Warriors of Virtue

I could not remember the name of this movie for the life of me but I googled some key words and I've found it. This movie came out my senior year of college and me and a buddy saw it. It was a train wreck of a movie. People were walking out of the theater. I stayed the whole time just scratching my head at the craziness of it all. I tried to rent it but I couldnt find it. The writer/director/producer must have been on acid when he made this movie.

The '97 film `The Warriors of Virtue' has borrowed from a plethora of other movies that fall within the children/family genre. It starts out well with the introduction of the lead character Ryan Jeffers (Mario Yedidia), a young lame adolescent suffering from poor self-esteem due to his inability to physically perform like the rest of the kids his age. It gets even better moments later when his friend and Taoist mentor Ming (Dennis Dun) appears. Ming is a gifted kung fu practitioner who utilizes the ancient art in his skillful, aerobatic approach to cooking, holding the position of head chef in a Chinese restaurant. At this point I thought "This is really going to be good." Unfortunately Ryan is soon magically transported to the otherworldly land of Tao and Ming is left behind. My interest in the story slowly declined from that point on.

Negatives: The biggest problem with this movie is that there is too much replication of what has been already seen or done in previous films. The script is borrowed from `The NeverEnding Story' (`84), the villains costumes come direct from the `Power Rangers' (`95) wardrobe department and the five talking ninja Kangaroo warriors are the `Teenage Mutant ninja Turtles' (`90) without the shell. If that weren't bad enough, there are far too many `Star Wars' ('77) images and characterizations to even attempt to list.

Positives: The attempt to instill Taoist values and philosophy in `Warriors of Virtue' is commendable and that alone makes the film worth the watch, however some of the lessons that are meant to be passed on may be over the head of the target audience that are most likely to be attracted to this movie. Bottom line, if you're a male ten or younger you'll probably love it. Otherwise I'd pass.

To be frank, this movie gives the feeling of a thrown together, have a happy ending kid movie. But when u see its villain, all conventions disappear. Komodo has to be one of the best villains in this genre of film. I find myself renting it over and over , just to watch the scenes with him in it. Angus Macfayden brings a quirky and somewhat comedic attitude but thats balanced by the sadistic evil we know lies in Komodo because of his ruthlessness. Now i admit, parents may not like choice scenes in the movie such as Alicia's new outfits as she joins Komodo and the sex kitten attitude. Now this is to parents looking to buy this movie. There is a curse word and i myself, who watched it before as a child, did not remember it being there so be on the watch. There is only one so it wont do much damage to the young viewer. But it might get them repeating it. There is a good bit of violence and some bloodshed, which is what i meant by conventions being shattered as the villain enters the story. To be honest i find Angus in this role to be dangerous and sexy, which keeps my coming back. As for the heroes, i do like how they made them non conventional ie kangaroos. It twists the story a bit and gets the kids rooting for the cute karate kangaroos, which is the aim of the filmakers. The fight sequences are spectacular. With a director like John Woo, you come to find great action sequences and here is no exception. My one probablem, which is why there is one less star, is the abysmal script. Even though there are memorable lines, the rest of it drags the story down like the titanic and leaves you going huh? Other then that the rest is all good and i thank John Woo for giving a non forgetable villain.

The Dvd arrived ontime and in a sealed package. The movie is what we expected

this is the most ridiculously awesome movie i have seen in my entire life - kangaroo ninjas!!! it doesn't get any better than that. wow, what a trip ryan, what a trip. makes me want to grow some big back legs and a pouch and learn kung fu. great movie.