Popular reviews

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  Review by Lou (rhymes with wow!) ★★★½

  Another super fun Chang Che wuxia! I loved all the different kung fu styles, but agree that the movie could have used a little bit more crazy action! The story is meticulously crafted though. Che is definitely a master.

  Poison clan rocks the world!

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  Review by laird ★★★ 4

  I was hoping some time and kung fu training (ie binge watching) would give me a greater appreciation for this since last I saw it about a decade ago, but if anything it was even more disappointing given the talent involved. It's a bit mystifying to me how much of a pillar this is for some considering that about 75-85% of it is really dry, kind of dull Edgar Wallace/Agatha Christie style whodunnit surrounding a bunch of murders and an inheritance. In theory I should be into that, but it's shot pretty flat and contains scene after scene of characters vomiting exposition and making shifty eyes at each other as they try and suss out who the venoms even are…

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  Review by Wood ★★★★ 3

  Some of the Shaw Brother best fake beards showcased in this one. A Hitchcockian mystery masquerading as a trashy Kung Fu flick. When it comes to Kung Fu styles I understand Snake, Scorpion, Centipede, and MAYBE Toad style.
  But tell me how Lizard style is going to do anything? You can stand on a wall? Great.

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  Review by Cormac 👑 ★★★ 6

  The premise here reminds me of something I would conjure up as a young Cormac with a sugar-fuelled over-active imagination playing with the assorted plastic figurines scattered across the living room floor.

  THE FIVE VENOMS coasts by on the woozy charms found in bringing me back to those days where creativity came with no caveat and the only time an adventure had to end was when I was bored and done with it. 

  I’m not entirely sold on its ability to live up to the far-flung, untapped visions of a wide-eyed boy running on a diet of Saturday morning cartoons and late nights hidden under a duvet with his trusty GameBoy Advance.

  And here’s the thing… I’m not so convinced…

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  Review by 📀 Cammmalot 📀 ★★★ 8

  Poison Clan rocks the world

  More Shaw Brothers kung-fu fun from director Chang Cheh.

  This one features a serpentine plot that’s more confusing than a centipede square dance, but it all comes together with a leaping lizards finale.

  Special thanks to CountCANE for the recommendation.

  Anybody using that technique must have a weak spot and to find it there’s only one possible thing to be used…the Iron Maiden

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  Review by threepenny ★★★★½

  This movie is the simple tale of Five Deadly Venoms: Snake, Centipede, Toad, Scorpion, and Lizard. Get your logic grid handy. 1. The two junior Venoms know each other. 2. The second most junior Venom can stand on walls. 3. The venom who wears the black mask and the one who wears the green mask have never met. 4. The red masked venom is the senior...Can you, sixth disciple, figure out which venom is which, let the righteous ones live, and kill the evil? It's a kung fu ass-kicking logic puzzle. Fail, and I'll make you wear the thousand needle coat. And so begins the reign of the "Venoms Mob", five talented martial artists, none of whom quite broke through…

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  Review by Cinema_Strikes ★★★★ 4

  I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve rewatched this, my first Shaw experience. The boy begged for it, so we watched it again. He’s always outraged by the injustice done to Toad. So damn good.

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  Review by Joe ★★★½ 1

  "That's a cool-ass vest." - RZA

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  Review by Disgustipated ★★★★

  November 2016 - Scavenger Hunt 20 - #2

  Task 30 - Any movie ever sampled in a Wu-Tang Clan song

  Kung Fu + Ponytail = Badass. Who would have thunked it?

  The Five Venoms is like one of those logic puzzles I used to do when I was a kid. A grey bearded old man in a steamy hot tub provides us with the following clues at the beginning of the film as he relays them to his final protege, Student No. 6.

  Clue 1: Located within an ancient Chinese village is a super wealthy old dude who happens to be an ex-Kung Fu teacher.

  Clue 2: The village is also occupied by five ex-Kung Fu students named The Five…

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  Review by Jerry McGlothlin ★★½ 10

  Going into The Five Venoms, I was expecting tons of Kung Fu action sequences. What I got instead, was an exposition-heavy, Christie-style mystery/courtroom drama with occasional fight scenes sprinkled in and an unexpected amount of ancient torture methods put to use. Perhaps my expectations were too high? This thing just wasn’t as much fun as I wanted it to be. Classic Wu-Tang sample(s) aside, there isn’t much here between the iconic introductory scene and the flailing, blood-soaked finale; which are both well-executed, impressive exhibitions of martial arts. As usual with these flicks, the dubbing is awful and the sound work in general is very poor. Audio that cuts out almost-completely between dialogue exchanges in certain scenes kinda got on my nerves. An…

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  Review by Zach Milne ★★★★½

  It is interesting to watch this after watching a few more Shaw Bros. movies, as it still is up there as a stellar ride.

  I love the mystery of trying to figure out who all the Venoms are and their style.

  Even with less fighting, what sequences we do get are still outstanding.

  House Of Venoms is no more.

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  Review by Gregor Kreyca ★★★½

  I think Chang Cheh’s career at Shaw Brothers can be roughly separated into three chapters. Chapter one is his late sixties swordplay films often starring Jimmy Wang-Yu. Chapter two was his more brutal “realistic” phase (including his Shaolin-cycle) from the early to mid-seventies featuring the likes of David Chiang, Ti Lung, Chen Kuan-Tai and Alexander Fu-Sheng. And his final chapter began with this movie The Five Venoms, lasting almost until the mid-eighties when the studio closed. The “Venoms” as they came to be known where Philip Kwok, Lu Feng, Sun Chien, Lo Meng and Chiang Sheng. Another original member Wai Pak only made a couple of movies with the team before he left Shaw Brother.

  Some say that the Venoms…