In fact, my dear readers, it is not so easy to make a good film about a teenager in the world of martial arts. Either it comes out too childish or too clichéd. I talked about this in the review of Karate Kidov, and alas, I will be forced to repeat myself now - here is a review of the main filmography Ted Ian Roberts, a person who has occupied a curious (although no, don’t be too curious) niche - "children's action movie B-C class".
This is the first time that I practically didn’t like any of the films on the list about an actor, the first time that I don’t 100% recommend watching something - it’s all too much... It’s like DTV in these films.
TJ himself was actually talented - I dug up about him that already at 12 (if he didn’t drive, as many people did to themselves - yes, yes, and your beloved Bruce Lee too - but otherwise he would not have gotten into the film industry) he received his first black belt under the tutelage of his father, who was a student of Chuck Norris himself (although I thought TJ was Wilson's student) and in his last works (where he is the central character) he looked very good in fights. Now, so that you understand everything in detail, I will go straight to his filmography.
"Ninja Dragons / Magic Kid" (Magic Kid, 1993)
TJ's first serious job, according to his interviews, he got thanks to his father, who helped him prepare for auditions. According to the plot, the boy Kevin (Roberts) and his sister come to his uncle (Stephen Furst), a bankrupt agent who pushed actors into B-movies, but lost his fortune due to gambling, and his uncle promises to introduce him to himself... No , not so - with DON “DRAGON” WILSON HIMSELF! (It will be shown, don't worry). His uncle is attacked by would-be collectors and Kevin decides to help his uncle both morally (by persuading him to stop drinking and take care of himself) and physically (throwing away the adult jocks with 1-2 blows).
Well, with a stretch, a huge stretch, this attempt can be counted - but only for children under 10 years old. The childishness in the film is much higher than even the Soviet "Akmal, the Dragon and the Princess" and its sequel - therefore the film could appeal to children, but the trouble is, they have a children's anime (which is superior in entertainment), Mortal Kombat (again entertainment and complete superiority in the instructive part) and the aforementioned Akmal (simply funny and fantasy). For us, the film is too clichéd - it’s hard to watch how the guy cheerfully and confidently weighs in on superior enemy forces and not understand the simple logic - if Kevin is so cool - why would his uncle run away from the villains - the guy alone could defeat them all? And the final fight in the bar, where Wilson finally comes to the heroes’ aid, also raises questions - why couldn’t the kid cope with the jock, although before that he had scattered dozens of them?
However, we must pay tribute - Roberts in battles looked much cooler than "Underdragon", showing good moves for his age, punches, work with Kali and Nunchakus, and even some kind of acrobatics - and if it weren't for the shitty editing, the film would have received more points from me and straight recommendation for viewing.
"Ninja Dragons 2" (Magic Kid 2, 1994)
Kevin becomes famous by starring in who knows what part of "Ninja Kid" - but a new problem arises. No, not the mafia, no, not monsters, and not even school thugs who are capable of beating even the son of the president in American cinema (what was this film called, can you tell me?) and running over the son of Rocky Balboa himself and taking his jacket off - The problem is that Kevin... Is behind in his studies. The teacher is trying to teach him, and the evil producers are trying to stop the teacher from interfering with the film process. That's the whole plot of the film.
The film has exactly one plus - an attempt to show us how films are made with children and the whole background of these processes - stupid talk shows and so on. The attempt is average - child viewers will still understand little, and not all of the difficulties are shown. The fights in this film generally began to slip into lots-of-high-kicking (although there is a relatively aggressive scene at the beginning on sticks), and the absence of a sensible final boss cannot be saved even by Donald Gibb, who played a too stupid jock in the camp of the villains.
However, I saw something meaningful in both parts of Magic Kid - the dunces who make the shitty action films into which Wilson (who started well with “Ring of Fire”) and Daniels slipped into are clearly and clearly shown. By the way, despite the almost direct cosplay of Karate Kid as the main character, there is nothing in common between these films at all. As you already understand, I don’t recommend watching it.
"Don't Give Up" (Dangerous Place, 1994)
A much more serious movie than the first two, and a lot more cosplay."Karate Kid"is present, even individual elements are similar. Also, this film has a very, very promising trailer, after which it seems that we are looking at an uber-action movie with more than 50% action. Did it turn out to be so?
According to the plot, the main character's brother Greg (Dean Cochran) falls into a bad company called "Scorpions", who hit people's faces and climb into apartments. When the brother finds out about the nightlife of the coolest gang, he is meanly killed and the whole thing is presented as an accident. The main character, Ethan (Roberts), does not believe in this version and, wanting to conduct his own investigation, infiltrates the gang.
