Mission Of Justice (1992)

Mission Of Justice (1992)-* * *1\2

Directed By: Steve Barnett

Starring: Jeff Wincott, Brigitte Nielsen, Karen Sheperd, Luca Bercovici, Tony Burton, Christopher Kriesa, James Lew, and Matthias Hues


"A rainbow often follows a storm."









Kurt Harris (Wincott) is a cop on the edge. He and his partner Lynn (Sheperd) do their best to stop crime in the city of “Eastgate” California, and luckily they both know martial arts, so they make a formidable team. But there are some other supposed "crimefighters” in town - a group called “The Peacemakers”. This group, reminiscent of Curtis Sliwa’s Guardian Angels, patrol the streets and try to stop crime as well. They train at the Mission of Justice, where they practice their karate moves and wait for crimes to occur. 


Enter the sinister Dr. Rachel K. Larkin (Nielsen) and her brother Titus (Hues). Larkin is a ruthless politician running for mayor. She will use any lethal tactics necessary to get to the top, using the Mission as a front for her dastardly operations. Meanwhile, Kurt Harris quits the police force in disgust at its red tape and bureaucracy, and its many other problems, not the least of which is jerkface Sgt. Duncan (Kriesa). Because Harris lives to fight crime, he goes undercover at the Mission and becomes a “Peacekeeper” himself. He wants to not only stop Larkin, Titus and the Mission, but get revenge for the murder of his friend Cedric (Burton). But he’ll have to fight his way through many baddies to do so...


It’s fun to watch Jeff Wincott's vigorous, energy-packed fighting style. He makes a good hero. And yet another one named “Kurt”. After he becomes a Peacekeeper, he must wear the official goofy white T-shirt of the group. When he and his two compatriots patrol the streets, passing kids on bikes acknowledge them. It will remind you of Lenny, Carl and Homer in the “cat burglar” episode of The Simpsons. The way Cedric is killed and the presence of Brigitte Nielsen will remind you of Rocky IV (1985). Speaking of Nielsen, she was an interesting choice as the duplicitous, Hillary Clinton-like politician. For example, when she’s evil, in private, she has sinister-looking short hair. When she’s putting on her benevolent, public face, she has her “nice hair” on, which is long. Additionally, an Aryan foreigner running for public office in California predates Schwarzenegger by at least fifteen years.

But back to the action, Wincott is in top form, Karen Sheperd (remember her from Above the Law in her fight scene with Cynthia Rothrock?) also displays some great moves, and we can’t forget James Lew in a supporting baddie role. Wincott fights Hues in the final battle, naturally, and there’s even some stand-out stick fighting. But like the movie Riot (1997), which is filled with great scenes but has the one stand-out, they-outdid-themselves fight scene (the one with the motorbikes), Mission Of Justice has a similar gem: the absolutely killer fight scene in the chop shop. The movie is worth tracking down for that scene alone. 


The title is has a clever double meaning, there are painful-looking hits in the fight scenes, and the main cast really makes it all work. We give our full blessing to Mission of Justice.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Fists Of Blood (1988)

Fists Of Blood (1988)-* *1\2

AKA: Strike Of The Panther

Directed by: Brian Trenchard-Smith

Starring: Edward John Stazak, John Stanton, Zale Daniel, Rowena Wallace, Jim Richards, and Paris Jefferson



"Jason Blade...Every Woman's Dream...Every Criminal's Nightmare!"





Jason Blade is back! As is the rest of the cast, crew, music and backdrop to the opening credits, as this and Day Of The Panther (1988) were shot back to back. In true “45% New Footage” style, Fists Of Blood opens with a recap of the events from the previous film, with some handy narration by Anderson (Stanton). However, it seems to me that if you watch this one first, you would still be confused by this unnecessary and time-killing, money-saving exercise.

Continuing exactly where its predecessor left off, Jason (Stazak) and Gemma (Jefferson) have gotten serious in their relationship - so serious in fact that they are now working together on an anti-crime task force in their hometown of Perth. Despite some rockiness in their relationship, Gemma is still dancing up a storm and Jason is still foiling the bad guys with his martial arts skill. When the nefarious Baxter (Richards) escapes from Fremantle prison, he kidnaps Gemma and hides her away in an abandoned “steam factory”, the type of abandoned warehouse action movie fans know well. Jason must fight through an army of ninjas in multi-colored hockey masks to get to the final room to save the girl, just like in a video game. However, two new elements are introduced into this mix - while only touched upon in the first film, the idea of the psychic relationship between Anderson and Jason is fleshed out more. From his hospital bed, Anderson is able to telepathically communicate with Jason and warn him of dangers Jason can’t necessarily see, but Anderson can. We thought this was a fascinating and original concept that brought the level of the movie up. Additionally, there is the character of Sgt. Lucy Andrews (Wallace), who is working on dismantling the time bomb Baxter set. Oh yeah - if Jason doesn’t save the Gemma on time, a bomb will blow them all to smithereens. Can Jason Blade tangle with Baxter once more?

This time around, director Brian Trenchard-Smith delivers a bit more offbeat humor. The brothel scene is wacky, and the aforementioned “Jason Ninjas” add to that. Wouldn’t you be scared if you were all alone in a steam factory with a time bomb about to blow, and a ninja with a multi-colored hockey mask starts moonwalking with a baseball bat? Jason Blade faces his toughest challenge yet as he tirelessly faces off with these and many other punks until the final confrontation with Baxter.

Jason gets to do yet more training in his gym, Baxter takes a lot more punishment, and elements of the hostage drama are introduced in this installment. The idea of a bunch of special ops officers going into a booby-trapped warehouse while a mastermind picks them off one by one was later used in Jackie Chan’s New Police Story (2004). But like a lot of things in life, Jason Blade did it first.

There are a lot of funny sounds in the movie, and I don’t know who won the Oscar for best sound editing that year, but it should have gone to the sound effects department of Fists of Blood.  The original title of the movie was Strike of the Panther, which makes a lot of sense, but it was changed (there is a video-superimposed title) to Fists of Blood by Celebrity Video in the U.S. In other nonsensical box art news, it appears the British DVD tried to market the film as some kind of slasher horror, but that’s just misleading.

The directly continued storyline means the two films make a great double feature, which is perhaps what was intended. This would be the last we would ever see of Jason Blade, and, just as mysteriously as he arrived in all our lives, he now departs.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett