Fight Quest

2007
8.1| 0h30m| en
Synopsis

Fight Quest is a television show on the Discovery Channel that had a preview episode air on December 28, 2007 and began airing weekly on January 4, 2008. The show followed Jimmy Smith and Doug Anderson as they travel around the world learning different styles of martial arts, spending five days training with notable masters of the styles they are studying, before exhibiting what they have learned in a final demonstration and/or fight. According to quotes by the hosts, the show was cancelled after the first season. At the end of February an updated DVD box set was released that included the final three episodes not in the original release. The series was canceled at the beginning of the second season and only three episodes aired, the last one ended on October 3, 2008.

Cast

Director

Producted By

NorthSouth Productions

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Reviews

Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.
Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.
fzr1483 Fight Quest is a show that follows American hosts, Jimmy Smith and Doug Anderson, around the world to explore different martial arts styles. Jimmy is a professional and Doug is an amateur MMA fighter respectively. (I can't believe every other user review got this wrong). Many reviewers have compared it to Human Weapon, which I haven't seen. It's not a valid complaint that it's a me too show. BBC's Way of the Warrior preceded both shows by around 15 years. What is valid is that Fight Quest doesn't present the info any better due to a poor choice of hosts.The hosts split up at each location to train with different masters. I absolutely appreciate the fact that they try to make one location traditional and the other in the city. It gives amazing cultural insight into the history of some of these martial arts. Unfortunately, the cultural opportunity is usually wasted by ethnocentric and arrogant hosts. Doug, for example, when introduced to the various masters rarely bows (or any other cultural attempt to show respect).Both hosts train for 5 days in their respective locations and end with an actual fight with representatives from each martial art. (I know several reviews said its unfair to only train for 5 days, but this is TV. The producers wouldn't be able to make 10 episodes in a season if they stayed to "master" each one)I do give the hosts credit for showing real effort in training and being genuinely excited by the fights. The bruises and blisters they accumulate are proof that they aren't just showing the training for TV. Because of this fact, I don't mind the complaining.IMO the shows downfall is the hosts' commentary. I really wish they wouldn't speak (or better yet, have selected different people). While I don't mind them complaining about injuries, I can't stand it when they complain about training techniques. Both hosts are very closed minded and have called multiple exercises "useless" or "I'd rather be preparing for my fight" or "I'm not learning anything... maybe they're setting me up to fail." There isn't a master who competes that would want a student to fail in a fight. Their reputation is directly linked with the quality of fighters they produce.Host Doug is most guilty of this. He treats most of his training as if it were an American McDojo. By around day 3 or 4, he's always complaining that he isn't learning anything to help him in a fight. It's seems that he just wants to learn some ultimate move from each style. It seems pretty disrespectful to the masters who, in their commentary explain that he's not learning a particular motion (basic fundamental stuff) correctly or that he doesn't have good leg strength. For someone who's an MMA fighter, he should know you can't learn to run before the walk.In short, the show had potential but the hosts really ruined it.
ADogknowsbest Every review seems to be centered around the difference between Human Weapon and Fight Quest. As an unbiased observer (I have not yet watched Human Weapon) I can say that I absolutely love this show! The chemistry is great, the fights are real (and get as rough as I had hoped!) and it is amazing to see all the different styles.The only problem I had with the show was that in each location, the guys only spent 5 days. While it is cool getting a snippet of different fighting styles and seeing how much they can take in during this short time allocated to them, it would be much more entertaining (and realistic for the final fight) if they would given more time to spend training.Ever since the first episode I watched, I was hooked. I watched this show straight through and will probably watch it again. It is one of the few shows I am a huge fan of and, while I doubt I would be so lucky, I really hope they bring it back. Doug and Jimmy are awesome.
nuclearsummer This show had so much potential, but they blew it. The show frequently relies on unrealistic, over-dramatic plot lines (for example: When visiting Indonesia, just because there are Muslims there, Doug has a "deep" flashback of his tour in Iraq, just because there are Muslims in Iraq). Some of the fights are obviously choreographed and Doug and Jimmy are ethnocentric and arrogant in every country they visit. The hosts are difficult to relate with, but Jimmy is especially detestable. He complains through every step of his training regardless of where he is, and frequently makes excuses. For example, in France he gets hit in the liver and in an overly dramatic fashion collapses on the floor and screams his lungs out. For the rest of the episode the only words heard out of Jimmy's mouth are, "Getting hit in the liver sucks," "I hope getting hit in the liver won't effect my fight," and "Wow, that liver-shot was brutal. If I get another shot in the liver I might die."It's way over the top and it's hard to enjoy the fights when you have to listen to what these clowns have to say about their host countries (although I have to admit that Doug is a more sympathetic host). Also, the glaring flaw in this show is that there is no way that a 5-day crash course in a martial art will allow an amateur (note: AMATEUR) MMA fighter to fight and beat a seasoned expert in that martial art. I can't recommend this show unless you want to laugh at how absurd it is. This show could have worked with different hosts, but I really feel that they blew it on this one.
geraldd Fight Quest is a reality based show that places two mixed martial artists in the situation of training for one week in a traditional martial art in which they have no background and then compete against a master of said art. Sound familiar? Well, it should because it is the same exact formula that The History Channel used in the far more interesting Human Weapon.In the premier episode of Fight Quest the two hosts, Jimmy Smith and Doug Anderson, travel to the Philippines to train in the popular weapons based art of Kali, as done in Human Weapon. In the second installment, the duo travel to China to train in San Da Kung Fu (also another Human Weapon adventure). Out of the hundreds of different styles of Kung Fu that could have been selected, both shows chose the kick boxing style of San Da probably due to its similarity to the American mixed martial arts. The differences between the two shows were minor (at the time of this writing, episode three has not aired).One difference between this show and Human Weapon is that Jimmy and Doug are split up and each train with a different master only to be reunited prior to their match and each of them engage in combat; while fans of Weapon know that Bill and Jason stick together, travel to various locations around the country to train with different masters of that weeks chosen style and only one is selected to compete. Other than that the shows run along parallel plot lines. Another notable difference between Fight Quest and Human Weapon is that Bill Duff and Jason Chambers (both of Weapon) have better on screen chemistry and they inject a fair amount of humor into each episode; whereas Jimmy and Doug (Quest) seem to approach their task with arrogance. In the end both Jimmy and Doug usually end up whining about their training and making excuses about their sub-par performance against their opponents. Remember, Jimmy and Doug are both professional mixed martial arts fighters.Fight Quest could be a very interesting show if the producers had tried a non-Human Weapon approach or even done something as minor as selecting different martial arts to highlight. Nice try guys but, we've seen it before.