The Circuit III: The Street Monk (2006)

 

The Circuit III: The Street Monk (2006)- * *

Directed by: Jalal Merhi

Starring: Olivier Gruner, Brad Milne, Cristina Rose, Jason Carter, James Lew, Jalal Merhi, and Loren Avedon 

"Mission Control: We've Found Mr. Longstreet." - Helicopter Pilot

After Circuiting it up over the past two films, our old pal Dirk Longstreet (Gruner) has renounced fighting and becomes a surfer. He lives in a van down by the ocean and just wants to be left alone to hang ten to his heart's content. Things change for Longstreet when he rescues a young girl named Cherrie Wendover (Rose) from a bunch of thugs. The baddies were after her because she knows the truth about Octavio Ventura (Carter), a man who stages illegal Punchfights to the death at a strip club called the Playpen.




When Cherrie gets kidnapped, Ventura forces Longstreet to come out of retirement in order to win her freedom. But he has to fight the current champion, Stuart "Spider" Webb (Lew), among others. Meanwhile, both Editor Bill (Merhi) and Detective Sykes (Avedon) want to figure out what's going on. Will this be the FINAL FLIGHT - or is it FIGHT - for THE STREET MONK, Dirk Longstreet?

Okay, we know that Dirk Longstreet is an awesome name, but we established that a long time ago. At this point, the whole "Circuit" thing is starting to wear a bit thin. It has an even cheaper look to it than the other installments, which wouldn't be such a bad thing in itself if the writing wasn't so monosyllabic, monotonous, and moronic. Yes, the whole thing is very, very dumb. While you shouldn't run to the Circuit series expecting intelligence, it still comes off as somehow disappointingly stupid.


There are only a couple moments when the dumbness becomes funny or entertaining, such as when one of the baddies inexplicably hires a group of surfers to beat up Dirk Longstreet. Normally not known for their violent tendencies, perhaps the choice of paying a gaggle of extra-chill California surfer dudes to assault Longstreet was the wrong move. Longstreet dispatches with them quickly by beating them up extra-stupidly with his surfboard. Oh dear.


Other funny moments occur when fights break with little or no pretext. A lot of these fights have, let's just say, choreography issues. We don't mean to nitpick, because it's probably hard to make a movie like this, but come on. A little more professionalism would have gone a long way.


In between all this, there are many scenes of Longstreet having his own Endless Summer (AKA endless surfing). While that slows things down considerably, the real problem is that Longstreet isn't that likable a character, at least for 90 percent-plus of the movie. He's kind of a jerk to Cherrie for no reason that we can see. Having likable characters is key, and The Circuit III does not deliver them. Avedon and Merhi don't add much to the mix, and James Lew doesn't say anything. This ship is sinking fast.


The many scenes at The Playpen strip club got us thinking. If men go to strip clubs to see naked women, would they be happy or disappointed to see a bunch of half-naked men grappling with each other? Would this be a net benefit for the strip club patron, or an unpleasant surprise? Nevertheless, all the fights at this one location, with its particularly annoying announcer, got repetitive fast. It's all very reminiscent, unfortunately, of Las Vegas Warrior (2002). That's probably the film that's the closest comparison to Circuit III.


While the film opens up with a truly impressive location, the top of some sort of mountain, the scenes that take place up there are face-palmingly dumb. Longstreet is at the top of the mountain wearing a Karate gi, and guys just show up there and begin fighting him in a very silly manner. It goes on for a while.


While The Circuit III was never released in America - and it is unfair that Merhi would foist this muck on the rest of the world - it can now be seen on Merhi's YouTube channel. While it all caps off with a catchy song, performed live by Cristina Rose, perhaps the best thing about the whole experience is its end credits. It's so filled with spelling and other errors, it's more entertaining than the movie itself.


However, we would only recommend this to those who have seen the other two Circuit films and are Circuit completists and need to see it out of some kind of OCD-like compulsion. Assuming you don't have this kind of medical issue, we can safely say to skip this one.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Also check out a review from our buddy, DTVC!

Operation Golden Phoenix (1994)

 

Operation Golden Phoenix (1994)- * * *

Directed by: Jalal Merhi

Starring: Jalal Merhi, Loren Avedon, Karen Sheperd, Al Waxman, and James Hong 

It is said that whoever collects the sacred "Golden Phoenix" medallions of Lebanon will be led to a secret hiding place where riches will rain down upon them. That's why rivals Mark Assante (Merhi) and Ivan Jones (Avedon) are both after the medallions. It seems Ivan is the baddie in this situation because he's working with a diabolical mastermind named Chang (Hong). The quest for the medallions goes from Beirut to Toronto to Lebanon, where Princess Tara (Sheperd) comes into play as another treasure hunter. Naturally, there are plenty of fights and blow-ups that happen along the way. Who will find the treasure at the end of OPERATION GOLDEN PHOENIX?

