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Iron Monkey

PG-13 Released Oct 12, 2001 1h 25m Action List
91% Tomatometer 96 Reviews 86% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
In a desperate and unjust land, where government corruption rules the day, only one man has the courage to challenge the system and fight back. They call him "Iron Monkey." Under the shadow of night, in the silence before dawn, he fights to give hope to the poor and the oppressed. Although no one knows his name and no one knows where he comes from, his heroism has made him a living legend to the people and a wanted man to the powers that be.
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Iron Monkey

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Critics Consensus

Iron Monkey may not have the poetic lyricism of Crouching Tiger, it makes up for it in fun and energy.

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Critics Reviews

View All (96) Critics Reviews
Steven D. Greydanus Decent Films The joy of watching this kind of stuff lies in the choreographical invention and creativity [and] the speed and dexterity of the combatants. Rated: B+ May 8, 2002 Full Review Rita Kempley Washington Post A crackling Cantonese action caper in the tradition of Robin Hood, Zorro, Batman et al. Rated: 3.5/5 Jan 6, 2002 Full Review Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly Yuen tosses off nimble, elegantly witty solutions to life's most vexing problems regarding rooms full of bad guys who won't take thwak for an answer. Rated: B+ Oct 18, 2001 Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins As a perfect complement to the adventure, a generous portion of comedy is blended in - sometimes just with witty bits of dialogue and frequently with physical slapstick. Rated: 7/10 Sep 30, 2020 Full Review Panos Kotzathanasis Asian Movie Pulse "Iron Monkey" is a masterpiece of the genre (to say the least) and a film all fans of wuxia and martial arts in general should have in their collection. Oct 27, 2019 Full Review Rob Aldam Backseat Mafia Some of the fighting is on par with, or better than, anything you're likely to see in a Hong Kong action film. Oct 31, 2018 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Flixster F A typical action film from the 90s. Not outstanding but passes the time. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/03/24 Full Review StephenPaul C The greatest 01 hour: and 25 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL, starring James Wong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/11/23 Full Review Leaburn O This is just playful king fu. Not a serious plot at all but so much creativity in the fight scenes. I'm not a huge fan of martial arts films but the short run time made this one just about palatable. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 06/13/23 Full Review Taylor L You like RRR? Want to see the martial arts version? Two martial arts masters with day jobs come to know one another as friends - one a folk hero by night, the other a wanderer who finds himself tasked with hunting the vigilante down (not knowing his new friend is his target). Nominally it's a loose adaptation of the Robin Hood mythos integrated with an origin story of Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hung (who appears as a child in this film), but it's hard all these years later to not see shades of the S.S. Rajamouli film (RRR) despite the fact that this predates it by almost three decades. While Ang Lee was giving martial arts movies more of a serious flair in the '90s and '00s, Yuen Woo-ping preserves much of Hong Kong's balance between really solid action choreography and pervasive humor in Iron Monkey. It's light as a film, with antagonists that never really feel terribly threatening, but really shines with some top-notch fight design that straddles the line between impressive and mythic. And by mythic, I mean suspended by wires. Seriously, the action is impressive enough that I'd bump the score over what is otherwise a well-made but pretty unsurprising folk tale brought to the screen, Donnie Yen is in top form. Weird that this took almost eight years to go from completion to a wide US release. (3.5/5) Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/09/23 Full Review Audience Member A little bit predictable but very enjoyable movie ! Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review jordan m I enjoyed this a lot more than some other Hong Kong action movies I'd seen as I now had enough experience to forgive the overly-convenient plot devices and hyperbolized characters to enjoy the fight scenes and underlying story. I would've preferred a more uniform use of magic if they were going to use it at all but I suppose they did give it to both of the villains, and I would've preferred to have seen the original rather than the Miramax-tampered one as political subtext is what butters my biscuit and the fight scenes likely would've benefitted from the comedy that the studio excised. The fights themselves were clearly well-executed, though nearly all of them had gimmicks that took away one's suspension of disbelief if you cared too much as every main villain used supernatural tactics and the final fight on the stilts didn't seem particularly plausible. I've enjoyed other gimmicky finale fight scenes like the ladder one at the end of The Musketeer and this one was fine, just not as great as I felt it could've been. Still, I liked the movie and am glad to have seen it. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Iron Monkey

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Movie Info

Synopsis In a desperate and unjust land, where government corruption rules the day, only one man has the courage to challenge the system and fight back. They call him "Iron Monkey." Under the shadow of night, in the silence before dawn, he fights to give hope to the poor and the oppressed. Although no one knows his name and no one knows where he comes from, his heroism has made him a living legend to the people and a wanted man to the powers that be.
Director
Woo-Ping Yuen
Producer
Hark Tsui
Screenwriter
Hark Tsui, Elsa Tang, Lau Tai Mok
Distributor
Miramax Films
Production Co
Film Workshop Ltd., Golden Harvest
Rating
PG-13 (Martial Arts Action/Violence)
Genre
Action
Original Language
Chinese
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 12, 2001, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 16, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$14.7M
Runtime
1h 25m
Sound Mix
Dolby SR, DTS, Dolby Stereo, SDDS, Dolby A, Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.85:1)
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