The Man with the Iron Fists is a kung fu movie from first time director RZA, of Wu-Tang Clan fame.

I had someone once ask me why black guys from poor areas like kung fu movies.

I immediately karate-chopped the shit out of him for being both racist and stupid. Racist because I also like kung fu movies, and stupid because kung fu movies are the shit.

Hence, The Man with the Iron Fists. The film is about a bunch of different gangs in feudal China who are all battling one another. The story focuses on these various clans all duking it out, and the one blacksmith who has to build badass weapons for each of them. One man’s skin turns to bronze. Another guy has awesome swords, and girls have those fan things with blades in them.

But the blacksmith has had enough of all this fighting, so he forges a pair of iron gauntlets that have magical powers. They turn him into a warrior. A powerful warrior. But will he be powerful enough to stop all the fighting and unite the clans?

You bet yer ass he will be.

The Man with the Iron Fists

As I’ve already said, The Man with the Iron Fists comes from RZA, who directs and cowrote the screenplay with Eli Roth. Quentin Tarantino is producing, so it has his particular sensibilities well looked-after. The trailers (below) look insane as shit, so that helps.

The Man with the Iron Fists Trailer

Movie Release Date

November 2, 2012.

Pictures

Who’s In It?

 Russell Crowe … Jackknife
  Jamie Chung … Lady Silk
  Lucy Liu … Madame Blossom
  Daniel Wu … Poison Dagger
  RZA
  Pam Grier
  Dave Bautista … Brass Body
  Zhu Zhu … Coco
  Cung Le … Bronze Lion
  Chia Hui Liu … The Abbott
  Rick Yune … Zen Yi
  Byron Mann … Silver Lion
  Grace Huang … Gemini Female
  Osric Chau … Blacksmith’s Assistant
  Celina Jade … Dragon Inn singer
  Dennis Chan … Dragon Innkeeper
  Brian Yang … Blue Hyena
  Jin Auyeung … Chan
  Mary Christina Brown … Jasmine
  Jake Garber … Jake
  Kuan Tai Chen … Gold Lion
  Ka-Yan Leung … Hyena chief
  Darren E. Scott … Rodent Chief
  Andrew Lin … Gemini Male
  Jon T. Benn

What’s Good About It?

I can’t believe the cast for The Man with the Iron Fists. Obviously it’s Quentin Tarantino’s influence that got Lucy Liu and Russell Crowe involved. No way in hell they just randomly signed up for a movie directed by a guy with a name that consists of three capitalized letters.

What’s Bad About It?

While the action in The Man with the Iron Fists looks bloody and kinda cool, it’s also not terribly well shot and may suffer a bit much from this. I don’t have the highest hopes for the film. It’s too bad too, because I like me some kung fu.

Our Clever Prediction

I don’t think The Man with the Iron Fists will make a ton of money, but the cast is shockingly good, so it might be a surprise hit. There’s always a bit of need for good kung fu, and I don’t think this had the biggest budget, even with the star power, so it should make some money.