Deadly Target (1994)

Deadly Target (1994)- * * *

Directed by: Charla Driver

Starring: Gary Daniels, Aki Aleong, Ken McLeod, Byron Mann, Al Leong, Ron Yuan, and Susan Byun












Charles “Charlie” Prince (Daniels) is a Hong Kong cop who travels to L.A. in order to bring arch-criminal Chang (Mann) back to his home country to face justice. The tenacious Prince will stop at nothing to achieve his goal, because the arrest of Chang is personal to him. His “cowboy” attitude initially rubs his temporary partner Jenson (McLeod) the wrong way, but of course they learn to work together. Naturally both men are Martial Arts masters, which surely is a coincidence. Somehow Prince finds time for romance with Diana Tang (Byun), but Chang and his army of goons are going to prove difficult to stop: their criminal network is vast and their firepower is huge. Will Prince and Jenson finally achieve their goal?

While Deadly Target has all the hallmarks of mid-90’s PM that we’ve come to know and love, such as constant Martial Arts fights, mindless shooting, car chases/cars flipping and blowing up in the middle of the street, exploding helicopters, and more mindless shooting, an element seems to be missing here. It’s not in the top tier, with movies such as Rage, Last Man Standing, Recoil and The Sweeper, and it doesn’t have the nutty/wacky factor of Wilding or Night Of The Kickfighters, but it’s a serviceable outing nonetheless, most likely, once again, because of the charm of Gary Daniels. While we’ve seen almost all of Ken McLeod’s filmography, somehow Daniels always steals the show. 

The presence of Susan Byun as the love interest was basically pointless, but if not for her, there would be almost no women in the whole production. Max Gail as Captain Peters was the classic WYC (White Yelling Chief) - too bad they couldn’t get his lookalike Peter Boyle to do the role. Ron Yuan, Aki Aleong, and Al Leong fill out the cast of familiar faces and names (well, if you watch a lot of 90’s DTV action product).

While that comfortable feeling of “dumbness” is achieved very quickly, what with Daniels beating up many people while wearing a leather jacket in an extended fight scene early in the film, during that same sequence, not only is there mindless shooting, but it looks like GENERIC shooting! It's just footage of a guy shooting a machine gun that could have been taken from any source was spliced in to fire mis-matchedly at Gary Daniels. We’re not saying that’s the case, but director Driver should have taken more care to make sure it didn’t look that way. But on the other hand, it’s really funny and we laughed, so all’s well that ends well. 

Interestingly, while Charla Driver has served in just about every capacity a person can while working on a film during her years with PM, this is the only movie she directed. Maybe that’s why the vibe is a little different, while all the main elements of PM are present and accounted for.

At least during the fight scenes, there appears to be some sort of baby powder on people’s heads, so when they get kicked or punched, the light picks up the flying particles. Also, while many movies have the time-honored sax on the soundtrack, Deadly Target bests them all by having a live sax player. Not only did he provide the smooth jams, but we can actually see what he looks like. 

Additionally, Gary Daniels proves once and for all that you’ve achieved true awesomeness as a human being if you can wear a vest with no shirt underneath as casual, everyday wear. Your body, your muscles and your confidence level must be so unimaginably high, you can pull it off. See also: Lorenzo Lamas. Finally, there’s an old Chinese gangster in the film named Mr. Zao. Presumably his first name is Po Po and he was named after the classic Kevin Federline song of the same name. Yes, the old man was named after the song. Not ridiculous at all. Think about it.

In the end, Deadly Target does provide all the kicking, punching, shooting, Gary Daniels, and blow-ups that fans want, but lacks that little bit of extra something to tie it all together. It’s still worth seeing though.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

Also check out a write-up from our buddy, DTVC!

Showdown (1993)

Showdown (1993)-* * *

Directed by: Robert Radler

Starring: Billy Blanks, Kenn Scott, Christine Taylor, John Asher, Ken McLeod, Patrick Kilpatrick, and Brion James












Ken Marx (Scott) is a 35 year old high school senior (judging by sight anyway) who transplants to a new school filled with punks, ne’er-do-wells and miscreants. But Ken is just your good-hearted American guy. He quickly makes friends with class clown Mike (Asher) and develops a serious crush on the beautiful Julie (Taylor). But there’s a problem: Julie’s boyfriend Tom (McLeod) is an angry, smothering jerk of the highest order. He goes to Martial Arts training under the militaristic, inhuman monster Lee (Kilpatrick) who teaches his students to have no mercy. Though he’s in over his head, Ken teams up with Billy (Blanks), an intriguing man who is the school janitor but was a former cop. 

Billy trains Ken extensively in Martial Arts so he can defend himself in general and against Tom in particular. It all comes to a head at the evil dojo where, unsurprisingly, Lee stages underground Punchfighting matches. Who will be victorious in the final SHOWDOWN?

You gotta love these high school-set action movies. They range from annoyingly bad (Detention, 2003) to lots of fun (A Dangerous Place, 1995). Thankfully, Showdown falls towards the latter. It’s entertaining, fast paced, and enjoyable. If you’ve seen A Dangerous Place, you’ll note the similarities. We’ve all seen the “troubled school” scenario - kids acting wild, smoking, and even - just so you know things are out of control - riding skateboards in the halls. Brion James does nothing in this movie except harangue students and exhort to them the school rules. We’ve never seen him so animated, and he put as much life into the small role as he could, but James should have been given more.

