American KICKBOXER stars 3 terrific martial artists: John Barrett (Tang Soo Do black belt and star of TO THE DEATH), Keith Vitali (ranked by Black Belt Magazine as one of the 10 best Karate fighters of all time, and star of NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER 3), and Brad Morris (former bouncer, boxer, and professional kick boxer). All 3 do an excellent job in this fine martial arts action drama.
The story is your basic Rocky 3 type of film (a mean bad guy, a comeback hero, training scenes, and great fights). Simple as it sounds, it's a formula that works. This one has John Barrett playing a kick boxing champ named BJ Quinn, who accidentally kills a guy while drunk at a party. He is sent to prison for 12 months, and banned from fighting in a championship match for 5 years. (This is based on a real life standard. If a person knows martial arts and injures or kills someone who does not have prior training, the judges may rule it as excessive force.) When BJ returns from prison, the new champ (Brad Morris) taunts him into a non-sanctioned fight.
John Barrett (who also came up with the idea for this story) is completely competent, both dramatically and physically, as the kick boxer hero. His character is an anti-hero with flaws. He is a cocky win-by-any-means fighter at the beginning. He drinks, is jealous and quick to start a fight, and has severe anger management problems. He doesn't like who he is, and is mad at the world, for no real reason other than he isn't happy and doesn't know how to change that. Keith Vitali is a natural, as the nice guy who plays by the rules. His character is a great fighter, but doesn't understand that you can't play fair if the other guy doesn't. Vitali's squeaky clean looks and voice fit the part to a tee. The highlight performance comes from Brad Morris. He is absolutely brilliant as the obnoxious, mentally immature villain of the piece. Cocky, arrogant, stupid, loud, and one hell of a fighter, his character will no doubt remind you of more than one real life jerk you have seen or met, which makes his hidden mockery of those types all the more fun.
Looking at the negative reviews posted about this movie on IMDb, I felt the urge to post a positive one, as this truly is a film worth seeing for those who enjoy martial arts movies. I saw quite unhelpful comments being posted about spandex, poor fight choreography, bad acting, unintentional comedy, the age of John Barrett, and corny music. The only one of those that I can slightly agree with is the music. There are indeed a couple of cheesy rock ballads unnecessarily put in to emphasize moments of drama, which do make you roll your eyes, because this movie "ain't no Shakespeare", and never intended to be. The other comments though are ridiculous. The fighters wear spandex. Big deal! That was what they wore back then. Even today, many wrestlers, kick boxers, and UFC fighters wear it. (All of the guys are in shape, too, which may even motivate guys who watch the movie to hit the gym, while also providing reverse eye candy for girls who are actually nice enough to sit through this type of genre flick with their boyfriends!) Poor fight choreography? Ever watched a real kick boxing or UFC match? The guys in this movie are razor sharp and technically perfect in their kicking and punching. By comparison, most real matches look like garbage. The last match in American KICKBOXER is an absolute must-see! Bad acting? Not at all. The acting is BIG, but that's perfectly in tune with the characters being portrayed. (Ever see some of the idiots in the world of professional fighting today, especially mixed martial arts? Some of those guys act like apes!) Brad Morris does a perfect job playing a musclebound moron of a villain (his character is one you just love to hate!), and the comedy, again provided mostly by Morris as the dumb jock, is a laugh riot, and intentional as such, based on his pitch perfect psycho sports athlete personification. John Barrett is too old? He was only 37-38 when this movie was filmed(!), and is in great shape! His kicks are absolutely flawless.
I have never understood why there is such a prejudice against people in movies and sports who are over 30. I know that kids today must think that 30 is ancient, (I remember thinking 25 was old when I was 21), but there have been tons of great fighters over the age of 30. This movie is not off base in that respect. Here are some champs and their ages when fighting: Archie Moore (47), Sonny Liston (32), Jersey Joe Walcott (39), George Foreman (45), Evander Holyfield (38), James Toney (38), Don "The Dragon" Wilson (45), Chuck Norris (34), Branco Cicatik (38), Ernesto Hoost (37), Ken Shamrock (41), etc.
I highly recommend American KICKBOXER for fans of martial arts movies. It's on my top 100 American martial arts films list. It's not one of those goofy so-bad-it's-funny kind of movies (although ANY movie can be turned into one of those if desired). It's a solid action drama with great (and motivational) training and fight scenes, and touches of pathos and comedy that work very well as they are driven by character. Everybody in the cast does an above average job, and Brad Morris delivers a break-through performance.
If you like American KICKBOXER, I also recommend TO THE DEATH (John Barrett), SUPERFIGHTERS (Keith Vitali), and American KICKBOXER 2 (Dale "Apollo" Cook). American KICKBOXER 2 bears no relation to this one other than the title, but is extremely entertaining in its own right, thanks to a fast pace and an enthusiastically over-the-top performance by Dale Cook (truly, one of the best performers in the genre).
