Rare Flix with Kicks: Tiger Claws III (2000)

At last, the Trilogy is complete.  Well, calling this a Trilogy is a bit specious.  Today's Film is Tiger Claws III, the final Film in the Series courtesy of the year 2000.  Given the Time Period, will it look like The Matrix?  Nope.  Instead, they go for a late-'80s vibe, which is weird for the Film made farthest from then.  I won't SPOIL it just yet, but the Film goes for the vibe of one specific Film from the early '80s.  As for the rest, it feels like a Sho Kosugi Film- good or bad.  As noted last time, Bolo Yeung was retired at this point (he mostly still is) and does not appear.  If you recall, his 'redemption' story was wrapped up via magical time travel.  Well, as long as there's no silly magic in this one.  Jalal- our Star and Producer- is still center stage, now with even less Cynthia Rothrock.  Is it bait-and-switch on his part or the people that market the Film?  I'll go with 'yes' for both, but more for the latter (since they know what the final product is and lie anyways).  The Plot is just plain weird for a number of reasons.  If I tell you it now, there's not much reason to read further, so I'll just be a giant tease and tell you to read on...

Jalal and Cynthia are back in New York...because no reason given.  They are trying to stop a Robber and do so, only for him to get away.

As thanks, the Owner of the Museum invites him to his big event.  He has the uniforms of 3 Ancient Masters and they are 'blessed' by a Ceremony...done by the same guy who tried to steal them.

Lightning strikes!  This...resurrects the 3 Ancient Masters somehow and they attack everyone.

The trio are all mute & consist of a big, scary guy, an older guy with a beard and a mean woman.
Figure out which Film inspired this one yet?!?

In the chaos, they kill Cynthia with one of their energy blasts. 

By the way, they can shoot energy blasts.

In a bit that was confusing at first, Jalal seems to find his old Master- only that guy was said to be dead in Part 1.

Well, he is.  This is just another Master.

If you think I was joking about the late-'80s vibe, here's Jalal culminating his 'defeat the 3 Masters' training like he's in Rocky IV. 

It all eventually leads to a battle in *sigh* a generic Office Building (just like Revenge of the Ninja btw).

While Jalal fights the Masters, *his* new Master has a one-sided beatdown of the main Villain.  Joy.

The fight seems to go pretty easily at first.  He bests the lone female Master in about a minute, while the big guy is taken down by an errant blast from his comrade.

The final one proves to be the most difficult, but is ultimately defeated when his necklace (and tether to this world) is destroyed, leading to...

Time mother-f@%$ing resetting.  No, really.

It goes back to the initial lighting strike and the duo arrest the guy before he finishes.  Cynthia is back alive Deadpool 2-style to do...nothing.  No more Sequels.  The End.

This is...just silly fun.  The Plot of this one is just bonkers.  I was wondering what they would do after, you know, the MAGIC TIME PORTAL in the last Film.  Well, they managed to add more magic, albeit at the cost of less Rothrock.  She's sidelined after two Fight Scenes, save for a dream sequence and then the ending.  In her place is the new Master- who is fun, to be fair- and his Daughter- who does nothing, really- to help train him.  We don't have Bolo, but we have his K-Mart equivalent in the mute giant Master and the previous villain's replacement as Generic Evil Guy.  He's even more generic and more evil than the last guy!  Speaking of those Masters, every Review- admittedly there's like 4- I found for this Film jokes about them being the bad guys from Superman II.  I mean...yeah, kind of.  For this comparison, Jalal has to be Superman, so I guess that's a bit of a stretch.  The new stuff does add some genuine (accidental) humor as the effects are pretty cheesy (see below).  The trade-off for the silliness is that there is more Action throughout the Film than in the last Sequel, so that is a plus.  There's some cheating involved- like Jalal's back-flipping stunt double on loan from Beowulf- but it is otherwise fun.  The actual Plot is just not as interesting as one might hope when all is said and done.  In a weird way, it returns the Series to its roots as a cheesy Action Film, even as it has guys that shoot lightning and warp time itself...

Next time, I celebrate a religious Holiday with a Film.  I mean, if you can't (and shouldn't) go to a big Church service, what are you doing then?  Stay tuned... 

