Bloodfist 4: Die Trying
(1992)
Director: Paul
Ziller
Cast: Don "The
Dragon" Wilson, Cat Sassoon, Amanda Wyss
Impressed with the previous Bloodfist
3, I decided to
check the next entry of this series. Even though it's still a Roger
Corman
production, surely they learned something from the last movie, right?
Right?
Wrong. This is just standard made-for-video martial arts "action". A
viewer's
enjoyment on this made-for-video genre in general will be his or her
guide
to whether you'll like this or not. As for me, I've seen far far too
many
of these movies.
Coincidentally, I rewatched Enter The Dragon a
few days
ago, in its new letterboxed version. Although I think Bruce Lee movies
are way overrated (no flames please - I'll explain my reasoning
shortly),
this movie was above average for the genre. The fights, though short
and
not with high energy, were realistic (only a few blows in each fight)
and
were impressively pulled off by its charismatic star, who had a
definite
screen presence and martial arts talent. However, all of his movies
(but
less so with this one) had very boring surrounding material and
had me waiting impatiently for the next fight, because those were the
only
interesting bits. I suppose I've been spoiled by Jackie Chan and other
Hong Kong productions of the 80s and 90s - all these movies have
high-octane
action (martial arts or otherwise) and energy and/or humor in
the
surrounding material. It's amazing then, that Hollywood hasn't seen how
to use this kind of martial arts action in their own movies. They may
hire
directors like Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam after seeing their Hong Kong
work,
but for some reason Hollywood then insists that these directors direct
in an "American" fashion!
The point I'm making is that unless Hollywood realizes
what works, and
we refuse to fork over our bucks for these present stinkers, we'll
continue
to get more movies like Bloodfist 4. Hey, people saw
parts
1,2, and 3 (and 5, 6,7,......), right? We'll make another one! What
plot
will we use this time? Well, Hollywood is spending a lot of money and
time
on the big-screen adaptation of The Fugitive, so let's
make
our own and release it before the other, to cash in on the publicity!
We'll
make Wilson a single father who works as a car repossessor - that's a
good
excuse to have an opening scene when he's confronted by the owner of
the
car he's repossessing, and get them to brutally fight each other for
five
straight minutes. After Wilson knocks the creep out, well have him
drive
away to pick up his daughter to take her to school. (Uh, sir...wouldn't
Wilson be injured enough so that he'd look more hurt than a cut on his
face? And wouldn't he find driving difficult then?) Who cares - it's a
martial arts movie! People who would ask such questions wouldn't watch
this genre.
Okay, then we'll spend five minutes with Wilson trading
a few lines
with his daughter and his co-workers at the auto repo center. The
viewers
will be hungry for another fight by then, so we'll have Wilson
repossessing
another car. We'll have a Billy Drago-lookalike seen changing the
plates
of his car with an identical-looking car. Wilson comes in just after
he's
done, sees the guy's car with the plates of the car he's supposed to
repossess,
and tries to repo the car but - (They fight, right?) You bet! They'll
beat
each other up for five minutes straight, with Wilson winning and
driving
away with the villain's car. (Uh, sir...why did the villain change the
plates on his car in the first place?.......And with two grueling and
punishing
fights in one morning, wouldn't Wilson feel he needs to see a
doctor
by then?) ......No one will notice these things - it's a martial arts
movie!
Wilson will have accidentally dropped an invoice on the
ground, so while
Wilson is out for lunch, the bad guy's pals go shoot Wilson's
co-workers
and the whole place full of holes. No expense will be spared for ammo
in
this scene, as long as it stays within budget! We want to make this
look
at least a little better than other recent Roger Corman flicks.
Wilson
returns shortly to see the aftermath of the carnage, get attacked by
some
fake cops asking about the box of chocolates that was in the car.
Wilson
beats them up, and is on the run from the real cops who suspect he was
the killer and the bad guys wanting the box of chocolates. (So we're
also
ripping off Three Days of the Condor.) What? (Never
mind.
Hey, wouldn't the cops quickly discover that there was more than one
gunner
involved when they pull the slugs out the dead bodies and the walls?)
It
doesn't matter, because - (Let me guess: It's a martial arts movie!)
That's
right!
Okay, we'll show Wilson can't turn himself in with a
monologue later
in the movie revealing that the L.A. cops framed him for the car
accident
that killed his wife because the actual perpetrator was a cop. We'll
show
the police captain to be a moronic overweight woman who has fast food
delivered
to her at the murder sites. So Wilson is on his own, save for a friend
of the woman who took the box of chocolates. (Hey, why isn't there any
love scene or romantic attraction between Wilson and this woman? Is it
because he's Asian and she's white?)......Uh...hey, if you were on the
run, would you stop and fall in love? Besides, Wilson is half white!
(Okay,
that sort of makes sense....but why does Wilson keep killing the people
who attack him every five minutes? He could injure them, and force them
to give the information he needs.) Well, then the movie would end
before
the minimum 75-minutes. (And it's a martial arts movie?) You've got it!
(What about costars?) We don't have the budget for a
name cast, so we'll
just get James Tolkan. (Who's he?) He's that bald guy you see all the
time
in B movies. You remember, he was in Back to the Future,
and he usually plays authority figures with a hard edge. (Oh yeah, that
guy!)
He'll give Wilson some help later in the movie, including the scene
when
Wilson refights that Billy Drago look-alike when he and his agents fire
tear-gas into a warehouse to disable the other goons so that the two
can
slug it out. (But wouldn't the tear gas affect the two fighters more
than
it somehow making it hot enough for them to take off their
shirts?...No,
don't say it! I know the answer!) Okay, then we'll just rip out the
last
15 pages of the last martial arts movie we made, do a little rewriting,
and it'll be all set!
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Looking at the grosses for the latest Jean-Claude Van
Damme and Steven
Seagal movies, it seems that people (at least in North America) are
starting
to realize what bad martial arts movies they've been getting. So there
is hope that things will change, and we'll get what we want. Until
then,
use the admission money you would have spent to go to your city's
Chinese
district and rent about any movie with Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, or Jet
Li - even their worst movies almost always have more entertainment than
Bloodfist
4.
Check for availability on Amazon (VHS)
Check for availability on Amazon (DVD)
See also: Bloodfist 3, Drive, Best Of The Best 4
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