Excellent, Without a doubt!!
It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
View MoreIt's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
View MoreIt's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
View MoreKevin White, a DEA agent working in San Francisco, gets the break he needs when he convinces the cousin of a fearsome Russian ex-KGB gangster to become an informant in order to bring down the gangster's new drug empire. Returning home to Los Angeles, Kevin stays over at the home of his brother Jack, who is also a police officer but a patrol cop only. During dinner, Kevin tells Jack about his plan to bust the Russians. But what Kevin doesn't know is that Jack is actually corrupt & has decided to use his brother's information in order to net him an easy payday. Discovering the informant's identity, Jack visits the gangster & kills the informant. He also offers his services for the fee of a million dollars. As Jack's skillful sabotage ruins the DEA case against the gangster, Kevin begins to suspect that the target has some sort of insider in the police department. And when he discovers that his own brother is involved, his blood boils over.Martial Outlaw is one of a number of cheap B-grade action films made by Canadian producer Pierre David, who is famous for making the Scanners sequels, & stars the likes of Jeff Wincott, a martial artist turned actor who has made a minor living starring in films like this one (he also starred in the likes of UNIVERSAL SOLDIER II: BROTHERS IN ARMS & its sequel as a UniSol).Martial Outlaw is by all respects an unexceptional action thriller. It has plenty of melee combat & some pretty gnarly fight scenes (Wincott & Hudson take on plenty of Russian gangsters in a restaurant & an athletics club where you discover what a "Russian circle" is). The script is efficient enough to keep the story going along without encountering any plot holes & the twists are telegraphed well in advance.But while the film is reasonable enough to pass as an action film, it doesn't have any real substance to it. Kurt Anderson keeps the action going to make up for the narrative shortfall & the script, written by at least five people, shows signs of being overproduced (I had a problem with the scene where Hudson's corrupt cop brings in a witness to tell the others about the fake drug deal location – wouldn't the police have instantly discovered that the witness was in fact an actress paid by Hudson to give them the wrong information?). The result is an action B-grader that doesn't make much of an effort to elevate itself above the flood of cheap actioners made during the 1990s.
View MoreThis movie has everything an action film could want -- heroes and villains and great fight scenes. It stars Jeff Wincott and Gary Hudson. Wincott made a name for himself in a number of great martial arts movies and fans will remember Hudson kicking ass in the classic movie "Roadhouse." Here they play two bothers taking on the Russian mob.It starts out in San Francisco where DEA agent Kevin White (Wincott) promises a snitch that he'll protect him from the Russian drug dealer Rochenko and his hired muscle Sergei (played by the massive real life bodybuilder Stefano Miltsakakis.) The scene switches to L.A. where we see hero cop Jack White (Hudson) wasting 3 Asian thugs while foiling a pawn shop robbery.The two brothers couldn't be any more different. Kevin is a straight laced law enforcement professional who trains hard in martial arts. One look at him shirtless, working out on the heavy bag, reveals a chiseled physique. Jack, on the other hand, is all street muscle, with a powerful body built to punish the trash he encounters on patrol. Rivals for the affection of their ex-cop father, and disapproving of each other's style, they hook up once Kevin's case takes him to L.A. Though they start out reminiscing, the tension between them is obvious. In a key scene, Jack challenges Kevin to a friendly sparring match and it's only a matter of time before it leads to fighting for real. Though evenly matched, after trading some well-aimed blows, Kevin's superior training gets the upper hand over Jack's brute strength and it's easy to see he enjoys administering a savage beating to his younger brother.Angry and humiliated, Jack turns dirty and throws in with Rochenko, where he trades inside information for a cut of the drug money. Rochenko tests Jack's loyalty by ordering him to slay Kevin's snitch. The street cop carries out the assignment and executes the innocent man in cold blood. Meanwhile, Kevin is attacked by a musclebound latino street thug and, after a ferocious fight, offs him with a powerful kick. Standing over the dead thug, Kevin shakes his head muttering "L.A. hasn't changed a bit." Jack starts playing a double game, feeding Rochenko information, but still helping his brother against the Russian enforcers. In a great scene in a restaurant, the two brothers take on a bunch of Rochenko's musclemen and leave the place littered with bodies. The best fight scene comes later when Kevin is lured to a dojo and faces "the Russian Circle." Directed by Sergei, a dozen muscular killers surround Kevin and take turns attacking him. The fights are bloody as they vie for the chance to kill him. With bare hands, swords, chains and clubs, they each take their turn --- but Kevin is faster, stronger and better trained. One by one, he expertly takes each Russian's life. When he's done, Kevin's shirtless torso is gleaming with sweat. He asks Sergei "Is that the best you got?!" Sergei, not liking the odds, disappears.Conflicted, Jack's plot unravels and Rochenko makes plans to flee with the money. Exposed as a dirty cop, Jack follows and the ultimate showdown takes place. Kevin finally squares off against Sergei and the two struggle barehanded, muscle to muscle, until Kevin proves the stronger, twisting Sergei's head until we hear the sharp crack that lets us know that Kevin has snapped his thick neck. Though Jack still wants the money, his brother tells him he needs to give himself up and it looks like the two brothers might have to fight it out again -- this time to the death. Rochenko intervenes and, when he tries to shoot Kevin, Jack instinctively jumps in the way, taking the bullet meant for his brother.The movie ends with Jack's hero's funeral, and Kevin realizing that, for all his bad deeds, his brother Jack was a good cop. This tale of two brothers has a good ending and both Jeff Wincott and Gary Hudson do an excellent job playing these tough cops. The martial arts fights are the centerpieces --- especially the "Russian Circle" where the action is white hot.
View MoreJeff Wincott (from 80's TV-series Night Heat) had potential to become the next Van Damme or Seagal. But he only made a couple of really good movies, after "Mission Of Justice" he returned with the same production crew for "Martial Outlaw". The story is, considering it's a martial arts movie, really good with an interesting premises: Kevin (Jeff Wincott) and Jack White (Gary Hudson) are brothers and both cops in different cities. A drug case brings them together, but Jack crosses the line and Kevin is the one who has to stop him. The acting is good, besides the action there is some good drama between Jack, his wife and his father. Kevin is mixed up in all this. The fighting scenes are excellent, Wincott is in top form: The scene is the restaurant is filled with action and great fights and the "Russian Circle" scene is already a classic. It reminds you of great martial arts films like "Kiss of The Dragon" and "Lionheart".The rest of the cast is also good, look out for Stefanos Miltsakakis as cool bad-ass Sergei. He was also in other genre movies like "Cyborg" and "Maximum Risk" (as Red Face).I already saw "Martial Outlaw" a dozen of times and it's still highly entertaining. After this, Wincott made 2 other excellent movies "Open Fire" and "Last Man Standing" (not the Bruce Willis movie). After that, his other movies were not that impressing. To bad because he certainly has charisma like Van Damme in the 80's en 90's. If you love movies like this and you've never seen this one, try to find it, it's certainly worth it.
View MoreThis is a video classic. No matter which video store I go into, I can usually find it. The action is non-stop and the stunts are pretty good. Not much in the acting or dramatic department but who cares when the action is this hot. Jeff Wincott (from the Miami Vice knockoff "Night Heat")plays an FBI agent trying to track down a Russian drug kingpin while trying to deal with his ailing ex-cop father and crooked LA cop brother. Wincott's made a name for himself doing these straight-to-video martial arts flicks like Cynthia Rothrock and Don "the Dragon" Wilson. This is his best. Some of the others are "The Last Man Standing" (not the Bruce Willis film) and "Open Fire".
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