The beginning of the film is promising:
- The plot is serious, and shows a tough teenage gang, at the instigation of another shell-shocked moron coach (Marshall Teague) creating chaos
- The movie starts off with a good chase.
- Ted Ian Roberts and Dean Cochran show good fights with ties, holds, locks and katas.
- The elderly Mako also played a good role as the good coach of the main characters - I believe that in front of me is the Master of the Youth Sports School. In addition, he immediately understood Ethan’s plan and did not interfere with him in the form of stupid lectures.
- For once, the hero is not beaten like a sucker; it is clear that if he is a karateka, he will fight back - at the same time, the fights do not take place in one gate, like Roberts’ previous films.
- In general, there are a lot of fights.
- The scenes with the brother's ghost are not bad.
But in the second half of the film a serious decline began:
- The hero exposed his brother's murder thanks to science fiction.
- The villains showed their portraits almost everywhere without revealing them; this is unacceptable for a serious film.
- Why did they start copying Karate Kid further and made a completely stupid tournament? Instead, the hero could have staged a gorgeous and brutal showdown in some warehouse and had a serious and credible fight with Marshall Teague, with the support of the same Mako and a black friend. But alas.
- Long and useless dialogues began.
- The main gangs have been merged, there are many unnecessary characters.
The scat is so serious that I was severely disappointed. Okay, at least they filmed the final fight with the brother’s killer, but it looked very dark due to the shitty editing. Is this worth recommending? It’s hard for me to say: the fights here are very good, but the weak, fused second half spoiled everything very much and was filmed to get away from it. Decide for yourself.
"Power Within" (1995)
Probably the first full-length film where Roberts plays a loser, and a classic American one at that: yes, yes, with my favorite cliches: a stupid mother, a retarded brother, local gopniks who brutally beat up in front of everyone. However, the failures do not last long - the hero gets a magic ring that can give him enormous power. Naturally, having received this power, the hero takes revenge on the gopniks, rises in the eyes of his relatives and even manages to communicate with DON “THIS FUCKING LEGS THIS IS A LIVING DRAGON” WILSON!!!! True, this time it’s not for long - Don is really tired of fighting with someone here, afraid to look like a show-off in front of TJ again. As expected in films about the chosen ones, there is a leader who has exactly the same ring, only he uses it for evil.
What can I say - this is complete nonsense. I haven't watched such nonsense for a long time. In order:
- The aforementioned cliches about the “typical American loser” got to me. "Don't Give Up" and "Fire Breather" showed that it is possible (and necessary!) to make films about young karatekas without losing 70% of the film.
- Excessive childishness - heroes and villains are too stupid for such a movie. If this works in “Home Alone” (although honestly, I like the third “Home Alone” more than the first two), then here it’s very pathetic. Even the good cast of Ed "Victor Rost" O'Ross and William Zabka, who plays the stylish final boss here, doesn't hold up.
- Ugly filmed and staged fights (and this after “Don’t Give Up!”). By the way, Ted himself put it on, showing some good shots in fragments, but overall it was terrible.
- Stupidity and broken logic at every step - the boss could have simply come to the hero’s mother’s house and killed everyone there, but no, he has to be stupid and run into the hero in the most crowded place possible. The scene where the hero meets an elderly Chinese man (Gerald Okamura) is also terrible. He, being mortally wounded, gave the director a reason to stretch out the timing, forcing the boy to climb the mountain. Also, there are useless, undeveloped heroes - for example, Okamura's granddaughter.
- Godless hack - clips from Roberts' previous films are inserted (I'm talking about the chase and showdown in the tunnel with the participation of an unlucky policeman, stolen from "Don't Give Up"). However, the floor scene, as well as a nickel of others, are found in a number of other films by T.J.
- Poor drain of Glavgad. VERY poor, even worse than in "Double Dragons" with Dacascos, it was even worse only in the series "Fighter". No, Zabka managed to hit on TJ (with poor editing). But breaking rings with a single kick is something.
Plus there is - they showed American amusement parks - it looked decent, I even wanted to go to America for this. There are no more advantages and there is no need to watch it.
"Tiger Heart" (1996)
A noticeably matured TJ plays Eric, the son of wealthy parents, who, living in the local Rublyovka, travels around the city with a silly friend in search of adventures that this friend likes to find for himself. Despite his rich family, Eric is quite a good guy who fights well thanks to his efforts in karate. One day he stands up for the store owner and his daughter (Jennifer Lyons), crossing the path of stupid Latinos and their boss - another bureaucrat who, as usual, wants to build something there and uses dishonest methods to buy land from the unjustly offended.
