5 comments about Outside the Law.

1. I feel sorry for everyone slammin' on this movie. It wasn't that bad.



2. A thrill-a-minute, non-stop action adventure with a kick, Outside the Law delivers exactly what it propounds to -- a great action movie with solid acting. Director Jorge Montesi is on top with this one, leading a first-rate cast. Cynthia Rothrock delivers some intense martial action, while Seamus Dever and Jeff Wincott add heavy weight to an outstanding performance. Particularly interesting is the chemistry between Rothrock and Dever. A must see.



3. I'm a sucker for martial arts films...I watch them and I'm rarely satisfied. Normally, I can expect to be somewhat entertianed by a Rothrock film, even if it is just watching her kick some butt. This movie, however, has very little butt kicking and a lot of bad acting and direction. This 90 minute film feels like it is two hours long. It has been a long time since Rothrock has done anything worth watching...but I watch her next video anyway, hoping for the glory days of "Righting Wrongs" and "Dragon Lady."



4. I couldn't agree more, I think this movie should have more butt kicking then action. It really bites, but I guess I'll go with other movies that Rothrock has been in.



5. The stunts in this film are kick-ass. I love the action.

5 comments about China O'Brien.

1. My wife rented this recently just so that she could see Keith Cooke, a martial artist whose work she admires. (He's of mixed Japanese and American descent, but he plays a Native American martial artist here.) Do not see this for the plot, the acting, the setting, or if you like movies with characters you actually care about. Do see it if you want to watch a female martial artist beat the snot out of a bunch of rednecks. There is no other point to this movie.



2. With Cynthia Rothrock taking on the american film industry, starring as China O'Brien, a karate teacher, whom resign s her badge/gun after a alley-way shooting, returns home to her "sheriff" father. After witnessing her father been killed, she decides to campaign for her fathers position as sheriff, vowing to clean the town of all its corruption, she enlists the help of her young sweetheart, played by fellow blackbelt Richard Norton (whom she stars in numerous films after) helps clean the town, with their extreme talent of martial arts, only seen in most hong kong movies, (minus the dubbed dialogue, of course). This is a must for all martial arts like me.



3. As long as you go into this movie knowing that it's terrible: bad acting, bad "effects," bad story, bad... everything, then you'll love it. This is one of my favorite "goof on" movies; watch it as a comedy and have a dozen good laughs!



4. This movie is particularly good for martial artists, for everybody else you may want to pass on this one. The fight scenes are done in the "last dinosaur" style, by that I mean that the action is very close (or closer) to how a real martial art fight would be and NOT like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon like most modern martial art movies are. Not to fear though, the action is not dull in any sense, the fight scenes are similar to 'The Best of the Best'.
   
   The story goes like this, a female cop/martial artist quits the force after an incident in a back alley. She goes back home and her father/ex-sheriff is murdered so she decides to run for sheriff and clean up the town. Then she and her high kicking boyfriend proceed to whip everybody's you know what that gets in their way. Cheesy...maybe but the action is good. Also, there is another character in the movie named "Dakota" who is awesome; to me he almost stills the show from Cynthia.
   
   There is even a sequel to this, which is even better (action wise), called China O'Brien 2.



5. China O'Brien stars Cynthia Rothrock as a big city gendarme who returns to her itty bitty home town when her father decides to retire as the local sheriff. Of course, the bad guys give him a dose of the ol' Lead Pension plan and before you can say Hackneyed Plot Point China is running for sheriff so she can bring in the desperados who gunned her Daddy down! She joins forces with that same Australian karate guy thats shows up in most of her movies(like Tiger Claws) and a one handed, motor cycle riding Indian kid who had a hand chopped off by the same guys what iced Daddy O'Brien.(These evil dudes are busy. Maybe the local Villains Union is understaffed) Everything is pretty typical and if you like Cynthia then you'll most likely enjoy this flick. However, if you aren't more than a casual fan of the star or genre, look elseware. The acting is waaaay too stiff. If the actors had lightened up and Rothrock was allowed to show some personality and charm the movie could have had some genuine appeal. That's all it needed.

2 comments about Rage & Honor 2 - Hostile Takeover.

