Die Vergeltung

Rowdy Roddy Piper stars as tough guy police officer who joins forces with martial arts expert/vigilante Billy Blanks to bring down mobsters, who have kidnapped Piper's journalist squeeze(Bobbie Phillips) and Blanks's sister much action and karate chops fly. Billy Blanks and Roddy Piper's charisma (notice I didn't say acting) lifts what would be just another throwaway action flick which consists off the team up two tough guys with different styles, however as expected Back In Action features tons of admittedly spectacular action sequences which always offers a big bodycount. Admittedly all of this is silly, most of it predictable and derivative but Back In Action certainly lives up to its title and fans of the genre will enjoy the big bodycount which compensates for all the shortcomings Back In Action contains.

* *1/2 out of 4-(Pretty good)

A detective whose partner is murdered by drug dealers teams up with an ex special-forces martial arts expert who also has a beef with these criminals, on account of them having abducted his sister.

Back in Action, the title says it all. There was a time in the mid 90's when I remember reading a newspaper report that said that there was a crisis in the b-movie world as a result of there being a dangerous shortage of generic action-themed titles left to use. Because of the plethora of action movies between the mid 80's to the mid 90's a huge number of these textbook titles that promised everything while suggesting nothing had been used up. And yeah, well, Back in Action is a pretty good example of one of those forgettable titles.

This is one of those two-strangers-who-don't- get-on-then-do-get-on films. So you pretty much know from an early point where this one is headed. It's another buddy film with lots of testosterone fuelled action. It's very generic overall and nothing really occurs that is particularly unexpected but what keeps it being watchable are the stars Rowdy Roddy Piper and Billy Blanks. Both these leads are proper action stars who do their actual fighting but equally importantly they have genuine charisma and work well bouncing off each other. This still can't prevent this one from being a pretty by-the-numbers effort but Piper and Blanks are definitely good value here for sure.

Just a minor note: some have said Back in Action was a direct-to-video release in the U.S. which isn't accurate. It was released for a brief run in the Southwest in 1993, playing at United Artists theaters including the University Quartet in Little Rock. Based on my memory, however, the lure of the 35mm prints did not attract huge audiences although I think it made a second week of release at one location as a split run. While Shaprio-Glickenhaus Entertainment did handle the Foreign Distribution Sales, it arranged with United International Pictures (UIP) for the domestic theatrical run in the U.S., probably just for the video store campaign as much as anything.

This is an excellent "B" movie. Blanks and Piper work really well together. The story is decent. But story doesn't count, action does. And there is more than enough action to keep people happy. Blanks and Piper are good in the numerous fight scenes. Overall a really good movie that any action fan should check out.

A very good action film. What made this one original was the difference in fighting style between the 2 leads first lead: roddy piper, who does the wrestling style. Second lead, blank who does the martial arts style

It makes the fight scenes so cool, and original, especially the fight between piper and blank. The story, from what I can remember is good enough. It's not a brilliant story. But the story doesn't make or break the film. It's the real excellent fights that make this film. Obviously, this is not a film that girls would like. Girl tend not to appreciate a witty fight scene, girls would prefer it if the wit was in the story, which they won't get in this film. Hence this film wasn't rated higher (females gave it low ratings - see the statistics) But I am a man, so I loved this film :)