This is How Movies Should Be Made

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Ip Man 2 (2011) is a worthy sequel that continues to bring the same charisma as the first. In a familiar fashion, this movie brings thrilling action while also having an emotional side to it. We also get to see more amazing fight choreography. While I did enjoy this movie a great deal, it felt a lot like the first one. The structure, the directing, the way dramatic events unfold, etc. It didn't feel unique, nor did it feel as enthralling as the first one was. Still, it was undeniably exciting, there was some great acting, the plot was pretty good, and I was never bored. I understand that this movie was "based on true events", but there are a striking number of similarities to the first one when it comes down to the narrative. As a whole, it isn't as good as the first one, but 'Ip Man 2" still brings charm, emotion, and excitement.

...And not only in the life of our protagonist, Grandmaster Ip Man (Donnie Yen), but Ip Man 2 fails to become as good and soulful as the first movie.It's like you'd watch Rocky 2-3-4 in a Hong Kong setting. The plot is pretty much the same. Ip Man and his family moved to HK. They are poor, are expecting their second child and Master Ip struggles to set his feet here as a renowned martial arts master. When he finally finds some students, he quickly finds himself in a hostile environment, as rival masters want him to pay fee and join their club to become an 'official' master. But after dealing with this situation, there comes the third act, and it's bad foreigners disrespecting and abusing Chinese all over again.---SOME SPOILERS FROM NOW ON---I had to ask myself while watching this the first time ever: am I watching Rocky 2-3-4 or is this Ip Man 2? The similarity is exceptional here: the financial struggles, the pregnant wife, the adversary (Sammo Hung) who proves to be an equal of Ip, but later they became friends and they respect each-other, the unbeatable foreign fighter who hates this culture and beats said friend, the revenge match under heavy circumstances, the final speech given by Ip Man with the used to be hostile British accepting and praising him after-wards. The list might be longer, but these are the cornerstones of this movie's story.---SPOILERS END---And don't get me wrong, I like Rocky 2-4, I liked this one as well. Even when it was increasingly difficult to take this seriously. My problem with the movie is different though. You see, while Ip Man had amazing fight scenes, it also had a heart, a great atmosphere and a message. It was nice to see how Ip stands against the Japanese, defends his culture while being so humble and elegant. Actually, the story is the same here but without the elegance. Much of the fight scenes are over the top (I know, it's what you expect when watching a kung-fu movie, but it's at least one level over the first movie), and they follow each other without much logic. The only reason here is to have a good fight. "You claim to be a master? Prove it. Beat me" - says the student. "You claim to be a master? Prove it. Avoid falling" - says the guild of masters. "You claim that Chinese kung-fu is superior to boxing? Beat me." - says the British champ. Everyone wants to fight here. And this sadly shadows the soul of the movie and also Donnie Yen's great performance (example: Ip vs 10 Japs was believable under those circumstances. It was a serious and sad scene, powerful. Ip vs 20 students trying to kill him at the fish market is not.) Ip Man 2 is not a bad movie, and is highly recommended to anyone who loves martial arts movies! But if you only enjoyed the first film because of it's atmosphere and soul (while tolerating the action), you may want to avoid this one.

While watching this movie I barely kept myself from calling the paramedics and telling them I need an ambulance NOW - I am in mortal danger of dying from a boredom stroke in the central cortex.Where to begin... The movie looks good as far as camera-work goes, choreography is decent, but so much for the little that is good about this "movie".The current review that is on the film's main page speaks of "a good ol' fashioned moral tale and lots of exceptional fight sequences that will leave you breathless." Let me decrypt this for you: "moral tale" means "stereotypical corrupt western capitalist corrupting poor Chinese" and "people rising up against capitalist injustice" and "underdog kung- fu teacher becoming an everyday hero" and "poor people suffering under this and that". Yes, believe me, all that is contained in this cryptic pair of words. Or - to put it even more clearly - it is a classic genre of commie Chinese propaganda with the usual dash of nationalism. The "exceptional fight sequences" is not cryptic however, it is a lie. This movie is no better or worse than your average kung-fu movie. It is just that - tasteless, standard issue fighting flick that has nothing to show for. Not saying the fighting is bad, but it is just so flat and generic that watching this movie is like drinking tap water - you know it is tasteless, and you should thus not expect anything from it. The plot is also just as predictable - you got your basic underdog hero, the fight start up gradually, taking on bigger and bigger enemies, and eventually climax in the "good vs evil" fight at the end. Add to that the above mentioned "twists" and some usual afternoon soap drama and a bit of tearjerking, and that's it. There's nothing that is really a buzzkill about this movie, but that's only because these is no buzz to be killed. If there's anything that's putting nails in the coffin of Chinese cinematography then it's useless nonsense like this movie. I'd rather watch a perfectly honest North Korean propaganda film praising the Fat Leader instead of watching more of the modern trash that China produces, at least North Korean movies are so bad they are of bottom-of-the-barrel-bad category that they become fun again, like Bad Taste.For real, good old-school kung-fu movies that do not try to shove down your throat the age old Chinese communist propaganda, or that don't bore you to death with completely stupid and stock plot, better watch some of Jackie Chan's work from the early 80's to mid 90's.

