XMA: Xtreme Martial Arts (2003)
Genre : Documentary
Runtime : 1H 40M
Director : John Brenkus
Synopsis
See the world's legendary fighting styles in an entirely new way. As young martial artists Mike Chaturantabut and Matt Mullins fight their way through the world's most prestigious tournament, East meets West in a stunning application of visual technologies and the biomechanical secrets behind the world's martial arts are revealed for the first time. Using a unique graphic technique that allows for "in-the-body" animation of joints and muscles, experts demonstrate the basic principles behind muscular torque and leverage - creating fighting and sparring scenes unlike anything you've ever seen. Weapon masters showcase the physics behind the fiercest weapon styles - the twin broadswords, the Chinese straight sword and the Katana - and demonstrate how warriors can quickly master even common household items - like a traditional Japanese hand fan - to devastate their opponents.
Two warriors in pursuit of a stolen sword and a notorious fugitive are led to an impetuous, physically-skilled, teenage nobleman's daughter, who is at a crossroads in her life.
An American teenager who is obsessed with Hong Kong cinema and kung-fu classics makes an extraordinary discovery in a Chinatown pawnshop: the legendary stick weapon of the Chinese sage and warrior, the Monkey King. With the lost relic in hand, the teenager unexpectedly finds himself travelling back to ancient China to join a crew of warriors from martial arts lore on a dangerous quest to free the imprisoned Monkey King.
The archetypical renegade Texas Ranger wages war against a drug kingpin with automatic weapons, his wits and martial arts after a gun battle leaves his partner dead. All of this inevitably culminates in a martial arts showdown between the drug lord and the ranger, and involving the woman they both love.
A martial artist agrees to spy on a reclusive crime lord using his invitation to a tournament there as cover.
One man defeated three assassins who sought to murder the most powerful warlord in pre-unified China.
When the Valley of Peace is threatened, lazy Po the panda discovers his destiny as the "chosen one" and trains to become a kung fu hero, but transforming the unsleek slacker into a brave warrior won't be easy. It's up to Master Shifu and the Furious Five -- Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey -- to give it a try.
The Canadian policeman Louis Burke is assigned in a jail to investigate the murders of prisoners and jailors. When in jail, Louis, using his outstandings martial arts skills, is able to save his life and make himself respected in that violent world. At least, helped by two another prisoners, he succeded in finding the truth about the dreadful crimes. In a violent and corrupt prison, decorated cop Louis Burke must infiltrate the jail to find answers to a number of inside murders. What he finds is a struggle of life and death tied in to his own past.
Returning home with his father after a shopping expedition, Wong Fei-Hong is unwittingly caught up in the battle between foreigners who wish to export ancient Chinese artifacts and loyalists who don't want the pieces to leave the country. Fei-Hong must fight against the foreigners using his Drunken Boxing style, and overcome his father's antagonism as well.
Jean Claude Van Damme plays a dual role as Alex and Chad, twins separated at the death of their parents. Chad is raised by a family retainer in Paris, Alex becomes a petty crook in Hong Kong. Seeing a picture of Alex, Chad rejoins him and convinces him that his rival in Hong Kong is also the man who killed their parents. Alex is suspicious of Chad, especially when it comes to his girlfriend.
While Po and his father are visiting a secret panda village, an evil spirit threatens all of China, forcing Po to form a ragtag army to fight back.
If your enemy refuses to be humbled... Destroy him. Accompanied by his brother Kurt (Van Damme), American kickboxing champion Eric Sloane (Dennis Alexio), arrives in Thailand to defeat the Eastern warriors at their own sport. His opponent: ruthless fighter and Thai champion, Tong Po. Tong not only defeats Eric, he paralyzes him for life. Crazed with anger, Kurt vows revenge.
The Bride unwaveringly continues on her roaring rampage of revenge against the band of assassins who had tried to kill her and her unborn child. She visits each of her former associates one-by-one, checking off the victims on her Death List Five until there's nothing left to do … but kill Bill.
Monroe Hutchens is the heavyweight champion of Sweetwater, a maximum security prison. He was convicted to a life sentence due to a passionate crime. Iceman Chambers is the heavyweight champion, who lost his title due to a rape conviction to ten years in Sweetwater. WHen these two giants collide in the same prison, they fight against each other disputing who is the real champion.
When a woman's father goes missing, she enlists a local to aid in her search. The pair soon discover that her father has died at the hands of a wealthy sportsman who hunts homeless men as a form of recreation.
A young Shaolin follower reunites with his discouraged brothers to form a soccer team using their martial art skills to their advantage.
A story of lost love, young love, a legendary sword and one last opportunity at redemption.
