Weapons Of Death (1982)

Rating: *
Review Date: 3/19/10
Cast: Eric Lee, Bob Ramos, Ralph Catellanos, Nancy Lee, Louis Bailey, Gerald Okamura, Gini Lau

Wow, they don't make 'em like this anymore, and that's probably a good thing. This is a brainless "action for the sake of action" film that involves a bunch of bad guys kidnapping a young girl (Nancy Lee) and a bunch of good guys trying to rescue her. And that's it. Ninety minutes of running, chasing, fighting, and masculine posturing, where the good guys prevail and all of the bad guys wind up dead. The martial arts fighting scenes are decent enough, but the camera work and editing are pretty poor, and most of the players look clumsy and lack physical grace. This is definitely a brawling film, not a kung fu film. The highlight is definitely Eric Lee's final fight against Gerald Okamura, who would both star in "Big Trouble In Little China" (1986) a few years later. Their fight is fast, agile, precise, intricate, graceful, and hard hitting. Another highlight would be Gini Lau's fight, and while it's exceedingly brief, her execution is intense and flawless. Even though the finished product is pretty awful and hard to watch, I have a certain amount of appreciation for the people who were involved and what went into it. I get the feeling that it was just a bunch of martial artists who got together and wanted to make an action movie, and as such, they accomplished what they set out to do.