1. An exciting newcomer hits the big screen! Dan Kobb stars as ill-fated C.I.A. operative Stevens in this gripping tale of intrigue and love set in steamy Jakarta. Mr. Kobb's portrayal of the caring yet naive agent brought tears to my eyes, as I'm sure it will to yours.



2. The powerful chemistry of martial arts superstars Richard Norton
   and Cynthia Rothrock gets another successful work-out in "Rage and Honor 2." Rothrock is reunited with Norton in Jakarta where
   their characters target a banker who is laundering millions in
   drug money. Patrick Muldoon delivers an effective supporting
   performance as the banker's suspiciously naive son. The movie's
   intrigues reveal a struggle for a diamond fortune and unravel a
   maze of traps designed to sidetrack the heroes. Plot twists and
   skillful combats make "Rage and Honor 2" a must-see sequel and a
   worthy addition to the remarkable Norton-Rothrock list of colloborative movie ventures.

3 comments about Tiger Claws 2.

1. Even if you don't think your time is valuable, it would be better spent and enjoyed if you stared at the off-white wall in your bedroom. At least your wall has texture. This movie is total trash. A big waste. And the martial arts, if you can call them that, are a joke.



2. A good Martial Arts B movie. This is one of my Bolo Yeung Favorites, he is just dirty in this flick. Both 1 & 2 are good, 1 is better. Why is Tiger Claws 1 not on DVD but 2&3 are? I don't know what they are thinking but I like to see my movies in order! Wait for part one on DVD First(on Widscreen) before buying two.
   Nuff said!



3. I'll start off by being honest and saying I have not seen part 1 yet. There were some clips at the beginning of this film from part 1, and they looked somewhat decent...mostly the Bolo Young character in some fight scenes. At first I was not expecting much from this movie, and really bought it cause it had one of my favorite B-movie martial arts villains, Bolo Young. I realized that the overall cast list was pretty good, consisting of Bolo, Jalal Merhi, Cynthia Rothrock, Eric Lee, Evan Lurie, and Ong Soo Han. There are even plenty of other extra guys, with great physicall build and abilities for the martial arts tournament in the film. I was prepared for some great fights among some great movie martial artists.
   
   Most of the movie has a pretty good feel to it, and I think the music helps a lot - it almost sound like similar music used in Terminator 3. Pacing was good and I actually never realized that there wasn't too much action taking place. By the end of the film I longed for the action, and was pleased to see there was a tournament. The fights were short though, and only a few were decent. Bolo gets to fight too, but only in a couple of very short fights. The biggest dissapointment was the use of Ong Soo Han and Eric Lee, yet without little to no fighting from the 2 and both usually have excellent fights in most of their movies. Ong Soo Han's character's fate was a huge disappointment. The other big dissapointment was the finale with Bolo - I was hoping for a great fight scene with him and Jalal or Cynthia - didn't happen. He uses a few seconds of Tiger Claws on some guys, but its pretty stupid when each time he executes, the sound of a roaring tiger follows.
   
   The plus is the final fights between the Cynthia Rothrock charcater and a couple of bad guys, and the Jalal Merhi charcater vs the bad guy character played by Evan Lurie, which ended up being the best fight of the movie - more evenly matched and longer.
   
   Tiger Claws 2 ends up being average overall. The decent list of characters should have provided an extremely great action movie, but the best guys don't get to fight much. Hopefully Tiger Claws 3 will have a great fight with Bolo...oh wait he isn't in part 3....major doh!

5 comments about Fast Getaway.

1. This movie has a ridiculous script,Corey Haim was adored by platoons of teen girls at that time ,because he was handsome;but this is not sufficient.He doesn't act at all,(I saw this fikm dubbed in Italian)but I think that the result is the same.Leo Rossi,who is he?Or whom would he like to be?Gerard Depardieu ,maybe? Listen to me,if the movie is a bit more spicy,everone should thank Mrs. Rothrock skills in martial arts.Her kicks are the only thing worth seeing in his b-movie



