Honor & Glory

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.

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.

FBI agent Tracy Pride is on a mission to capture businessman Jason Slade, who is involved in extortion and murder. Teaming up with her is her sister Joyce, a news reporter; Dragon, Tracy's partner in Hong Kong, and Jake, a bodyguard who worked for Slade. Can they stop Slade before it's too late? ...

With Honor and Glory you get a simplistic plot, amateur acting, simplistic dialogue that has a hint of self-aware humour especially when it comes to the main villain, who is really over top, sprouts dialogues like "Do you know a nuclear trigger from a Bulgarian dildo? I don't." "I thought you lived by the law of the fist too Armstrong, but you're just a damn cherry!". Unfortunately, mediocrity is ripe in this Rothrock entry, and in addition to some quirky dialogue, some decent spin kicks and punches can keep this watchable.

Kung fu black belt TV reporter Joyce Pride (Donna Jason) and her equally tough FBI agent sister Tracy (Cynthia Rothrock) attempt to bring corrupt businessman Jason Slade (John Miller) to justice with help from his former bodyguard Jake Armstrong (Chuck Jeffreys), Hong Kong cop Dragon Lee (Robin Shou) and martial arts student Mickey (Yip Yim Hing).

Honour and Glory features an awesome line-up of bona fide martial arts stars (Rothrock, Shou, Miller, Jeffreys) but very little in the way of genuine acting talent; normally, this doesn't bother me too much, just so long as the action comes thick and fast, but with less than impressive fight scenes (largely thanks to the typically lousy direction from king of crap ninja flicks Godfrey Ho) and a plot that is all over the place (another Ho trademark), the film proves very disappointing indeed.

Admittedly, a certain degree of fun can be gleaned from the sheer naffness of the whole affair—OTT villain Slade and his henchman Hideo (Richard Yuen) are hard to take seriously, and further giggles can be had from Jake Armstrong's hideous fashion sense—but for the most part this is forgettable nonsense and an unforgivable waste of its stars' formidable fighting skills.

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.