Much like how Reese's Peanut Butter Cups were once touted as "Two Great Tastes that Taste Great Together!", now, finally, we have Jalal Merhi and Loren Avedon co-starring together as ultimate rivals in a battle for the ages. It has been said that - allegedly - these two men were difficult to work with, so it makes sense that they could only work together. Neither Merhi nor Avedon were ever the most likable action stars out there, and that doesn't change for Operation Golden Phoenix, but you may be surprised to know that we liked the film overall. Here's why. 

It's very, very silly. It's also, in the best, most complimentary sense, stupid. It attains the kind of silly-stupidness that makes it enjoyable to watch. The opening shootout scene, with all its shooting, blow-ups, and fights, is a remarkable cross between technically very well-done and impressively executed stunts and pyrotechnics, with amusing "facepalm" staging. 

Another movie highlight comes when Merhi has a fight on a bridge. Dressed in a denim button-down shirt and jeans, Merhi looks alarmingly like Jay Leno. This might not be notable in and of itself, but his opponent strongly resembles Freddie Mercury. If you've ever clamored for a Leno-Mercury brawl to end 'em all, your prayers have now been answered.

Which leads to perhaps one of the greatest strengths of OGP. (Don't worry, we're not going to ask if you're "down with" it). The scenery is really impressive in this movie. At times it's downright stunning. The filmmakers chose some really breathtaking locations to stage the fight scenes. The bridge setting was good, but it was just the beginning. The final fight takes place at what looks like an old archaeological site that would be perfect on an episode of Ancient Aliens. If memory serves, Baalbek has been mentioned on that show.

Other highlights include the scene where Assante (not Armand; in this case it's Mark) gets arrested and put in a holding tank. He's surrounded by toughs, and guess what happens? A fight breaks out, but what's funny is that the holding tank is notably (excessively?) large enough to accommodate a healthy brawl. 

Additionally, both of the main characters are exclusively called by their full names. It's always, "Ivan Jones did this" or "Ivan Jones did that". He's really just Ivan to us. Al Waxman, so memorable from The Hitman (1991), has a sort of thankless role here as Chief Gordon (of course his name is Chief Gordon). It also would have been nice to see more of Karen Sheperd in the film, but we're just happy she was involved.

Also when the main professor is kidnapped so he can translate what's on the medallions (using an old Apple computer, of course), for some unknown, unfathomable reason, this poor man is shirtless. He looks to be in roughly his 60's and resembles Uncle Leo from Seinfeld, but he's shirtless. No explanation is given. He spends the entire rest of the scene that way. It's one of the many mysteries of the Golden Phoenix, perhaps even more so than the medallions themselves.

All of what we've just described - and more - is all topped off by some extremely funny line readings, accents, grunts, yells, screams, dubbing, and other strange sounds from the participants involved. It keeps the movie afloat most of the time. Yes, it does slack a bit in the middle, but that happens a lot in these B-actioners. The final fight and the shirtless professor more than make up for it.

Surprisingly, OGP got a VHS release not on a small label, but on a major - MCA/Universal. Even with that, the VHS is not an easy one to come by. Perhaps the big company got cold feet with their release and had no faith in the film. Then they just didn't print that many copies for wide release. That seems to happen a lot. So with that in mind, if you ever see the tape anywhere, definitely pick it up.

We have to say that Operation Golden Phoenix was a pleasant surprise. We didn't go in expecting much, but we came out smiling. While Avedon and Merhi might not be your favorites, don't let that stop you from checking this movie out. You'll most likely enjoy it a lot.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

Deadly Ransom (1998)

Deadly Ransom (1998)- *1\2

Directed by: Robert Hyatt

Starring: Loren Avedon, Lisa Crosato, Francesco Quinn, J.J. Perry, and Brion James












Max Lightener (Avedon) is a Navy Lieutenant, used to staging raids with his strike team. When his fiancé, Jackie (Crosato) is kidnapped, he teams up with a guy named Luis (Quinn) and snaps into action. It turns out the main baddie behind the kidnapping is a drug-doing no-goodnik named Bobby Rico (James). Faced with such an opponent, Lightener later calls in the assistance of his strike team so he can initiate “Operation Shadow”, i.e., get his girlfriend back. Also Lightener supposedly has some precognitive abilities a la Michael Pare in Blink of an Eye (1992), but that’s not developed very well. Will Lightener strike like lightning or lighten his load?

Okay, let’s start with some positives. (There aren’t many, so don’t get comfortable). In an apples-to-apples comparison (or should we say Avedon-to-Avedon comparison?), Deadly Ransom is better than the other Avedon-produced film, The Silent Force (2001).  While it does have a similar feel, which makes sense, Deadly Ransom has some funny knife-throws, an exploding helicopter which looks like it was lifted from some other source, Avedon shoots people while sliding down a rope like an angry, full-grown gentleman invading a DZ Discovery Zone, and one member of his strike force looks like noted pervert Anthony Weiner. This calls into question the effectiveness of his strike force. The movie contains shooting, blow-ups, and some silly fights. It's lit well.