2. Leo Rossi,Corey Haim are a father and Son bank robbing team helped by Cynthia Rothrock who pull off various daring but non violent bank robberies until one day ROSSI fall out with ROTHROCK over sharing a haul with his Son (HAIM)
   In revenge ROTHROCK sets ROSSI up and he is arrested and HAIM ends up in Jail with his Dad until ROSSI`s EX Wife see`s a news story and recognises HAIM and claims him as a legal parent.
   She trys to stear HAIM in a direction that will help him lead a normal crime free life,but his Dad has already brainwashed him into thinking that robberies are cool that is until he discovers that Loraine(ROSSI¬s EX WIFE) is in fact his mother.
   All manor of things happen including HAIM being kidnapped by ROTHROCK because HAIM is the brains behind all there robberies and ROTHROCK wants him for herself.
   ROSSI after being broken out of jail by HAIM embarks in getting his kid back with the help of Loraine.
   An entertaining film but still on the far fetched childish side

   Funniest part of the film is when Corey Haim dresses up as a woman to fool the guards and looks scarily convincing in his
   make up and high heels!!!!
   ...




3. I saw this movie for the first time when it first came out on VHS in the 90's. I really liked it. It is a light action comedy. Corey Haim, was a star in late 80's. This is one of the better films with him. Cynthia och Leo makes the best of it. The fallow up, "Fast Getaway II" is not that good.



4. Corey's last great movie before his long stint of forgettable B Films
   Proves that he doesn't need Feldman as a sidekick to make a funny entertaining film
   Of course this movie is probably only for fans, but as a Haim fan, this is my absolute favorite of his films!



5. There are several car chases in this film, and they are
   all great, considering it's a B movie!
   
   The dialogue gets lame in between all the action. Count the # of times Corey says " Pop " in this film....could be a good drinking game?
   
   Cory Haim brings alot of energy to this film, but he appears
   to be high on coke! It's a manic, high strung performance.
   
   He was made to be in B films, with his good looks and limited
   range. The high points are a great bridge getaway, a revenge
   plot with a crazy blonde, and a jail break.
   
   The romance/sex scene with Corey and his blonde bombshell
   is non-existant. Marcia Strassman of Welcome Back Kotter shows
   up, and brings some stronger acting to the film, which the
   other actors can't match.
   
   All in all, a fun, mindless, popcorn B-movie, and a very
   fast ride...

3 comments about Rage and Honor.

1. Cynthia Rothrock is a terriffic sport Tae-kwon do champion. she does know how to fight. but she refuses to show any of her skill in her movies where every move thrown is slow and impractical. The plot of this movie is unforgivingly slow. Rothrock still tries to depend on her good looks for sales dispite that her ravishing model body has aged her into a 40 year old average woman who thows attacks the same way as would an amature. I think her name would mean a lot more if she stuck to sport competitions and stoped hurting herself making awful movies.



2. Richard Norton and Cynthia Rothrock co-starred in movies before
   "Rage and Honor", such as Samo Hung's "Millionaire's Express",
   but "Rage" established the charismatic pair as the Bogie and Bacall of martial arts movies. The chemistry of the two leads is
   undeniable in this swiftly entertaining actioner about an Australian (Norton) set up falsely for a murder charge in L.A.
   Norton's pursuit for exoneration pairs him with Rothrock in a battle against their criminal couterparts, played by Catherine Bach and Brian Thompson. Eccentric characters from the L.A. underground assist the leads in their mission, and the movie shrewdly punctuates the action-charged pace with light moments.
   An actor of integrity, Norton delivers a performance with integrity as the unfairly accused Aussie. Thanks to the appeal
   of both stars, "Rage and Honor" remains a rarely equaled martial
   arts movie, even ten years after its initial release.



3. Rage & Honor is one of those martial arts films that keeps you guessing throughout the movie - is this good or does this stink. I felt this way every other 5 minutes, convinced it was a decently made film, only to be disspointed at some point with mostly slow pacing or really low-average fight action that stars like Cythina Rothrock and Richard Norotn could do better with. But then again, the camera angles, directing, and editing wouldn't be able to show off a good fight if one was achieved. Overall, this is an average film at best, with several little disspointments thrown in.
   
   Perhaps the best thing about Rage & Honor is the story, which is not saying a whole lot. Richard Norton plays a cop named Preston, who is wanted for a drug deal shooting that went sour, involving other cops and the girlfriend of the movie's villain - Conrad Drago played by Brian Thompson (Lionheart, The Order, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation) A boy catches the whole act on tape, proving Preston's innocence, but the bad guys are desperate to get the tape into their hands. Kris Fairfield (Rothrock) comes to the aid of Preston, and eventually revealing her relation to Drago - which was a nice touch of originality. Unfortunately, pacing is very slow at times, and after an hour I was begging to see a good final fight already to save the movie.
   