The story is your basic Rocky 3 type of film (a mean bad guy, a comeback hero, training scenes, and great fights). Simple as it sounds, it's a formula that works. This one has John Barrett playing a kick boxing champ named BJ Quinn, who accidentally kills a guy while drunk at a party. He is sent to prison for 12 months, and banned from fighting in a championship match for 5 years. (This is based on a real life standard. If a person knows martial arts and injures or kills someone who does not have prior training, the judges may rule it as excessive force.) When BJ returns from prison, the new champ (Brad Morris) taunts him into a non-sanctioned fight.
John Barrett (who also came up with the idea for this story) is completely competent, both dramatically and physically, as the kick boxer hero. His character is an anti-hero with flaws. He is a cocky win-by-any-means fighter at the beginning. He drinks, is jealous and quick to start a fight, and has severe anger management problems. He doesn't like who he is, and is mad at the world, for no real reason other than he isn't happy and doesn't know how to change that. Keith Vitali is a natural, as the nice guy who plays by the rules. His character is a great fighter, but doesn't understand that you can't play fair if the other guy doesn't. Vitali's squeaky clean looks and voice fit the part to a tee. The highlight performance comes from Brad Morris. He is absolutely brilliant as the obnoxious, mentally immature villain of the piece. Cocky, arrogant, stupid, loud, and one hell of a fighter, his character will no doubt remind you of more than one real life jerk you have seen or met, which makes his hidden mockery of those types all the more fun.
Looking at the negative reviews posted about this movie on IMDb, I felt the urge to post a positive one, as this truly is a film worth seeing for those who enjoy martial arts movies. I saw quite unhelpful comments being posted about spandex, poor fight choreography, bad acting, unintentional comedy, the age of John Barrett, and corny music. The only one of those that I can slightly agree with is the music. There are indeed a couple of cheesy rock ballads unnecessarily put in to emphasize moments of drama, which do make you roll your eyes, because this movie "ain't no Shakespeare", and never intended to be. The other comments though are ridiculous. The fighters wear spandex. Big deal! That was what they wore back then. Even today, many wrestlers, kick boxers, and UFC fighters wear it. (All of the guys are in shape, too, which may even motivate guys who watch the movie to hit the gym, while also providing reverse eye candy for girls who are actually nice enough to sit through this type of genre flick with their boyfriends!) Poor fight choreography? Ever watched a real kick boxing or UFC match? The guys in this movie are razor sharp and technically perfect in their kicking and punching. By comparison, most real matches look like garbage. The last match in American KICKBOXER is an absolute must-see! Bad acting? Not at all. The acting is BIG, but that's perfectly in tune with the characters being portrayed. (Ever see some of the idiots in the world of professional fighting today, especially mixed martial arts? Some of those guys act like apes!) Brad Morris does a perfect job playing a musclebound moron of a villain (his character is one you just love to hate!), and the comedy, again provided mostly by Morris as the dumb jock, is a laugh riot, and intentional as such, based on his pitch perfect psycho sports athlete personification. John Barrett is too old? He was only 37-38 when this movie was filmed(!), and is in great shape! His kicks are absolutely flawless.
I have never understood why there is such a prejudice against people in movies and sports who are over 30. I know that kids today must think that 30 is ancient, (I remember thinking 25 was old when I was 21), but there have been tons of great fighters over the age of 30. This movie is not off base in that respect. Here are some champs and their ages when fighting: Archie Moore (47), Sonny Liston (32), Jersey Joe Walcott (39), George Foreman (45), Evander Holyfield (38), James Toney (38), Don "The Dragon" Wilson (45), Chuck Norris (34), Branco Cicatik (38), Ernesto Hoost (37), Ken Shamrock (41), etc.
I highly recommend American KICKBOXER for fans of martial arts movies. It's on my top 100 American martial arts films list. It's not one of those goofy so-bad-it's-funny kind of movies (although ANY movie can be turned into one of those if desired). It's a solid action drama with great (and motivational) training and fight scenes, and touches of pathos and comedy that work very well as they are driven by character. Everybody in the cast does an above average job, and Brad Morris delivers a break-through performance.
If you like American KICKBOXER, I also recommend TO THE DEATH (John Barrett), SUPERFIGHTERS (Keith Vitali), and American KICKBOXER 2 (Dale "Apollo" Cook). American KICKBOXER 2 bears no relation to this one other than the title, but is extremely entertaining in its own right, thanks to a fast pace and an enthusiastically over-the-top performance by Dale Cook (truly, one of the best performers in the genre).