Tigerkralle

Cynthia Rothrock and Jalal Merhi are New York city undercover cops. There are mysterious killing of martial artist in the city. Jalal correctly identifies the style as Tiger Claws who only three martial artists in the country are capable of using. Rothrock, and Jalal gets on the trail of the culprit who turns out to be none other than bad guy played by Bolo Yuen.

This is one of the best American made Cynthia Rothrock movie. It was good move on the producer's part to hire Bolo Yuen as the bad guy. He brought menacing personality that's usually lacking in movies of this type.

Cynthia Rothrock is not known for her range of acting, and it's hard to make an interesting story around her character. In this movie Jalal and Bolo creates enough contrast to be of passable quality.

Out of all the American made Cynthia Rothrock movies, this one is my favorite. It doesn't have much in the way of contents, but the action is pretty good. Choice of locations shot were better than usual, but I wished the producers put in more class into the movie as it were in Rothrock's Hong Kong made movies.

When I sat down in 2022 to watch the 1991 action movie "Tiger Claws", I can't really claim that I was expecting a whole lot from writer J. Stephen Maunder. Yet, as I hadn't already seen "Tiger Claws", of course I opted to do so.

And just as I figured, then "Tiger Claws" was a very generic early 1990s action movie, with way too much showcasing of martial arts moves by solo performers, so a lot of the movie was actually just solo montages. The storyline was every bit as archetypical and generic as you would think a martial arts movie from the early 1990s to be, so no surprises there.

Now, I never have been a fan of Cynthia Rothrock, so she was not really a reason for why I sat down to watch "Tiger Claws". But I saw that the movie had Bolo Yeung on the cast list, and that was actually the main reason for why I watch this movie from director Kelly Makin.

There is a good amount of action and fighting throughout the course of this movie, so that was definitely something that kept the movie afloat, because the storyline itself wasn't really doing that.

Something I just can't comprehend were the amount of bullets shot from those police revolvers. It should be six shots, then reload, but no, not here, not in this movie. And also the fact that people would die from having their cheeks scratched was just beyond my level of comprehension.

"Tiger Claws" is a very mediocre early 1990s action movie, cheesy and campy enough for a single viewing. But you are not in for a grand movie experience.

My rating of the 1991 movie "Tiger Claws" lands on a very bland and less than mediocre four out of ten stars.

Some complain about acting. They don't know the features of martial art Acting. It's a different thing. Not just b-side kung-fu-karate beat em up. This one is unique for it's sub genre. What we have here is a thriller. The main maniac-killer has very big sport ambitions, but he satisfies himself with anonymus fights till death, leaving only his signature scars on the bodies of his opponents..Bolo plays his role very well. He is a quiet painter in the dojo and he is an ego-maniac killer. Cynthia is sweet and cute in throwing her mighty kicks as allways:) Jalal is less known action star, but he suits the cast perfectly. He looks believable in the role of undercover police man. His pure mean simlycity is the right cure for the twisted Claw-mastermind..

A look at the hard facts in advance, genre, year of release, actors, with the result: what could possibly go wrong? Maybe that it looks like Asia, but it's USA/Canada. However, it soon becomes clear that Hong Kong has more quality to offer, or rather speed and lunacy. And the art of better concealing a lack of budget and acting talent. Tiger Claws is definitely a far cry from Bloodsport or something similar. What is being attempted here: a cop thriller in which a martial arts serial killer is hunted who kills his victims by scratching them. Well, it's as hare-brained as that sounds. What's more, it has few highlights, is not staged particularly quickly and the fight scenes are average at best. Cynthia Rothrock and Jalal Merhi as police buddies lack that certain something. But there's still one reason to watch this film, as you can probably guess: Bolo Yeung. As always, incredible presence and wild, unpredictable acting. Not a man, a weapon.

Rothrock was the best in this with her fights,acting and outfit alongside with Bolo Yeung , but she wasn't the lead, Merhi was. The problem with that was, Rothrock had all the experience and was better equipped to lead a movie and at the end of the movie it was more than OK if Rothrock had been finished Bolo in a combat fight.If Jean-Claude van Damme or even Richard Norton had been the lead male in this movie then this film had been a classic.Jalal Merhi was very awful in this unfortunately but the movie was enjoyable enough though but would have been a lot better. So i recommend you this film and if you are a Cynthia Rothrock fan you'll not be disappointed.