   There is an average amount of fight action in the film, but everything is just an average bang-em-up fight without a whoe lot of style. Brian Thomson makes a formiddable villain, but in the end I thought he was just average too. The final fight of the film begins with Rothrock against Thomson in what is a highly unenjoyable fight due to the camera zooming way in on some shots, then way out on others. The editing is bad too, making it look like pieces of kicks and punches were thrown together. Cythina has 2 decent moves, but its not enough to call this a worthy fight. Fortunately, Richard Norton gets a chance against Thompson too, but this time everyhthing is in close & slow motion, followed by a very poorly executed finish to the fight.
   
   If not for Rothrock & Norton, this movie would bomb. They do have somewhat of a chemistry between them, which is why they have managed to appear together in other films such as the sequal to this one. Rage & Honor isn't a bad movie, its just not an exciting one. Its not overly cheesy either, except for maybe elements of the final fight. I'd watch it to see for yourself what you think, but I highly doubt a 2nd viewing would happen any time soon.

3 comments about Fast Getaway II.

1. "Fast Getaway" was a light action comedy, a good mix of action and comedy. But this fallow up isen't, all that was good in the first one is gone. With better script, bigger budget and better actors it have been a good fallow up. Don't waste your time with this one, but if you like "Double O'Kid" maybe you will think this is a good one.



2. its a years later follow up of the '91 corey haim movie "fast gettaway". fast gettaway being the story of a 16 year old mastermind and his father who have been a team in bank robberies as a way of life. when his dad is incarsorated he is placed under the care of his non criminal mother who just cant seem to understand the duo and cant help but worry about the future of her son. she is faced with a decision to make but is she prepared to make that choice..?

   fast gettaway 2 falls into quite a few years later.

   natural born bank robber nelson (haim) has quit the buis and is working for the bank as a test robber for security. when the fiesty lilly is suspected for robberys in the area nelson becomes a suspect himself due to past affiliations.




3. Not exactly the best movie of all time (or even a great one...it's actually quite cheezy... for one, there's no way Tuscon, AZ has streets that raceable...), but it has it's key points (Mainly the chases, but really.... Police keeping up with an FD? Not likely...)

   Anyway, if you have an unhealthy addiction to RX-7s or just wanna see a good chase scene or two, you should pick this movie up.... Otherwise it's a huge waste of time

   Oh.... and Cory Haim?

   THE RX-7 CLUB KNOWS ABOUT YOU!!!!1!

5 comments about Sworn to Justice.

1. This was a good film all around. Though it was a low budget film it had a good story line. The action was beleivable through most of the film. Cynthia has some good passion shots in this film that you don't see much of in her other films. I think this is one of the best films Cynthia has done thus far. I think Cynthia enjoyed doing this film because her character is convincing.
   This is worth owning...



2. After reading an article about this film, I had wanted to see it for the last 10 years because of the fact that I hadn't seen the wonderful Kurt McKinney since 'No Retreat No Surrender', and liked Cynthia Rothrock after seeing her in 'China O'Brien'.
   
   I wasn't dissapointed. Since being a fan of marital arts and martial arts movies, I liked this film a lot.
   
   
   
   If you are a martial arts fan, you will likely enjoy this movie.



3. So Cynthia Rothrick stars as a psychologist and comes home to find her sister and brother(I think) murdered. The robbers are still there so she fights with them and ends up hiting her head on a tree during her 200 foot drop. Instead of like going into a coma after hitting her head, she is now a psychic. Seriously. All of this happens in the first 5 minutes of the movie. Now this flick really has trouble deciding what it wants to be. There are actually a few pretty good ideas though they should have picked just 1 or 2 of them. Now of course I could not be too dissapointed in the amount of action. There was at least 4 major fights, too bad they were all godawful.
   
   It is hard to say this as a huge fighting movie fan but I thought the cameos by actors Mako and Brad Dourif were the shining moments of the movie.
   
   Now I made it all the way through the movie but I could not make it all the way through the behind the scenes. They just talk about how great the movie was. Well, sorry, but I just didn't see it.
   
