Customer Reviews

Born to Defense - Jet Li Collection

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Jet Li is by a long way the best MA filmstar around, i would usually recomend anything by him but this is a BAD film! DON'T BUY IT! SPEND YOUR MONEY ON ONE OF HIS OTHER BRILLIANT FILMS.I bought this after seeing "once upon a time in china"! Go buy that instead or just about any of his other films after 1990!

"Born to Defense" is the first-- and only-- film directed by Jet Li. Personally, I consider it a worthy film, even though it is not among his finest. Jet portrays a Waorld WarII vet who, upon returning to China with his army buddies, finds that the American and British troops are receiving the heroes' welcome, while the Chinese who fought alongside them are neglected. This intolerable state of affairs comes to a head when some thuggish US Navy members begin assaulting Jet and some of his friends. Naturally, this film can only end with Jet ripping these guys to pieces! Interestingly, Jet displays a talent for boxing, something I've seen in none of his films before nor since "BTD." There are some pretty good action scenes if you can handle the atrocious acting by just about everyone in the film, and the boxing scene that evovles into a full-blown bar brawl is quite good. This DVD has one of the most horrible transfers I've ever seen; it appears to have been hanging around in someone's bathroom for the past fifteen years. The four-star rating is just for the film itself. "Born to Defense" may not please the casual fan, but Jet's fans shouldn't miss it.

As far as Jet Li movies go this one has a decent story with situations that have you grinding your teeth rooting for Jet to take revenge on the U.S. Navy (World Video printed "U.S. Army" on the box, yet the subtitles say "navy" and they are wearing Navy uniforms) scum stirring up trouble. The condition of this World Video edition is horribly pathetic though! The subtitles are inaccurate and often misspelled and most fight scenes are lost in darkness. I wish there was a cleaner copy than this one with better subtitles.

Jet Li is an incredible martial artist, not director. This movie shows that truism clearly. The first action sequence is decent enough with Jet scrambling to stay out of the way of tanks and other war time materials, but after that no fight scene is worth the time. Badly shot and poorly lit film, unfortunately. ...

I know a lot of others think this movie stinks b/c it has a horrible story line and it's a dark movie and there is not fantasy to it... but what I LOVE about it is that they do some pretty funky fighting. Jet Li actually does some serious funky fighting in this movie. There is a lot of rage, anger, and bitterness that comes out of this movie. I personally like the last fight scene. It's got a lot of boxing/kick boxing style fighting in it from the Navy guys and Jet Li doesn't get to fly around and do much of his 'wire works'(using wires to fly around on). But the best thing about this movie is that they don't make him look like an invincible guy(like they usually do)... and he actually get's beat up pretty bad.I like it myself though, It's not a bad movie. You should buy it if you are a Jet Li fan.

In post-WWII China returning Chinese soldiers are met by overbearing American G.I.'s. One of the local soldiers (Jet Li) runs into trouble with an American captain. Fans of Jet Li's 'Once Upon a Time in China'and 'Fong Sai Yuk' series should be aware that this movie contains no "wire fu". Fights between Li and Kurt Roland Pettersson (European Boxing Champion) and Paulo H.P. Tocha (kick boxing Champion), which would have been entertaining are unfortunately marred by poor lighting and become hard to follow. I would have liked to see Li's wushu pitted against conventional boxing and kick boxing but the scenes are so dark that the images become blurs. New fans of Jet Li's recent movies and the fight scenes in 'The Matrix' should try the above 2 series as well as 'Shaolin Temple'and Donnie Yan's 'Iron Monkey'.

I saw this on TNN, and NOW I have heard the worst dubbing job ever. The storyline isn't very bad, but everything else sucks in this movie. It sucks that it was Jet Li himself that put him in this position. That being said, he is VERY young in this movie, and can't act. It's surprising he is as good as he is in the Once Upon a Time in China series, because he showed no promise here. The fight scenes are almost watching in this, but highly NOT recommended by me.

I'm a big Jet Li fan and this was by far the worst movie he's put out

In post-WWII China returning Chinese soldiers are met by overbearing American G.I.'s. One of the local soldiers (Jet Li) runs into trouble with an American captain. Fans of Jet Li's 'Once Upon a Time in China'and 'Fong Sai Yuk' series should be aware that this movie contains no "wire fu". Fights between Li and Kurt Roland Pettersson (European Boxing Champion) and Paulo H.P. Tocha (kick boxing Champion), which would have been entertaining are unfortunately marred by poor lighting and become hard to follow. I would have liked to see Li's wushu pitted against conventional boxing and kick boxing but the scenes are so dark that the images become blurs. New fans of Jet Li's recent movies and the fight scenes in 'The Matrix' should try the above 2 series as well as 'Shaolin Temple'and Donnie Yan's 'Iron Monkey'.

Jet Li does a good job of directing this film. It's a good tale of revenge and all out hardcore fighting. Jet does a reely good job of acting in this film, the Americans don't do that good. Jet doesn't do that much "real" boxing since he uses his legs sumtimes in the ring. Anywayz I reely like this film a lot and the fightings reely good all out hardcore blood shed fighting. At the end Jet and the Tall American commander go all out using ther legs and chains, hammers, huge screws and etc. Good stuff. You''l be cheering jet on as he beats down the ones who black mailed him and killed his Uncle and neice.