Fist Of Steel (1992)

Fist Of Steel (1992)- * * *

Directed by: Teddy Page

Starring: Dale "Apollo" Cook, Cynthia Khan, Nick Nicholson, Cris Aguilar, Ned Hourani, Mike Monty, Greg Douglas, and Don Nakaya Neilsen













In a post-apocalyptic desert landscape, a fighter named Amp (Cook) has to fight and, well...fight some more. Teaming up with a woman named Wild (Khan), Amp realizes he can put his pugilistic skills to use in Punchfighting tournaments in order to win some water (which is as good as currency in our coming future). The diabolical arch-baddie of the future is a man named Mainframe (Douglas). Once Amp fights his way through all the contenders, Mainframe is the final nemesis, and Amp has special reasons for wanting to defeat him - he was imprisoned, beaten and even crucified by him and his goons.  The miniboss is played by Don Nakaya Neilsen. Will Amp and Wild reign supreme?

Much like Blood Ring (1991), Fist of Steel is a Davian International production, released by AIP, directed by Teddy Page, and starring Dale “Apollo” Cook. They had quite a thing going for a while. Unlike Blood Ring, this is set in a sparse desert environment, and perhaps could have been titled Desert Kickboxer. It even has enough “sand-fighting” to compete with The Ultimate Game (2001).

Of course, Fist of Steel is filled with ‘facepalm’ dialogue, brain-cell-depleting pretexts for fights, and very silly costumes. As we all recognize, whoever survives after the bomb drops will be wearing hubcaps and broken smoke detectors on their chests. But isn’t that why we watch these movies in the first place? Would we expect anything less? Sure, what we’re watching, technically speaking, is “dumb”, but we all knew that going in, and it all contributed to making the video store era great.

Speaking of dumb, Dale “Apollo” Cook may not be a master thespian, but he does a great “dumb face”. If something dumb is going on, you can count on an authentic reaction from Cook. We kid because we love. We’ve seen every available Cook movie and we remain fans. His Martial Arts abilities are why we’re here, after all. It was a genius move to pair him with Cynthia Khan, who fans of Hong Kong action will know. Her presence is vital to the movie and keeps things rolling along. The same could be said for fan favorite Nick Nicholson, who plays a druggie fight promoter. He wears a silver shower cap and matching shorts. He got a respectable amount of screen time, which is a good thing, and we’re guessing the film was shot in the Philippines, because his fellow stock company - Cris Aguilar, Ned Hourani, and Mike Monty also make brief appearances.

While there is a ton of Punchfighting on display, use of nunchuks is also prominent. It’s likely that if this ever got a UK VHS or DVD release (we don’t think it has, but correct us if we’re wrong), it would be cut there, because they hate nunchuks. They even hate nunchuks if they’re made out of sausage links, as the BBFC proved when they cut Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. All that being said, there is some dialogue too, as previously alluded to, but why talk when you can grunt? That seems to be the overriding ethos. Hence, there are plenty of unintentional ‘laffs’. Like if someone says something to Apollo, and his response is “UUUUuuurrrggghhhhh!!!”, it’s hard not to respond to that with some chuckles.

Fist of Steel is one of the more watchable post-apocalyptic movies we’ve reviewed, thanks mainly to the cast and the non-stop beat-em-ups. If that appeals to you, do seek it out.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett 

Double Blast (1994)

Double Blast (1994)-* * *

Directed by: Tim Spring

Starring: Dale "Apollo" Cook, Linda Blair, Joe Estevez, Ron Hall, Ned Hourani, John Barrett, Crystal Summer, Stephen Brouse, Lorne Berfield, and Robert Z'Dar











Greg (Cook) is a professional kickboxer who has a son, Jimmy (Berfield), and a daughter, Lisa (Summer), who take after their father and also are proficient in Martial Arts. When a gang of no-goodniks led by Nadir (Estevez) and his number one goon Mongoose (Z’Dar) kidnap archaeologist Claudia (Blair) because she can translate an ancient stone tablet said to lead to the whereabouts of great riches, the kidnapping is witnessed by Lisa and Jimmy. They follow the baddies into the jungle, and are soon followed by their dad. So now everyone, good guys and bad guys alike, are trekking through jungles and caves to try and find the treasure. Who will end up with it?