   The movie is full screened with pretty good picture quality and has an awesome cast and crew bio menu.



4. Many good things about this movie make it better than many B grade martial art films, but unfortunately, there was just too little action for my needs and the pacing of this movie felt too eratic.
   
   The story is definetly more interesting in Sworn to Justice than most martial art films, and the plot thickens nicely and has some surprises throughout. The charcaters are ok, some are really good and some not so good, and Cynthia Rothrock has many up and downs throughout the movie. Her acting can be pretty good at times, and then not so good. The movie also stars Kurt Mckinnley (from No Retreat, No Surrender - about 10 years before this film) who does a ok job, though a little bland. The villain is played by Kenn Scott, who also does an ok job. The movie begins a little weird with Janna (Cynthia Rothrock) getting psychic powers from a fall that would normally kill someone. For the most part, the movie feels lagging at times, but finally gets exciting about 3/4 through.
   
   Unfortunately, there just wasn't as much action as I had hoped for. The few fight scenes are pretty good, and my favorite was the fight between Kenn Scott and Kurt McKinnley. A quick fight, only lasting 1-1/2 minutes, but exciting and very well done.
   
   Just another average film overall, with high spots and low spots. I also point out that the picture and sound quality is better than most martial art B movies. Ok story thats fun to watch the first time, but after that you'll probably wish there was more action.



5. The last 7 minutes of this dvd had blurred video, audio was fine, just blurred pixels. This is a quality control problem. Service was fast but product is faulty.

5 comments about TOP FIGHTER 2.

1. I have been trying to find this DVD for sale for years. Glad to get it in good condition. Took a while for it to be even sent, But I waited for years. The DVD has cool takes that has lead me to looking for a lot of cool movies.



2. This perports to be a view of some of the women in martial arts movies over the past thirty or so years. While some are interesting, most are not. The interview with Michelle Yeoh is a brief light in an otherwise dark space.



3. well done on how they became the best,the training they had,their determination they have what love they have for the martial arts,see them in action,some of the movies they played in.their ranks,the number of styles they know.



4. Great Movie - Great Price!! Thank YOU for making a Great Friend of Mine Very, Very Happy!!



5. This no more than a documentary of women in karate movies. I want to see more of a plot and a cut up piece of 1960 and 1970's karate movies. I have this movie in the most important part of my desk. In the back of my second drawer of my desk.

4 comments about Above the Law.

1. This movie, directed by Corey Yuen, the master of developing "fun" fight scenes. The movie stars a younger Yuen Biao, Cynthia Rothrock, Karen Sheppard, Pete Cunningham just to name a few. The plot, predictable, the dialogue whether in English or Cantonese, is often obvious and not very clever; but, this movie, judged on its own terms excel where many of this genre fails. There is a plot and the fighting is always in relation to it.
   
   And, it is here, in the fight scenes that one can indulge in martial mayhem! This is a young Rothrock and she is at some of her best (actually, her Hong Kong films far surpass any of her American work). The fight scene with Karen Sheppard is just fantastic! There is so litle work of Sheppard on film, that this makes the movie even more of a treat. Of course, Biao is great and one will enjoy his fight scene against Pete Cunningham.
   
   These fights are great and fun and Rothrock and Biao fans will you it.



2. Yuen Biao stars as a vigilante defense attorney. When all of his witnesses are killed, he looks to take matters into his own hands. Cynthia Rothrock stars a mahjong playing, kung fu fighting policewoman, and Melvin Wong stars as the dirty police chief. The story has many illogical things happening, but if you have seen a lot of Hong Kong films, you know they do whatever they have to do to move onto the next fight scene. Fan Siu Wong has a great role as a young punk. He doesn't get to do any action, but it is pretty hard to believe that this is the same kid who only 5 years later would attain a physique that even Bruce Lee would have marveled at. So to sum the movie up briefly, Biao and Rothrock finally figure out Melvin Wong is the bad guy, and it all leads to a spectacular finish.
   
