Akin to “Bill,” this entry is soaked
in 1970s cinema with yellow-splatter-font credits and lots of blood and wonky
theatrics to make it all retro. RZA is the titular hero, a runaway U.S. slave in
late 1800s China, working as a blacksmith who gets mixed up in a gold theft
involving a clan leader (Byron Mann), a whorehouse madam (Lucy Liu), and a Brit
knife/gunslinger (Russell Crowe), plus 99 other characters I dare not list. Hence
the title, our hero loses his hands but comes back punching.
RZA is high on an admirable
labor-of-love vibe, but “Fists” is fugly and scattershot, with blitzed editing
that ruins every fight scene. There’s no majesty or cool factor to the choreographed
violence, just chopped-up limbs and blood, and almost all CGI on the latter.
Worse, as an actor, RZA confuses lifeless with stoic, and that leaves a massive hero hole in a 95-minute film that feels kitchen-sink garbled and amateurish. D+
Worse, as an actor, RZA confuses lifeless with stoic, and that leaves a massive hero hole in a 95-minute film that feels kitchen-sink garbled and amateurish. D+
It’s an action packed dumb fun movie that pays tribute to the great martial arts films from every decade in existence. Not perfection, but worth a watch for fun. Good review Steven.
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