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the audience applauded

Sorry, this movie sucks

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The Five Deadly Venom's return with Mortal Combat aka Crippled Avengers. This is a true popcorn martial arts lovers fun fest!. The story is different because each hero has a different back story and reason for hating the warlord for crippling them. From the deaf/mute, blind man, man with no legs and finally the fight he makes lose his mind. After his son loses his arms as a child the warlord shows no mercy to anyone who offends him. Classic Venom Mob directing from Cheh Chang as there are no quick cuts but full view fighting in that Shaw Brothers style. Classic film all the way 10 stars!

... as it is sometimes called "The Return of the Five Deadly Venoms", this is vintage Shaw Brothers kung fu at it's finest.Three men show up at a man's house to kill him, only he's not home, so they decide to chop off his wife's legs and hack off his small son's hands. Just then, the father returns home and calmly slaughters the three killers. Unfortunately, his wife perishes from her wounds, but the son survives, and the father sees to it that he is fitted with fully articulated metal hands. After training into adulthood, the son uses his metal-handed kung fu prowess to cripple the grown children of his mother's killers. And all this just in the first fifteen minutes! All of this training and revenge has left the father and son mean and violent. When a traveler makes an impolite comment, they blind him. When the local blacksmith dares speak out, they render him deaf and mute. When a passerby offers help, they chop off his feet! And finally, when a wandering hero promises to avenge these crimes, they defeat him, put his head in a vice, and give him brain damage! The four victims of the original victims band together and travel to a wise old kung fu master who trains them to overcome their handicaps and become The Crippled Avengers! Exciting, colorful and ludicrous in equal measure, this film actually manages to outdo it's more famous predecessor. Highly recommended to fans of the genre and bizarre-cinema buffs. This genre is definitely not up my film alley, but this one I enjoyed.

Unlike The Five Venoms (1978), which came out the same year (and which also featured several of the performers who collectively became known as The Venoms), Crippled Avengers doesn't waste any time getting to the good stuff: the action begins immediately, with a gang of Tian Nan Tigers storming the household of hero Tao Tien-tu (Kuan-Tai Chan), looking to teach him a lesson for his arrogance. Unable to find the master of the house, the gang kill Tao's wife instead, by lopping off her legs, and cripple his son Tao Sheng by hacking off his arms. No sooner has this been done, than Tao Tien-tu arrives home to see his family in pieces and takes revenge, kicking Tian Nan Tiger ass. What a way to start a film: wholesale slaughter and dismemberment!To further avenge his family, Tao Tien-tu spends the following years killing the remaining Tian Nan Tigers, and gets Tao Sheng—now equipped with telescopic metal arms that shoot deadly missiles from the fingers—to cripple the Tigers' sons. But their reign of violence doesn't end there: the pair proceed to strike fear into the locals, maiming anyone who offends them. Blacksmith Wei Da-ti (Meng Lo), who stands up to Tao Tien-tu, pays for his bravery by being poisoned, which makes him mute, and having his ear drums burst; travelling hawker Chen Shun (Phillip Kwok) is blinded; Hu Ah-kuei (Chien Sun) has his legs cut off for accidentally bumping into Tao Tien-tu; and when martial arts expert Wang Yi (Sheng Chiang) confronts the bad guys, he has his head crushed in a vice, which turns him into a simpleton (albeit one who can still do impressive kung fu!).United by fate, the four cripples become fast friends and travel to the Eagle Mansion, home of Wang Yi's master, where they train in the martial arts. Three years later, having overcome their disabilities though kung fu (and with the help of a pair of strap-on metal legs for Hu Ah-kuei), the foursome leave to take revenge on the tyrannical Tao Tien-tu and his equally vile son.Featuring such blatant silliness as disabled fighters with 'bionic' limbs, the plot for Crippled Avengers is unarguably extremely far-fetched stuff, but the 'crazy factor' only adds to the fun of this much-loved Shaw Brothers classic. A talented cast, loads of superbly choreographed martial arts action (including a wonderful training sequence involving metal hoops, and the use of numerous weapons), some surprisingly bloody violence, and expert direction from the legendary Cheh Chang, all add up to one hell of an enjoyable time. Highly recommended.

I don't know why this is entitled, "Return of the Five Deadly Venoms". When I saw it, the title was "Crippled Avengers". I think some idiot mistakenly labeled it "Return..." because 5 of the six actors from "Venoms" is in it. Thing is, of those six characters, one of the guys playing a Venom is not in Crippled Avengers, so it's definitely not a return at all. Here are the "returnees" as I know them by their characters in Venoms: Toad, Scorpion, Lizard, Centipede and the Apprentice that was schooled in all 5 fighting styles.For anyone interested, this same group shows up in another movie I just saw called, "Killer Army". I really enjoyed this movie. The fight choreography I see in most action films today makes me want to hurl--seriously, it's pathetic and disgusting. I've been told the actors in these movies attended the same school Bruce Lee did--a theater school where they learned drama, acrobatics and swordplay.All of the scenes are shot on sound stages (which always gives films an otherworldly feel which I think boosts the audience's sense of fantasy.)It's a little 2-dimensional, but you have to remember the era. Besides, these films were stories about legends and folk heroes, so the lack of the dimension and the scenery lends it a storybook feel.This story is about justice. It's about how even when circumstances look bleakest, you still have the choice to turn your situation into something positive or negative. Watch this and compare the villains to the heroes. This is white-hat/black-hat storytelling at its most romantic.