Mr. X

Despite being hailed as the best karate fighter ever, Joe Lewis' on screen career was less epic. After attaining mixed results with the likes of JAGUAR LIVES and FORCE FIVE, he seemed finished with fighting for the camera but returned to pictures after a seven-year hiatus under the direction of B-movie guru Godfrey Ho. Why align himself with the man responsible for such scrap classics as NINJA TERMINATOR? - your guess is as good as mine, but be assured that unless you're up for a full dose of Ho's seat-of-the-pants production techniques and serious underutilization of one of martial arts' top stars, you're in for disappointment.

The story: A truce between the Yakuza and the Triads is broken with the wedding massacre of a godfather's family, with the lone survivor (Alex Man) swearing revenge on his family's killers.

Did you notice that I didn't mention Joe Lewis' character in the plot? Joe plays a fairly prominent supporting role as an assassin hired by someone to take out somebody, but you never get the impression that he's in the same storyline as the other characters because - classic Ho tactic, here - the movie is comprised of scenes from another feature into which Lewis' additionally-shot portions were edited. While Alex Man is running around trying to exact his revenge, Lewis spends most of his time chatting with Chaplin Chang and going on sniping missions. He and Alex never even meet, making it really feel like you're watching two different movies...and neither are very good.

Both 'sides' of the film feature poor picture quality, lackluster editing, and bad voiceovers, but simply because there's more of it, it's the Alex Man adventure that suffers exceedingly. It feels like it's trying to be HARD BOILED, but long instances of boring dialogue thoroughly outweigh its action scenes. Even when a shootout or swordfight does take place, it's usually not very good. Four big gunfights feature about two hundred guys in suits and sunglasses getting shot up, but overuse of slow-motion and the impression that they too were filmed separately from the main stars negate any coolness the encounters may have imparted. Two big swordfights also take place; the second one is surprisingly good but the first is shot in such dim light it's impossible to see what's going on. After wandering around and occasionally shooting people for 69 minutes, Lewis has two hand-to-hand fights, including one against fellow kickboxer Dick Kimber. These aren't awful exchanges but pale in comparison to his better work (see DEATH CAGE) thanks to some weird choreography and inopportune cutting.

The film ends with Lewis giving Chaplin Chang advice on life and a lot of people having died with little to show for it. By now, the movie is feeling assured that it's proved Joe Lewis to be a badass, but nothing could be further from reality. MR. X is so confusing that you don't even bother to catch any character's name, and the only guy you do take notice of looks uninvolved and not at all like the kickboxing legend his portrayer is. Perhaps the movie would've been less disappointing if it hadn't been billed as a vehicle for Lewis, but even when watched in ideal conditions, it's far from satisfying and even less coherent. There are plenty of filmed-in-Taiwan flicks you can watch before resorting to this one.

Remember the US cinema versions of the early Godzilla films? The one's where they'd carve out the character driven elements of the plot and substitute unconvincing shots of American actors gasping, talking technicalities and giving running commentaries on Big G's moves? This is that kind of deal but instead of Raymond Burr we have ex-karate champ and stunt dude Joe Lewis inserted into an over the top Godfrey Ho directed Hong Kong b-movie that desperately wants to be 'A Better Tomorrow 2' but fails due to lack of class or talent. Apparently someone thought that the addition of cardboard cut-out Joe and friends through the medium of shot-on-video extra scenes (that stand out wildly from the grainy HK film stock) would enhance the experience and lend the film wider appeal. They were wrong, instead it becomes the kind of bizarre experience that only I and a handful of other enlightened individuals on the entire planet would sit through in its entirety. As it's unintentionally funny and, for 80 minutes at least, made me forget I have no life between mondays and fridays I have awarded 'Mr. X' a bizarre 3 out of 10.

Astonishingly this is now available on DVD in the UK.

Well, what do we have here? Why it's a modern cut and paste effort in true Godfrey Ho style! But hold on a minute......do my eyes deceive me or is that actually the great man himself appearing in this?!!!! Good God! - Yes it is indeed! And who directed this film? - Ed Woo eh? Hmmmmmm........pull the other one! - Godfrey, you old scoundrel you! You've been at it again haven't you?!

Yep, all of our God(frey's) trademarks are here; an indecipherable plot (in this case something about the Yakuza and Triads teaming up), plus some brand new footage featuring western actors edited into proceedings in order to give the finished movie a wider international appeal (ostensibly). In this case our lead man happens to be none other than kickboxing legend Joe Lewis. Unfortunately all of Joe's scenes stand out like a sore thumb however as they have been shot on the cheap, on what appears to be regular video tape(!) Added to this, judging by the decidedly awkward performances in these newer segments, the script to was presumably skimped on leaving the impression that the actors are ad libbing most of their lines! On the positive side however, whilst sadly getting very little screen time, Joe does at least get to demonstrate some of his moves towards the end in this.

OK so that describes the newer sequences; what about the original film into which they are (clumsily) edited?

Well actually it's rather solid stuff featuring some excellent John Woo style shootouts plus some cool martial arts throughout. Particularly noteworthy is the rather splendid beginning in this wherein the bad guys gate crash a wedding and proceed to wipe out virtually every guest!

But let's be quite honest here folks; this film is chiefly memorable for one thing and one thing only and that my friends is the majestic on screen presence of one man......ney, one demi-god......the great man himself Mr Godfrey Ho! His electrifying performance here is surely comparable even to his directorial genius; In fact he clearly demonstrates that he is easily in the same league as the likes of the Brando's and De Niro's of this world. Indeed, quite how this master of his craft was overlooked for the best foreign actor award at the Oscar's is a veritable crime! Shame on you Hollywood!

*Cough!*