Jaguar Lives! (1979)

 

Jaguar Lives! (1979)- * * *

Directed by: Ernest Pintoff

Starring: Joe Lewis, Christopher Lee, Barbara Bach, Woody Strode, John Huston, Donald Pleasence, and Capucine

Jonathan Cross (Lewis) is The Jaguar. He's an international man of action who globe-trots all over the place to stop the baddies using his Karate-fighting ways. When Anna Thompson (Bach) sends him on his latest mission, Cross leaves Sensei (Strode) (That's all he's credited as), and travels to the following places: New York, Hong Kong, Madrid, Rome, and Macao. He also goes to El Habbab, Santa Fortuna, and Belmonte, which may be made up locations. Along the way, he encounters characters such as General Villanova (Pleasence), Zina Vanacore (Capucine), Ralph Richards (Huston), and, of course, the main baddie, Adam Caine (Lee). Most of the above have goons, and Jonathan Cross beats them up. But will he finally falter in the fatal face-off at the finale?


In 1979, Karate and Kung Fu were red hot. Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, and also James Bond ruled the action universe. So it was only a matter of time until a film like Jaguar Lives! (Can't forget that exclamation point) made it to your local drive-in in '79. Joe Lewis has the emotionless deadpanity of Chuck Norris, the rough-and-tumble ways of a young Gary Busey, and the facial features and hair of Michael Dudikoff. We as the audience basically like him, but not because of any real effort on his part. At least he's not annoying like Sloane (1985). He doesn't have enough of a personality for that, which we mean in the nicest possible way, of course. He's a Martial Artist, and that's that. He acquits himself well in the action scenes, which are quite entertaining.



The whole thing has a Kill Or Be Killed/Kill And Kill Again vibe, with a few dashes of Mr. Deathman (1977) or a 70's telefilm thrown in for good measure. Sure, it's rated PG, but the filmmakers probably hoped to distract us with its dizzying array of location changes and cavalcade of star-power. When it all kicks off, we're just kind of thrown into the middle of the plot, or so it seems. Then there's a gas station fight that's reminiscent of The Instructor (1981). A bunch of yay-hoos inexplicably throw a bunch of Native American-based racial slurs at Woody Strode. Why they do this to Sensei, of all people, remains unknown.


Then we get some James Bond connections with Bach, Pleasence, Lee, and Joseph Wiseman. Pleasence is one of those "El Presidente"-style South American generals. The great John Huston plays a wheelchair-bound dude for not a lot of reason that we can glean, but so what? He was here. Same for fan favorite Christopher Lee. Hey, if he can be in wacky comedies starring opposite Eddie Deezen - such as Desperate Moves (1980) - then surely he can be here for this. Simon Andreu and Capucine round out the very impressive cast. Then Joe Lewis kicks some goons off some motorcycles. It's not bad. There's much worse stuff out there.


Yes, surprisingly, Jaguar Lives! seems to have gotten a lot of negative reviews out there, but don't listen to them. It's solid, it delivers the action, the star-studded cast, and a variety of colorful locations. That's more than many movies of this sort can boast. If you saw that awesome poster, or that killer VHS box art, wouldn't you want to rent it? We say give Jaguar Lives! your time.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

An Eye For an Eye (1981)

An Eye For an Eye (1981)-* *1\2

Directed by: Steve Carver

Starring: Chuck Norris, Richard Roundtree, Christopher Lee, Professor Toru Tanaka, and Mako










Sean Kane (Chuck) is the best undercover narcotics cop in the San Francisco police department. During what he initially believes to be a standard bust, his partner is killed. His classic BYC (Black Yelling Chief) Capt. Stevens (Roundtree) yells at him for a while about his rogue ways, and, without even being asked in the traditional fashion, Kane turns in his badge and gun. But the threat is far bigger than he originally believes, as a reporter, Linda Chan (Chao) is murdered. 

So Kane teams up with his buddy James Chan (Mako) and the two men work together to get justice, results, or some reasonable combination of the two. But it’s not going to be easy, as dapper baddie Morgan Canfield (Lee) is a powerful man with connections, and his right-hand man has some massive right hands, because it’s Professor Toru Tanaka playing, as if he could play anything else, The Professor. So Kane and Chan have their work cut out for them, but even in the face of insurmountable odds, Kane never loses his cool, or doubts the fact that “he’s a human weapon!” Will an eye be taken for an eye? Find out today...

An Eye for an Eye is generally what people think of when discussing early-80’s Chuck: it’s a little slow, a little dull, but it’s steady, solid, and gets the job done. Perhaps the filmmakers didn’t trust Chuck alone at this early period in his career, so they loaded the movie up with action fan favorites: Mako, Professor Toru Tanaka, Roundtree, and of course Christopher Lee. 

