Ok, you don't expect a movie called Jiu Jitsu in which a circle of elite ninjas fight against an overpowering alien entity to be serious cinema; but you'd hope to have fun. Or at least excitement.
For me, it was neither, alas. Judging from the premise, it could be fantastic, borrowing heavily from Predator and beat'em up videogames, and it starts promising with a look superior to many direct-to-DVD competitors, decent sound design and an atmosphere which reeks of 80s & 90s B-movies. Also, there are fight scenes. A lot. Like, nonstop. I would estimate 1 hour of the 1:40h runtime are some sort of martial arts and other combat. Sometimes the fights are spiced up with a funny idea (like POV camera), most often not, and they pleasantly diverge from other modern action films in that they actually let you SEE what is happening: very few cuts, full view of the brawling activities. Also no funny one-liners or dialogue in between. It's just action after action.
As much as I respect such a pure approach, it didn't do much for me. It's a fine looking, uncompromising, empty slog, and that's almost total failure for a movie which is basically a crossover of Predator and Mortal Kombat.
Oh, haven't I forgot something? Of course: there's Nicolas Cage! He has enough screentime in the course and his role is quite absurd. He doesn't go completely bonkers with it, but there's at least one scene which Cage fans should be willing to see. It includes a hat.
Having seen a fair share of his 2010s trash output, I'd rank this performance in the upper third of all his B-movie appearances. Which isn't saying a lot.
Better go see The Raid 2 or The Night Comes For Us for some modern merciless martial arts assault.
According to Jiu Jitsu, a Predator-like alien came to Earth ages ago and taught our ancestors jiu jitsu (#NotJiuJitsu) so we could give him a fun fight every 6 years. Set in Myanmar and making full use of Tony Jaa's stunt team, it could have been fun. Unfortunately, director Dimitri Logothetis doesn't really know how to shoot the action. Only Tony Jaa himself holds my attention and he's maybe fifth on the call sheet. His fights are more spectacular, last longer without cuts, and that's where Logothetis allows himself more creativity (like the bit where the camera is a fighter's point of view. Otherwise, not all the hits actually hit, and it feels rather limp as a result. The actual protagonist is Alain Moussi, and he can't act his way out of a paper bag. Nick Cage enlivens things up as a mentor figure who's kind of lost it, but he's not a convincing fighter. The story gets points for the sci-fi remix of the well-worn fighting movie genre, and for Jaa's action, but I know what a good martial arts flick looks like and this isn't it.
So I’m at the Baja 1000 a few years ago in order to see my buddy Geppetto ride his Honda NC750 to glory. And at a cantina in Ensenada, this dude walks up to me and says, "Jiu Jitsu." And I say, "Absolutely." From 1982 to 1984, I trained with Kru Ram Muay in his dojo in Sherman Oaks, so I’m always ready to fight. But then this guy explains that Jiu Jitsu is a movie he’s making and he doesn’t actually want to fight me. I’m so disappointed that I walk out, but later I hear the guy is claiming that I agreed to an oral contract to be in the movie. Well, I figure that I don’t know much about Mexican law, and I’ve already spent so much on tax attorneys over the past decade, so it’s best not to battle it out in court. That’s how I ended up being in Jiu Jitsu, which turned out pretty cool. And Geppetto ended up crashing his hog, so to make him feel better I got him a cameo in the movie.
Some of the fight-scenes were Pretty good, and that ladies and gentlemen is the only positive thing about this mess. Grillo and Cage are always great, but this was a low point
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Torgo
Ok, you don't expect a movie called Jiu Jitsu in which a circle of elite ninjas fight against an overpowering alien entity to be serious cinema; but you'd hope to have fun. Or at least excitement.For me, it was neither, alas. Judging from the premise, it could be fantastic, borrowing heavily from Predator and beat'em up videogames, and it starts promising with a look superior to many direct-to-DVD competitors, decent sound design and an atmosphere which reeks of 80s & 90s B-movies. Also, there are fight scenes. A lot. Like, nonstop. I would estimate 1 hour of the 1:40h runtime are some sort of martial arts and other combat. Sometimes the fights are spiced up with a funny idea (like POV camera), most often not, and they pleasantly diverge from other modern action films in that they actually let you SEE what is happening: very few cuts, full view of the brawling activities. Also no funny one-liners or dialogue in between. It's just action after action.
As much as I respect such a pure approach, it didn't do much for me. It's a fine looking, uncompromising, empty slog, and that's almost total failure for a movie which is basically a crossover of Predator and Mortal Kombat.
Oh, haven't I forgot something? Of course: there's Nicolas Cage! He has enough screentime in the course and his role is quite absurd. He doesn't go completely bonkers with it, but there's at least one scene which Cage fans should be willing to see. It includes a hat.
Having seen a fair share of his 2010s trash output, I'd rank this performance in the upper third of all his B-movie appearances. Which isn't saying a lot.
Better go see The Raid 2 or The Night Comes For Us for some modern merciless martial arts assault.
Siskoid
According to Jiu Jitsu, a Predator-like alien came to Earth ages ago and taught our ancestors jiu jitsu (#NotJiuJitsu) so we could give him a fun fight every 6 years. Set in Myanmar and making full use of Tony Jaa's stunt team, it could have been fun. Unfortunately, director Dimitri Logothetis doesn't really know how to shoot the action. Only Tony Jaa himself holds my attention and he's maybe fifth on the call sheet. His fights are more spectacular, last longer without cuts, and that's where Logothetis allows himself more creativity (like the bit where the camera is a fighter's point of view. Otherwise, not all the hits actually hit, and it feels rather limp as a result. The actual protagonist is Alain Moussi, and he can't act his way out of a paper bag. Nick Cage enlivens things up as a mentor figure who's kind of lost it, but he's not a convincing fighter. The story gets points for the sci-fi remix of the well-worn fighting movie genre, and for Jaa's action, but I know what a good martial arts flick looks like and this isn't it.Blocho
Sk1337
Some of the fight-scenes were Pretty good, and that ladies and gentlemen is the only positive thing about this mess. Grillo and Cage are always great, but this was a low point