This is one of the most enjoyable, well-done of the Bloodfist series. I'm a big Wilson guy, and a big proponent of the idea that the first three Bloodfist movies are classics on equal footing with anything JCVD or Seagal were putting out at the time. This isn't as good as the first three, but it's the best the series got before the last three entries messed everything up.
Continuing the paradigm set up in the fourth entry, this one sees Wilson as a guy who can't trust anybody but himself, and needs to save the day from some international intrigue or threat.
There have been some abysmal, unbelievably shitty sequels in this franchise, but one thing the Bloodfist movies always delivered on was well-crafted action scenes, and this has a lot of 'em. Donny doesn't know who to trust, so he's fighting all sides most of the duration of the film, taking some time out to chill with the oh-so-fine in an early 90s kind of way chick Denice Duff.
I guess this is Wilson's version of Hard to Kill, because he plays a guy named Jimmy Stanton (or is he?) who is shot in the head at the beginning, and doesn't know if he's on the side of the good guys or the Chinese mafia baddies. Denice Duff is "Candy," a hooker (or is she?) who, after meeting Wilson for five minutes (three of which involve a fist fight in a garage), agrees to help him find out his identity.
This may be shocking to some, but I really felt that if this had a bigger budget, and actors who could "act," this would've been a good theatrical release. There are some familiar faces from tv land here: one of the guys from Mad TV shows up as a guy working at a jewelry store, and Babu from Seinfeld is an illegal arms dealer trying to buy some stolen plutonium from the Dragon. The chick is not too bad as far as eye candy goes, and she's not too annoying either, so it gets a thumbs up for that.
This movie has the distinction of being the last movie Steve James made before he tragically passed away. He's only in a few scenes, to tell the truth, but he's still good here. He plays a pimp (or does he?) of some sort. He doesn't go all out and Curtis Jackson on anybody's ass (he does, however, almost go Fargo on Wilson's ass), but I can understand the guy was going through some stuff. I'm surprised I liked this as much as I did when it first came out. A nice movie to watch with the equally entertaining Bloodfist IV: Die Trying.
2 comments:
I may have to check this one out again, because I was only so-so on it. Also it had Steve James, who I love, and who unfortunately succumbed to pancreatic cancer before this was released.
Yes, I go back and forth on it- I remember upon first viewing back in the day, I didn't like it as much. I grew to have an appreciation for it after awhile. Then I forgot about it for, oh 10 years or so, and then revisited it- I've definitely seen worse in those 10 years from the Dragon in that time, so I was more forgiving. And yes, a shame about Steve James.
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