   The story is not bad, but the action is definitely the best thing about this movie. Yuen Biao gives one of his very best physical performances, and Rothrock has a few nice fights including one of the better woman on woman fights of all time against Karen Sheperd. I always love to see the chain rope in action, and Karen Sheperd seems to be very skilled using it. Peter "Sugarfoot" Cunningham plays an assassin and has my favorite fight of the movie against Biao. They don't pull any punches and it is very intense. The final fight is good, but then there is a thrilling chase sequence that I was not expecting at all. Don't give up on this movie half way through if you don't like it, the last 30 minutes are worth a watch for any fan of action cinema.
   
   3.5/5
   
   Picture and sound quality are VERY good, and big thanks to Dragon Dynasty for including the original Cantonese mono track.
   
   Special features are as good as it gets. The alternate ending is interesting, the commentary from Bey Logan is filled with good information, and the interviews are worth the price of the DVD alone. 18 minutes with Peter Cunningham, 17 with Yuen Biao, and 13 with Rothrock. All the interviews are so good, I can't name a favorite. There is no way I could go over all the great things that are brought up, but here is a small taste of Rothrock's interview- "Yuen Kwai (the director) was a lot tougher on me than Sammo Hung. I would tell him I don't think I can do this and he would say yes you can, practice here for 2 hours."



3. I just got that new Dragon Dynasty version of the film, though I'd never seen it before last night. Haven't watched any of the extras yet, though from what I've read elsewhere this is the "downbeat" Cantonese cut of the film. I must admit I'm disappointed in the film, though can still justify a decent score. I really liked Yuen Biao as well as the lead villain. I just realized that Bad Egg was played by the director, haha. The film had some big laughs, perhaps occasionally unintentional, but also some great action.
   
   There were a lot of problems with the editing and stunt-work though. I know they make these movies fast and for not much money, but this one seemed cut together more carelessly than most. Also, despite how talented all the stunt people and the leads are in the film's action scenes, there were way too many moments where I saw wires or could clearly see the faces of stunt-doubles. Especially for Rothrock. Sometimes they'd put makeup on the guy. And one of the doubles for her looked like Biao himself. I know you can never be perfect with such things, but it was just much more obvious than in many other films of the genre that I've seen.
   
   On sort of a side note, you ever notice the ramp effect with vehicles in action movies? The most common example would be of a speedboat hitting the low end of another boat and rocketing through the air. You occasionally see this with cars too. Here in Above the Law a.k.a. Righting Wrongs, you see it with a car chasing down Yuen Biao going off of a parked car. Of course the car is in front of a railing up high on a multi-level parking garage. And I don't know my models but it's probably a Mitsubishi since they made it into EVERY Hong Kong action movie in the 80s. But the parked car wasn't particularly low to the ground. The moving car didn't hit any objects to lift it's front end up. It just jumps the other like a ramp. I don't know if this is really a complaint. It was odd, but hysterical.
   
   If we're talking recommendations and I have to exclude anything with Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, or Jet Li, I'd recommend any of the first four In the Line of Duty movies over this. But it's still a decent action movie and any fan of Yuen Biao in particular really needs to see it.



4. I absolutely love Yuen Biao, in fact; I think he may be the most underappreciated GREAT martial artist ever. So it pains me to say that this movie is altogether mediocre at the very best. None of the acting is good enough to make any of the characters compelling and the dialogue is jilted and forced(even for this type of film) when not busy being downright painful. As another reviewer mentioned, the stunt work and fight scenes seem overly edited and even sloppy at times. The music... oh boy, this may be as bad as I've ever heard(stock tunes or even nails on a chockboard would've been preferred) and is literally bad enough to dock the movie a star all on its own. All that being said, you do get some good and even great action. The first fight between Yuen and Cynthia Rothrock is fast and tight and they compliment each others styles well. The next solo fight Yuen takes on former kickboxing champ Peter Cunningham in a brutal give-and-take fight with plenty of big shots and broken glass. My favorite Yuen part was the entire parking garage scene that begins with him being ran down by cars before breaking into a brawl against a bunch of goons. Shocking to me though, was that arguably the best fight of the movie is a ladies only scrum between Rothrock and Sheperd! I would agree with fellow reviewer Morgoth when he states that it's "one of the better woman on woman fights of all time." If you are a fan of Yuen or just martial arts action movies in general you could certainly do worse, but this is far from the best the genre has to offer. For all those looking for a review for the Steven Seagel film of the same name... sorry to waste your time (and sorry you're looking for that!).