Bloodmoon

Action fans, rejoice. If you're fortunate enough to find this film anywhere, do not hesitate to snatch it up. If you're interested in Asian cinema, BLOODMOON will give you a sugar rush of the intense fight sequences you've enjoyed from such Eastern filmmakers as Tsui Hark and Yuen Woo-Ping. In fact, BLOODMOON has some of the best action choreography I've ever seen. I'd rank it up there with DRIVE (starring Mark Dacascos) and FIST OF LEGEND (starring Jet Li). It's a violent, balletic display of fighting prowess from stars Gary Daniels and the main villain played by Darren Shahlavi. To be honest, most of the fun of BLOODMOON comes from watching Darren waste the "best fighters" in New York City. He's essentially a serial killer that targets disciplined fighters (whether they be wrestlers or martial artists) and takes them down to prove that he's the best at what he does - which is taking people down! Darren dispatches these other combatants and often hysterical ways. It's not enough for him to flip a man over his shoulder to snap his neck (killing him instantly) - he then has to throw the man's corpse through a storefront window! It's a brutal sequence that will leave your sides splitting.

Gary Daniels is a more than competent actor. His English accent and charm is part of what makes him a likeable hero. He's also a committed family man, always concerned for his loved one's safety. His foreign status and unselfishness also make him a somewhat atypical hero. Oh, did I mention that he's a superb martial artist? Gary doesn't even have that many fights here (one short one versus a group of thugs and then two longer set pieces against Darren) - but when he's on, he's on. His abilities shine as he fights to the death with Darren for the safety of his niece and, during the climax, his daughter and estranged wife.

And the climax is the point at which this film unfortunately fizzles out - albeit slightly. There's a somewhat hokey resolution to BLOODMOON that's a little too convienent. And Darren goes down too easily for someone who's shown himself to be such a powerful force.

Bottom line, if you crave martial arts action, BLOODMOON will not let you down. It's a must-own film and one of the best action films outside of Hong Kong. I'd rank it fairly close to DRIVE - and anyone who's seen DRIVE knows that's high praise indeed.

This is clearly one of the best movies starring Gary Daniels. There are two reasons for that. The fight scenes in this movie are just great! Well choreographed, really exciting and WAY better than some of the other crap that Daniels has taken part in ("American Streetfighter" or "Capital Punishment", anyone?). It's a shame that Daniels hasn't gotten more good directors to work with, because it's really great when it finally happens. The second reason why I like this movie, is because of the cool buddy cop-feel between Daniels and Jeffreys. There haven't been enough of this kind of movies for a while. The story is also OK, although everyone should watch this movie for the action, and only for the action!

Most US martial-arts flicks are direct-to-video dreck, but this one has a real director and real visual flair. The storyline - a martial-arts psychopatic fighter terminates other champions in one-to-one fights - is classical, but this movie has good fights and production value closer to the best Hong Kong movies. If you're tired of boring stuff like the endless "Bloodfist" series, check this one out.

On the positive first, the fight choreography in this is top notch. One of the best I have saw for this genre. It literally hits, and it feels like there were painful touches in there. Its shockingly quite raw tbh. It does not have the dance quality of higher budget films that I hate. In fact, there is a point that I feel that maybe they are taking this fighting far too realistically. Its the clear highlight of the film.

What really makes this though interesting is the concept. Silence of a Kungfu Champion is a good summary for the story. It makes you like double take and seek it out.

Then story and presentation. I am more mixed to be honest. It is very sitcom-y. Let's say that. Its literally a Buddie cop but quirky and less realistic than your higher budget films. Each line has a weird hokey joke with it and its mostly campy fun in some ways. Sadly, it works 2/3 of the way (felt the middle part is far too slow). It loses a lot of momentum once the master got killed AND it got really muddled with a lot of the plot beats.

Soft recommendation. The fight scenes are the best.

This is Gary Daniels' best action flick since "White Tiger". He plays Ken O'Hara, a former police detective/profiler who is called back into action to partner with another detective and investigate a string of murders of world fighting champions. The villain challenges the victims to a seemingly fair fight then kills each one during the battle. There's a subplot involving O'Hara and his ex-wife that slows the movie a little.

Daniels is in fine form here, as usual. His acting still sucks but he's still got the moves. His final fight scene in the warehouse is quite a workout. Chuck Jeffreys is an excellent foil as the hotshot detective who reluctantly teams with Daniels at the police chief's request. His martial arts skills are just as impressive and he shows more emotion. Jeffrey's does a lot of film choreography on other movies ("Blade") and stunt work most likely for Eddie Murphy who he resembles a lot. Villain Darren Shavi is no slouch either. He's fighting legitimate ass-kickers, so he'd better know his stuff.

The fight scenes are some of the best I've seen in a straight-to-video release with American stars. The choreography in each scene is elaborate and well staged, especially the scene with O'Hara's old martial arts teacher, fighting Kendo style. The punches don't look as fake as in some of Daniels' other movies ("Black Friday" yechhh!!!!). The wire work is better though sometimes a bit annoying. Look for WWE wrestler Rob Van Dam as one of the battle victims.