All Bruce Lee movies are cool, Enter the Dragon is indeed a classic. But if you want something a little more current, I reccomend some Jet Li stuff like Black Mask or that one with Aaliyah (cant remember the name). They aren’t all super kung-fu movies but they are fun to watch. Another recent one which a lot of people didnt like is the Transporter. Again not too great of a story and stuff, but they blow up a lot of crap and there are some wicked fight scenes.
Well again going with Enter the Dragon but may I also recommend Fist of Fury starring Bruce Lee again as one of the very good martial arts movies.
Also an old badly dubbed movie called 36 Chambers of Shaolin is good too.
I personally really liked Stormriders. I think it was far superior to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and don’t know why it didn’t make all the hubbub over here. I believe that it was based on a comic book but actually a good adaptation unlike most of the other comic adaptations out there (Xmen not included. Spiderman and the Hulk were too hokey.)
Many of the greats have been mentioned but I’ll throw in a few others notable for their action or fight scenes:
Once Upon A Time In China II - Wire and mystical fu but well done exciting fights.
Master Of the Flying Gulliotine - Hoaky story and dialogue but one best “tournament” films I’ve seen for exciting dueling styles fights among the supporting cast. Although no one will ever mistake Jimmy Wang Yu for even a mediocre martial artist.
Dragons Forever - A chance to see Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Benny “The Jet” in great intense fight scenes. Not as comical as many of Jackie’s better HK movies, but the action is well worth it.
The Streetfighter - Can’t believe no mention of Sonny Chiba yet. Brutal, ugly, nasty fights. Over the top as hell, and a change from the usual “dueling schools” or “noble hero seeks revenge” plots, with a “hero” who is a bit of a scumbag. Worth seeing for Chiba’s bizarre facial expressions and exaggerated stances alone.
“The Seven Samurai”, a classic film and the inspiration for the oater “The Magnificent Seven”.
Wing Chun, I think. Has everything that you watch kungfu movies for. Colorful bad guys who seem to be having a hell of a time, secret techniques, bizarre romantic screwups, great fights, and a guy getting his genitals blown off with a ball of fire.
Fight Choreography done by the same guy who did the fights for ‘The Matrix’, which establishes that even the best help can’t make Kianu look like he can fight.
The Swordsman was great, too. Just pure fun. The sequel’s good, as well. Swordsman 2 has Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh both, and you can’t help but notice she’s about half a foot taller than him. 
Once Upon a Time In China was pretty awesome, as well. The third one was even better. They’re pretty anti-western, though, if that kind of thing bothers you.
If you’re just looking for pure entertainment, The Heroic Trio is great.
CTHD was good but overrated. Well directed, though, and much higher production values than you’ll usually get out of HK. It’s benefiting from the ‘John Woo’ effect. Critics are giving it more praise than it deserves, so critics can establish that they weren’t REALLY stupidly ignoring kungfu movies all these years. They knew how good they were all this time. Really.
Hmm. Four out of six are Michelle Yeoh movies. I can’t imagine why . . .
www.teleport-city.com has a lot of great background and reviews of martial arts movies. Unfortunately, most of them are IMPOSSIBLE to find . . .
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‘ESSENCE ABSORBING STANCE!!!’
Space Vampire: “I’m partial to The Blade myself.”
Agreed! This is the greatest “martial arts movie that most of the world doesn’t know about” movie. You can always tell a true-blue afficianado when they like The Blade.
And just as a qualifier ahem I am referring to Tsui Hark’s Blade (aka Dao), not the one with the Passenger 57 yahoo.
What’s the fact he’s an ex-cop got to do with anything? 
It’s a pretty good film, quite impressive, but I wouldnt say it’s the best martial art film I’ve ever seen.
I’ll second Tars’s mention of Five Venoms (alternate title, The Five Deadly Venoms: info). It’s a martial-arts movie that has an actual plot. Imagine that.
Nitpick: The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.
The old Shaw Brothers catalog is getting a restoration, thankfully. This title was on the program in the recent Seattle film fest’s “heroic bloodshed” series, in a restored and subtitled version. It’ll be available on home video, along with a few dozen other movies, in the coming months. It’s an excellent entry in the genre; very entertaining. Definitely deserves the better treatment.
Trivia note about 36th Chamber of Shaolin: It’s directed by Liu Chia-Liang, aka Lau Kar-Leung, whom martial-arts buffs will recognize as the secret-agent guy Jackie Chan fights underneath the train in Drunken Master 2. Even more interesting, Liu is the director of that Jackie Chan movie, until Jackie didn’t like Liu’s ending and dumped him for the last half hour. And what’s really interesting, Liu is the disciple of a teacher who was the disciple of a teacher who was the disciple of the real-life Wong Fei-Hung, whom Jackie plays in the movie.
One to stay away from: The One-Armed Swordsman. It was hugely influential in its day, and therefore has something of a reputation among martial-arts buffs. However, it’s dated rather badly, and has been repeatedly surpassed. It’s worth seeing if you become interested in the genre, for its historical value, but otherwise don’t go out of your way.
