indulging in one of my pastimes

If I could live multiple parallel lives, I'd be a martial artist who works in film. I've said it many times before: I'm a fight-choreography junkie, and it's always a pleasure to watch a well-choreographed, well-filmed fight scene. Theatrical fighting isn't meant to be realistic, but it can have vérité elements to make the scene more brutal and visceral.

Scott Adkins has been up and coming for years. He's a talented British marital artist who has worked in tons of big and small films; I think the biggest film he's ever worked in was "Dr. Strange," where he had the chance to fight Benedict Cumberbatch in both physical and astrally projected forms. Here is Adkins below, breaking down a bunch of impressive fight scenes, and saying out loud the thing I've always thought: Ralph Macchio is no martial artist. A fine actor, for sure, but the man can't throw a punch or a kick to save his life.*


And I just saw this video with UFC fighter Stephen Thompson:

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*It may be churlish to dump on Macchio this way: he himself has happily and humbly admitted, in various interviews, that he's not any sort of martial artist.