just saw Mr. Seagal's new movie trailer

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[PhiGammaDawg]

how the heck did he throw that guy so far?

PS does anyone know what kind of throw that was?

[shihonage]

Is this trailer downloadable somewhere ?

[diesel]

Wire work?

;)

[Hogan]

Is this trailer downloadable somewhere ?
Here is the website:

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/halfpastdead/

[aikido_fudoshin]

You mean the one where the guy flips twice in the air. Kind of looked like a massive kotegaeshi digitally enhanced. Pretty cool throw. Pretty funny aswell. :D

[Vincentharris]

Isn't the "bad guy" Morris Chestnut the same guy that played the porter in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory ?

[Hogan]

Isn't the "bad guy" Morris Chestnut the same guy that played the porter in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory ?
Yep. And I have seen two reviews - both consider the movie to be baaaad.

[Josh Mason]

Wire work. I think that it's corny personally. Kotegaeshi looks devestating enough. I think that scene devalues Kotegaeshi and Aikido.

I guess Kotegaeshi isn't cool enough for Hollywood....

[Edward]

Come on guys, it's just a movie....

[Andy]

It's funny how worked up people can be about a movie. It's not like there was a big neon sign before the scene that said "The following throw is entirely realistic and representative of the Japanese martial art of aikido." As they say, it's movie-do, not aikido.

[Josh Mason]

Isn't the throw itself powerful enough though? I think so. You gotta admit, the scene is pretty laughable. oh well.... I really don't like Seagal anyway.

[Vincentharris]

I like Seagal's movies but I often wonder how the real veterans of Aikido look at him. I think Kotegaeshi is good enough without all the flare and fireworks but this is Hollywood we're talking aobut, that's the important thing to remember. On another note, Ja Rule was on Howard Stern the other morning and said that there really wasn't that much fighting in this movie.

God Bless.

[diesel]

I like Seagal's movies but I often wonder how the real veterans of Aikido look at him. I think Kotegaeshi is good enough without all the flare and fireworks but this is Hollywood we're talking aobut, that's the important thing to remember. On another note, Ja Rule was on Howard Stern the other morning and said that there really wasn't that much fighting in this movie.

God Bless.
I saw a screening of it.. The movie is action packed.. non stop. Like a video game almost.. the acting isn't great, but who would expect it to be? There was very little aikido.. the chick that is second in command for the bad guys is really freaking hot though :D

Cheers,

Eric

[bob_stra]

Has there ever been a decent Hollywood portrayal of aikido? The closest I can think of was the Bourne Identity (and that wasn't aikido anyway).

Maybe matrix 2 ??

[Edward]

Has there ever been a decent Hollywood portrayal of aikido? The closest I can think of was the Bourne Identity (and that wasn't aikido anyway).

Maybe matrix 2 ??
I don't recall having heard or read the word aikido in any of the mentioned movies. Even in Seagal's movies, there was only once and it never happened again. What do you mean by decent portrayal of aikido, then?

[gasman]

didnt really see that throw too well in the preview.

Seagal has done a few good action flicks and a whole bunch of bad ones too IMO. His fighting scenes are always good though.

as for aikido in films: forget hollywood. I got the shivers when Keanu Reeves mumbled "ahh know kongh foo" in matrix.

But have any of you seen "fists of legend" (remake of "fists of fury") starring Jet Lee? Some pretty good aikido/chin na moves in the opening fight scene there.

[Alphete]

The only Seagal movies I really enjoyed that protrayed "practical" aikido (I mean, the guy applying Aikido techniques to the bad guys, and nothing but that) were OUf for Justice and Nico...Maybe the other one, with the Jamaican guys was cool too. But after that, more and more weapons and explosions, and less fighting skills. It's really as you all said, it's MOVIE-DO. I concurr that this type of scenes play against Aikido, but on the other hand they never bother to note that those techniques are from Aikido either.

What a pitty..

Anyway, it'd be not profitable for Hollywood to make an Aikido movie...

[ajbarron]

Bourne Identity...That's the closest I've ever seen. Good on DVD, watched it a few times and even showed it to my wife as a reasonable "movie" version of aikido. Now if I could only get her out to a practice!!!!

[Amendes]

Here comes a bunch of new students.

This is what happens each time a new Steven Seagal movie comes out. (Or That TLC Program)

If I had a dollar for everytime some said to me some thing like. "Wow you take aikido, thats what Steven Seagal takes isnt it?" And usually reply with "Steven Who?" And they will say "You know the guy who can walk around and brake someones neck without even straining himself." And I say "Oh sounds like an interesting charactor, but I've never herd of him."

Before you flame me keep reading,

With all do respect Steven Seagal is a good actor and im sure hes a good aikidoka but what you see in the movies is not aikido, both technique wise and spiritualy.

Also I like his movies, but someone should put a disclaimer in there like "The following movie is made useing the art of Movie-do and may cause you to go to a dojo and try aikido and end up sadly disapointed when you find out its not about being able to snap peoples bones with the greatest of ease."

[Erik]

I decided to take a look at Rotten Tomatoes and see what they had to say on the movie. I've never seen a movie score a 0 on the meter before. That's actually quite an accomplishment in it's way. Usually someone, somewhere writes something positive but I guess this film has no redeeming qualities.

Rotten Tomatoes Page on Half Past Dead (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/HalfPastDead-1118293/)

[Jeffrey A. Fong]

Yes, they're just movies, and yes, Seagal-san's irmi is spectacular. The narcissism that threads through his movies, blended with his chronic distemper make for a generally unpleasant cinematic (or for that matter, aiki) experience. The previously mentioned Fist of Legend (Jet Li), by comparison is better movie-do.

[shihonage]

Does anyone know what kind of throw that was?
KokyuKotegaeshiNage.

[Bronson]

Has there ever been a decent Hollywood portrayal of aikido? Subject:

My sensei is on the aiki-extensions mail list and he sent me this. Unfortunately it doesn't name the author to give them credit, it may be Mr. Dwight Sora but I'm unsure. It isn't a Hollywood movie, it's from Japan but it's the best I got :D

Bronson

[AE-L] AIKI: the film



This is a film we had hoped to screen at the 4th Aiki Extensions conference, but it was not available in time. Perhaps at the 5th. Meanwhile, thanks to Dwight Sora, this info has come in, and you all ought to know about it. D

source: London Film Festival, from http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=13796

AIKI

A kind of higher brow Japanese version of the Karate Kid, only really great, it tells the story of Taichi, an up and coming boxer of talent who is paralysed when hit by a car, riding home after a successful fight. He sinks into depression and becomes suicidal, pushing his girlfriend, family and friends away from him, drowning his sorrows in drink. He becomes arrogant, angry and deeply unpleasant to everyone around him, but gradually finds new friends and starts to pull himself up and back into society. It is when he discovers the martial art of Aiki-Jujutsu, and the ability of its practitioners to flip a person over with a simple flick of their wrist that is the turning point. He meets his Mr Miagi in Ryo Ishibaishi (looking a lot better than he did at the end of Audition) who figures Taichi's disability doesn't have to matter, Aiki can be practised sat in a wheelchair.

What's so great about the movie is the feeling of triumph, of Taichi dragging himself up from being on the edge of suicide to feeling like he's 'standing tall' at the end of the movie. His character does not travel on so much an arc as a cardiogram as everytime he seems to be pulling himself together, he takes a knock backwards, and it is testament to director Daisuke Tengan's control of the tone of the film, which switches from depressive and bleak to downright hilarious, that it is thoroughly engaging throughout.

Haruhiko Kato as Taichi turns in a sterling performance and pulls at the heartstrings in all the right places, without ever becoming overly sentimental.

Ryo Ishibaishi once again proves himself one of Japan's finest working actors and special mention needs to go to whoever (amazing how much we rely on the IMDB nowadays) played the karate master who is unconvinced by the deceptively simple Aiki and challenges the wheelchair bound Taichi to a bit of a fight at the end. He comes off as Kazuya Mishima on Red Bull and Haribo and is absolutely marvelous. It's Yoda and Count Dooku all over again and one hell of an uplifting ending, not out of cloying sentimentality but because we are allowed to realise just how far Taichi has come.

I want the DVD, and I can't give more praise than that.

[batemanb]

You can see Seagal's greatest works on line here :D

Steven Seagal Movies (http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/af/content/seagal2_burger_down?mature=accept)

Apologies if you have seen them before.

[willy_lee]

Bourne Identity...That's the closest I've ever seen. Good on DVD, watched it a few times and even showed it to my wife as a reasonable "movie" version of aikido. Now if I could only get her out to a practice!!!!
From what I heard on various martial-arts lists/fora around the time the Bourne Identity came out, the main martial art used in that movie was kali (Filipino martial art), not aikido.

I haven't actually seen it though, so I could be very, very wrong.

On another note, John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars was a really really bad movie. I saw it for free and still felt cheated. But it did have some aikido in it. Lots of tenkans and a couple quite clear nikkyo's.

=wl

[bob_stra]

From what I heard on various martial-arts lists/fora around the time the Bourne Identity came out, the main martial art used in that movie was kali (Filipino martial art), not aikido.
That true, Damon claim mostly training kali and boxing for his role.

But I defy you not to squeal like a little girl when you see the premiere fight scene (guy jumps out of window scene). It *tastes* like aikido IMO, but I'm new here so... ;)

[MikeE]

Kids, Kids please. Don't make me stop the car and turn around.

Rating one of Seagal Sensei's movies for Aikido content is like a professional football player taking a "serious" look at The Replacements.

I suggest we look at it from the point that at least people who have never seen aikido may follow up on Seagal Sensei and check out a school.

(Lord knows I started Aikido because of Above the Law)

In Aiki,

[Jeff Tibbetts]

I actually work as a manager in a movie theatre and I watched Half Past to fill a break during work© I was looking for Aikido the whole time and saw pretty much nothing© There were even a couple parts where Mr© Seagal could have done a great front roll after an explosion and he didn't© The only reason I think this sucks is that all the people I work with know I take Aikido, and they now know that Seagal does, too, so they think that I can do all the crap that he does in the movie© It's very tiresome to explain to everyone that I not only have no intention of punching people in the face, but I don't think I could do it well anyway! Yeah, I watch a lot of movies and I can be fairly forgiving, but this one is a definate downer, I guess I thought the fights could save it, but what was there was weak so there's not much left to enjoy©