Ah, to be a kid in the 90’s. You could go to your local video store, rent Double Blast and maybe a Genesis game, then go home and watch Wild and Crazy Kids while eating your Fruit By The Foot. It’s a nice scenario, and surely one that the filmmakers at Davian International (the people behind most of Dale “Apollo” Cook’s movies) were aiming for. Double Blast is nothing if not an attempt to crack the market of younger kids seeking action thrills, and in the attempt making a sort of cross between Home Alone (1990), The Goonies (1985) and Three Ninjas (1992) (one of Berfield’s only credits is a “thank you” on Three Ninjas - was he a young consultant, a stunt-kid, or was he in the running to be one of the Ninjas? We may never know...) Seeing as how the Martial Arts fights aren’t all that different from Cook’s other movies, if such a designation exists, this movie would surely be a hard PG.

Cook carries over his time-honored sweatpants-and-fannypack look into this movie. Why an acknowledged action star of the time insisted on dressing like a tourist in every one of his films remains a mystery. Lorne Berfield, the kid who played Jimmy, was very good and seemed to have a promising career ahead of him. Sadly it never materialized. Linda Blair is along for the silly ride, and Joe Estevez chews scenery as the main baddie. Robert Z’Dar holds up his end of the wackiness on show, and this is the only credited performance of Crystal Summer, who’s not a porn star as far as we know. There are some other names in the cast fans will know, such as Ron Hall, who flips around and fights in a full suit, John Barrett, who’s Cook’s fight trainer, and Ned Hourani, who plays one of the baddies who is constantly getting beat up by children.

Director Tim Spring was certainly on a tear in the mid-90’s, having directed Reason to Die (1990), Double Blast, and Raw Target (1995) all in a row. The golden age of the video store brought out the best in people, and gave us more choices than ever before. What’s good about Double Blast is that it’s at least upbeat, and there’s no annoying kid, which there easily could have been. There are zany “BOING!” sound effects while the children are beating up the grown-ups, and characters read newspapers with grammatical errors in them. Lisa has a boyfriend (Lisa has a boyfriend!) named Charlie (Stephen Brause, in his only role) who looks exactly like TV’s Zack Morris. Maybe that’s why Brause never went on to anything else. The world already had a Zack.

But perhaps the most interesting thing, from today’s standpoint, about Double Blast is how characters call each other “retard” as an insult. You CANNOT do that today. Or maybe you could, but your movie would be rated R, and you’d be accused of bullying and defamation and sued within an inch of your life. It’s all done without malice, it truly was a more innocent time back then, people didn’t know what they were saying. In the end, we watched Double Blast because of the very impressive cast, but the movie is certainly geared for younger viewers. Not unlike Little Ninjas (1990). It’s pretty dumb, but the cast basically keeps it afloat. If you have occasion to watch something of this kind, you could probably do worse than Double Blast.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Triple Impact (1992)

Triple Impact (1992)-* * *1\2

Directed by: David Hunt

Starring: Dale "Apollo" Cook, Ron Hall, Ned Hourani, Bridgett "Baby Doll" Riley, Nick Nicholson, and Mike "Cobra" Cole as Cobra Cole





 "Uh-Oh!" - James Stokes

Dave Masters (Cook) and James Stokes (Hall) are buddies who make money on staged Punchfighting matches with each other. They have choreographed moves that the audience doesn’t know about. When a mysterious man, Karl (Hourani) approaches them about recovering a priceless treasure - a golden Buddha head - the two men agree to put their scam on hold and go on a jungle adventure. They recruit fellow fighter Julie Webb (Riley) to go along with them. Besides the fact they must dodge many perils to get the treasure, they must also contend with the evil McMann (Nicholson) and his team. They also want the head and will stop at nothing to get it. So jumpkicks, spin moves, and maybe an exploding helicopter ensue as the two camps attempt to retrieve the treasure.

We love Dale “Apollo” Cook. We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again. Why isn’t he making movies anymore? Where are you buddy? In this outing, he’s more animated than usual, and he displays a very childlike sense of humor in his role as Dave. Plus, his array of sweatpants, acid-washed jeans, and ever-present fanny pack add to his personal style. Throughout most of the movie - including the majority of his fights - he never removes the fanny pack. What could be in there?

