Force: Five
A karate champion and early evangelist of American kickboxing, Lewis clearly had his eye on replicating his mentor’s big screen success. Instead, his debut, Jaguar Lives! (1979) found more fame years later on MST3K than it did in theaters. It’s follow-up, Force: Five (1981) is still a clumsy martial-arts mishmash stitched together from TV-grade stunt work and flat performances…but it’s aged to the point where an audiences can laugh with it rather than at it.
Recruited to rescue a senator’s daughter from a drug-smuggling cult leader, Jim Martin (Lewis) gathers his own team of superfriends (including karate champ Benny “The Jet” Urquidez) to stage a raid on the island compound. But Reverand Rhee (Bong Soo Han) has a few tricks hidden up his kimono, including an army of poorly groomed bodyguards and a minotaur-style maze complete with its own blood-thirsty bull!
There’s quite a bit of legit martial arts talent to work with here, but director Robert Clouse, who struck gold with Enter the Dragon and soldiered through the posthumous Game of Death, doesn’t do the performers any favors. The action is staged with all the energy of a Bionic Woman episode accompanied by an equally unsubtle music score pulled from some ‘70s library. There really is an A-Team feel to the entire affair that suggests a failed TV pilot rather than a major motion picture (like the fictional Mia Wallace show mentioned in Pulp Fiction). Lewis makes for a handsome leading man, but his fighting skills just don't land with any impact.
Instead, Force: Five finds its footing as unpretentious – and more than slightly ludicrous – family entertainment (minus a couple of boobs and a few bad words, of course). With expectations recalibrated, the parade of shaggy henchmen, casual prison guards and fawning acolytes (including Amanda Wyss of A Nightmare on Elm Street) become increasingly amusing. It’s not the visceral punch-drunk action movie it pretends to be, but, on the plus side, Force: Five is even more fun a couple of beers in.
A cost-effective upgrade from the out-of-print Scorpion release, this MVD Rewind Collection Blu-ray has the same solid hi-def transfer, wonky one-take extras (including interviews with Lewis, Urquidez and a retro fight featurette) but sells the nostalgia with a “Be Kind, Rewind” era slipcover and collectible mini-poster.
Recruited to rescue a senator’s daughter from a drug-smuggling cult leader, Jim Martin (Lewis) gathers his own team of superfriends (including karate champ Benny “The Jet” Urquidez) to stage a raid on the island compound. But Reverand Rhee (Bong Soo Han) has a few tricks hidden up his kimono, including an army of poorly groomed bodyguards and a minotaur-style maze complete with its own blood-thirsty bull!
There’s quite a bit of legit martial arts talent to work with here, but director Robert Clouse, who struck gold with Enter the Dragon and soldiered through the posthumous Game of Death, doesn’t do the performers any favors. The action is staged with all the energy of a Bionic Woman episode accompanied by an equally unsubtle music score pulled from some ‘70s library. There really is an A-Team feel to the entire affair that suggests a failed TV pilot rather than a major motion picture (like the fictional Mia Wallace show mentioned in Pulp Fiction). Lewis makes for a handsome leading man, but his fighting skills just don't land with any impact.
Instead, Force: Five finds its footing as unpretentious – and more than slightly ludicrous – family entertainment (minus a couple of boobs and a few bad words, of course). With expectations recalibrated, the parade of shaggy henchmen, casual prison guards and fawning acolytes (including Amanda Wyss of A Nightmare on Elm Street) become increasingly amusing. It’s not the visceral punch-drunk action movie it pretends to be, but, on the plus side, Force: Five is even more fun a couple of beers in.
A cost-effective upgrade from the out-of-print Scorpion release, this MVD Rewind Collection Blu-ray has the same solid hi-def transfer, wonky one-take extras (including interviews with Lewis, Urquidez and a retro fight featurette) but sells the nostalgia with a “Be Kind, Rewind” era slipcover and collectible mini-poster.
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