Michael Turner (Matt Mullins) arrives in Bangkok with his girlfriend, who is old enough to be his mother, to have a good time. But in fact, all this is just a cover, and the real purpose of the vacation is with his partner Conrad (Joe Lewis) find and neutralize the drug and human trafficker Draco. The girl is deceived, the partners with stern faces go shoulder to shoulder to a secret plant to shoot a drug deal, as a result of which Conrad dies safely, and Turner continues on his way without him, so this can immediately end Lewis’s cameo role.
Mullins still does not lose the desire and hope to become a star of hand-to-hand action films, but so far he has little success in this, because the films he gets (or he chooses) are not the happiest, and he does not have enough energy to pull them out. He could well be, for example, some the new Kurt Sloan, but something didn’t work out. His character in "Blood and bone" was intriguingly devilish, but turned out to be completely lost both by the director and by himself, because choreographically they didn’t give him anything original and bright to show, and from the point of view of acting, except for the diligent squinting of his eyes, he couldn’t reproduce anything and was definitely lost in the background Michael Jai White. About the previously released muddy "Bloody Fist" I’ll keep silent, because there’s nothing special to say, but the series "Mortal Kombat" The audience raised a lot of questions even without Mullins, but I must honestly admit that Johnny Cage did not turn out to be particularly interesting. In general, I personally have more of a plus or minus attitude towards Matt, he’s the kind of character in which there’s not much to latch on to
"White Tiger" He also "Deadly Fighter" was no exception and did not reveal Mullins in any special way. All the same blows, still the same squint, still the same character. The film itself resembles the pilot episode of some inexpensive series with all its elements: from the credits to the climax. I won’t say that the plot is simple, banal and clumsy, because this is already clear. Another thing is that the creators pulled quotes from a bunch of films: from "No Retreat, No Surrender 2" to "Reida", original "Kickboxer" and films from Johnny Nguyen и Tony Jaa. Although, maybe it's all about the large number of Thais and the jungle.
Since Mullins isn't able to pull off the casting alone, it's beefed up Javed El Berni and heavy artillery in the form Don "Dragon" Wilson и Cynthia Rothrock. Javed El Berni plays Mullins' main combat opponent in the film, but he doesn't look like a villain at all, no matter how furtively he looks at him.
Wilson plays a certain Bobby Pow, a retired specialist who takes on the role of Mullins' experienced mentor and stands shoulder to shoulder with him, as if taking the place of Lewis, who died at the beginning of the film. And yes, Wilson, unfortunately, fights in the film, and he fights at the same level as he did 20 years ago, which, in general, is not surprising, but he is saved from complete failure by ragged and frequent editing, which speeds up and thereby rejuvenating the Dragon's movements. But still, “Wilson always gets in the way of a bad director.” Rothrock, who embodies the evil aunt here, was forced to do a similar job, which she does a little well, but due to objective reasons she can’t fight. We can say that the scenes with Wilson and Rothrock were shot at about the same level "Showdown in Manila", and the actors themselves are used in the film only for the purpose of weighty genre casting.
The main combat task was taken on by Mullins, Bernie and Prasit Suanphaka in the role of the silent Thai Otto. The main problem of the choreography is somewhat reminiscent of the same problem in the remake of “Kickboxer” - it is rather leisurely, in places poorly contacted and rather monotonous. The cameraman sometimes films everything quite clearly, and sometimes it looks like he’s riding a horse. But most of all the fights reminded me "Ninja" с Adkins, only less sterile, cheaper and without rapids in the air. Sweeping but sluggish blows from friend to friend in turn, rehearsed blocks, jumps, work with a knife, everything is bloodless and in the same average dynamics, without splashes and any moments from the series: Wow! The fragments in which the Thais fight look better, there is more contact, more knees, but the dynamics are basically the same.
The film came out bloodless both de jure and de facto. It’s not very annoying, but you don’t want to watch it again, and it’s pointless, because everything in it is clear and simple, there’s no passion and no pulse, they’ll kill one of the heroes, and it’s not much of a pity. A purely niche movie, completely old-school in plot and presentation, but inferior to the classics of the genre.
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Tags: Death Fighter, Javed El Berni, Joe Lewis, Don Wilson, Matt Mullins, Cynthia Rothrock
Tags: Death Fighter, Javed El Berni, Joe Lewis, Don Wilson, Matt Mullins, Cynthia Rothrock
I looked. Well, the film is not bad where there is hand-to-hand combat (if Wilson, Rothrock and Lewis are not involved in it), and frankly bad where there are shootouts, drama and all sorts of “subtext”. While watching, I really remembered the old action films at the turn of the 90s. There are a lot of similarities here. Mullins, alas, does not pull off the leading role, although he looks good in the action scenes. Their fight with Javed doesn’t have enough stars in the sky, but it still looks interesting. In general, it's not so bad for a niche movie, but it's still bad from a "general" point of view.
It's no surprise that the film is so-so. For how many years he was bullied. The project participants have already grown significantly in age. And Joe Lewis is no longer in this world :(
And Mullins feels fine doing live shows, fight shows and commercials. Apparently, he was somewhat disgusted with the movie. Well, or stupidly they don’t call him, although something could come of it.
Thanks for the review! Interesting, as usual.