I was interested enough to watch this movie seeing that it was directed by Robert Wise, who years earlier had directed the great movie "West Side Story" - which like this movie was set in the gritty part of New York City and involved hoodlum youths. But the end results probably explain why this was Wise's last theatrical movie. Now, Wise does really capture the atmosphere of N.Y.C.'s slums, and the parts of the movie involving dancing and martial arts do have some energy. However, he seems unable to do anything with the sorry script. It's a slow story, taking forever to set up the conflict with the evil drug dealer, and not really picking up significantly in pace once that happens. Also making things a slog are the fact there are no real fleshed out (or memorable) characters; the character of "T" (played by Jason Gedrick), for one thing, reveals very little about himself and his past. Quite frankly, I was pretty bored with most of this movie, so it didn't come as no surprise when I learned not only that it didn't do much at the box office, it has also pretty much been forgotten since then.
