Honor & Glory

Like a lot of the martial arts movies of the early 90s,, this is terrible. Lol,, the rifftrax version makes it better though.

This is the best Cynthia Rothrock movie I've seen since "In the Line of Duty".

I've never been impressed with the quality of Cynthia Rothrock's movies made in the United States. I was impressed with the quality of this movie. Then I realized that it's a co-production between US and Hong Kong movie companies, and everything made sense. The story has more juice to it, and there are lot more characters involved in making the story than your usual 3 person movie that Cynthia Rothrock stars in.

This, and the Tiger Claws represents the best of Cynthia Rothrock's movies made in the United States. This was an entertaining movie to watch, and was a good action movie as well.

HONOUR AND GLORY is a feather in the cap of Hong Kong director Godfrey Ho, the man best known for his cut and paste ninja movies of the 1980s. Before and after those films, however, he had quite a career making low budget action features, and those of the early '90s have aged quite well. These are classic examples of so-bad-it's-good cinema, with elaborately staged fight scenes and plenty of jaw-dropping overacting.

This film's no exception. Ho shot the film in America with an American cast and the plot is simplistic stuff about various characters teaming up to fight back against a crime overlord. Headlining the cast is Cynthia Rothrock, who doesn't get too much screen time but is more than adequate when she does show up. The little-known Donna Jason plays Rothrock's sister, a roving reporter who also knows a thing or two about martial arts.

The best thing about this film is the human he-man John Miller as the villain of the piece. He goes way over the top in the acting stakes and is completely hilarious as a result. You may or may not remember him as Rothrock's cop partner in the even funnier UNDEFEATABLE. Miller is surrounded by bodyguards and spends the whole film beating on people. The fights are slow and quite awkward but like the cinema of Amir Shervan, HONOUR AND GLORY is too much of a treat for bad film lovers to dislike.

(I can't decide if I'd want a universe in which seemingly everyone (even random, angry hecklers) knows martial arts or if that would be awful. I guess it couldn't be any worse than what we have now, so why not?)

It's easy entertainment that you don't have to pay much attention to during chores. And, really, that's the best thing I can say about it, aside from appreciating it having a diverse cast. The actor playing the villain is laughably bad, but props to the attempt, anyway. It's definitely not good, but at least it's inoffensively entertaining in that you don't feel insulted by its badness but can instead have a chuckle and go on about your business and likely never think of this film again.

Where is the problem here? There is a great cast of really skilled martial artists, (even champions), and among them there is someone who have had just some training about martial arts, and unfortunately even if you're not an expert, you can easily spot them, because there's a huge difference between them and the others.

Another problem is very similar to the first, it's about acting.

Good actors, and let's say just less good actors. In many movies there can be very good actors, and maybe one or two less good ones. Obviously the latter would have just one or two lines, so you'll probably overlook them, and in the end, no complaints, you forgot about them.

In this movie instead, half of the actors act well, and the other half have some difficulties. Immediately you can tell the difference between them. Pity, it could have been a good movie.

If you don't like this genre, don't give it a look, it's a martial art movie, period. You would be disappointed, and pushed to write a bad review, because you'll be bored by seeing so many people using martial arts. Anyway, if you're a martial arts movie fanatic, you'll be pissed off, as the fights are not very realistic, and some moves are quite basic.

It's not a disaster, you have just to think that you want to spend one hour and a half without thinking too much, enjoying your popcorn, and drinking your favorite beverage. That's it.