the classic Hong Kong kung fu movie, this one is just plain fun. Sammo Hung is comic, fierce, expressive, and a joy to watch in action. Yuen Biao is conniving, devious, and mean. The action is wild, the kung fu is fast and furious, the stunts are convincing, all in all a great chop-sockey type movie. If you enjoy this sort of thing, give it a try!