Lessons for an Assassin

I had a coupon for a free movie rental and the movie looked like it might be interesting. I wish I could get my free rental coupon back. I would rather have watched "Battlefield Earth" again.

All I can say about this film is that it appeared to have been filmed in someone's loft or an abandoned building. It also looks as if the budget mainly went to Shannon Lee and Michael Dorn and left nothing for the actual production itself. Avoid this film like the plague.

~DC~

Being a movie buff as well as a martial artist for over 20 years I really liked this film. It is great to see the Lee legacy live on in a very beautiful woman such as Shannon Lee. The film not only had a lot of good martial arts sequences, but there are actually Jeet Kune Do martial art moves and techniques in this movie that only Bruce Lee used when he taught his students!

Robert Vitelli gives an authentic and strong performance in his lead role as Gavin Mathews and is obviously a very experienced martial artist as well.

I think anyone watching this film will enjoy the plots twists and turns as well as some kick butt action sequences!

It was easy for me to think that a movie I've never heard of starring Shannon Lee with action choreography by Koichi Sakamoto would be cool. I wasn't expecting much. I was fine with an awful plot as long as the action was cool. But this IS a very bad film. It is extrmely slow moving, and there wasn't much reason to like Richard Vitalli who turned out ot be the star instead of Shannon. He is a very stupid character in this movie. It's amazing to see how he drastically changes through the course of the film. I realize it was supposed to be part of his character to be some lazy and incompotent man who becomes cool ala FEMME NIKITA, but it wasn't enjoyable here. Shannon has the best lines in the movie. She did her best to shine and to make this movie watchable. But the material she has to work with is so awful, that it hurts her performance. Seeing her fight again was great, but she had to go against very stupid stunt men who did not know how to fight. Koichi couldn't direct the action the way he usually does (DRIVE) because of this same problem. He didn't even have the rest of the Alpha Stunt Team with him. Action directors can't direct action by themselves. They have to have a team of other people. This is why guys like Yuen Woo Ping and Sammo Hung are so good at it.

This is an unfortunate film that shows that the people involved must have needed money. Shannon Lee showed she had great potential to be an action star with ENTER THE EAGLES. This is not a good way to follow that movie up. Stick with that movie and DRIVE for real good action.

From the opening shootout (that has four different parties shooting at each other, totally confusing the viewer) to the final scene with a psychiatrist, very little about "Lessons For An Assassin" makes sense. Obviously the basic plot is a blatant "La Femme Nikita" ripoff with a gender switch, but the budget is so low it constricts about 80% of the action to a single (underfurnished) building where the "training" takes place. Now this training does help to provide the movie with a few amusing moments, most of them intentional (I presume), especially in the way the ineptness of the main character before his "transformation" is totally exaggerated. Newcomer Robert Vitelli has got some moves and Michael Dorn adds a touch of professionalism, but the main reason I was interested in this movie is, of course, the presence of Shannon Lee, who plays one of Vitelli's "teachers". Shannon looks gorgeous, speaks sensually, and has a number of pleasurable fight scenes. If you can overlook the nonsensical script and the very low budget, "Lessons For An Assassin" does have a few minor goodies to offer. (**1/2)