There. Now that we’ve front-loaded what positive attributes we could scrape together out of the movie’s 97 minutes (including the end credits), here are the problems. Avedon remains unlikable. It’s hard for the audience to get behind his mission because we simply don’t like him very much. You can tell he produced the movie because there are multiple scenes of his face. Evidently he believes his face is so powerful it can stop a sniper’s bullet. As we all remember, Avedon played an evil kickboxer that fought David Hasselhoff in a classic episode of Baywatch entitled “Kicks”. THAT should have been a full-length feature instead of Deadly Ransom. Avedon should have realized that.

The tone of Deadly Ransom just feels off, and there’s no character development. Just a smidgen of depth to the characters - we don’t ask for much - would have gone a long way here. That is replaced by bickering between Avedon and Quinn, which is always a bad shortcut. When they’re not bickering, they’re training shirtlessly in the desert. Yay. Proving that the movie is straight-up racist, instead of dying by knife-throws like everybody else, when they kill a Native American, they throw a tomahawk at his head. Presumably they don’t know the meaning of the word “subtlety”. You don’t need to prove a cultural point with your choice of weaponry.

Despite the presence of an automated tank that looks like it has a smiley face, Deadly Ransom just doesn’t engage the audience. Is it really even that different from Mike Norris extravaganza Survival Game (1987) - just another Kidnap Slog? Sadly the answer is no, and it’s hard to imagine video store patrons consciously choosing Deadly Ransom at their local video store in 1998, or at any other time. Even the great Brion James can’t save it, and that’s not a good sign. It all feels kind of junky and trivial, and really shouldn’t go on anybody’s must-see list.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty 

Tiger Claws III (2000)

Tiger Claws III (2000)- *1\2

Directed by: J. Stephen Maunder

Starring: Jalal Merhi, Loren Avedon, and Cynthia Rothrock

Tarek (Merhi) and Linda (Rothrock) return as “New York City”* cops in this third and, thankfully, last installment of the Tiger Claws franchise. And what a franchise it was. This time around, an evil baddie named Stryker (Avedon) comes on the scene. While we have seen many guys over the years with the name Stryker, this time he mentions that his name is “Stryker Godunov”. Okay. So, Stryker Godunov for some unknown reason unleashes three unkillable Martial Arts masters onto the streets of  Toronto...sorry, NEW YORK, and all sorts of havoc ensues. Because Tarek is a bit slow in the head, it takes him a while to find the answer that will stop all the madness. Obviously, the answer is Carter Wong, just like in real life. Carter, as Master Jin, takes Tarek to the icy wastes of...New York...to train hard, Rocky IV style, to fight the bad guys that are Superman 2 style. With Stryker controlling the baddies, is anybody safe? Will Tarek rise to the occasion? Or will something truly stupid happen to screw it all up?

Yes, as you may have noticed, there is a Tiger Claws THREE. Just why, exactly, is anybody’s guess. We had a hard time sitting through TC3 (and if Billy Blanks is to be believed - and he usually is - there are only 1,997 sequels to go) for numerous reasons. Sure, it has some of the standard low-budget movie pitfalls we are more than used to and totally okay with: bad lighting, junky-looking cinematography, and acting so stilted it should be used by Uncle Sam in a Labor Day parade. The real crime here, if you can overlook the surface problems, is the minimal appearance by fan favorite Cynthia Rothrock, in favor of Jalal Merhi and the ever-unlikable Loren Avedon. Though, to be fair, he is well-cast as a pompous jerk bad guy.  

Why director Maunder thought axing the delightful Rothrock just so Merhi can clog up our screens like a hairball in a shower drain remains unknown, but maybe it wasn’t up to him. Maybe Rothrock, wisely, said no more. Speaking of hair, and to be fair to “Tarek”, Merhi’s hair does look less painted-on than usual. But the lack of Rothrock isn’t even the worst of Maunder’s sins. Without giving anything away, there is a mind-numbingly stupid plot twist that, as a viewer, will likely make you feel angry and insulted. Again: why? And no amount of recycled Bolo Yeung scenes and “33% new footage!” flashback moments can paper over it.

So while Stryker’s need to take three 500-year-old outfits in a museum display and make them come alive and do wire-fu is not explained, neither are the methods used to combat it. Tarek prepares to combat the supernatural evil by attempting to snatch a piece of sushi hanging from a string by sticking his hand through a Price is Right-style moving wheel. That oughta show’em. Thankfully, however, the great Carter Wong is here to help us all, and his classic Hardcase and Fist-style delivery is still in full force. For example, when he says the word “Stryker”, his super-thick accent makes it sounds like he’s saying “Fraggle”. Which leads to quotes such as “Fraggle is against me”.  Perhaps a Doozer would be more intimidating than Loren Avedon.

There’s the time-honored warehouse fight, a lot of yelling and grunting (mainly because the three baddies never say anything), and even a T.I.G.-style farmhouse fight. Even at the final fight, the jumping/alternating hitting the sides of the feet thing looks less like a battle to the death and more like the Kid n’ Play dance. At one point, someone even says “they are fighting spirit” - perhaps a reference to the 1992 Loren Avedon movie of the same name? But, in the end, Tiger Claws III feels like a loser of a movie, if not a complete waste of time...and that thing we mentioned earlier is the straw that breaks the Tiger’s back.

*Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

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

The Circuit (2002)

The Circuit (2002)- * *

Directed by: Jalal Merhi

Starring: Olivier Gruner, Ilya Morelle, Jalal Merhi, Loren Avedon, Gail Harris, Michael Blanks, Bruce Buffer, Bryan Genesse, and Billy Drago











Dirk Longstreet (Gruner) truly has it all. A great job as a college track and field coach, a great first name, a great last name, and an overall vibe that tells the world, “I’m Dirk Longstreet”. Trouble arises when his younger brother Jeremy Longstreet (Morelle) begins attending illegal underground Punchfighting matches known as “The Circuit”. Deeply in debt to Circuit ringleader Vixton Hack (Genesse), who really gives Dirk Longstreet a run for his money in the awesome name sweepstakes, Hack tells Jeremy he can work off his debt by fighting in the ring. The problem is, Dirk was an undefeated champion of the Circuit in his past, but he walked away and started a new and better life for himself, and he wants to forget the old days. 

So even though he’s in top physical shape, he begins training with Circuit boss Lenny (Drago) so he can defeat current reigning champs the Kwan twins (Simon Kim and James Kim). Meanwhile, a typical female reporter, Nicole (Harris) has been tracking the Circuit and even gets close to Dirk on false pretenses. Her editor, Editor Bill (Merhi) (That’s how he’s credited) wants to pull her off the story, but her connections with cop Det. Sykes (Avedon) have her closer than ever to exposing The Circuit to the public. What in the world is going to happen?

So many shirtless men punching each other, so little time. Fascinatingly, the main thing about The Circuit that would seem to anger most people, was, to us, one of its greatest strengths. That being the dialogue, which is written insipidly, delivered stupidly, and recorded unintelligibly. Half the time you’re yelling “WHAT?!” at the screen. When you get some dialogue spoken clearly, as ring announcer Bruce Buffer does (yes, Michael’s brother - ring announcing must be in the Buffer family DNA) we get such gems as: “a warrior for many years, the Ninja Warrior.” Hm. How inspiring. Another example is said by a random goon: “Dirk Longstreet’s in the house!” Maybe when Dirk Longstreet starts his rap career as MC Dirk Longstreet, he can sample that and put it on his album. He can always team up with Chino XL, who appears in the Circuit 2 (2002).

Of course, there are the time-honored training sequences, shots of audiences screaming while clutching their cash, and the prerequisite barfight (s). But thanks to his past that he’s trying to escape, Dirk suffers from “punchdreams”, where he has nightmares of being punched. Truly that’s the next frontier of Punchfighting movies. A cross between Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and Fist Fighter (1989). Producers out there, take notice. The Circuit doesn’t go that direction, of course, but viewers may suffer from Restless Legs Syndrome. It doesn’t help that the movie has these annoying, eye-singing flashes that unnecessarily appear between scenes. Unless Jalal Merhi has some sort of deal going with LensCrafters to surreptitiously drive business their way from eyeball-damaged Punchfighting fans, there’s no need for this.

Speaking of Merhi, he has a sit-down role (as he does in The Circuit 2) as Editor Bill. Thankfully, when his parents named him, they knew he would be a newspaper editor. That was fortuitous. Kind of like how fish grow to fit the bowl, or subconsciously, people come to fit their name, like Jay Woelfel, the director of the horrendously awful Iron Thunder (1998), which is indeed woeful (as we pointed out in our review). Thankfully, Merhi doesn’t do much (though even what he does do is unlikable), and neither does his buddy Loren Avedon. Apparently these two guys are so hard to work with, they can only work with each other. They’ve been exiled to the outer reaches of DTV slop, as has Bryan Genesse, who here resembles a card-carrying member of the Trenchcoat Mafia. A general rule of thumb is, if Genesse is involved, you’ve hit rock bottom. 

Fan favorite Billy Drago is...here...and Michael Blanks plays a guy named- wait for it - LL Cool J! Isn’t that against copyright law? How are they able to get away with that? Regardless, his name in the movie is LL Cool J. Clearly the writers of this movie were doin’ it, and doin’ it, and doin’ it, but not so well.

No one alive knows why, but there are THREE The Circuit movies. Now we just need to track down the hard-to-find third entry. For the sillier and less-substantial end of the Punchfighting genre, there’s always The Circuit.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

Also check out write-ups from our buddies, DTVC and The Video Vacuum! 

Virtual Combat (1995)

Virtual Combat (1995)- * * *

Directed by: Andrew Stevens

Starring: Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Michael Bernardo, Athena Massey, Loren Avedon, Dawn Ann Billings, Michael Dorn, Gilbert Lewis, Rip Taylor, Turhan Bey, and Stella Stevens










So in the future, the giant, disembodied head of Rip Taylor welcomes tourists to Las Vegas and tells them where to go and what to do. Evidently, the only worthwhile things are for men to engage in the oft-mentioned ‘Cybersex’ and for women to watch Punchfighting matches. It truly is a brave new world. Unfortunately, a scientist tasked with creating these cyberpeople lets the cat out of the bag, so to speak, and three of them emerge from a tank of slimy goo and into real life. 

