4.14.2011

Fist of Feature: Cinematic Alphabet of Fury

Over the past week or so, my Twitter and RSS feeds have been pummeled with an assault of cinematic alphabets. I’ve been told it’s the cool new thing, that all the kids (who have film blogs) are doing it. I’m typically not one for lists but I liked the conceptual approach and my skimming led to a healthy influx of films on my watchlists and queues, respectively. Not a bad thing. Unless your queue is maxed out, which mine is.

Because of the fairly limited critical scope utilized here on Fist of B-List, I initially balked at putting an alphabet of my own together. There was no way I’d be able to come up with 26 Western martial-arts b-movies to satisfy the criteria. After running through a practice run, this proved true (FUCK YOU J, Q, V, X, and Z.) So I expanded the pool to include all martial-arts film … and still found the exercise challenging. Wherever possible, I wanted to emphasize movies that have either flown under the radar, strongly demand a watch … or simply happened to be the only film that fit the bill (still looking at you, Q).

A is for AMERICAN KICKBOXER 2


B is for BLOODMOON


C is for CHOCOLATE


D is for DEATH MACHINES


E is for EXECUTIONERS FROM SHAOLIN


F is for FATAL CHASE


G is for THE GUYVER: DARK HERO


H is for HONOR AND GLORY


I is for INVINCIBLE ARMOR


J is for JAKA SEMBUNG (aka THE WARRIOR)


K is for KING OF THE KICKBOXERS


L is for LIVE BY THE FIST


M is for MISSION OF JUSTICE


N is for NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER 2: RAGING THUNDER


O is for OPIUM AND THE KUNG FU MASTER


P is for PRODIGAL SON


Q is for A QUEEN’S RANSOM (aka INTERNATIONAL ASSASSIN)


R is for RAGE


S is for SAKURA KILLERS


T is for THE TAI CHI MASTER


U is for UNDISPUTED 2


V is for THE VICTIM


W is for WHEELS ON MEALS


X is for X-TREME FIGHTER (aka SCI-FIGHTERS)


Y is for THE YOUNG MASTER


Z is for ZOMBIE VS. NINJA


Feel free to leave your own in the comments below.

7 comments:

  1. I'd been seeing a lot of Alphabet lists as well. I really like your list, so I made mine as a companion, as opposed to a competing list.

    A. American Ninja
    B. Back in Action
    C. China O'Brien
    D. Direct Contact
    E. Equalizer 2000
    F. The Foreigner
    G. Gangland
    H. Hard Justice
    I. I Come in Peace
    J. JCVD
    K. Knights
    L. Last Man Standing
    M. Martial Law II
    N. Nemesis
    O. One Man Army
    P. Pistol Whipped
    Q. Queen's Messenger
    R. The Russian Specialist
    S. Showdown in Little Tokyo
    T. Tough and Deadly
    U. Undefeatable
    V. Virtual Assassin
    W. White Tiger
    X. X-treme Fighter (only one I had.)
    Y. Yor, the Hunter from the Future
    Z. Zero Tolerance

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great list man, but don't worry about competing! You should throw that up over on the DtVC side.

    I especially like your inclusion of Zero Tolerance and Undefeatable. The former is one of my favorite PM films. Robert Patrick had a great run of DTV stuff following T2, including Decoy with Peter Weller and Hong Kong 97. All good stuff. I was going to include Undefeatable and waffled on it, though I'm not sure why I ended up including Undisputed 2. I feel that's one most people have seen.

    I think no matter the genre, X is damn near impossible. There are literally like 12 choices.

    I'm typically not one for ranked lists, but conceptual lists like these are a bit more fun to both put together or read through. I've found a lot of good titles that way.

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  3. Any list with both Cynthia Rothrock and JeeJa Yanin is a list I can get behind, if you know what I mean! Awesome list, Karl!

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  4. I applaud you for even going to the effort to do this...especially being smart enough to fit it within the constructs of your blog. Shamefully, I haven't seen any of the movies. But will now make the effort to see as many of these as I can. Great work!

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  5. @Matt-suzaka - HEYOOOOOOOOOOO! Thanks brah. Great trailer post today, BTW.

    @Dusty McGowan - Thank you kindly sir, though it should be said that I can't encourage anyone to watch some of these without the visual aid of at least three fingers of J&B, a case of beer, and a healthy crowd.

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  6. Yup, booze/pizza/friends go particularly well with the movies on your list. Saw some faves and a couple I still have to watch (I've always backed away from Guyver 2, for some reason, even though I really liked the director's follow-up, Drive).

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  7. @EFC I can say this comfortably: it was better than Guyver 1.

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