Bloodmoon

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.

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.

This is one of those films you see and go tell your friends all about it. The action is well done and Chuck and Gary both have terrific martial arts abilities. Although I do think both men should have fought Darren at the end it was still a great film. It was rather fun to point out the obvious stunt doubles, but the action is in the same category as such films like Drive, Super Fighter, and No Retreat No Surrender 3. I hope I'm not offending anyone when I say this, but this proves that Asian choreography is much better than most American choreography. Darren kicks really good but I still am a big fan of Donnie Yen's (Iron Monkey Ballistic Kiss) kicks by far. This movie scores high in my words so check this one out. You will not regret it.

Did anyone else notice how similar these two films are? They both involve a crippled kung fu stylist who has gone nuts and is tracking down fighting masters and beating them in duels to the death. The police in both have to call upon a martial artist with a troubled history in order to catch the killer. Both feature fights with different styles of martial arts on display, including a sword duel. It's surprising to realize BLOODMOON beat Donnie Yen to the punch (pun intended) by nearly 20 years.

Although the DVD cover and plot synopsis tries to promote "Bloodmoon" as a serial-killer thriller, that part of the film is the least successful one. It works much better as a "buddy movie" and a martial arts flick. Gary Daniels and Chuck Jeffreys have a surprising amount of chemistry: Jeffreys is obviously the better actor of the two, and perhaps working with him inspired Daniels to work a little on his acting as well. And Darren Shahlavi is truly spectacular as the villain - how can this guy move so fast? The action choreography in this movie is terrific; not one fight scene is bad, but the final showdown in particular is about as good as it gets. Do you remember Jackie Chan's fight against that deaf-mute guy at the end of "Police Story 2"? That's the level of combat I'm talking about. The Hong Kong influence can be clearly seen in the speed of the fighting, the occasional (don't worry, it's very occasional) use of wires, and the crazy, over-the-top stunts. In short, if you're a fan of the genre, "Bloodmoon" is at least worth seeing, if not owning. (***)