As martial arts movies go this is a pretty solid offering, hardly original or surprising, but nonetheless offering a pleasing action-boredom ratio (about 5:1 in my view) and plenty of amusing incidental moments – after all, this was made in the mid '70s, where wide-collared shirts and flares were all the rage, where guys wear vivid tanktops and skin-tight t-shirts for all the world to see and where the hero has a huge afro and lamb-chop sideburns bigger than a normal man's hand. Yep, the hero of the piece is the unlikely-monikered Ron Van Clief, a big, brooding kind of hero who displays his admirable martial arts skills in a series of violent punch-ups and show-downs in a range of street locations. The resulting movie is a fitting combination of the blaxploitation and martial arts genres.
As is the case with a small handful of films, the low budget actually works in this film's favour, giving it a street vibe of sweaty realism missing in bigger and slicker offerings. Although the Bruce Lee angle of the plot has obviously been tacked on by producers in a hope to sell it to a wider audience (thus adding it to the surprisingly large sub-genre of "made to cash in on his death" Bruce Lee films), the straightforward plot is just an otherwise excuse for a series of fights, battles and open street wars. Despite the ill-defined characters, the inaudible accents (dubbed or not dubbed? that is the question) and the less-than-impressive acting, this is for the most part worth watching. The second half of the film is by far the better, featuring as it does a lot more action than the fairly slow opening, and the excellent climax involves a series of violent showdowns resulting in the death of one or more characters.
Watch out for a nasty eye-gouging moment which comes as an unpleasant surprise, and see if you can spot the homosexual subtext between Van Clief and his best "buddy", a guy who closely resembles Jools Holland and who spends most of his time hanging around half-naked with his pal. The ante is upped for the film's finale, in which a nasty snake woman lobs a venomous adder at the good guys. The final one-on-one fight is actually very well choreographed, taking place on a lonely beach and very exciting with it. But for the most part this film just offers straightforward martial arts action – not great but definitely better than average and that means its not bad at all.
As is the case with a small handful of films, the low budget actually works in this film's favour, giving it a street vibe of sweaty realism missing in bigger and slicker offerings. Although the Bruce Lee angle of the plot has obviously been tacked on by producers in a hope to sell it to a wider audience (thus adding it to the surprisingly large sub-genre of "made to cash in on his death" Bruce Lee films), the straightforward plot is just an otherwise excuse for a series of fights, battles and open street wars. Despite the ill-defined characters, the inaudible accents (dubbed or not dubbed? that is the question) and the less-than-impressive acting, this is for the most part worth watching. The second half of the film is by far the better, featuring as it does a lot more action than the fairly slow opening, and the excellent climax involves a series of violent showdowns resulting in the death of one or more characters.
Watch out for a nasty eye-gouging moment which comes as an unpleasant surprise, and see if you can spot the homosexual subtext between Van Clief and his best "buddy", a guy who closely resembles Jools Holland and who spends most of his time hanging around half-naked with his pal. The ante is upped for the film's finale, in which a nasty snake woman lobs a venomous adder at the good guys. The final one-on-one fight is actually very well choreographed, taking place on a lonely beach and very exciting with it. But for the most part this film just offers straightforward martial arts action – not great but definitely better than average and that means its not bad at all.