“Simon is the best stunt coordinator in the business as he brings each character’s unique personality into the fight scenes,” Jolie says in an e-mail. “We call him ‘Dr. Crane’ because he’s the fixer. He’s the man we all call when we need something difficult done.”

It’s nice to see not only A-list stars giving credit where it’s due, but also mainstream media putting a small spotlight on a veteran of our industry.

Let’s hope that more stars like Jolie speak out about the tremendous risk, sacrifice, skill, and talent stunt folks must possess in order to make the actors look good and ultimately make movies entertaining.

While many martial arts films focus on moving the audience through a series of flashy fight sequences set on dark city streets, questionably lit competition halls or picturesque pagoda-peppered locales, The Sensei is not a typical martial arts movie. Written and directed by Diana Lee Inosanto—daughter of martial arts legend Dan Inosanto and goddaughter of Bruce Lee—the movie features a conservative Wyoming town as its backdrop and tells a compelling story about people, prejudice, family, faith and fear…

Raymond on the fight choreography and editing:

Ironically, it’s the martial arts sequences that raised my eyebrow at a couple of spots—perhaps because they were supposed to depict more true-to-life fighting rhythms than staged ones, or because the staging and editing weren’t on par with the film’s very strong dramatic narrative. However, because these sequences are peppered in sparingly for specific plot-pertinent purposes, they do not detract from the overall experience.

For the complete review and more info on The Sensei, check out Raymond’s full story at BlackBeltMag.com here.

Last Sunday, I was invited to attend Diana Lee Inosanto’s DVD release party of her directorial debut, The Sensei.

For most martial artists, you’ll recognize the name. She is the daughter of martial arts legend Dan Inosanto and the “honorary niece” of one of the world’s biggest icons, Bruce Lee. But what you might not realize is that she’s also an actress, stuntwoman, and producer.

Now, she can add writer/director to her long list of accomplishments.

The Sensei is about a female martial arts instructor who secretly takes on a gay student in 1980s Colorado during the height of the AIDS scare. Though not flawless, the movie is a courageous and powerful piece — particularly considering it’s a low-budget independent and is Diana’s first ever directing gig.

More details about the project later. For now, I highly recommend you check it out on DVD when it’s released on March 9.

Looks pretty cool. I like the idea of taking the zombie genre into the digital realm — worlds of possibilities, I say, not just for animators, but for stunt coordinators and stunt fighters, too. A lot of people complain that with CGI movies, they’ll be less need for human actors. Not true. Look at Avatar or even how the video-game industry has revolutionized fighting games.

Any good animation director knows that to do convincing animated violence, you need flesh-and-blood stuntman to strap on a motion-capture suit to record his movements as the basis for a CGI character. That’s the only way to translate complex action scenes convincingly on screen.

With a successful zombie CGI cartoon, even more doors will open for the types of animated action that can be filmed — and for the variety of stuntman who can lend their talents.

So, strap on the mo-cap balls and let’s get undead, shall we?

It was held at the recent International Mixed Martial Arts Expo in Los Angeles and features stunt coordinator John Kreng and his stunt crew explaining the differences between a realistic MMA-style self-defense situation versus an MMA-styled fight for the movies.

It features the talents of actress/stuntwoman Lauren Mary Kim and professional wrestler/stuntman Van Asayit, among others.

What do you think? After writing down my initial thoughts and now seeing some footage, I’m not sure what to think. Seeing Chan in a different type of role makes me want to champion it, but some of the other elements makes me just cringe.

Check it out for yourself below and let me know what you think:

Check out my story for a recap of all the excitement, from Jamie Lee Curtis receiving the Action Icon Award and Zoe Bell (Kill Bill) making an appearance, to actress/stuntwoman Natascha Hopkins (Spider-Man 3) tossing taekwondo expert Ilram Choi (Avatar) through a dinner table.

Let me know what you think!

Avatar is everything I expected from a James Cameron big-budget action-packed sci-fi epic — and more.

I’m most pleased that he’s maintained his own directing style. Rather than adopt the most annoying trend of vomit-inducing handheld camerawork and seizure-sparking rapid-fire editing, Cameron sticks with what made him the most successful action-movie filmmaker on the planet: imaginative set pieces, innovative and clean visuals, clear character logic, and (most importantly) story-based suspense.

He’s always been a great action director (re: from The Terminator to True Lies), but I’m even more impressed that he’s bringing stuntwork and storytelling to a whole other level with the way he combined motion-capture technology, CGI special effects, and 3D movie technology.

If you don’t believe me, check out Avatar yourself. You won’t be disappointed.

Reuben has worked with everyone from Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung to Sam Raimi and Hayden Christensen. He most recently worked on the epic James Cameron movie Avatar and Capcom’s blockbuster Resident Evil 5 video game.

Let me know what you think of the article!