Rare Flix With Kicks: Tiger Claws II (1996)

After five years, could they make more out of this?  Today's Film is Tiger Claws II, the 1996 Sequel to the last Film I covered.  As noted, I bought a physical copy of this- the only one in the Series.  Granted, the DVD is dated 1998, so it is not like these Films are widely available or anything.  To give you an idea about how obscure this Series gets, only the first Film has a Wikipedia Page.  Random Actors who once appeared on Star Trek have more thorough of an online presence than this Film does!  The DVD is notable for crediting Rothrock and Yeung, but not the 'Main Lead' here.  Yes, he's still a Producer on these ones, but nobody seemed to tell the nice folks who made this DVD.  They knew who was more marketable- the Film didn't.  The Plot picks up years after the last ones and many things have changed.  For one thing, our Lead's hilarious '90s hair is now short and boring.  Aw, you pulled a Metallica on us!  A new story brings us new villains.  What changes will come with our old one?  What random Plot Twist will suddenly come up in the 3rd Act apropos of nothing?  To find out, read on...

In the 5 years since the last Film, Bolo is in Prison...which is clearly just in a fake Police Station.  He hasn't killed anyone since, but he does randomly break a Guard's arm for being a jerk.

Our Lead/Producer- Jalal- is still a Cop and tries to catch this Arms Dealer who looks like WWE's Cesaro back when he had hair.

So here's where things get complicated (and contrived)...

He gets away (after killing Jalal's new partner- naturally), but is not giving his guns to the buyer.
Said buyer is in San Francisco.
The Guns are in San Francisco.

Guess where he goes.

As *luck* would have it, Rothrock- who broke up with Jalal between Films- is also a Cop in San Francisco.

In her 2nd Scene, she took a break from her Maxim Photo Shoot to call him and invite him to town.

The bad guys break out Bolo- with relative ease- and take him to San Francisco too, since his Brother is the Buyer.  People would win the Lottery every day with this kind of luck!

This brings both of our Leads there to look around for the baddies.

Bolo is reunited with his Crime Lord Brother who...wait a sec.

One of you is Chinese.  One of you is Korean.
Um...what?

Anyhow, the big event is a- say it with me- Kung Fu Tournament.  Sigh.

There's a twist though.  Since it is Chinese New Year, the 2 Tigers (and the Winners) can activate a magic portal to take them back in time!

Korean Brother invited the Gun Dealer to arm his return...and take over the past!

All done processing how f###king random that Plot Twist is?  Good.

After lots of fighting (in a Film that has had little so far), everyone defeats their respective opponents.  They 'face turn' Bolo by having him save his Mentor and kill the Brother.

Our Leads watch him and the Mentor use the Portal...

...and we get an awkwardly-chopped up close-up of Bolo that could be from literally any other Scene.

That's his final shot in Film (for many years, at least), folks!

The pair apparently return to Ancient China and, I guess, live happily ever after.

How did we get here from 'Guy kills Kung Fu Masters in New York?!?!?'  The End.

So...um, what is the deal with this Movie?  Tiger Claws was about our Kung-Fu Cops fighting an evil Kung-Fu Serial Killer.  It was dumb, but it was fun.  Tiger Claws II is about the same Killer now involved in a plan from his brother to time travel back to China.  So...um, what?!?  After five years, they got a new Writer and boy did they go a different direction with this!  Now we have a Fighting Tournament, an Underground Fighting Maze and- to repeat- a magic Time Portal!  Huh?!?  Getting past this bizarre hurdle, the Film never quite feels right.  With its new Villains, new location and changes to key characters, it barely feels like a Sequel.  No, flashing a Montage of Action Scenes from the previous Film in at the beginning is not enough.  A good Sequel builds off of the previous Films, raises the stakes and improves upon what you liked.  In this case, they throw it all out, change the location and just make up a new Plot.  Part of it might be due to outside circumstances.  This (along with another Film from 1996) was Bolo's final Film for about a Decade and a half.  As such, he doesn't exactly do much here.  He has like 2 fights and, strangely enough, never takes his shirt off.  In his final Scenes, they put him in a full robe and cover him, likely to use a double.  His last shot is that random, cropped close-up I showed above.  Did he do this as a favor and have little interest in doing much?  Regardless, they do weird things to his character even when he's on-screen too.  The biggest thing: he is somehow 'redeemed' by killing his evil 'Brother.'  Jalal even says he's 'suffered enough,' despite, you know, KILLING HIS BEST FRIEND in the last Film.  Right.  Tiger Claws II is not a bad Film per se- it's just bizarre.  Speaking of which, I don't want to be mean, but...I mean...this guy...

