The Weapons of Death

When I watched this film, I had no idea at all that its director, Paul Kyriazi, also helmed the earlier Death Machines (1976). It seems that a lot of people don't have much good to say about that one but I, on the other hand, thought it was excellent fun. A proper crazy bit of action trash, and highly entertaining. It maybe explains why I found myself enjoying Weapons of Death really, because as I have seen more and more cheap martial arts flicks from the 70's and 80's I've sort of realised I can't really be bothered with most of them at all. I usually find them somewhat tedious with action scenes so relentless that they act as a sleep inducer. Well, for some reason Kyriazi's two action movies didn't bore me at all. I found Death Machines to be the better of the two on account of its sheer insanity levels but Weapons of Death certainly is coming from a similar overall general ball-park.

Set in the San Francisco area, a Chinese crime group hires a band of low level American thugs to kidnap a girl from a rich family from Chinatown, a family who have hitherto refused to pay the gangsters protection money. Instead of bowing to the criminals demands they gather together a crew of fighters to go and rescue the girl and sort the bad guys out.

This American movie sort of tries to come across like it might be an Asian effort, or at the very least a cross-cultural movie. To this end we have multi-ethnic characters all bringing their own individual fighting methods to the table. We have swords and bow-and-arrows mixed in with kung fu and brawling. One of the proponents of the latter is one of the bad guys, a black character called Carter who for me was the most memorable character in the movie. In one scene of inspired mayhem he takes out an entire gang of bikers (or sex offenders), he slashes and boots hell out of them resulting in exploding motorcycles and piles of dead bodies. Great stuff. There are also other notable characters such as a gang of Chinese female ninjas, although to say that they were underused would be putting it mildly. But this one scores in that it has a variety of characters of different types, and some unpredictable plot developments. The action is pretty full-on but it isn't as tedious as it can be in a lot of similar action nonsense. Overall, I found this one to be quite a bit of fun.

Cinematography is poor, choreography is weak. Some of the one-on-one fight scenes are good due mostly to the physical abilities of the individuals. Too many characters to get to know any of them. Character development is very weak and shallow. Those with deep 'secrets' spill them without much protest.

There is a very weak plot line that sort of ties it all together. Pretty much any time more than two people get together they start swinging at each other. Not a lot of contact is made, but they swing a lot! We have the Chinese crime syndicate hiring a bunch of American thugs to do a kidnapping. The expected evil heavy is bald and carries a bag full of weapons, only a couple which get used before being defeated by the good guy. There is the typical character that is on the side of the bad guys, but is good at heart. Throw in a hoard of women and a motorcycle gang and a couple of double crosses and you've got it! Weapons include pistols, clubs, bow and arrow, swords of all types, spear (the most interesting one in my opinion!), a mace and claws.

I suggest you find this title if you're a mega die-hard martial arts fan. This one's completely monotonous! In opening this picture, we see a Hulk Hogan impersonator having a bad temper while smashing the jukebox and throwing chairs. Child's play! The fighting battles are what makes the movies, but this has got to contain the sloppiest choreographies ever performed. Notice how the camera jerks around too often, because that's when you realize no one's hitting anybody! Some celluloid materials include brawny bikers and battling babes with clubs. The lack of poorly dubbed voices is the best advantage this mediocre flick has to offer.

There is a surprisingly strong script here; sadly, it is buried by poor production values, generally amateurish performances, and a lack of any real direction that could turn these disadvantages into strengths (or at least nullify them).

However, the film is only comparatively bad - that is, if you size it up with better made American martial arts films, it will look pretty bad; if you rate it next to anything Hong Kong, it will look embarrassing when not laughable.

However, After this became obvious, I let decided I'd try to set these comparisons aside and just let the film be an cheap American action film of its era; and on its own terms, it proved watchable, and even entertaining.

The high point of the film is a sequence some reviewers complain about, that seems to drop a biker gang into the movie out of nowhere. The writing is crisp and the 'cinema verite' approach makes the violence seem brutal, despite lack of proper dramatic perspective. This actually emphasizes the almost Homeric theme of the scene, and I could help thinking that the writer had read a bit of Homer before writing the film, since similarly epic-influenced moments pop into the story throughout. It's too bad the script wasn't sold to someone or some group that could really put a package like this together.

Altyhough looking dumb at the surface, there are some interesting themes here expressed well in the dialog. And the pacing is pretty good for a cheap action movie.

One other remark - I suspect this sat on a shelf looking for a distributor for a number of years - the '80s release date is belied by the hokey '70s fashions and hairstyles.

Greatest martial arts movie never seen! Until now. I just watched Weapons of Death on DVD last night. Even though it wasn't a 'big Hollywood production' and all of that, almost 100% of the characters this movie are Masters of many different martial arts styles. Not just paid actors. And on top of that, most of them did it for free at the time. I was especially impressed with Master Eric Lee. His skill is extraordinary! Even to this day. This movie needs more exposure. I want to see it on TV one day for all to see.

Special thanks to my Godfather, Nathan LeBlanc (the bouncer in the opening scene) for me letting borrow it to watch it. He makes Arnold look like a stick figure! These are the Greatest martial artists and fighters most of the world has not seen. The weapons are real and so is the skill.

Take some time to watch it. You'll be impressed. I was, and iv seen every martial arts movie there is. Im gonna watch it again tonight.