Customer Reviews

Martial Law

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Martial Law" is an entry into Cynthia Rothrock's superior period of American movies, a run-of-the-mill outing for ol' David Carradine, and the first of only a few attempts to make Chad McQueen an action hero. It's a decent martial arts flick from the golden days of home video, made by a decent director (Steve Cohen, Tough and Deadly), but it lacks the necessary oomph to make it stand out. Considering the sheer amount of garbage all three performers have performed in throughout their careers, it's worth the low price just to bolster a collection of their better works, but I doubt this one will become anyone's favorite.

The story: an undercover cop (McQueen, Where the Red Fern Grows II) teams up with a martial arts expert (Rothrock, China O'Brien) to stop a dangerous underground smuggler (Carradine, Kill Bill).

A student of Chuck Norris, McQueen Jr.'s packing some decent kicks but as a character actor he's rather bland; in direct comparison to his charismatic father, he's positively milquetoast. This isn't necessarily a problem in a low-budget cop movie like this, but the film spends so much time focusing on him that you can't help but notice, especially since his exposure comes at the expense of the other two stars. Cynthia Rothrock's not exactly charismatic but she's more fun to watch, and David Carradine can do this kind of stuff in his sleep - sadly, it seems like he realized that was all he needed to do, since this isn't one of his more expressive performances. At times, the movie feels similarly paced: it's not exactly slow and its production values aren't bad, but so much of it takes place at night and in the dark that it's enough to make you feel depressed or sleepy. At key moments (e.g. fight scenes), the music blanks out, therein giving the movie a vague home video-type feeling.

A couple little things I appreciate about the movie is Carradine's character being a dealer in exotic cars (a possible nod to Steve McQueen) and stalwart stunt coordinator Philip Tan (Bloodsport 2) getting a role of substance, mostly `cause I admire the latter's enthusiasm and fun British accent. His work in wrangling the fights of this movie, however, is hit & miss. Though they include a nifty nunchaku battle and, respectively, a minor dream match between Rothrock and Benny Urquidez (Wheels on Meals), the fight scenes lack basic originality, with one feeling a lot like the last. The final showdown, split between McQueen/Carradine and Rothrock/Tan, features some good moves for the latter but only some poorly-disguised doubling for the former - shame on you, David.

The sequel would correct a lot of this one's problems, including the replacing of Chad McQueen with Jeff Wincott. It's an all-around better movie, and perfectly approachable without needing to see the original first, but again, if you're in the mood for a decent Rothrock or Carradine film after having put up with a bunch of crud of theirs, it's worth investigating. Just don't expect to be blown away.

This is a good B-Grade martial arts action packed flick. Sean Thompson(Chad Mcqueen) and Billie(Cynthia Rothrock) are memebers of Martial Law in the police force. Whenever the cops are in desperate need to fix up a hostage situation or other drastic situations thats when they call in these two martial artist who dont need guns or any sort of weapons to take on their multiple opponents and they get the job done clean. I make this sound really silly but its a good film with good fight scenes. The story is about Seans brother who is unlike his brother, a criminal. The brothers boss (David Carridine) finds out that Seans brother had a brother that was a cop and was pissed off because Seans brother was his favourite student in martial arts and ginny pig for crime that involved stealing hot cars like ferrari's, porsche, jaguar etc. Sean finds his brother dead and discovers an envolope full of big bucks in his brothers room the day after he died and knew his brother hadnt just died of natural causes so sets out to find his brothers murderer whith the help of girlfriend Billie.

I was rather impressed with this movie. After seeing the 2 sequals with Jeff Wincott (Martial Law 2 and Mission of Justice), I was doubtful about the 1st entry, since Chad Mcqueen is the star instead of Wincott. The bad boy alongside Johnny from Karate Kid, actually does a great job in this movie, playing a good cop. Cynthia Rothrock stars alongside, but her role is quite weak compared to most of her films. The real steal of the shows comes from the villain Dalton Rhodes, played by David Carradine (from the Kung Fu tv series).

Above all else, I really enjoyed the story in Martial Law. Sean Thompson's (McQueen) brother, Michael, is working under Dalton Rhodes, constantly screwing up and playing with fire. The family wrestling between Sean and Michael gets emotional and frustrating. Sean is trying to keep his brother out of harms way, but there are some that want to reveal that Michael's brother is a cop. Lots of suspense fill the movie which kept me very engaged.

I wouldn't say there is an abundant amount of fighting in Martial Law, but thats ok cause it doesn't really need it. The story can survive. The fight scenes though are good, but nothing above average. The idea of "Dim-Mak" is used in this film, which was introduced in Bloodsport as I recall. This is Dalton Rhodes favorite technique for killing off his opponenets.

David Carradine does a great job for a B-action movie villain. He comes off as a laid back guy, but in turn can wipe everyone off the map with his fists and/or guns. His honesty/word/loyalty are always questionable, and that adds to the suspense of the film.

Definetly an above average action movie, I would recommend getting this. Few martial art movie comes as close as this one, especially for a suspenseful story. The action is average, but overall Martial Law is just great.