Two of them are the Cybersex girls, the dominatrix Greta (Billings) and Liana (Massey), but the other one is arch-baddie Dante (Bernardo). Dante seems to be an unbeatable fighting force, and he wants to unleash all the other VR baddies from cyberspace. Thankfully, David Quarry (The Dragon) is on the case. After dealing with Parness (Avedon), Quarry turns in his badge and gun to his BYC (Lewis) to take on Dante alone. But will he and Liana learn to love as a mixed-reality couple? Will David Quarry catch his quarry? Find out...

It was the 90’s, after all, and as we’ve seen time and again, VR was huge. Or it was going to be. Andrew Stevens probably figured he would just meld the then-hot VR trend with the then-hot Mortal Kombat trend, and, voila, you have Virtual Combat! It really is as simple as that, but what those other things don’t have is a holographic Rip Taylor head who talks to you. Anyway, we have some Demolition Man (1993), some Cybertracker (1994), some Terminal Justice (1996), and even some Fugitive Champion (1998), but the movie is very reminiscent of Virtuosity (1995). This one just happens to have more shirtless men punching and kicking each other.

Some of said punching and kicking is in the time-honored abandoned warehouse, with men in yellow spandex (Scorpion) and blue spandex (Subzero) taking on Don the Dragon. Luckily, he’s as wooden as you want him to be, and in the future, people communicate with devices that look like those things used to measure your feet at old shoe stores. 

When virtual baddies are defeated, they turn into a bubbling mass of Mountain Dew, surely in a homage to their gamer forbears. There are classic pew-pew lasers, some blow-ups, a very, very silly exploding helicopter, and Don the Dragon goes to the Hoover Dam - he would return only the next year in Terminal Rush (1996). He must enjoy the place.

Virtual Combat is good. Just good. There’s nothing extraordinarily bad or extraordinarily great about it. It does have some interesting casting choices - it has genre mainstays Nick Hill and Ken McLeod in smaller roles, but it also has Turhan Bey and Stella Stevens hanging around. 

Loren Avedon isn’t really in it that much, and, interestingly, Michael Bernardo doesn’t use his own voice. Maybe they were trying to compare him with Darth Vader, or maybe the producers thought his own voice was too high-pitched or something, but Michael Dorn, the voice of Whorf (We're not going to look that up to see if it’s spelled correctly) is the voice of Dante. Hopefully, Stevens said at one point, “This guy’s voice sucks. Can we afford Whorf?” Regardless, Andrew Stevens, Mr. Skinemax himself, knows well enough that if there are plenty of babes in minimal-to-no clothing, people will tune in.

There are enough decent moments to keep Virtual Combat afloat, and it’s not likely to offend you, so Don the Dragon fans or lovers of 90’s nostalgia are probably the most likely targets to enjoy it.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

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

Fighting Spirit (1992)

Fighting Spirit (1992)- * * *

Directed by: John Lloyd

Starring: Loren Avedon, Nick Nicholson, Mike Monty,  Ned Hourani, Jerry Beyer, Michelle Locke, and Sean Donahue










Billy Edwards (Donahue) is a young man who trains in Martial Arts and spends a lot of his time training at the gym. When his sister Judith (Michelle Locke in her only credited movie role to date) is assaulted by a gang of no-goodniks and suffers optic nerve damage, the evil Russell Peretti (Hourani) offers him a way to pay her medical bills: underground Punchfighting matches. When Russell and his super-evil brother Tony (Douglass) keep ratcheting up the stakes, as gangsters often do, Billy wants out. Unfortunately, he gets his wish: the baddies off Billy. Billy’s friend David Carster (Avedon) then assumes responsibility for Judith, who must wear bandages around her eyes while she recuperates. In a ‘spirit’ of revenge, David trains hard with Murphy (Beyer) in order to obtain the fighting skills necessary to defeat Russell, Tony and their goons once and for all. But will he have a little supernatural help along the way? Find out...

In this movie at least, Loren Avedon resembles Scott Baio. Sean Donahue bears more than a passing resemblance to pre-Bibleman-era Willie Aames. Coincidence? Fighting Spirit could very well be the Charles in Charge - or Zapped!, if you will - of early-90’s low budget Punchfighting movies. This is actually one of the better Avedon outings, he’s not unlikable like he is in some other efforts. His character even goes through something of an arc, from smug non-fighter to full-fledged action hero (though it is odd that on the first day of his training, he can already do Van Damme-style splits). And, adding to the feel that this movie is a lot older than it really is, the two of them train to disco music.

The music, generally speaking, is pretty weird. There are a ton of misplaced cues, and a lot of it (which repeats over and over) even seems out of tune. The main theme appears to be nothing more than a slow pick slide over a lightly-amplified electric guitar. So when you’re not distracted by the music, you can concentrate on the funny dubbing. Once again, those loud or wacky voices appear. Either the music or the voices are blaring at all times: one of the main positives of the movie is that it is almost non-stop fighting. There’s a fight scene seemingly every few minutes, which keeps the attention up.

