Tiger Claws III

Great movie. Movie Strengths: Fighting arts. Fighting choreography. Directing. Under its "fictional" story front lies a unique and literal purview of the Kung Fu Underworld in the heart and soul of where it all happens: Chinatown. Movie Weaknesses: Dramatic Acting. Budget constraints.

If you can get past the fact that this movie didn't have the luxury of Chow Yun Fat's endless budget, you'll see that it DOES have what Chow doesn't... Pure fighting arts at it's best. The fighters are real. The fights are real and true to the art... revealing an ancient, yet rarely (if ever) seen denomination of high-precision Kung Fu....

The slick black, soggy streets of the Chinatown "slums" embody the ghost district's pungent heart and soul... reminiscent of that banshee-type taste and feel you get in Michael Mann's THIEF.

After a less than mediocre 1991 "Tiger Claws" and an even worse 1996 sequel "Tiger Claws II", then I should just have steered clear of the 2000 "Tiger Claws III: The Final Conflict" movie. But still, it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I ended up sitting down to watch what writer and director J. Stephen Maunder had to throw at me as a viewer.

And let me just be the first to say that what J. Stephen Maunder had to offer wasn't much to write home about. And just as I had expected, then "Tiger Claws III: The Final Conflict" was even worse than the preceding two movies.

The movie didn't have Bolo Yeung in it, whom was essentially the core reason for why I watched the first two movies. And I can't claim to be a fan of neither Cynthia Rothrock or Jalal Merhi, whom starred in this third movie. Well, Cynthia Rothrock wasn't really in the movie all that much, so fan of hers are striking out on this 2000 movie.

The storyline in "Tiger Claws III: The Final Conflict" was just not interesting and it was a sluggish movie to sit through. And it was downright abysmal to see the direction in which J. Stephen Maunder took the movie. I wasn't sure if I was watching an Asian parody of the old Christopher Reeve movie "Superman II" or if J. Stephen Maunder was so inspired by that movie that he was doing an homage. I mean those three magically resurrected Asian villains were just so far out there that it was difficult to take the movie serious. All hail General Zod, I suppose?

What does carry the movie and makes it barely watchable is the action and fight scenes, though the gun fights are rather cheesy. But hey, being 22 years old already, the movie hasn't really aged all that well.

My rating of "Tiger Claws III: The Final Conflict" lands on a generous two out of ten stars. This movie was bad.

First of all, i watched this movie in 2010, so yeah i do get the part where special effects seem to come up from Mortal Kombat Conquest... the lighting stuff was kind of goofy sometimes, but thats just one part of the movie. The story itself was average, if your OK with supernatural stuff. Personally i can't stand Asian movies with people flying in the air or stuff like that, but i don't mind a supernatural aspect in a fighting movie if the fights looks real and good. And sure they did look good in this one. I saw better sure, but i saw way worst and overall i was pretty much satisfied. I saw people complaining that Cynthia wasn't that much in the movie... I have yet to saw Tiger Claws 1(cause its not on DVD) but in part 2 it was way more Jalal than her that had the lead. It seems to me the lead was always Jalal anyway and Cynthia was a good sidekick. They sure probably put her on the cover for publicity, but everybody that saw the first 2 movies, or even just the second will know she is NOT the lead actor. Then the other popular thing people like to complain... "the superman 2 rejects". Just because the bad guys are 3 and "stronger" than normal people dosen't mean it copy Superman 2... Except being 3 they have nothing in common with the superman 2 guys.. (Zod and his guys, yeah i do like Superman) Thinking this way you could say that every movie release since the original Die Hard with Terrorist taking over something would be a copy... Lets just say that overall Tiger Claws is a fun martial arts movie, not a big one that would be remembered like Bloodsport or something like that, but a fan to enjoy movie for fans of the style.

Where do I start? First, the three villains from Superman 2 come back to life to do this movie. But now they're asian! They still wear their black outfits and wreak havoc on the unsuspecting population, though.

Second, this is a Cynthia Rothrock film, so you expect some female fighting action, right? Wrong. As a matter of fact, Cynthia Rothrock is barely in the movie.

Third, this movie sucks in every conceivable way. I keep waiting for Cynthia Rothrock to do a decent movie. I'll be damned if I haven't been waiting for a long time. Now, they're putting her name on a movie simply as a publicity stunt. Next time her name appears on a movie, I'll wait for it to come out on cable.

Fourth, I want my $3.50 back.

I'll admit, I hardly watched this movie - therefore I'm not going to actually give it a numerical rating. But the parts I did see were pretty bad. Example scene with bad guys: "Everyone's running away from us. Oooh, there's a line of unattended cars! Let's walk menacingly while taking turns blowing them up in an evil manner!"

It also seemed to be kind of a rip-off of Superman II. Just look at the 3 bad guys and you've got the same demographics in each movie.