The Last Kung Fu Monk (2010)

Li is a Shaolin Monk who comes to the States to care for his nephew after his brother and sister-in-law are killed in a car accident. A noble act I grant you. The story goes off-enter from the moment Li arrives in the states. A former student, Dave, offers to open a school with Li. a great idea, as it would be income to support Li's nephew, Michael. However, after seeing how pathetically Dave fights off predators who assault Mei, a waitress at a local restaurant, I'd have serious second and third thoughts about the deal. Nonetheless, Li still opens the school. Sarah, Michael's CSW, at first has no use for Li. She even calls him pathetic when discussing him with her boss. It isn't until Li stops thieves who are cutting through their yard, the Sarah suddenly sees his value. Sarah develops serious Hero worship. She sees Mei as competition for Li's affections, though Li as a Monk, is oblivious to both women. When it comes to light that Dave got the school funding from the Russian Mob, all hell breaks loose. Li has to work a Fight Club in order to save Mei and regain control of his school. The end fights are good. It is slow at times but the action more than makes up for it.

Spoiler: there's nothing beyond the title to indicate the protagonist is anywhere near being the last Shaolin Kung-Fu monk. There is no explanation for this just as there is hardly any apparent motivation for anything anyone in this movie does. The characters who are supposed to be likable are. There are some OK (and IMHO, only OK) fight sequences.As some have said, the acting is not very impressive-but considering the sophomoric screenplay it would be hard for the best actors to do anything with their lines.If you told me this movie was the first written and directed by an aspiring 13-year-old filmmaker, I'd believe it.

When I purchased this 2010 Kung Fu action movie from Amazon, I had no idea what it was, nor did I know anyone on the cast list. But being a Kung Fu movie was more than enough to catch my interest. And the fact that it was about maybe £2 or £3 with shipping, then it wasn't a massive loss if the movie was not a great one.And now I have managed to finally get around to watch it, and I can in all honesty say that this movie was nowhere near as good or entertaining as I had hoped for. Sure, I didn't have much expectations to begin with, but this movie still managed to disappoint. And why is that? Well, because of the storyline and the lack of proper acting talent throughout the movie.The action in "Last Kung Fu Monk" was quite good, and there was a lot of it. And it should be said that Peng Zhang Li does have some impressive martial arts skills and manages to deliver a nice display of his talent. However, his martial arts could only carry the movie so far, because his acting was downright wooden and rigid.I managed to get somewhere near 45 minutes into the movie before I had to give up out of sheer boredom. The lack of proper acting performances were really wearing and tearing at me, and it was ultimately this which made me give up on the movie. The fighting was good, but it was hardly nowhere near enough to keep the movie afloat.If you enjoy movies where the main character is forced into fighting in underground fighting rings, then there far better movies available. "Last Kung Fu Monk" doesn't really offer anything which haven't been seen in countless other martial arts movies in the past.I am rating "Last Kung Fu Monk" a mere three out of ten stars rating solely for the martial arts in the movie.

This is a low budget Kung Fu flick...but it's really not that bad - I've seen much worse! This movie had the typical "good guy out to avenge his family and help others along the way" kind of story...not as good as others, better than some. Some of the acting was OK...others were pretty bad and some hilarious! The story wasn't going to win any awards, but was good enough to keep me interested. The punch/kick sound effects were reminiscent of the arcade game "Mortal Kombat" and bugged me a little...but the choreography and fight scenes were done very well and sated my ninja bone. Which brings me to one thing that really bugged me...the man who wrote, directed, choreographed, and starred in this movie (Peng Li) doesn't even get top billing or proper credit! I had to search for him and his name on this page! Really? Give the guy a break!