Sayoc Combat Choreography

Cool collection of fight vignettes by the combat choreographers of The Hunted. This clip presents an eclectic mix of filipino stick fighting, knife work and swashbuckling that is visually dynamic without relying on wirework and special effects.

Heat (1995)

This movie, directed by Michael Mann and starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, features one of the best shootouts in movie history. Andy McNab, a former SAS operator, served as a trainer and technical weapons advisor for the movie, and presumably helped to choreograph the move and shoot tactics, covering fire and magazine reload.

Inspired Bicycles (2009)

Released on YouTube in April, this amazing video shows Danny MacAskill performing unbelievable tricks on a trials bike.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Directed by Ang Lee, this movie is based on a wuxia novel written in the 1940's. Though the movie was overall well-received by western audiences, the fight choreography by the seemingly ubiquitous Yuen Woo-ping was fairly bland, with the exception of this duel between Jen (Zhang Ziyi) and Yu Shu-lien (Michelle Yeoh).

I enjoyed the ferocity of the fighting as well as the variety of weapons employed by Yu Shu-lien against the seemingly indestructible Green Destiny sword.

Star Trek TOS: Episode 18 - Arena (1967)

Quite possibly the worst fight scene ever choreographed, this duel between Captain Kirk and the Gorn captain is so bad it's good! Despite (or perhaps because of) the crude, almost laughable, action in this episode, the slow-moving but tough Gorn captain has become one of Star Trek's most popular aliens.

The lizard suit was designed by Wah Chang, who also created such memorable Star Trek props as the tricorder, the communicator (which is thought to have inspired modern "flip" phones), and tribbles.

Serenity (2005) bar fight choreography

Interesting behind-the-scenes clip of a fight scene from Serenity, the Joss Whedon movie continuation of his cancelled television show Firefly. (Confusing, right?)

The stuntwoman in the scene is Bridgett "Baby Doll" Riley, substituting for Summer Glau in the role of River Tam.

Bruce Lee Ping Pong

In this Nokia commercial, Bruce Lee plays ping pong using his nunchaku while wearing his Game of Death outfit. Also enjoyable are the YouTube comments where people argue about whether the footage is real or fake ...

The Duellists (1977)

This was Ridley Scott's directorial debut, a period piece based on a Joseph Conrad story in which two French officers, Armand D'Hubert (Keith Carradine) and Gabriel Féraud (Harvey Keitel), duel with each other repeatedly over a fifteen-year span during the Napoleonic Wars. The film features more excellent fencing choreography from William Hobbs. In this scene, Lieutenant Féraud duels a civilian, setting into motion a conflict that will last for 14 years ...

300 (2007)

This hyperstylized adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel matches his artwork panel for panel. (Thank goodness they put bikini briefs on the spartans though ...) Awesome visual effects elevate the relatively basic fight choreography into pure eye candy!

The Protector (2005)

Tony Jaa is always exciting to watch, but in this scene I think Lateef Crowder, the capoeirista, steals the show!

Hero (2002)

Nameless (Jet Li) fights Sky (Donnie Yen) in a weiqi courtyard in this scene from one of my favorite movies.

Director Zhang Yimou's cinematography is gorgeous, of course. In this scene, the dark palette and rain are complemented by Tan Dun's sparse score. The instrument being played is an ancient Chinese zither, or qin.

Transformers (2007)

Santa brought my kids Transformers this Christmas. As soon as they opened the package, they immediately popped the disc into the DVD player, even before opening their other presents! Watching it again reminded me of all the things I loved in this movie:

(1) No more blocky and stiff Saturday morning cartoon transformers. Instead we get incredibly detailed (each of Ironhide's guns were reportedly composed of 10,000 parts) cars, trucks, fighter jets, tanks and helicopters that fluidly transform into some of the most dynamic and agile robots ever seen on screen.

(2) Mind-blowing fight scenes that would have been cool even if they didn't involved transforming robots. Kudos to whoever envisioned robots fighting with MMA "ground and pound" techniques or capoeira. Awesome!

(3) The way the size of the robots matches the size of the vehicle they transform in to.

(4) Realistic-sounding military chatter.

(5) Peter Cullen, the original voice of Optimus Prime, reprising his role for this movie. It does not matter how cheesy the line is, Cullen makes Optimus Prime sound cool!

(6) The way Megatron briefly turns himself into a giant gun.

(7) The use of the original "transforming sound" from the cartoon.

(8) Optimus Prime's Voltron-like sword. I would have liked to see more swordfighting, but the few seconds they had were pretty sweet!

(9) The way the transformers run, leap and tumble like free runners.

(10) Megan Fox.

Fast Shooter

This may not be an action movie, but sometimes truth is more amazing than fiction ...

In this clip, renowned competition shooter Jerry Miculek uses a REVOLVER to (1) hit a target EIGHT times in ONE second, (2) hit FOUR targets with TWO bullets each in just over a second, and (3) fire SIX bullets, RELOAD, and fire SIX more bullets in LESS than THREE seconds! Did I mention that he's using a REVOLVER? Unbelievable!

District 13 (2004)

This French action movie, originally entitled Banlieue 13 (and also released as District B13), combined martial arts and free running/parkour, and stars parkour founder David Belle.

This clip features Belle's co-star, Cyril Raffaelli, who was also the movie's fight choreographer, in an extended rough cut of the casino fight scene. The action features Jackie Chan-style acrobatics but, unfortunately, lacks his sense of humor. Still, you can't help but admire the athleticism of Raffaelli and his stunt men - some of those falls look really painful!

Street Soccer

This clip cleverly blends a CGI soccer ball and free running/tricking to promote a video game (FIFA Street 3). The fantastical soccer stunts were obviously inspired by Shaolin Soccer (2001), one of my favorite movies ...