Not to blast Films of Fury, but I was expecting something more from what looked like a promising doc. With writer Ric Meyers attached, I thought for sure this would be a grade-A documentary about the martial arts genre. Meyers is an undisputed expert on kung fu movies, and if you're a student of those films, or want to know as much as possible, you've got to read his writing. But you don't need to watch this documentary written by Meyers, and directed by Andrew Corvey and Andrew Robinson. To be sure, there are other docs about kung fu movies out there, including Toby Russell's Cinema of Vengeance, which has almost no production value, but is far more informative than this one, or Art of Action: Martial Arts in Motion Picture, which is far more slickly produced and entertaining than Films of Fury.

Films of Fury is essentially a "clip show" documentary that relies heavily on clips from dozens of movies--some very well known, others only well known to fans of Hong Kong cinema. And as far as clip content goes, this film delivers an awesome sampler of work from great directors and legendary actors. But there are no interviews to be found anywhere in this documentary, which is a major strike against the film. But the real failure--at least for me--are the animated segments that serve as the narrative thread that weaves this doc together. The film is hosted by annoying animated character who delivers quick quips that sound as if they've been written to appeal to pre-teen viewers. This cartoon character, who overstays his welcome pretty much before it even starts, goes a long way in making Films of Fury a don't-need-to-watch-this-again sort of documentary, which is a shame, because the world can always use another good chop sockey doc.

As if the animated character that makes this documentary difficult to watch wasn't bad enough, the film suffers from other fundamental problems. There is no true sense of chronological film history, as the clips seem to jump around, thereby never building a true sense of historical context. Important players like the Shaw Brothers and Raymond Chow are hardly mentioned or not mentioned at all. And did I mention that there are no interviews? For me that is the ultimate failure of this doc, even more so than the animated host.

The last few years have seen some great documentaries about films outside the mainstream of Hollywood. The slickly produced and somewhat bombastic Not Quite Hollywood and Machete Maidens Unleashed by director Mark Hartley, as well as Alex Stapleton's Corman's World are examples of what solid documentaries about film can be like. The same is true for The Spaghetti West, a somewhat dry documentary about Italian westerns that still manages to be informative and entertaining, without overshadowing the subject matter. But the one thing these films have in common is that while relying on film clips, they also rely on interviews with the people who made the movies, and never once fall into the trap of trying to be cleverer than either. And ultimately that's what Films of Fury does.

Video:
Films of Fury is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, although it seems to me that some of the film clips presented have different aspect ratios. For sure the picture quality of the clips is varied, creating a mixed picture overall. By an large the image is solid, but because of the varying quality of the clips, it does not appear consistent.

Audio:
Films of Fury is presented in English in 2.0 Dolby Digital. The overall sound quality is good, though as is the case with the picture, not all the clips sound the same, creating inconsistencies.

Bonus Material:
Other than the trailer the only bonus material are downloadable chapters from a book by writer Ric Meyers.

Final Thoughts:
True die-hard fans of kung fu movies will not get anything new out of this documentary. The only people that might get something out of it are people who don't know anything about the genre.