bob the moo It does rather come with the territory on these films, that in order for there to be action, there must be some terrible act to either avenge or on which to get revenge. In this case it is a bit more brutal than normal since the heroes are the ones who are subject to the terrible act. See Tian-du Dao not only saw his wife murdered, but also saw his son Chang Dao lose his arms; this has led to him being brutal and unforgiving himself – and his son, complete with finely draft iron arms and martial art skills, is just as bad. For fun they cripple a group of strangers; leaving one without legs, one without sight; one deaf and mute; and another of his senses, leaving him a fool. The four set out for revenge, joining a martial arts master to learn skills which compensate for their disability and heighten their existing skills.The opening set-up of this film is probably a bit too harsh, because it is hard to relax into a film where the ones we are supposed to care for are having bits chopped off them or being left in some other terrible state. Although this does set-up the villains well, I thought that it was too dark and too quickly, although once the fight back begins, it justifies this narrative device. The group learn to heighten their remaining skills and I quite enjoyed how it worked in the training sections, but also in the fights themselves. There is a bit of a gimmick to the whole thing, but the acrobatics are generally good even if the fight sequences themselves are not quite as good as I would have liked – too often I was more appreciating the movement and the ideas, rather than really getting into the fight.The 5 actors are not quite as good as used in other 5 Venoms films – here they are less characters and more their disability. They still move very well and physically it is hard to fault their acrobatic skills. The sets are overly familiar from those used in other films (particularly the courtyard of the final fight reminded me of the Magnificent Ruffians) but generally it moves well. It is an enjoyable film once it gets over the necessary roughness of the setup, however it is still limited by the gimmicks of the plot and there are stronger films featuring the five.

andressolf The first 1/3 of this movie I would dare say is genius. It's a really smart and great movie. The rest of the movie (that is to say the last 2/3rds of it) is pretty stupid...Let me be brief, since this is all opinion anyway. I would rate the first 1/3 of this movie a 9 out of 10- easily. It was fun and entertaining to watch and intriguing. Even the following parts (after the martial arts training the avengers get) is SOMEWHAT interesting, but the film for me all falls apart definitely in the 2nd half of the film because it seems like the movie loses purpose and it's pointless violence and has corny fight scenes and corny bad guys to make matters worse. I mean really now. The 2nd half of the movie is nearly ALL action and reliant on action and not so much story telling and the action is not all that good! The action is not at all real kung-fu, instead it is circus acts and it is absolutely ridiculous to watch. At least some kung-fu movies (like Jackie Chan movies and The Prodigal Son to give you an idea) make their ridiculous fight scenes funny or fun to watch, but these fight scenes are long and grueling to watch because they seem SO choreographed and staged. It does not seem authentic. Some of the stunt work is sloppy, and just seems like it's done by poor performers. Overall I am not pleased by the 2nd half of this movie but I enjoyed the first half for the concept and storytelling so much that I would like to see this movie remade some day and done properly. That is to say- with a story that stays intact and that does not simply disappear for poor fight scenes that follow the characters main quest. It seems like this movie is very much 'hit it and quit it' in the 2nd half. In and out, and yet for such a simple idea/concept it is lost in how long they drawn the movie's fight scenes to do it. So in the end it is a waste of time it feels like cause it builds up to a rather lame 'climax' if you can even call it that. *** spoiler alert *** Also we never see them bury one of their fallen or how they live their lives after the battle, or how the city is changed for the better afterward. It's really a rushed ending and 'hit it and quit it' like I said it is, but takes so long to get to? Doesn't make sense. They could have used that last half hour of precious movie time to explain what happens after the battle, and they could have gotten to the battles sooner and made them shorter and sweeter. But ah well. It is what it is. A very mixed movie, and a waste of time in the end if you ask me. But first 1/3 is worth watching if you plan to write your own remake of this story which I think is worth telling- just differently.

stu_x I like this movie because of some of the training scenes and fight scenes. The fights really demonstrate the actors' skills. Watch the last fight, and you'll see what I mean. The fights are shot in long takes, and the camera allows you to see all the action. You don't get cheated like in Hollywood movies, which put the camera way too close to the action to hide the actors' inability to fight.Despite the title, this movie nothing to do with Five Deadly Venoms. This movie just has the same director and most of the same actors from Five Deadly Venoms.I prefer this over Five Deadly Venoms. This movie has more action, and I felt Five Deadly Venoms was a lot slower and did not have very good fighting scenes.This and The Kid with the Golden Arm are my two favorite Chang Cheh/Venoms movies I have seen. If I had to choose between the two, this wins over Kid with the Golden Arm.

jbparker Some of the greatest stunts and combat scenes ever done. Yes, dialogue is cheesy. You do not watch these movies for dialogue. Notice how long the camera stays in one place during an extended fight scene. Yeah, that usually means that what you just saw is one take (since, when this movie does edit, its usually fairly obvious). If you like this type of movie, watch it. If not, stay far, far away.