Circle of Iron

David Carradine is the fucking MAN! I'm not really all that familiar with the career of David Carradine really, I mean his later stuff, stuff that came out in my lifetime I've seen. Kung Fu the Legend Continues, Kill Bill Dinocroc Vs SuperGator, but I've heard his earlier movies are damn good, just never had the desire to familiarize myself with them, Until I decided to watch "Circle of Iron." This movie was weird, it was a hell of a lot of fun but I'm honestly so confused by it. It had a great cast featuring Christopher Lee, David Carradine, Roddy McDowall David Carradine, Eli Wallach, David Carradine and let's not forget Jeff Cooper who played Ricky in "Knight Rider." The movie's about a martial artist on his quest to fight a wizard, on his quest he must fight 4 versions of David Carradine.

The movie starts with a....well I guess it's a competition some sort of Martial Arts competition. The winner of said competition gets to go on to fight the Wizard Zetan who is played by Christopher Lee. The main character Cord (played by Ricky from Knight Rider) is in the final match and actually beats his opponent but his opponent is awarded the chance to fight the EVIL ZETAN and win THE BOOK OF ALL KNOWLEDGE, because Ricky broke the rules. So Ricky decides to follow the man who was his opponent. This man dies, Ricky takes over as the Seeker on a quest for the book of all knowledge and the evil wizard Zetan. Along the way Rick runs into David Carradine as a monkey, David Carradine as a sultan I guess? David Carradine as a blind man who plays a giant flute that also serves as his weapon of defense, and David Carradine as Death apparently is who that was supposed to be. Each test along the way allows him to grow as an individual until he's ready to take on the Evil Wizard Zetan!

This was a fun film, if I had to compare it to a movie made around the same area I'd compare it to "Conan the Barbarian" or "The Beastmaster" a sword and sorcery film but this one had sloppy kung fu in it! My main complaint about the film is this

this leather biker's vest completely sums up the message of the film.....wait....

ok yeah that's the right vest. apparently Biker's really like motivational quotes on the back of their vests! I never knew that! Regardless, it's not a bad message, it is a little blatant but this was a movie made on a shoestring budget and based on an idea from Bruce Lee, unfortunately Bruce Lee died and while I'm sure a lot of the original idea is there, I'm also pretty sure this is what happens when Hollywood types try to write a movie based on philosophies they don't really understand. Then again it does have David Carradine bitch slapping a little boy! It's a lot like "Fight Club" where Edward Norton's character just wanted to destroy something beautiful! Also Eli Wallach's cameo is a thing of beauty he's a munk trying to remove his entire bottom half by soaking in oil for over 10 years. The movie is quirky the movie is fun and if you're bored and looking to kill some time it's worth the hour and twenty nine minutes it takes to watch it on Netflix on demand! If you're looking for a much better review probably without pictures of leather vests Check out I Probably liked it