4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Screenwriter's Own Comments, November 19, 2010
Honor & Glory was a prime-time HBO Feature; and Entertainment Weekly gave us a B-.
I wrote the screenplay for Honor & Glory. The line of dialogue cited in another Amazon review ("I'll peel your testicles like grapes.") is my own. I like to think it signals a movie that isn't taking itself too seriously.
What we did have going for us, back then, was something now so normal, our pioneering isn't even noticeable anymore. We were among the very first movies, long before The Matrix, to incorporate kung-fu action into strictly American locations.
Cynthia is a major star in half the world -- just not this half. Our loss. What a woman! And in the right mood, Honor & Glory is still a righteous hoot.
We had fun. Hope you do, too.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"I'm gonna tear your liver out!", June 10, 2010
If anybody other than Godfrey Ho had directed this movie, my rating would have been lower. For those of you who don't know, director Ho is the Hong Kong equivalent of Ed Wood - a ceaselessly optimistic man whose dozens of martial arts features are regularly regarded as among the weirdest and most inept ever made. Knowing this, I went into "Honor and Glory" expecting mediocrity, but when the film proved itself to be more than a two-bit piece of garbage, I began to pay closer attention and began enjoying myself. Make no mistake, you can easily do a lot better than this on a slow Saturday night, and don't even bother checking this out if you're a cinema snob, but if you've seen enough decent movies of heroine Cynthia Rothrock, then watching this one for the sake of weirdness should make for a fun 87 minutes.
The story: Joyce Pride (Donna Jason) is a muckraking TV reporter who's set her sights on the dealings of corrupt businessman Jason Slade (John Miller). When his usual deeds of extortion and murder are upped to selling a nuclear triggering device to terrorists, Joyce will need the help of her sister Tracey (Rothrock,
Above the Law), her partner Dragon (Robin Shou,
Mortal Kombat), and ex-bodyguard Jake Armstrong (Chuck Jeffreys,
Bloodmoon) to bring him to justice.
As my synopsis suggests, this is less of a vehicle for Cynthia Rothrock than it is for Donna Jason, co-star of the now-notorious
Undefeatable that Rothrock, John Miller, Godfrey Ho, and several other of the same cast members would work on a few years later. Disappointing as this seems at first, Jason actually proves herself a legitimately capable star, and Cynthia's supporting role is strong enough that the two of them attain a harmonious balance as a short-lived kung fu team. The rest of the cast is a pretty good draw, even though Robin Shou's screentime is limited. The same can be said about the fight scenes: all of the big stars juggle about seven minimalistic encounters before getting into a big randori for the film's last eight minutes. The choreography is swift and decent, with some varied weapons-handling and Jeffreys and Shou throwing a couple particularly cool kicks, but the fights never really amaze, with each brawl feeling a lot like the ones that came before it.
The film's level of absurdity is what makes it worth watching, for you can't help but stare at scenes wherein Joyce fends off an impromptu attack on the street by a woman who just happens to know kung fu, Tracey talks to herself at length while spying in a car, and Joyce and Jake kindle a crush by flirting with beans and chopsticks (don't ask). Of course, nothing beats John Miller's depiction of the ultimate jerk-villain Jason Slade, who employs his bodyguards to attack reporters, blows off a prayer breakfast with Ronald Reagan (no joke), and threatens various parts of his adversaries' anatomy in most gruesome manners (e.g. "I'm gonna peel your testicles like grapes"). It's easily the most over-the-top performance I've ever seen in a movie, and while I can imagine why he hasn't been in too many other films, I'm glad this one exists to judge all other bad acting against: others may have won Razzis, but at least they never had to proclaim "Only death can retire Jason Slade!"
Director Godfrey's usual money-saving techniques don't appear to have been utilized, this time: the production quality is iffy, but at least the dubbing is kept to a minimum and all of the scenes actually look as though they've been filmed specifically for this movie. While neither a technical classic nor a martial arts masterpiece, "Honor and Glory" is a hoot when viewed in the same vein as stuff like
No Retreat, No Surrender. Give it a try if you have the time and are willing to take a risk on laughs, but otherwise go ahead and forget it exists.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
one of Cynthia's worst, July 19, 2009
Martial arts movies were, and still are, a major part of my life. As a kid, I always looked foreward to the latest Van Damme or Lundgren flick, even Lorenzo Lamas or Don "the Dragon" Wilson, but none looked better to the eyes of a teenage boy than Cynthia Rothrock. Her best movies were made in Hong Kong in the 80's, but we gwiallo's didn't get to see them until much later. So we based her legacy on her direct-to-video American chopsocky titles, many of which were fine martial arts films, but to many were like Honor and Glory, perhaps her worst "authorized" film.
First off, miss Rothrock is not even the film's star, that goes to Donna Jason, who can also kick pretty good. Miss Jason plays a reporter out to get a story exposing a big shot investor as corrupt and an arms dealer. This gets her in over her head, but never fear, her sister is FBI agent Rothrock, just back from Hong Kong to try to get her family to reconnect.
The martial arts aren't bad, there is some playful panter (and fighting) between Rothrock and Jason, but everything else is all wrong. The dialogue worst than normal, most of the actors make miss Rothrock look like Glenn Close. The cliches pile up to were you can't see over them. Plus, our "star" Cynthia is only in about half of the movie. A big disapointment, it wouldn't be her last.
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