When Ah Bu, a girl from a small fishing town in Taiwan, finds a glass bottle with a romantic message, she travels to Hong Kong to find her prince charming. As it turns out, her prince charming, Albert, happens to be gay. But all is not lost when Ah Bu meets the dashing Chi Wu. Meanwhile, Ah Bu's boyfriend from Taiwan comes looking for her, as the action and romance follow Ah Bu back to Taiwan.
The human city of Zion defends itself against the massive invasion of the machines as Neo fights to end the war at another front while also opposing the rogue Agent Smith.
Six months after the events depicted in The Matrix, Neo has proved to be a good omen for the free humans, as more and more humans are being freed from the matrix and brought to Zion, the one and only stronghold of the Resistance. Neo himself has discovered his superpowers including super speed, ability to see the codes of the things inside the matrix and a certain degree of pre-cognition. But a nasty piece of news hits the human resistance: 250,000 machine sentinels are digging to Zion and would reach them in 72 hours. As Zion prepares for the ultimate war, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity are advised by the Oracle to find the Keymaker who would help them reach the Source. Meanwhile Neo's recurrent dreams depicting Trinity's death have got him worried and as if it was not enough, Agent Smith has somehow escaped deletion, has become more powerful than before and has fixed Neo as his next target.
Weaponology looks at the genealogy of Israel's Elite Commando Unit from the Israel Defense Forces which specialize in hostage rescue missions and pre-preemptive strikes against terrorists.
Nazis-the occult conspiracy is a documentary about how the Hitler and the Nazis made use of occultism to win the war, and to remind the Germans that they were the best humans on the planet, the master-race. There are better documentaries around, but this is a solid documentary. There are many rare pictures from Nazi-Germany to be seen here, and you get to learn more about the religious beliefs of Nazi-leaders like: Hitler, Goebbles, Göring, Hess and Himmler.
In 1970, a picture of a snow monkey bathing in a hot spring graced the cover of Life Magazine. Ever since, Japan's hot-tubbing primates have been protected and well fed for the enjoyment of tourists and photographers - they have become international superstars of the natural world. But while their unique lifestyle has brought fame, the rest of Japan's snow monkeys lead very different lives, enduring incredible hardships as they fight for survival in their beautiful but unforgiving mountain home.
Jonathan Scott narrates the extraordinary story of the leopard - the one big cat that still survives across half the world while tigers, cheetahs and lions are all struggling. By following the lives of leopard mothers and their cubs in East Africa the film investigates what it is about the natural history of these cats that makes them born survivors. Perhaps the most extraordinary revelation is that leopards are living undercover on farms and even in cities across Africa and Asia.
Was Adolf Hitler influenced and motivated by the occult? Through the years, historians have debated the mysterious connection between the occult, Hitler and the Nazi party, including some who maintain that Hitler killed others to keep his occult beliefs a secret. NGC examines how Hitler's involvement with the German Worker's Party brought him face-to-face with occultists who may have influenced his beliefs.
A credible investigation of possible connections between UFO sightings in the past half century and secret flying saucer technologies developed by the Nazis in WW2
Covering the domestic cat in great detail, The Ultimate Guide: House Cats is both informative and humourous. Illustrated in detail are how man and cats have become companions over the last 4,000 years and how the cat has never really been domesticated even though we think they’ve been. The familiar Ultimate Guide techniques are used to demonstrate why they can see in the dark, why they can jump so high and why they land on their feet. Also, explore a house with a 150 foot cat path that runs through the entire house, hanging from the ceiling.
Big Bucks, Big Pharma pulls back the curtain on the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry to expose the insidious ways that illness is used, manipulated, and in some instances created, for capital gain. Focusing on the industry's marketing practices, media scholars and health professionals help viewers understand the ways in which direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising glamorizes and normalizes the use of prescription medication, and works in tandem with promotion to doctors. Combined, these industry practices shape how both patients and doctors understand and relate to disease and treatment. Ultimately, Big Bucks, Big Pharma challenges us to ask important questions about the consequences of relying on a for-profit industry for our health and well-being.
Aminatta Forna tells the story of legendary Timbuktu and its long hidden legacy of hundreds of thousands of ancient manuscripts. With its university founded around the same time as Oxford, Timbuktu is proof that the reading and writing of books have long been as important to Africans as to Europeans.
The Aryan Brotherhood is a secretive criminal gang that began inside California's maximum-security penitentiaries and expanded rapidly into dozens of state and federal prisons across the nation. Outwardly a white power group, its real interest is in controlling drug and extortion rackets. Now, Explorer unveils this underworld society and comes face-to-face with some of the gang's most infamous members, including a former Aryan Brotherhood leader who, by his own count, has killed 22 men.
David Attenborough is in the Swiss Jura Mountains to discover the secrets of a giant. Beneath his feet lies a vast network of tunnels and chambers, home to a huge empire of ants. It is believed to be one of the largest animal societies in the world, where over a billion ants from rival colonies live in peace.