Billy Blanks this time around is administering the training, as opposed to receiving it, a la Balance Of Power (1996). He’s even called at one point “Kung-Fu Janitor”. We never get tired of training sequences, especially if they have the right song behind them. In this case, “Draw The Line” by A.Z.R.O. fits the bill nicely. Playing opposite Billy as your classic evil sensei is Patrick Kilpatrick, who puts in an over the top performance. He’s not quite at John Miller levels, but seems to be aiming for it. So needless to say, we enjoyed it wholeheartedly. 

Compare and contrast to Marshall Teague’s performance in A Dangerous Place for further examination. Kenn Scott as Ken Marx clearly is stretching his acting chops, playing a dude with only one “N” in his name.

There are classic 90’s wisecracks, humor and sarcasm on display, and even a few movie references. It was obvious that the 90’s were upon us at this point. But rather than be irritating, it’s aged well, especially if you have nostalgia for that period in time. Clothing is the same way - note the color schemes which seem to include a lot of purple. Predating the current trend of constantly “raising awareness” about bullying, this movie should be shown in high schools (is that why there’s an edited version?). But director Radler (of Best of the Best 2 (1993) and The Substitute: Failure Is Not an Option (2001) - sticking with the whole high school theme) keeps things upbeat and moving at a good clip.

At the evil dojo, there are posters for China White (1989), Trained To Fight (1992), Black Eagle (1988), and King of the Kickboxers (1990), which featured Billy Blanks. It’s interesting to spot them, and some of them are fellow Imperial titles. The referential thing pops up again.

We liked Showdown (not to be confused with the Leo Fong Showdown, 1993 though we liked that one too), it’s an enjoyable film and is worth seeing.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

Trained To Fight (1992)

Trained To Fight (1992)-* * *1\2

AKA: College Kickboxers 

Directed by: Eric Sherman

Starring: Ken McLeod, Matthew Ray Cohen, Kendra Tucker, Mark Williams, and Tang Tak Wing










James Caulfield (McLeod) comes to the town of Millbrook to enroll as a freshman in the local college. He’s a cool dude who loves Martial Arts. His roommate is Mark Brown (Williams), who also is into Martial Arts. At first they butt heads, but eventually they bond over their common interest and similar sense of style. Mark tells James he’s entering the First Annual Millbrook Karate Tournament. The winner gets 25,000 dollars, and Mark wants to use it to found a Karate school for underprivileged children. But “local badass” Craig Tanner (Cohen), who goes around town harassing people with his gang, the White Tigers, also wants to win the tournament. 

Meanwhile, James gets a job at a local Chinese food restaurant. He learns that a chef there, Wing (Wing) is a Kung Fu master. After the prerequisite resistance, Wing agrees to train James, but on one condition: that he never fight for money. But when the White Tigers injure Mark and he can’t compete, James must either get revenge for his friend using his newfound skills, or keep his promise to Wing - all while trying to woo Kimberly (Tucker) - can he do it?

Trained To Fight is a highly enjoyable, funny, silly good time. It follows in the tradition of “Master initially won’t teach the student, but eventually relents so student can compete in some sort of tournament” movies such as American Shaolin: King of the Kickboxers II (1991), No Retreat, No Surrender (1986) and Balance of Power (1996), among many others. It’s the type of movie where the centerpiece is training. McLeod is perfectly suited to play the cool, Zack Morris-like hero, and Cohen as Tanner seems to know every racial epithet in the book, and just his hair alone spells “evil”. It seems all he does all day is follow around James and Mark with the sole purpose of haranguing them. What else does this guy do? And to prove that there’s absolutely no racism going on here, the first Chinese dude James runs into just happens to be a Kung Fu master and Acupuncture expert. No stereotypes there.

Actually, this movie revolves around the great performance of Tang Tak Wing as...Wing. While this role could have been filled by Leo Fong or Bolo Yeung, Wing steals the movie, and it’s a crying shame he only appeared in two movies. He could have had a Fong-like career. 

As far as Kimberly, who, to continue the Saved By The Bell comparisons, is like the Jessie Spano here, it’s puzzling why James - who could easily have any girl he wants - would be so smitten with her. She’s an unlikable, shrill harpy who never shuts up about global warming. Apparently, James melts her ice and she really warms to him. Plus she looks a bit, let’s say, mature, to be a college student. But it’s never too late to further your education.

This movie is very lovable, and even has training methods we’d not seen yet (ice training, among others) - but there’s a mystery as well. You see, during the “brawl at the mall”, there is a display stand for something called “Chipparoo” - which claims to be the “New Taste Phenomenon.” When a baddie gets knocked into the display, all the Chipparoos (?) fall to the ground. Noticeably, Chipparoos never took off in the general marketplace after that. Coincidence? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CHIPPAROOS? And what is a Chipparoo anyway? As of right now, it’s just one of the flavors that make Trained To Fight worth seeing.

The only thing this movie is really missing is a song. You know, the pumping, driving type of tune that would propel James through his training. How the filmmakers missed this obvious component of this kind of movie, we’re not really sure. In technical news, the Imperial video states the running time as 95 minutes but we had it at 86. It only could have come from the video stores of the 80’s/early 90’s - so enjoy Trained To Fight.

Also check out a review by our buddy, Fist Of B-List! 

Comeuppance Review by Brett and Ty