Sure, it’s all pretty downmarket, but it’s also fun most of the time. It doesn’t seem like the filmmakers were working with the best equipment, but maybe that’s all they had in whatever foreign country they were in. Our guess is the Philippines, due to the presences of Nick Nicholson, Ned Hourani, and a bit part by Mike Monty, though fellow Philippines-shot movie mainstay Henry Strzalkowski isn’t present. Monty gets raving drunk in the first scene of the movie and isn’t seen again; Nicholson is a kickboxing coach who is constantly barking orders at his charges and calls everyone “boy!” All that being said, a police officer identifies himself as “LAPD” - are we supposed to believe this is all taking place in Los Angeles? But silly details like that add to the enjoyment of the movie.

There are not one, but TWO ideas lifted wholesale from Cape Fear (the then-recently released 1991 version, probably), and the Punchfighting audience Billy must fight in front of is rather small, especially for such large sums of cash that are on the line, but, as we’ve said before, there are many kinds of stupid, and not all stupid is bad stupid. You might say Fighting Spirit is more confused than anything else,  because it seems a lot of the wackiness/dumbness resides from its strange take on what someone believes to be American life, and mind-numbing scenes ensue. Once again, that is not a negative criticism. We don’t know the country of birth of director John Lloyd, but thanks to this movie and his Ron Marchini vehicle Ninja Warriors (1985), we do know he certainly has an off-kilter sensibility. Despite all odds, it’s actually pretty darn entertaining.

Featuring the lounge-type song “Why Must This Be” by Harry Strong, Fighting Spirit may be a bit grimy, but you just have to either enjoy it or look beyond it. Confusingly, this is also known as King of the Kickboxers 2, presumably because of the presence of Avedon, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with the earlier Billy Blanks romp.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty 

Also check out a write-up from our buddy, Fist Of B-List!

Manhattan Chase (2000)

Manhattan Chase (2000)- * *

Directed by: Godfrey Ho

Starring: Cynthia Rothrock, Robin Berry, Nicol Zanzarella, Roberto Gutierrez, and Loren Avedon



 “Sometimes pizza makes me feel better.” - Tommy








Manhattan Chase, not to be confused with Chase Manhattan Bank, is the tale of Jason Reed (Avedon), a man who just got out of prison after six years. He’s intent on re-forming his bond with his young son Tommy (Robin Berry), a terminally depressed tot with serious back posture issues. While on the road to fixing up his life, he runs into a woman named Jennifer (Zanzarella) who is on the run from armed thugs and killers because they think she has a cache of missing drugs. So, naturally, the next step is for the three of them to move into an apartment with Jason’s buddy Victor (Roberto Gutierrez). Meanwhile, Tommy’s mom is still in the picture, and her sister Nancy (Rothrock) is a tough NYC cop. Will Jason reunite the family? Will the baddies stop their harassment of our heroes? Find out today?

In the canon of Godfrey Ho’s shot-in-America phase of his career, we have Honor and Glory and Undefeatable (both 1993), but, based on the presence of Loren Avedon here, perhaps this one should have been called “Unlikable”. If we could single out one major flaw in Manhattan Chase, it’s Avedon. His smug smarminess is smeared all over the screen from the first second we see him. And the constant, annoying smirk he keeps on his face would put him right at home in the late-night Comedy Central lineup. We should also add that this movie is highly interactive. Every time he speaks, the overwhelming urge to shout “SHUT UP!” is just too strong to suppress. The fact that he somewhat resembles Jeff Speakman, but also rocks the denim-shirt-and-denim-jeans look of Jay Leno, perhaps makes him the first Jay Speakman in history. Or maybe Jeff Leno. But as demonstrated in Collision Course (1989), Jay Leno is a better action star than Avedon.

Or, to look at it another way, the movie needed more Rothrock. Her scenes, as usual, are gold. She’s attractive, likable, charming, and a great Martial Artist. What more could you ask for in an actress?  She should have been the main star. Even the kid who played Tommy, who never appeared in anything else, wipes the screen with Avedon. What’s this guy’s problem? Why does he have such a terrible attitude? You’re working with Godfrey Ho, dude! You’re living the dream! Stop acting like such a D-bag and, much like Tommy’s spine, you should really straighten up. 

Tommy gets a bunch of quotable lines throughout the movie, and while Zanzarella did a fine job as Jennifer, Gina Carano would have been great for that role. Of course, because it’s set in New York, the characters hang out near the Statue of Liberty, like all true New Yorkers do.

But, lest we forget, this is a Godfrey Ho movie, after all. There’s all the funny, sped-up motion, silly reactions, disjointed plot elements, and styles of acting you see nowhere else in cinema. And because it’s Ho in NYC, the time-honored Final Field Fight takes place in Central Park. His take on the NYC locations is indeed unique, and because the movie was shot in 1998, we see movie marquees advertising Bulworth (1998) and Dr. Dolittle (1998). Strangely, and awesomely, as a sort of reconciliation present after his time in jail, Jason gives Tommy a Game Boy. An old-school one from the 80’s. In 1998. While most kids his age at that time were playing their PlayStation 1’s, Tommy had to make do. It’s a tough life.

