The Museum Of Modern Thinking

Ok, it looks like a scene-for-scene remake of the Karate Kid - which it is. But, that’s not a bad thing… Starring Jackie Chan (praised be his name) and Jaden Smith (Will Smith’s nipper), it opens soon and frankly, doesn’t look half bad -I’ll take my son to watch it, I reckon. Nice to see some traditional Kung Fu training and philosophy in there as well.

H/T to The Movie Blog

Frankly, I don’t know how this guy is still alive - an 1,100lbs kick to the nuts? Here comes the science:

Seriously impressive ‘naddage… Is that even a word?

Well worth a watch, here’s Discovery’s “Stunt Stars” feature on the upcoming Tekken film, choreographed by Cyril Rafaelli, and starring, oooh, tons of real martial artists - no offence, Holly Valance :p

The vids are shown below using YouTube’s clever playlist, er, player - there are five in total, enjoy!

I’ve not even seen Ong Bak 2 yet (is it even out over here?), but apparently 3 wrapped sometime ago and will be out early this year - elbows!

Having playing Tekken (1) after being lured away from Mortal Kombat, I’ve been a big fan of the game and the current incarnation (Tekken 6) is awaiting my attention when I have some time. After a slew of so-so to crap martial arts game adaptations, the Tekken movie looks like it might be quite good - here’s the trailer:

The story focuses on Jin Kazama, out to destroy the head of the Tekken Zaibatsu, Heihachi Mishima, to avenge the death of his mother. Pretty much the entire roster is there: Eddy, Bryan Fury (yay!), Heihachi, Nina, Anna, Raven (not so yay), etc. The fight choreography has been done by an amazing martial artist / stuntman / loon called Cyril Rafaelli, who you may recal from the film District 13, where he starred alongside David Belle.

So long as they shoot the fight scenes well, it should turn out rather well. I found the trailer to cut away a bit too much, but it is a general trailer, not R / 18. The cast includes Jon Foo as Jin Kazama and Lateef Crowder as Edy Gordo, both of whom were in Tony Jaa’s excellent Warrior King - Lateef Crowder had the better fight with Tony Jaa in it, but it looks like Jon Foo will shine a bit more in this film. Incidentally, look out for Lateef Crowder in Undisputed 3 soon, with the always-awesome Scott Adkins.

The rest of the cast is rounded out very well: British martial arts star Gary Daniels looks spot-on as Bryan Fury, Luke Goss (very good in Blade 2) as Steve Fox, MMA star Cung Le as Marshall “cheap” Law, and I’ve pleased to see everyone’s favourite robo-ninja-cyborg-thing Yoshimitsu in there as well, played by Gary Ray Stearns. I’ve only mentioned a few of the cast, so head on over to the Tekken page on IMDB to read up.

Release date is March 5th, 2010 in the UK, but no theatrica release unfortunately - I wonder if it’s in Blu-Ray?

This, courtesy of YouTuber pAiNfUl666d3ath, is an amazing showcase of what dedicated people can do - I was seriously agog at this chap:

I mean, egad!

Juts found this Youtube compilation in my favourites, worth sharing

Some classic films in there, and some I’ve not seen - bit light on the Jet Li, unfortunately…

Not so much as a sequel, as a Tony Jaa’s great-great-great-etc.-grandfather’s life story:

Yes, it’s in French, but come on - you really don’t need to speak French to watch Tony Jaa wrestle a crocodile and shin people in the head several times

Due to the fact that it’s a bit difficult to get out for a run as a family, my wife had a temporary mental aberration and bought a treadmill. It’s a Bowflex Series 3, which is good enough for a gym - it’s no Life Fitness or Tunturi, but it’s pretty good.

Anyhoo, after a few runs on it (well, my version of running [jogging]), I’ve started doing tabata or interval training on it. You pick a period of time, e.g. 30 seconds / a minute, and then walk for that period of time, then jog, then run, then back to walking, etc. Basically, you cycle through walk / jog / run for the period of time, repeating as many times as you want.

It gets your heart rate up quicker, and gets you used to short bursts of activity (e.g. martial arts), but with the added benefit of improving your overall stamina. I’m feeling the difference already, but I’ll still be doing long jogs as well.

So, give it a go! There’s some more information over on Wikipedia; it would appear I’m using the fartlek (snigger) approach to interval training.

Here’s an entertaining video of a Muay Thai fighter kicking an ash, then maple baseball bat, both of which require over 750lbs of force to break:

It’s a bit of a long watch at almost ten minutes, but worth it. Makes you realise that conditioning is as important as correct technique - the guy’s shins have been toughened over years of striking hard objects (mostly other people’s shins), and have hardened as a result. I’m now off to bash my shins with a glass bottle, haven’t done that for a while