Too many fans seem to be blown away

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This film is not like the 1986 Anime version at all, even though it clams it is a remake. It's quite bad really and nobody's head explodes in this thing. It's not worth watching and the acting is quite bad, If you want a real film, watch the 1986 version instead not this trash.I give Fist of the North Star a 3/10

Gary Daniels stars as a warrior who comes back to take down a ruthless dictator who killed his father, as well as claim his rightful throne, while Chris Penn makes an impression as the general who is the lone survivor of a Gary Daniels fight sequence. Fist Of The North Star is a well made actioner, it has great sets, okay acting, some alright action (if a bit under-lit) and some interesting ideas. Plus it stays at least mildly watchable through out. The problem is, is that it could've been better. I'm not into Anime, but adaptations of that medium have to please the fans and yet appeal to people like me, who have no idea of the story. Unfortunately in this case, Fist Of The North Star ends up coming off so muddled and murky that most likely it will satisfy neither audience frame. Still there are some inspired moments, such as some nice exploding heads, a brutal tone and Chris Penn giving an impressive performance. Even Costas Mandlyor does well in the role of the villain, the most disappointing aspect of the film is Gary Daniels who remains expressionless through out, making it hard to care whether he lives or dies, considering he's the hero, here lies the failure of this adaptation. Also i'm not sure if Hellbound:Hellraiser II's director is the right guy to approach this material. Daniels fares much better in 1998's Spoiler.* * out of 4-(Fair)

I was really disappointed with this film. I saw it back in 1996 on the Sci-Fi channel and remembered it being not half-bad. Upon watching it again, I found it to lack many things. I never watched the Anime or read the comics because I am just not into that stuff, but, from what I have read about it, the Anime sounds like it wipes the floor with this poor production.Kenshiro is the hero of the story played by Gary Daniels for some reason. It's funny, I thought Kenshiro was suppose to be Asian, but whatever. Lord Shin, the lead bad guy also played by an American, kidnaps Kenshiro's girl Juliet and leaves Kenshiro for dead after brutally injuring him. What you think would be a classic good vs. evil story gets very boring as nothing happens until the end, and at that point you have already lost interest.I had thought this movie was going to be extremely violent due to the fact that the Anime is suppose to be viciously violent, but, this movie lacks any real action or violence, minus about 3 or 4 scenes. Instead, what we have is a movie that feels like the end of a really bad Trilogy that doesn't exist. Perhaps, if the movie were cast better and had a decent script it would have worked better. And Tony Randel as director was very disappointing considering this is the same guy that directed Hellraiser 2 (one of my all time favorite films).The only plus side of this movie was a pretty decent soundtrack and Chris Penn. The soundtrack was very good considering the movie was very boring. Chris Penn did a cool job with his character and was probably the only real highlight of the film.I guess I need to watch the Anime, even if I don't really like Anime. I would suggest staying away from this movie only if you really like Gary Daniels. 4/10

The first comment I remember having read about this movie was this: "Why on earth did they put American actors in the roles of Japanese(???) people?" I have no idea, but in my opinion, it didn't matter. This film really rocks! I've always liked all sorts of beat 'em up-films (and games as well, Mortal Kombat for example... too bad that movie sucked!) but this is definitely the best one I've seen so far. The storyline is interesting, the film has several good actors (especially Malcolm McDowell as Ryuken) and as a whole, this movie rocks!I wish there were more beat 'em ups like this!