By the way, re wuxia — It’s worth considering that the storytelling forms that underlie most martial-arts filmmaking are rather different from our own traditions. Martial-arts movies are mocked in our culture (e.g., the term “chop socky”) partly for their low production values, but also because we don’t really understand how they work. Please see my review of Crouching Tiger for a discussion of the wuxia tradition.
Shaolin Soccer
I avoided mentioning that because i’m not sure it qualifies as Kung Fu, even though Kung Fu is in it. It is one of the 10 best movies ever made. Street Fighter i also didn’t mention because i’m not sure the Japanese stuff would be considered kung fu. But it is another good film, and Sister Street Fighter is pretty fun as well. In retrospect it probably would, since Ninjas show up all the time in Kung Fu films. Another thing the OP can do is get those DVD kung fu two packs on sale for like $6, they may not be Bruce Lee (but they might be Bruce Le…), but they can be a lot of fun.
I’ll also second the first two Swordsman movies, but don’t bother with three unless your a fan of the genre (and even then don’t pay much for it).
Ricky-O , the story of ricky (or Riki-o) is an over the top gore fest that is a lot of fun, the old Daily Show clip of a guy getting his head smashed comes from this film. I’ve mentioned a lot of movies mentioned here in my movie review thread
Here’s another vote for Drunken Master II (a.k.a. Legend of Drunken Master).
No one has mentioned The Lone Wolf and Cub series?
For shame…especially Shogun Assassin which IMO is as good as almost any of Bruce Lee’s movies
Hard as hell to find though…anyone know if they ever put it on a DVD?
BTW Last time I saw it it was on BETA for God sakes!
Not kung fu, martial arts. So the Japanese stuff would qualify. Hell, that wrestling movie with Mathew Modine might even qualify, if you can make a good case.
I was thinking generally kung fu type movies, but only because that’s what comes to mind when I think of martial arts movies. I didn’t say what specific sub-genera (sp?) I was interested in for two reasons: I don’t know all that is available and I thought that a good case could lead me to something new. If I were to state a preference, I’d be looking for realism and not hyperchoreographed dance or otherworld physics.
Hey, did anybody see Enter The Dragon on AMC Sunday night? They did the “much more than a movie” where they used a letter box and then had remarks about the stars and filming and whatnot during the show. Pretty cool.
I’d say Fist of Legend.
Can I also just say that I’m stunned people are saying Enter the Dragon and Drunken Master 2. EtD may have been revolutionary or something, but the fight scenes are anything but impressive when compared to what has come since. I’d rate Return of the Dragon much higher just for the Chuck Norris fight. It might even make you forgive the man for the Bowflex and Sidekicks and Walker Texas Ranger where he kicks a gun out of a guys hand in every episode.
And Drunken Master 2 I found to be a huge disappointment because of the constant recycling of the drunken moves. Everything Chan did in the first drunken fight he did in the final sequence. And none of the fighting he did seemed to require the skill he displayed in the first movie.
And CTHD I’m hesistant to even call a martial arts movie. I don’t know if you noticed, but there’s very little in it.
I’m just hateful.
I have to second Wang-Ka’s recommendation of Crippled Masters. This is one of those “you have to see it to believe it” movies. It has two stars: one guy with no arms, one guy with no legs. And they are both damned impressive martial artists (the guy with no arms is clearly better, but still…) Oh, and the villain is a hunchback, although he, at least, migh have a prosthetic hump. The movie is not good, by any stretch of the imagination, but is worth seeing simply for the sight of an armless man practicing with a bo staff.
I agree with Enter the Dragon. It was the first big budget (for it’s time) martial arts movie and was great.
A lot of Jackie Chan’s movies are pretty awesome. I’d throw out Police Story as one of my favorites.
If you wanna go swordsmen stuff, then anything by Kurosawa featuring Toshiro Mifune is awesome.
Also, not mentioned here is the Zatoichi series. His style was awesome. Actually my super bad ass Kenpo Karate instructor used to have big dojo outings to see these flicks when they played at the Japan center. Zatoichi moves a lot like a kenpo guy and uses two swords very effectively.
I’ve never seen Lone Wolf and Cub but love the comic book series.
Here’s a link http://www.imagesjournal.com/2002/reviews/zatoichi/text.htm or http://www.alldvdmovies.com/altdvdgr/gr119321D6.htm
I also liked Project A and Police Story, some of Chan’s best.
I’ve seen a Drunken Master film that Chan supposedly is a part of, but I’m not so sure it was the sequal. After sitting through 45 minutes of crap, Chan had not made an appearance so I ended the torture and stopped watching.
See Enter the Dragon and immediately follow it with Fistful of Yen, the blatant parody by Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers (who would go on to make Airplane! and Police Squad). You can find Fistful included within *The Kentucky Fried Movie*.
Yeah, you have to watch out for those “SEE JACKIE CHAN [sub]style fighting[/sub] IN ‘DRUNKEN FINGER BOXING!’” types of movies.
Like those “starring the style of Bruce Lee.” lol
I concur with many movies mentioned on this thread. For a good, fun movie, I also recommend Dreadnaught. Includes laundry-fu!