Dimension 5

Justin Power (Jeffery Hunter) plays a guy who's supposed to be a super-smart secret agent. Then why is it once he's partnered up with Kitty (France Nuyen) he repeatedly blunders and is rescued time and again by this lady? It's especially amazing considering how often he acts like he is the super-spy and she is his acolyte?!

When the film begins, you learn that the Americans have a cool device that allows agents to jump back in time to the immediate past! They're using this to battle the ever-present Communist Chinese agents who seem bent on destroying America. Eventually he and his fellow agents learn that the Chinese have smuggled in parts to a nuclear bomb. Where in the US it's going to be detonated and by whom is something Power is going to need to discover--paired up with the Hong Kong-based investigator, Kitty. Can they stop the dreaded Big Buddha (Harold Sakata)?

I didn't mind seeing Hunter's character being out-thought by the female agent, but too many times he just seemed arrogant and really dumb...too dumb to live dumb! This is a weakness of the film. While she's obviously smarter than she is, at the end, Kitty is also a complete moron. And, so was Big Buddha for that matter!! However I did like how realistic and pragmatic the Power was, as he was not above slugging a woman or nearly twisting her arm off to get the truth--which makes since considering the Dragon organization is contemplating mass murder! And, I did like Big Buddha's style-- especially when one of his subordinates has the nerve to TELL him what he should do next! Overall, it's a film that had great promise but it really needed some editing to make the characters less like caricatures. I see this as a time- passer and not much more due to the inconsistent writing. In many ways, this plays like an old movie serial than a film that expected the viewer to take it seriously.

By the way, I saw this on YouTube and the print is badly faded--with the print looking sepia hued instead of in vivid color.