Methamphetamine is one of the hardest drugs to quit. Its abuse is ravaging rural communities and cities alike. NGC correspondent Lisa Ling goes inside this global epidemic to find out what makes meth so addictive and destructive.
Unlike other great civilizations such as the Romans and the Ancient Egyptians, the Mayan empire did not arise from the banks of a mighty river. Much of the Mayan world is in fact devoid of even the smallest river or lake. Then why did they populate Yucatan? The Maya believed that the freshwater pools, ‘cenotes’, dotted across the area were sacred portals to the underworld. They are indeed portals, but rather to an incredible underground labyrinthine systems of rivers. Only now being properly explored and understood, this secret world was created by nature in a unique chain of dramatic events. Underneath the jungle-clad Mayan temples of Yucatan lies a world even more mysterious, even more incredible than the Maya could have ever imagined. A whole food chain has been found in the cenotes deepest recesses — over 20 species that have never seen the light of day. Some of the underground caverns are not totally full of water… incredibly, they are home to thousands of bats.
As Brazil prepares to host the next World Cup, it's people are confronted with the growing problem of child prostitution. The country's relaxed attitude to buying sex has long attracted millions of tourists, particularly men. But now the world's oldest industry is recruiting the world's youngest workers. UNICEF estimates there are 250,000 children forced into prostitution across Brazil. In this shocking episode of Our World, Chris Rogers goes undercover, posing as one of the millions of so-called sex tourists who visit the South American country in search of cheap sex, often with children as young as seven years old.
In this fascinating documentary, historian Bettany Hughes travels to the seven wonders of the Buddhist world.Her journey begins at the Mahabodhi Temple in India, where Buddhism was born; here Hughes examines the foundations of the belief system - the three jewels.At Nepal's Boudhanath Stupa, she looks deeper into the concept of dharma - the teaching of Buddha, and at the Temple of the Tooth in Sri Lanka, Bettany explores karma, the idea that our intentional acts will be mirrored in the future.At Wat Pho Temple in Thailand, Hughes explores samsara, the endless cycle of birth and death that Buddhists seek to end by achieving enlightenment, before travelling to Angkor Wat in Cambodia to learn more about the practice of meditation.In Hong Kong, Hughes visits the Giant Buddha and looks more closely at Zen, before arriving at the final wonder, the Hsi Lai temple in Los Angeles, to discover more about the ultimate goal for all Buddhists - nirvana.
You'll learn how to strike safely and effectively, and how to defend against common chokes, headlocks, and other assaults. -- You'll also learn to deal with knife attacks, and you'll learn gun defenses that have been praised by civilians and law enforcement around the world. -- Instructional DVD's: Line of Fire, Basic Combatives, Self Defense, and On the Edge show you the techniques in dramatized true-to-life situations. -- To easily master the exercises you are then taken into the training studio to examine the techniques as they are explained and analyzed by Krav Maga's highest level instructors: U.S. Chief Instructor Darren Levine and International Krav Maga Federation Head Instructor Eyal Yanilov. * Krav Maga's battle-tested techniques emphasize simple, practical movements, based on the body's natural instincts that can be performed by people of all levels of ability.
Where do dogs in all their amazing diversity come from? Tradition says that thousands of years ago someone tamed a wolf pup, thus creating the first of our best friends. But many scientists disagree. On "Dogs and More Dogs," NOVA goes to the dogs—and to leading researchers—to find out the truth. Narrated by John Lithgow, the program ranges from a wolf research facility in rural Indiana to the Westminster Dog Show in New York's Madison Square Garden. NOVA makes a fascinating detour to the city dump in Tijuana, Mexico, where viewers get surprising insight into the origin and evolutionary strategy of our canine companions.
Ice is one of the strangest, most beguiling and mesmerising substances in the world. Full of contradictions, it is transparent yet it can glow with colour, it is powerful enough to shatter rock but it can melt in the blink of an eye. It takes many shapes, from the fleeting beauty of a snowflake to the multi-million tonne vastness of a glacier and the eeriness of the ice fountains of far-flung moons. Science writer Dr Gabrielle Walker has been obsessed with ice ever since she first set foot on Arctic sea ice. In this programme she searches out some of the secrets hidden deep within the ice crystal to try to discover how something so ephemeral has the power to sculpt landscapes, to preserve our past and inform our future.
Orange-and-black wings fill the sky as NOVA charts one of nature's most remarkable phenomena: the epic migration of monarch butterflies across North America. To capture a butterfly's point of view, NOVA’s filmmakers used a helicopter, ultralight, and hot-air balloon for aerial views along the transcontinental route. This wondrous annual migration, which scientists are just beginning to fathom, is an endangered phenomenon that could dwindle to insignificance if the giant firs that the butterflies cling to during the winter disappear.