A passer-by, he is saved from the abyss by two things: TJ himself and his numerous (about 40% of the film’s action) fights (they don’t reach “Don’t Give Up!” due to editing, but he shows a couple of tricks with nunchucks, kali and other weapons can) and Jennifer Lyons, whose presence embellishes the film, but it is unclear what she is doing here with such forms and angles - the film is TOO childish - the main bastards are defeated very, very easily and TJ will spend the hardest and most reliable battle not with a gang of thugs, but with rival in the dojo. Ron Yuen and Art Camacho also tried to strengthen the casts - but there are very few of them. Oh yeah, I almost forgot - there's an amazing cameo by Matthias Hughes.
The film could have been saved by a good final boss - for example, the villains from China would have hired some cool ninja played by James Liu, with whom TJ could have fought on equal terms.
Alas, not even once. The director was unable to strike a balance between childishness and seriousness, producing many passable fights in which TJ tried, but overall did not save.
That's all. For better or worse, TJ hasn't taken off, having shown his ceiling well in "Don't Give Up!" and like Jerry Trimble, no longer began to disgrace himself in the post-action era, preferring minor roles in famous TV series and movies. His latest work at the moment is the short film Heart and Hull, in which he was even given a couple of seconds to fight - but this video does not stand out in anything else. However, at the moment Ted Ian Roberts is still young and, if he has not lost his skills as a fighter, I wish him to star in a good strong action movie, which may return, if not to the screens, then to torrents.
Author: uranium
Especially for Fight-Films.Info
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Tags: Dangerous Place, Magic Kid, Magic Kid 2, Power Within, Tiger Heart, Inner strength, Don Wilson, Do not give up, Ted Ian Roberts
Tags: Dangerous Place, Magic Kid, Magic Kid 2, Power Within, Tiger Heart, Inner strength, Don Wilson, Do not give up, Ted Ian Roberts
Thanks to Uran for the material!
I remember what I saw in the 90s. only one film with Roberts, I think it was "Heart of the Tiger". It turns out I didn’t watch all the others.
There was also a series of films about ninja boys led by a ninja grandfather. Rocky, Colt, Tam-Tam were their names.
Toru Tanaka, Patrick Kilpatrick and others appeared there. I really liked it as a child)))
Maybe you can do a review of Uran in the future?
Vladimir,
3 ninjas, I think. I'll think about it.
This guy never caught my attention, but thanks for the article, I refreshed my memory about video stores for the ruble (even with Lenin on the banknote)
Dmitriy,
Yes, I remember them too - but here in Siberia their era was already over by the time Ted Roberts appeared - video films appeared.
Thank you for another selection of “films from the past.” I didn’t even know that such an actor existed... and due to my age, I’m unlikely to get through these films. “Fantastic Fighter” with the Don Dragon already mentioned here was enough for me, which I decided to watch out of curiosity after seeing a review on this site. )) But I read it with pleasure! I will be waiting for new works from you!
Black Dragon,
If you learn anything from TJ, it’s just “Don’t give up” - he fought very vigorously there, and there were no school stamps.
uranium,
I watched "Don't Give Up". Not bad. Looks with interest. But just for informational purposes only once. And in general, I agree - the first half of the film turned out better than the second. And I also noticed in the fight on the beach with Ethan’s brother at the very beginning there was a dude from Bloodsport 2. The same one who will then receive a gunshot wound and will not be able to continue participating in the tournament. I don’t remember exactly what his name was... Sergio, I think. I might be wrong, but it's very similar. And the year of manufacture seems to be 95, not 94, as indicated in the article.
Black Dragon,
The dude from the second blood sport is Nick Hill. In many action films he played, as a rule, minor roles
lukecage,
Yes. Exactly him. It turns out he also played in “Showdown” - the film from the previous review about Karate Kids.
Black Dragon,
The year of release was judged by film search. I just don't remember Bloodsport 2.
As for "Don't Give Up" - this is the only thing that Roberts pulled off with a stretch, both in terms of fights and plot.
uranium,
It so happened that I saw the second and third “Bloody Sport” before the first with Van Damme. Therefore, actor Daniel Bernhardt (playing the leading role) was immediately remembered. The type is very bright. Even Dacascos, respected by many, somehow paled in comparison. Bernhardt looked good on screen and looked decent as a fighter (though I don't know much about that). There don't seem to be any reviews for it yet. And yes. Thanks for the recommendation! After your reviews I always want to watch or re-watch something old.
Black Dragon,
Bernhard was not bad in the MK series, there was also a sneak peek where he fought with Chuck himself and even managed to drag him in a couple of times).
uranium,
Yes, I remember this series. It first appeared on video cassettes, sort of like a continuation of the original MK. So I was fooled then, deciding that “Mortal Kombat 3” had come out! ) But it was still interesting to watch.
I doubt it could be worse than his role as Prince Dex in Kamen Rider.
Alex,
What I didn’t see, I didn’t see.