Kung Fu is Life

My favorite kung fu movie of all-time!

I treasure a lot of things from my youth.  I only needed a few things to make me happy: football, comic books, and kung fu movies.

What was so enjoyable about kung fu movies was the fact that there was never a complicated plot.  In fact, 90% of those movies from the 70's and 80's had the same plot: student cherishes master, master gets killed by his rival, student goes into the woods and trains until he's good enough to avenge his master's death.

Simple, right?  Mix that simple plot in with mind-numbing action for two hours and it's a young boy's paradise!  I spent my Saturday afternoon's from noon to 2 PM watching "Blackbelt Theater."  A different martial arts movie every week.

Flash forward to 2013 and as a 41 year old man, I haven't grown out of my love for kung fu flicks.  I can appreciate Jason Statham movies, but modern day martial arts movies are completely different from old school kung fu movies.  Most of the kung fu movies that I enjoyed took place in some ancient time in Chinese history.  No guns, cars, or anything like that.  Primitive weapons like blow guns, spears, swords, and other things that encouraged a lot of hand-to-hand fighting.

However, one of the most intriguing parts of these old movies were the supernatural effect!  Seeing these people do things like leaping 20 feet in the air or catching arrows being shot at them is what attracts most kids.  It gives the characters super hero elements that young kids like me could enjoy.  In fact, I was probably close to six years old before I was smart enough to realize that all Asian people didn't have some sort of kung fu ability.  I thought that it was taught in schools over there like the alphabets were taught here.

Needless to say that I was disappointed when I got to 2nd grade and met my first Asian friend.  He couldn't even break through when we played "Red Rover" at school.  I guess he should have spent his Saturday afternoons watching "Blackbelt Theater."

They don't make too many kung fu movies any more.  Recently, I got to enjoy "The Man With The Iron Fists" starring RZA, Russell Crowe, and Lucy Liu.  It was a pretty good movie which took place before modern times.  Mix in the fact that the RZA pretty much did the entire soundtrack for the movie and you have a perfect combination for me: Wu Tang Clan and kung fu.

"Out of my way!  It's a tax free weekend at the mall!"

"Q... Thank, Q..."

I'm an avid television watcher. When I was a kid, I had favorite characters that I enjoyed watching whenever I got the opportunity. All kids are impressionable and I wanted to be some sort of super hero or good guy when I grew up. Because of that, I absolutely enjoyed movies where these guys would either get the girl, kill the bad guy or both. However, although I could appreciate the efforts of many fine actors who has graced the big screen, there was only one who I thought stood alone when it came down to best action character of all-time....

Clint Eastwood's character as "The Man With No Name" in the "A Fistful of Dollars" trilogy was one of my favorites while growing up, but can't compare to my #1.

Sylvester Stallone's character as "John Rambo" from the "Rambo" series was a lot of fun to watch, but still can't compare to my #1.

Can you name them all?  Most won't know the 2nd from the left.

Bond... James Bond. (Bond fanfare plays) Six people have played Bond in all of these movies dating back 50 years ago today to 1962's "Dr. No." I've seen all of these movies multiple times, but to be honest, I always feel the need to watch them again whenever a marathon is available for me to do so.

This character was the ultimate idol for a male kid. He had the clothes, cars, gadgets, fighting skills and the women. Did I mention that he had the women? Bond Girls, as they're so affectionately called, had not only a prominent role in these movies, but some of the most interesting names as well:

Dr. Holly Goodhead
Plenty O'Toole
Honey Ryder
Strawberry Fields
And every man's favorite, Pussy Galore.

Yeah, you read that correctly. Click the link if you don't believe me. At one time, an actress' career was elevated to an entirely new level once she became a Bond girl. Kim Basinger and Teri Hatcher's careers both soared after appearing in Bond movies. Being a Bond girl isn't that big of a deal these days since the younger generation doesn't embrace the Bond movies as I once did. I can't necessarily blame them too much given the number of new action heroes on the silver screen for them to idolize. They could feel the same way about "The Bourne Identity" or "The Transporter" series as I once did as a kid about the Bond movies.

Every now and then, Bond movies will mix in flashbacks from the past. (1962 meets 2002)

Another thing that Bond movies had was music. The coolest theme song ever, in my opinion. The most dramatic and recognizable fanfare whenever he had a "Bond moment" and did something super-cool. To top it off, the theme songs for his movies are usually pretty memorable. "Nobody Does It Better" by Carly Simon, "A View to a Kill" performed by Duran Duran and "Live & Let Die" by Paul McCartney.  Now Adele is in the mix for the newest movie "Skyfall."

And for those of you who are also Bond fans, I know you would probably ask my opinion on which actors played Bond the best:

1. Sean Connery - the total package
2. Roger Moore - very humorous, but not quite as smooth as Connery
3. Pierce Brosnan - very smooth, but not quite as humorous as Connery

Worst one? Timothy Dalton by a landslide! I would have rather watched Seth Rogan play Bond than Dalton.  'Nuff said.

My favorite character of all-time has been around for what will be 23 movies when the next installment, "Skyfall," comes out. I'm hoping that this movie will be successful and springboard the character of James Bond for another 50 years. How awesome is it that "Skyfall" will be released the weekend of my birthday?

Who is your favorite recurring movie character of all-time?