Unfortunately, the fight between Mako and Tanaka left a bit to be desired, and Lee doesn’t show up until 43 minutes in. He should have been more murderous and sinister. But he does his usual professional job, and his mustache and pipe make him seem so sophisticated. Amazingly, in the same year, 1981, Lee starred opposite none other than Eddie Deezen in another San Francisco-set movie, Desperate Moves (1981). We don’t know which was filmed first, but to go from Eddie Deezen to Chuck Norris, or vice versa, is enough to make your head spin.

This was the phase of Chuck’s career where he had a blonde mop-top and no facial hair. He might be the only man of action to make the sweater-with-a-collared-shirt look seem intimidating. An Eye for an Eye follows the formula of “Chuck chasing a hulking brute who’s going around murdering people” template later used for Silent Rage (1982) and Hero and the Terror (1988). 

While Mako makes a great sidekick, and there are some excellent moves displayed in the fight scenes, there’s no conceivable reason why this needed to be 104 minutes. It should have been 90 at most. But then again, this was before ADD had come along and ruined people’s attention spans.

That’s just the thing: as we talked about in our Hero and the Terror review, we’re not against slow paces necessarily, but take a comparable action star of the day like Arnie. His personality, accent and charisma can help viewers power through the boring parts. Chuck doesn’t have those tools at his disposal. 

His co-stars ended up falling into some similar ruts: Roundtree ended up playing BYC’s again, most notably in A Time to Die (1991). Director Carver apparently had no problem with Chuck’s shortcomings and went on to work with him again with Lone Wolf McQuade (1983). From there he did Bulletproof (1988) with Gary Busey and Danny Trejo, and River of Death (1989) with Dudikoff. So his resume of video-store action speaks for itself. Finally, it should be noted that fan favorite Richard Norton is listed as a stuntman, but doesn’t appear in the movie, unfortunately.

An Eye for an Eye certainly has its moments, but there’s some dullness surrounding them, which is a common problem for Chuck movies. Don’t hesitate to see it, just be prepared for that.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

Circle of Iron (1978)

  
Circle of Iron (1978)-* * *

AKA: The Silent Flute

Directed by: Richard Moore

Starring: David Carradine, Roddy McDowall, Eli Wallach, Christopher Lee, Jeff Cooper










Circle of Iron is an extremely interesting and worthwhile movie that even non-action movie fans can easily enjoy.

From a story by Bruce Lee, Lee worked on the screenplay with James Coburn and Stirling Silliphant (both students of Lee's), and Lee was supposed to have starred in the film, but then he made Enter the Dragon (1973), got famous, and died. The script was then reworked, but it retained all of the Zen philosophy that Lee wanted to include.

Set in a timeless, mystical land, Jeff Cooper plays Cord, a martial artist who becomes a Seeker, a man on a quest to find The Book of Knowledge, and the man who wields it, Zetan. On his quest, he must go through many trials and tribulations, and he meets many people along the way, most of them played by David Carradine. My favorite of Carradine's four roles in the film is The Blind Man, who is a Zen master who fights with his flute, and has a lot of great quotes ("A sword cannot cut itself", "You cannot step on the same piece of water twice", etc.).



Cord's relationship with him is stormy because Cord doesn't always understand The Blind Man's mysterious ways. The other three roles interpreted by Carradine are Death, who has a minimal part in the film, The Monkey Man, whom Cord must fight as one of his trials, and Chang Sha, the leader of some kind of traveling show, and a relationship with one of his wives, Tara, provides some more food for the interplay between Cord and The Blind Man, as Cord becomes less of a musclebound meathead and more of an enlightened human being.

Perhaps feeling that Jeff Cooper as Cord wasn't quite enough as the main hero (Imagine a cross between John Saxon and Sam Neill with long blonde hair, who is shirtless the entire film), Circle of Iron is littered with welcome, famous faces, including Roddy McDowall, Christopher Lee, and in an especially memorable role, Eli Wallach. His "Man in Oil" is reminiscent of Bunuel's Simon of the Desert (1965), and, in fact, the whole film has a vaguely Bunuel-esque quality.



If you were to put Conan the Barbarian (1982), Deathsport (1978), The Holy Mountain (1973), Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, a book of Zen quotes, and the few Bruce Lee movies made, and put them in a blender, and poured the result into your DVD player, the result would undoubtedly be Circle of Iron. NOT to imply the film is a hodgepodge; it's definitely not. The movie flows beautifully, and has some great matte work, cinematography, and amazing Israel locations.



Circle of Iron is action, but different. You will be involved in the film and it will make you think. Far from your average beat-em-up or chop socky outing, I would strongly recommend Circle of Iron for the discerning action movie fan, or anyone who wants a different, intelligent, engaging movie.

Comeuppance review by: Brett