And speaking of national treasures who have great reaction shots (which we more or less were...), Cook’s partner in crime here, Ron Hall, is amazing as well. He also starred with Cook in Raw Target (1995), and is credited with stunts on The Quest (1996), but this is his strongest appearance we’ve seen to date. His acting style is truly one of a kind and demands to be seen. Plus he has some cool moves in the Martial Arts department as well. 

Fan-favorite Nick Nicholson can proudly add this movie to his already highly-impressive filmography. Usually he appears in small roles and bit parts, but here he gets to chew the scenery as the main baddie. Bridgett “Babydoll” Riley has a fruitful career in stuntwork, and this is one of her few movies as an actress. She’s obviously an integral part of the Cook-Hall-Riley “Triple Impact” team (not to be confused with the mere Double Impact which not coincidentally was released only the year earlier, in 1991).

What’s interesting here is that this movie seems to be inspired by the Chuck Norris movie Firewalker (1986). There are some definite similarities. But the fact that Triple Impact is an adventure film cross-pollinated with a Punchfighter is a unique blend that you don’t see too often.  Like another Cook film, Fist of Glory (1991), this starts off as a Vietnam jungle movie in a prologue (not forgetting an exploding hut or two), then moves to Punchfighting/adventure. 

Both Cook movies integrate more than one action movie scenario. As this is another Davian International production (who made most of Cook’s output), if you’ve seen other Dale “Apollo” Cook movies, this follows stylistically. Plus any movie that has on its box this credit: Mike “Cobra” Cole as “Cobra Cole”, you know it is worth seeing.

Besides the funny faces and enjoyable dumbness, there’s a great training sequence featuring a song we believe is called “Fight To Win”, but sadly we don’t know for sure, and we don’t know the artist that created this great tune, because there is no credit for it. Oddly, the sound quality for this song is extremely poor and it sounds like it was recorded on a tape recorder. But this song/sequence is a movie highlight nonetheless.

Triple Impact is probably second, after American Kickboxer 2 (1993), for our favorite Dale “Apollo” Cook movie. Thank you AIP for releasing it.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

Blood Ring (1991)

 Blood Ring (1991)-* * *

Directed by: Teddy Page

Starring: Dale "Apollo" Cook, Andrea Lamatsch, Don Nakaya Neilsen, Cris Aguilar, and Nick Nicholson









 

 Max Rivers (Cook) is an underground kickboxer with a drinking problem. His former girlfriend Susan (Lamatsch) is now with fellow kick-fighter Philip (Tartalia). When evil gangsters kidnap (or possibly kill) Philip, Susan runs back to her former love, Max, for help. Unfortunately, Max doesn’t realize the caliber of what he’s getting himself into, as this army of punks is led by the sinister fighter Don Carlio (Neilsen).

Caught and imprisoned by Carlio, they force Max to fight for them in order to save Susan. Upon escaping their clutches, Max and Susan head out to the woods so Max can train for the final battle with Carlio. Will love and kickboxing prowess conquer all?

Released by AIP but produced by Davian International, the company behind the majority of Dale “Apollo” Cook’s career, “Blood Ring” was directed by the infamous Teddy Page. Besides Cook, it also features Nick Nicholson, a man fast becoming a familiar face around the Comeuppance Reviews headquarters for his bad guy roles. Cook continues his penchant for pink and/or purple tank tops and shorts, while the cute Lamatsch has an extremely thick German accent which is never explained plot-wise. Neilsen isn’t much in the acting department but you can tell he’s a fighter in real life because his moves are well-executed. The plot all comes to a head with one of the bloodiest final fights in recent memory in a barbed wire ring and there’s even a pre-Mike Tyson ear bite.

Max has some stupid one-liners, the “punch” sound effects sound like some dude hitting a snare drum, and the plot is pretty minimal. Additionally, seeing as there are many kicks and punches to the crotch in the film, it seems like they spent more energy on the genital trauma than on the storyline. Nevertheless, there are some cool camera moves and some good energy overall. There’s also some decent humor, such as the big opponent with the executioner’s mask that yells continuously, and the fact that it really seems like the main bad guy's name is “Garulio”. When we found out it was not, in fact, “Garulio”, we were disappointed. But on the bright side, that name is now usable for someone else...

