Troy Schulz This movie is a strange time capsule of the late 1990s, falling into the odd little subgenre of "kids' fantasy movie" that was quite popular in that decade, but seems to have faded away into obscurity. At a time when Power Rangers was arguably at the height of it's popularity, this strange mix of late twentieth century adolescent filmmaking and classical Chinese philosophy might leave the average viewer perplexed. Originally conceived by Chinese superstar producing team the Law Brothers (more movies than I can count) after the passing of their father, Warriors of Virtue follows Ryan (Mario Yedidia; the very definition of milquetoast), your average kid from the suburbs who is magically transported to the mystical realm of Tao (the pronunciation of which the mostly-American cast seems incapable of nailing down), joining forces with a team of anthropomorphic kangaroos who know wire-fu (don't ask) in the struggle against the fashion-challenged warlord Komodo (Angus Macfayden, more on him later) and his army of generic goons. Mixed in are a series of periodic pop-philosophical platitudes that don't really seem to tie in to the overall story and characters. For a film where the Taoist philosophy is made the main focus, it feels incredibly artificial and tacked-on, as if the screenwriter(s) didn't fully understand it. This is compounded by the simple fact that no one seems to pronounce the word properly. (For the record, it's pronounced with a hard 'D' sound, as in 'Dao') You would think that a movie made by a mostly-Chinese crew partially filmed in China would have gotten this fairly noticeable detail right. It gives the impression that the filmmakers simply weren't trying. The set design comes across as bland and uninspired. It's every 'magical' forest you've ever seen in a movie or TV show. The movie wastes a potential opportunity to showcase some truly inspired production design, considering China's rich artistic and architectural history. The cinematography by powerhouse Hong Kong DP Peter Pau (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) is equally disappointing, coming across as incredibly bland, flat, and lifeless, with an overuse of slow-motion and a strange blur effect that makes many of the action sequences difficult to watch. The acting ranges from unfathomably hammy (Komodo is simply a joy to watch every time he's on screen) to blandly competent (Ryan is every protagonist from every kids movie ever made). The suits used for the eponymous Warriors come across as more unsettling than memorable, though the legendary Doug Jones (as the warrior Yee) does make an admirable acting effort. The stunt-work, while skillfully handled, isn't anything we haven't seen before and fails to impress. Veteran director Ronny Yu (The Bride With White Hair, Freddy Vs Jason) makes an admirable effort, but fails to show off any of the same energy and talent that made his Hong Kong films stand out. The only aspect of the film that rises above average is the incredible score by Don Davis (The Matrix, House on Haunted Hill). If anything, it shows that even the most unremarkable of films can still have memorable music. And that's really what this film is, unremarkable. It's isn't particularly bad. The acting is fine overall, script moves a long at a swift pace, and the effects work is decent. But that's all it is. Decent. It's watchable, yes, but far from extraordinary. And for a film about Taoist Kangaroos who know martial arts, that is a sin greater than any other.

bartleby56 I watched "Warriors Of Virtue" with my 9 year old son a few nights ago, and I can only say that this is easily one of the worst films of any kind I have seen in my 50 plus years of avid film consumption. I enjoy kids movies, martial arts movies, action/adventure movies, fish-out-of-water movies, and just about any genre of film that "Warriors Of Virtue" could possibly belong to. Hell, I like a lot of just plain bad movies, but this was just dreadful. It may have been Shakespeare or perhaps Benny Hill who observed that comparisons are odious, but I couldn't help noticing the similarities between "Warriors Of Virtue" and your average episode of "Power Rangers"(my kid, god bless him, was a big fan in the first grade).Half-baked and tone-deaf in conception, amateurish in execution, I can imagine simpletons the world over drew figurative lines in the sand in solidarity over their collective objection to the use of the word simplistic to describe this film. Half-wits would look at "Warriors Of Virtue" and wonder just where in hell the money went. It certainly wasn't spent on developing a narrative that makes any sense, three-dimensional characters, professional acting, staging, or direction. "Warriors" was pre-CGI, so I can accept that the special effects work was corny, but...kangaroos? Seriously? This movie is resolutely and resoundingly grind-your-teeth-into-nubbins stupid.

ecctv This movie was horrible! The story is that this kid falls into a whirlpool (which we now call the Giant Toilet) and ends up in "Kangaroo Land" pretty much. He has to help his "Kanga-friends" fight the evil master who sleeps in half a clam shell. I think I've blocked the ending out of my memory. The movie is full of bouncing kangaroo-people and an evil leader who's hair is way too long and the director takes advantage of that, making him spin around and showing it in slow motion. Its so dramatic!!! Ugh, if you have to choose between watching this movie, and watching Kazaam! watch Kazaam! (And Kazaam isn't such a good movie in itself, to say the least.)

La Gremlin Alright, let's get the joke out of the way first of all:"Crouching Glam Guy, Hidden Wallaby", anyone?Seriously, I rented this movie expecting your typical late-80's fantasy with cheesey dialogue and bad special effects and annoying child actors. Well, to that end I got my money's worth. However, while this is nowhere nearly as good as, say, "the Neverending Story" or "Labyrinth", it's not nearly as bad as I expected.Curiously, this is one of the few movies I've seen that might have been a *lot* better animated. Kung-fu kangaroos isn't exactly a concept best realized in live action. However, the crappy effects belie the clever premis. Give it a look.