Manhattan Chase never got a U.S. VHS release, as it was clear by that time the golden age of the action movie, the video store, and the whole DTV era was over. It was a very interesting, transitional time. Maybe it’s all the fault of the unnamed theme song that plays throughout the movie, a tune with a hip-hop beat , and the only lyrics are “1, 2, 3, 4”, “Yeah!” and “Break it Up” - all said, inexplicably,  in a duck voice. A DUCK VOICE. The end well and truly was nigh for DTV.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty 

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

The Silent Force (2001)

The Silent Force (2001)- * 

Directed by: David May

Starring: Loren Avedon, Karen Kim, George Cheung, and Matthias Hues










Frank Stevens (Avedon) is a U.S. Federal Agent who commands a special ops team known as “The Silent Force”. They’ve come across their toughest assignment yet when they face off against some evil Asian mobsters headed by Pao (Cheung). After the Pao gang kills off a bunch of Silent Force members, Stevens gets mad and goes after them, and all-out war ensues. 

Also Stevens tries to save the widow of one of his former buddies, Natalie Woo (Karen Kim). Will the Silent Force be SILENT...aaah, We just can’t come up with a silly pun this time. This movie is just too stupid. It’s not worth it...

Unfortunately, The Silent Force is pretty darn bad. It gives us no pleasure to deliver a negative review, but this movie, sadly, has very little going for it. It’s very poorly and uncreatively written, the editing is abrupt and choppy, it was the late 90’s/early 2000’s, so many scenes are underlit and hard to see, there’s plenty of student-film-style ADR work, and the whole thing is not well-structured and seems very amateurish, not in a good way. 

Of course, there’s a lot of terrible acting, but that never bothered us too much in these low budget productions. But you add it all together...and meant to HOLD it all together is Avedon, a man who is not likable and seems to be striving against all available evidence to try very hard to be cool, and this is a surefire recipe for unmitigated disaster. The whole thing has a junky feel and it simply doesn’t work.

Thankfully, this is the only known credit for “writer”/ “director” David May. Perhaps he saw this botched movie as nothing more than a stumble along the road of his life, and decided to get into another line of work. Good for him. Back in the golden era of the video store, this turkey would have been known as shelf-filler. But by its release date of 2001 (it looks like it was shot a few years earlier) those shelves where disappearing fast, and cheapo DVDs were ending up at gas stations, thus giving The Silent Force the ignominious distinction of being gas-station filler. And it’s not even useful for your life, like, say, gasoline, antifreeze, or those little tree car air fresheners.

It does have some classic cliches: the BYC (Black Yelling Chief), some very dumb one-liners, and the prerequisite torture (though in this case it’s pointless torture that goes on way too long - like everything else in the movie, they screwed it up and there’s no sense of  pacing). And not only is Avedon trying really hard to be cool, he looks like any number of different people, depending on the scene he’s in. In various scenes he resembles:

    - Tom Cruise
    - Gabriel Byrne
    - Eric Roberts
    - Griffin Dunne
    - Jeff Speakman
    - Kyle MacLachlan.

Just an observation. Avedon needs screen presence that doesn’t recall any other famous faces. In one of his more Tom Cruise-esque scenes, a song plays on the soundtrack that is a blatant knockoff of “Danger Zone”, presumably to drive the point home. He really wants you to think of him as 1986-era Mapother. In some scenes it sounds like Avedon is reading his dialogue off paper in a studio somewhere else. Elsewhere, he seems to be taking this regrettable outing way TOO seriously. There’s no balance with this guy. 

A glimmer of hope arrives (way too late) when, towards the end of the movie, Matthias Hues shows up. He begins beating up Avedon and our attention perked up, as we thought it might have a saving grace. We weren’t expecting a No Retreat, No Surrender 2 (1987) situation, but their fight was too short and extremely disappointing. It all leads to those same familiar questions: Who watched/enjoyed this? Did the filmmakers think this was good, or did they know it sucks?

As we all know, by 2001 the golden age of DTV was over, and if you needed any more proof of that fact, here it is. The Silent Force is an insultingly dumb slog to sit through, so make sure you avoid it.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers (1990)

No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers (1990)- * * *

Directed by: Lucas Lowe

Starring: Loren Avedon, Keith Vitali, Joseph Campanella, Sherrie Rose, Luke Askew, Wanda Acuna, and Rion Hunter










The Alexander brothers couldn’t be more different: Casey Alexander (Vitali) is a CIA operative like his father, is a straight shooter and a dutiful son. His brother Will (Avedon), however, is a disaffected and unlikable jerk who gets irritated any time anyone says anything to him. Even when their father John (Campanella) is mercilessly killed, the brothers have their own ways of doing things. 