I turned on the TV a few nights ago to see if any good films were on as it was late and I was bored. I turn to Ip Man 2 which after first thinking it was a film based on a video game character, I learn is supposed to be a biopic.The first half of this film was a standard martial arts film with lots of Chinese men fighting each other. I think the main character Pac-Man - sorry, Ip Man was apparently not respected because of his style but gains respect from masters of other styles after he beats them. The fight scenes are pretty ridiculous and over-choreographed; wires were obviously used. The first half was therefore acceptable standard fare for Hong Kong films.Unfortunately, the second half is where it gets worse. All the way through it, I was asking myself "what on Earth is happening?" and "how is this even possible?" There is no way any of this could be real, it's just too stupid.Firstly, all the white people are complete caricatures of colonial stereotypes. Every white person hates Chinese people and mercilessly beats them, subdues them and oppresses them. There were three main white characters: firstly, a police chief who said his lines so woodenly and with so little emotion that he couldn't possibly be an actor: he just can't be; secondly a police inspector who has so little respect for the local population that I fail to see how his superiors thought employing him was a good idea: he was bound to cause an incident sooner or later; and thirdly, a British boxer who for some reason hates everything Chinese with a passion: he also couldn't act.Somehow, and I kept asking myself how the plot turned this way, the police inspector organises a boxing competition by importing a British boxer named "Twister" (we never actually hear his real name; perhaps he's like Cher and has only one name). The boxer is so one-dimensional he makes Dr. Evil look deep. Anyway, the boxing tournament with only one boxer (!) was supposed to follow a demonstration of Chinese martial arts. The boxer can't contain his contempt and anger and no one seems to stop him when he starts beating up every single martial artist in the ring single handedly. Following this, a middle-aged martial arts master called Well-Hung or something feels disrespected and demands an apology and surprise surprise the boxer will only give it to him if he loses in a match to Well-Hung.By this time, I thought I was watching a comical, ironic parody. The boxer wears his gloves and easily defeats the martial arts master, Well-Hung, and kills him in the ring. Why on Earth would this happen? The boxer is wearing gloves, and only uses his fists while the martial artist uses bear knuckles and kicks! It's ludicrous! After Well-Hung dies I realised this film is quickly turning into a blatant rip off of Rocky IV except not as good. Pac-Man looks on while the master is dying, he refuses to throw in the towel because Well-Hung wants to defend his honour even at the cost of his own life and then Pac-Man decides to fight the boxer in the ring to get revenge. There's even a small training montage with Pac-Man's wife and son looking on! How can people take this Rocky IV parody seriously?! The pre-fight talk where Pac-Man challenges the boxer has some sort of speech by the boxer who says that he will fight someone for as long as a joss stick burns. He then laughs about how stupid joss sticks are and Pac-Man gets offended. Needless to say, we never hear about joss sticks again.So we get to the fight and we KNOW what's going to happen and who'll win don't we? Firstly, problems with the fight: Pac-Man seems to be able to defeat numerous skilled martial artists and masters sometimes simultaneously as seen in the first film and in this yet he has difficulty with ONE boxer who only punches AND is wearing gloves; believable? As if. After Pac-Man kicks the boxer and performs low blows, the judges change the rules so that he can't kick. Except, he still kicks afterwards, oh and he does rabbit punches, elbowing, choking, eye gouging, arm twisting and other moves about which no one complains all with no gloves on. Why did the judges only think of the rules after the fight starts? They would KNOW Pac-Man would want to do all these moves!The boxer knocked down Pac-Man twice and was beating him mercilessly and the referee didn't stop the fight and one time he was knocked down, the count went to nine and he wasn't up on ten yet was allowed to continue! What sort of boxing match is this? It's completely unbelievable! After getting knocked down again and remembering his fallen hero, Well-Hung, Pac-Man decides to get up again and uses various moves the boxer isn't allowed to do and gets him down and starts punching his face repeatedly all while the referee does nothing. Why does the referee allow Pac-Man time to get up when the boxer knocks him down but allows Pac-Man to punch the boxer repeatedly in the face after he's been knocked down? Oh, but the boxer's unfair too because he got ONE (count it, ONE) punch in after the bell went. All while this was going on, I was asking "what the hell is happening here?" The Rocky IV rip off continues afterwards too. Pac-Man gives a speech about how we should all get along with the boxer listening from the corner and the evil white men clapping along in the audience having changed their minds and gained respect for the foreign underdog.Awful, awful rubbish. The acting, the concept, the plot, the fight scenes and the clichés make this film one of the worst I've seen.