All told, Blood Ring is a decently entertaining movie that gets better as it goes along.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Raw Target (1995)

Raw Target (1995)-* *1\2

Directed by: Tim Spring

Starring: Dale "Apollo" Cook, Ron Hall,  Nick Hill, Mychelle Charters, and Nick Nicholson











Johnny Rider (Cook) is a kickboxer who accidentally kills his opponent during one of his matches.  His brother Gabe was working with DEA agent Susan Wells (Charters) to take down the evil, sadistic, drug-dealing Rod Sparks (Hill). Unfortunately, Sparks found out Gabe was undercover and killed him. Now Johnny wants revenge, so he follows in his brother’s footsteps and works with Susan to infiltrate the Sparks gang.  Meanwhile, Johnny and Susan develop a romantic relationship, and the main cop working the case, Bill Williams (Hall) complicates matters because he’s involved as well. Can Johnny use his kickboxing skills to get some closure regarding his brother?

It’s a good thing kickboxers and cops have brothers, or most low-budget action movies would not get made. Luckily, Johnny Rider does, so he comes into town to get justice. It seems the filmmakers at least tried to make Dale “Apollo” Cook likable this time around. For Rider, shirtlessness is a way of life, and he always seems to run into trouble and having to kickbox his way out of it.

Because the film is under-lit and most scenes are extremely dark - this is probably the darkest film we’ve seen, darker than American Dragons (1998), Raw Target seems to have pioneered a new genre: Darkfighting. This variant of punchfighting happens when few, if any, lights are on. Perhaps this was a conscious choice by director Tim Spring, thinking that an audience would be hard-pressed to tell if punches and kicks are connecting if you just can’t see anything. But the problem is, well...you just can’t see anything!

Luckily you can see Nick Hill’s wardrobe in the film. Rod Sparks is one snappy dresser. Hill is better acting-wise in Death Match (1994)  (and Fists of Iron, 1995 for that matter), but his martial arts looks good. He tries to play an over-the-top crazy villain, but it doesn’t really come off, he seems more suited to playing the “nice guy”. But though Raw Target falls prey to such common problems for movies of this type such as some horrendous acting and some really terrible editing, once again these things don’t matter. I would assume most people that rented this from their local video store back in the day weren’t concerned with the copious padding of the running time and serious pacing issues. What fans want to see is Cook beat people up, and that definitely happens. Watch out for Nick Nicholson in a small role as well. 

After all the mindless fighting that has gone on, during the final confrontation, the same guitar riff plays over and over again in the background. Could they only afford one riff? But the movie redeems itself from that with a freeze-frame ending and an amazingly groan-inducing, dated final line. And the title song by Gracy Carlson is perfect for the movie, falling perfectly in with other songs such as “No Exit” (from Fatal Combat, 1997) and "White Fury” (from the AIP film of the same name).

Released on Vidmark on VHS in the U.S., as was most of Cook’s material, you could certainly do worse than Raw Target.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Fist of Glory (1991)

Fist of Glory (1991)-* *1\2

Directed by: Joe Mari Avellana

Starring: Dale "Apollo" Cook







"Welcome To The Apocalypse."





In this period piece set towards the end of the Vietnam war, Jake "Johnny" Reynolds (Cook) and his team are deep in the jungle fighting the VC in an unauthorized mission. During some generic Vietnam action that lasts over thirty minutes but somehow manages to completely sidestep anything resembling character development, there are constant firefights and explosions. Grass and dirt continually blow up, and it makes Eye Of the Eagle III (1989), Crossfire (1988) and Firehawk (1993) seem like episodes of Masterpiece Theatre. It gets quite brain-numbing.

Three months later, while on some temporary R&R, Jake decides to hit the town in Vietnam. He realizes his buddy "Mad Dog" Lee has been brainwashed, hooked on heroin and forced to fight in underground punchfighting matches, dubbed "Saigon's Awesome Arena of Blood". There are no rules and you must fight to the death. Concerned for his friend, Jake infiltrates the operation. He even hires a foreign trainer to help him. After nursing Lee back to health, they set out for revenge against the entire town.

In Apollo's first-ever movie role, he's as wooden and surly as ever. He has a funny haircut, and, like American Kickboxer 2 (1993), wears a pink shirt. Maybe it's in his contract.

The film boasts some decent stunts, and when the VC are shot they are a bit "flippier" than usual. They spin around a few extra times in this one. One soldier is even blown up and flies through the air in a sitting position. Just imagine Magik's immortal "sit-down dance" from Body Rock. (1984) Sure, there are constant blow-ups, but for what? Fist of Glory could have used a bit more character development and a few less unnecessary explosions. The punchfighting is a bit weak compared to some of the others in the meathead genre. However, in one match, the man Jake is fighting has "secret chilis". He has some hot peppers in a corner of the ring, and when Jake isn't looking, he eats them and then spits in his face. That was pretty novel.

In one of the battle scenes, only for a few seconds, we see a POV of Lee's machine gun. It seems it is attached to the camera. It is like a first-person shooter, which was very different in 1991. It also doesn't wear out its welcome. We enjoyed that.

Fist of Glory (whatever that means, the title doesn't make much sense) is fairly interesting because it is a hybrid Vietnam/Punchfighter, and because it is the first appearance of Dale "Apollo" Cook.


Comeuppance Review by: Brett & Ty

American Kickboxer 2 (1993)

American Kickboxer 2 (1993)-* * *

Directed by: Jenö Hodi

Starring: Dale "Apollo" Cook, Kathy Shower and Evan Lurie















When Lillian's (Shower) 6-year old daughter Susie is kidnapped in broad daylight by a guy in a helicopter who looks like Jesse Ventura, she calls the only people on the planet who can help: Mike Clark (Cook), a hot-headed, unlikable L.A. cop and David (Lurie), a kickfighting instructor with an eye for the ladies.



Henceforth, it's "Meatheads Unite!" as Clark and David turn the city upside down looking for Susie. Will they survive the underground punchfighting matches they have to fight in, the many baddies that come after them, and who are the mysterious men "Mr. Po" and "Sam Driftie"? and most importantly will they get along long enough to complete the mission? There is also a loose subplot about who is the father of Susie. What is this? Maury?

"AK2" is not related to AK1 in any way. It is much, much sillier. Despite their unexplained bodyguards, Lillian and her new husband Howard (David Graf) don't notice a helicopter landing in their backyard until it is too late. Maybe they were both distracted by Howard's stylish shorts.

All the men in AK2 look completely ridiculous. Even the butler has a funny ponytail. Take our main heroes for example. When we are first introduced to Clark, he is wearing a pink shirt and tight stonewashed jeans even as he chases a random homie. 90% of the movie Clark is wearing a blue tanktop and ill-fitting blue sweatpants.



Despite one character enthusiastically claiming "he has great hair!" David's long mane is hilarious and he wears pants with a very high belt. He is shirtless so much, even Clark angrily remarks: "Put your shirt back on, pretty boy!" (Also as part of their rivalry, Clark insults David by saying "You have been drinking too much carrot juice!")

The opening credits misspell "Apollo" as "Appollo" - you don't often see a misspelling in movie credits. Because of his acting ability, meatheadyness, and the fact that he is always chewing on a tooth pick, Cook is downright incoherent. On the Vidmark VHS box it lists him as "five-time world champion" but doesn't say for what. The side of the box lists the genre of this movie as "Action Kickboxing".



Cook and Lurie's constant fighting is downright brain-numbing. In one sequence they are searching for a guy with a shark tattoo wearing a vest and no shirt. Of course they are.

More movie highlights include: A woman answering the phone at a bookstore by saying: "Bookstore?", when nudity appears on screen, a screeching, wailing saxophone is heard, A guy bringing a bottle of cockroaches to a big brawl just to make a baddie look down, and the best warehouse guard ever.

It ends with a freeze frame and the catchy tune "Fight For Power".

For an incredibly goofy, silly, unintentionally zany good time, don't miss American Kickboxer 2!


Comeuppance Review by Ty & Brett