Will travels to Florida and goes undercover as a guy named Jesse just so he can get close to the evil Franco (Hunter) and his criminal organization. Casey also goes to Florida and teams up with Maria (Acuna) to try and get answers in his own way. Of course, the paths of the two brothers intersect and they end up fighting Franco together. Will this be the end of sibling rivalry after all?

The No Retreat No Surrender series have all been solid entertainment, and this installment is no different. It’s an in-name only sequel, with Avedon playing a different character, but no one really cares. It’s all about the great stunts and very impressive Martial Arts fights. Funnily enough, Avedon’s character, Will, goes through no arc whatsoever. He’s a jerk at the beginning, remains a jerk, and is still a jerk at the end. It’s a good thing Avedon is a competent Martial Artist, or there would be nothing for audience members to latch onto. 

His counterpart Keith Vitali is cool, and the guy definitely has moves as well. He more than holds his own with his on-screen brother and in many cases outshines him. Rion Hunter of Cage (1989) fame plays the very Matthias Hues-like baddie well, and only a bad guy could have hair like that.

The weirdness quotient is maintained with such moments as when a video-generated on-screen quote from Chairman Mao is randomly inserted into the proceedings and looks like an editing mistake. Avedon drives angrily while chomping down equally angrily on a piece of bread, and Casey’s one-way conversations with a computer, which predate Siri by twenty years or so. 

But the old standbys are here too, such as the abandoned warehouse and the prerequisite torture. But the movie undoubtedly gives you what you want, especially the blowout ending. The actors and stuntmen clearly were working overtime to entertain the audience, and that effort is on screen, and much appreciated.

Written and directed by the same guys that did King of the Kickboxers (1990) and American Shaolin: King of the Kickboxers II (1992) (Keith Strandberg and Lucas Lowe, respectively), and released on VHS by Imperial, surely a good time will be had by all with this classic 90’s beat-em-up.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

The King Of The Kickboxers (1990)

The King Of The Kickboxers (1990)-* * *

Directed by: Lucas Lowe

Starring: Loren Avedon, Richard Jaeckel, Don Stroud, Keith Cooke, Han Soo Ong, Jerry Trimble, Sherrie Rose, and Billy Blanks











In this Seasonal Films production, the insufferable Loren Avedon plays Jake Donahue, a New York City undercover cop with, you guessed it, a bad attitude, who, you guessed it, plays by his own rules. He is sent by his Captain, O’Day (Jaeckel) who is working with Interpol, to Thailand to bust up a snuff film ring. While there he meets up with his contact in the area, Anderson (Stroud) and mannish love interest Molly (Rose, who must have stretched every acting muscle in her body to pretend she actually was into Avedon). However, it seems Donahue has a history in Thailand, as his brother was murdered there by the mysterious  Khan (Blanks). Coincidentally, the nefarious Khan is the star of these films where the martial arts is so real, you die on impact. The producers of the films recruit young fighters from tournaments, promising them stardom, and when they get to the set, Khan kills them. So, seeing as Donahue is also a kickboxing man, he goes undercover as a naive punchfighter with stars in his eyes so he can get a shot at Khan and get revenge. The only problem is, he’s not as good as Khan, so Prang (Cooke) takes him under his wing and trains him. Will Donahue get the closure he seeks?

Loren Avedon in this movie is so annoyingly cocky, and so devoid of one ounce of humility, you actually, weirdly enough, like Billy Blanks more as the evil Khan. Sure, Khan is pure malevolence, but he’s secure in his total diabolical-ness and you love him for it. It’s a lot harder to get behind the weaselly Avedon as the main hero.

The plot aside, there is excellent fight choreography and some punishing blows. Fans of fast-paced, well-executed moves will find a lot to appreciate here. Richard Jaeckel plays the classic ‘yelling police captain’ with aplomb, and the husky-voiced Sherrie Rose of Maximum Force (1992) fame is a serviceable love interest who calls Avedon’s character “Jack”. Perhaps she wished he was someone else that badly. 

The Pauly Shore-like Cooke does a good job as the trainer of Donahue and has the patience of a saint. His sidekick, a lovable chimp, practically steals the movie. Cooke does have some awesome moves - also check him out in China O’Brien (1990). Billy Blanks is great as the big heavy. His bulging eyes and funny faces are present and accounted for. Jerry Trimble appears in the opening, prerequisite “abandoned warehouse” scene simply as “Drug Dealer”. Han Soo Ong, of Last to Surrender (1999) fame, who plays a local kickboxer, gets one of the best lines of the movie when he tells Donahue “You’ve never faced a real kickboxing”. Loren Avedon, with his jean jacket with fringed sleeves and fanny pack, is simply an unlikable jerk, but he does get some winners in the dialogue department, as well as some memorable yells. This movie overall could have been improved if the audience actually liked the hero.

The pure silliness of the whole outing comes to the fore at the final confrontation, when Avedon tops his previous ridiculous casual outfits with a formal getup that can only be described as an “elf jester” suit. When you see it, you’ll know what we mean.

Entertainingly insane, for a punchfighting mini-classic, check out King of the Kickboxers.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett