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A waste of 90 minutes of my life

A Masterpiece!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A gang of masked thieves known as the Eight Dragons bust into a wealthy man's home and steal a map, leaving no witnesses alive. Once the deed is done, the leader decides that this ordeal has gotten way out of hand, and orders his men to each take one piece of the map and go into hiding for three years before they regroup and finally reap the rewards of their newly obtained treasure. Dorian Tan plays a cop who uses deceit, disguises, and finds himself in a compromising situations on more than one occasion as he tracks down each member and attempts to regain the stolen treasure. This premise sounds very promising but unfortunately the movie falls short.The movie flows along and holds one's attention pretty well as Tan finds each of the thieves but each resulting confrontation is plainly unsatisfying. Huang Lung's fight choreography here is stale and just plain boring. While I can certainly appreciate Dorian Tan's impressive kicking ability there is simply too much emphasis put on it. All too often do we see Mr. Tan hopping around on and attacking his opponent with one leg, which is all fine and dandy, but results in his kicks looking like they have no power behind them. Punches suffer similarly due to the slow speed at which they tend to be delivered, which is actually a fault I found with the kicking as well. The fight scenes get a bit more interesting towards the end, but regardless, I can honestly say that I enjoyed Tan's performance vs Yang Sze and Jim Kelly in The Tattoo Connection more than any fight in SDK. Even the talents of Lo Lieh, Gam Gong, and that of some other recognizable HK cinema stars are wasted here. The final fight where Tan and Doris Lung take on Lo Lieh is also quite bland and the ending itself is abrupt and like the rest of the film, extremely unsatisfying.The meticulous and well-orchestrated soundtrack by Chow Fook Leung is one of the high-points of this film and the only thing I really liked about it besides the inclusion of Miss Doris Lung Chun-Erh, who played the daughter of the Eight Dragons' leader. The English dub, acting, and directing are all fine and passable. Unfortunately, the action isn't, and for a movie of this type that is not acceptable. I would recommend this only to Flash Legs completists.

When passing judgement on a movie (and let's not kid ourselves here: that's exactly what these comments are- judgements), it's vital that we factor in all the pertinent information. Like GENRE. There are givens in "kung fu movies." Story, for instance, isn't much of a consideration. Nor should it be: we don't line up to see these movies to be blown away by plot twists or long-winded monologues about the ethereal. We go see these movies to see Chinese gung fu (or, in this particular case, tae kwon do). The more, the better. And logic rarely rears its ugly head. Nor should it. SHAOLIN DEADLY KICKS features some spectacular kicking by Tao-Liang Tan. His left leg- like that of former full contact middleweight champion Bill Wallace- snaps back and forth like a striking snake, seemingly effortlessly. This makes for some great fight scenes. Tan also happens to be a pretty good actor (something that never hurts). Tired of WALKER, Texas RANGER? Check out SHAOLIN DEADLY KICKS. It kicks a whole lotta a**.

Shaolin Deadly Kicks offers a spaghetti western plot nicely adapted to the Martial Arts genre and a lot of well-choreographed and nicely filmed high-kicking action.A group of hardened criminals have stolen a treasure map in a widely publicized attack on a temple. To prevent their capture, they divide the map into eight pieces and agree to regroup in three years to locate the treasure. However, before they can do this, Tao-liang Tan shows up with other plans. This young man begins methodically taking out each member of the gang, until he meets his own weakness - which ironically turns out to be the Achilles heal of the gang-leader as well.Despite some of the opinions expressed here on IMDb, Shaolin Deadly Kicks' plot is actually quite strong for the genre. Unlike many martial arts films, SDK does not wander aimlessly and none of the scenes come across as simple excuses for violence. The voice-talent is typically mediocre, but the physical acting and evocation of the pan-southeast Asian cast compensates for it.Loke many non-American martial arts films, Shaolin Deadly Kicks has a fantastic/folkloric feel. Though it may not appeal to the standard American audience, it will certainly satisfy the martial arts film enthusiast.

Promising more boot than you could shake a kwan at, Flash Legs does almost everything it says on the tin: delivering the 'flash legs' of its title, Tan Tao Liang, in many high-kicking confrontations with the bootmaster showing off his whole repertoire of fancy leg work. The premise seems tedious enough - eight bandits are single-handedly bumped off by police chief Liang for stealing a sacred treasure map - and makes you wonder how it lasts the distance. It's probably got something to do with all those fight scenes, which fly in thick and fast in this relatively mediocre kung fu fest.