15 years ago (!) Keanu Reeves did a movie called The Matrix. There he met and trained with Tiger Hu Chen and Yuen Woo-Ping for the fight choreography. Now Keanu has hooked up with these men to make his own martial arts movie, Man of Tai Chi. It turned out surprisingly well!

The plot doesn’t break any new ground for this genre, but it works and is told well. Chen is a student of Tai Chi and works as a delivery guy to make ends meet. He’s developed his own form of Tai Chi for combat that gets the attention of Donaka Mark, a wealthy business man that runs and underground fighting league. Donaka manipulates Chen behind his back to make him into a ruthless warrior out for blood, but when Chen figures it out, he fights to reclaim his honor and morality back.

With so many action pictures under his belt, Keanu has picked up an eye for filming fights and it shows. Tiger Hu is a hell of a talent and with chorography by Yuen Woo-Ping, there is some intense fights on show here. And there are a lotof them. While it is edited heavily, it’s easy enough to follow and not get lost in the shuffle (the fight with the strobe lights is a good idea, but I don’t think it showed well, my biggest complaint for the movie).

Keanu does his best to play the villain Donaka Mark with varying success. There’s a few times he gets really goofy, but he does portray a ruthless guy and a surprisingly daunting fighter at the age of 49. He might move like a golem, but his strikes pack a wallop.

A solid action flick, worth watching for when you are in the mood for some flying feet and fists.