"Rapid Fire" is a 1992 action film directed by Dwight H. Little starring Brandon Lee and Powers Booth. At the beginning of the 1990s a young man who happened to be the son of the martial arts legend Bruce Lee tried to step out of the shadow of his own father all the while trying to honour his legacy. Before his tragic death on the set of "The Crow" in 1993 the young Brandon Lee had the potential to reach his goal and become a legend on his own, but sadly left this world way to soon, with only a few films in his filmography. Next to said 1994 comic adaptation, it so sad that this one seems to be the other notable entry to it. As I hoped, it's not even bad. In this feature film that's undoubtedly a cheap production he plays a student who gets tangled up in the conflict of two rivaling drugs lords. As absurd as it sound, the execution was pretty well done. Of course the dialogue was extremely cheesy at times and it was full of clichés that seem to appear in any 90s action flick, but this one stands out simply due to it's highly charismatic leading actor and the anti hero protagonist he portrays. With all those stereotypical, spaghetti eating Italian-American mobsters and karate fighting Chinese mafiosi, Jake Lo had something interesting to him that immediately made him sympathic. The same counts for Booth who played a convincing and equally likable tough cookie kind of guy. The best about this feature is, who would have guessed it, the fighting choreography. From Lee kicking through wooden banister to foot sweep someone on the stairs to a fight with two armed gangsters in a small flat there was no scene that didn't tremendously excited me. This belies the somewhat generic story and unnecessary political and romantic subplots. A thing that cannot be denied is that this film feels like an Americanised Hong Kong film Bruce has starred in back in the day. This feeling's not only created by the simple fact that his son stars in it, also the way the story is written. Furthermore, multiple scenes are obvious homages to the legend, be it Brandon who (of course) shares the same movements and fighting skills or the silly antics while playing a derpy undercover worker, the spirit of the dragon flows right through it. All in all, this action flick that has something videogame-esque to it, might not have reinvented the wheel, but still knows how to roll at the perfect speed and is a great pleasure to watch, mostly thanks to the performance of Brandon Lee. It's a generic story that definitely has its Chinese influences, but that's how it's unique charme is created. While the shadow of the inventor of Jeet Kune Do distinctly lies on the whole production, it definitely was one of the first steps for Brandon to step into his own light. It was the perfect role for him to establish his own name in the industry and literally was a guide post for him. He had so much potential and that's what granted him the role of Eric Draven. Sadly, we all know what happened then...
Review of Rapid Fire