Next up, I cover the final Film in the Trilogy.  Will it be a logical ending to it all?  Stay tuned...

Flix with Kicks: Tiger Claws (1991)

A random bit of chance has led me down a strange Film journey.  Today's Film is Tiger Claws, a 1991 Kung-Fu/Action Film featuring Cynthia Rothrock.  The boring backstory first: I found a copy of a Tiger Claws II at Thrift Store and discovered this trilogy.  Here's hoping this all pays off.  The original Film is about a Kung-Fu-based Serial Killer in New York City.  Ah, that old chestnut!  It turns out that he's a Master of a rare form of Kung-Fu.  It sure is a good thing that a Cop IN THIS SAME DEPARTMENT is also trained in it.  The coincidences/contrivances keep stacking up in this one!  Curiously, this would be the entry-level Film for its Director- Kelly Makin- before she would move on to direct...Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy?!?  I didn't see that coming!  There's plenty more strangeness to unpack, so let's kick right into this...

Rothrock is an ass-kicking Cop.  She beats up the world's worst stalker (it was broad daylight and she clearly saw him following her for blocks!).

Can she get a real case?

Jalal Merhi is Tarek, a tough Cop who doesn't 'play by the rules' and other '90s Cop Cliches.
He gets in trouble for 'going too far,' but that won't last.

A killer is taking out Professional Martial Artists in NYC (one not shown, because reasons).  Who could do that and leave these claw marks?

Wait- is Catwoman back?!?

Rothrock forces her way onto the case since she knows Kung-Fu.  They figure out that it must be Tiger Claw Style Kung Fu with Tarek's help, so he's on the case.

He uses his past- conveniently, he was trained in Tiger Claw by a friend of the current guy they need to teach him it more fully- to train, but also observe who could be the main suspect.

If you're wondering why it has to be him and not Rothrock, well, he's a Producer and she isn't.

After lots of training, some action distractions and filler, the obvious bad guy- Bolo Yeung- reveals himself to kill the Master and his other students.

He did a good crazy face, I won't lie!

Sadly, we only get teases of a fight (or fights) between Rothrock and Yeung.  He was probably still more disappointed that he never fought Bruce Lee though.

No, the main fight is, of course, between Tarek and the villain.  The former is handicapped by being handcuffed at the start, leading to him getting kicked through a wall.

He overcomes this (and his magically-disappearing jacket) to break free and defeat Yeung.

He doesn't kill him, since Sequel (in five years).

A pretty silly, if self-serious Film.  The Plot isn't bad.  The idea that a trained killer is taking out unlikely targets is good.  The problems sort of pile up as the Film goes on though.  As mentioned, the MASSIVE coincidences that drive the Plot.  If Tarek isn't around, is there a Film?  As much as I've seen people point out what they think is a Plot Hole in the first Indiana Jones (I disagree, FYI), there's no topping how much the story needs him to even remotely work.  On top of that, Yeung's motivation is...um, to make people realize how good Tiger Claw is.  He doesn't really say it, but it's stated for him.  That's a logical way to do it- kill a bunch of people.  Granted- he is crazy, but still!  I like the bits we get where Rothrock gets to show off, but there's not enough.  Jalal is fine, but nothing amazing to watch.  I wanted a more balanced story here.  The Film does work as a nice bit of nostalgia, as you can see '90s New York City in all of its glory.  All in all, it's a pretty dumb Film that is just silly enough to be fun and just serious enough to enjoy.  It takes brains and brawn to do that, right Bolo?

Next time, the Sequel (and the reason I'm doing this).  Will it be more of the same or something bigger?  Stay tuned...