Blackbelt

This movie is amazing. Don the dragon Wilson is like the edward norton of martial arts, he can play any part you give him in a kun-fu movie. And his fast paced action style of fighting is reminiscent of the great chuck norris. God chuck why did you have to go to tv? Don't you know we miss you, please come back. Well at least you have brought the martial arts genre to tv. The best way to describe this movie is enter the dragon meets the matrix meets pulp fiction meets gone with the wind or something because there is a little romance brewing in the air. The first scene of the movie already has martial, arts murder, and brief(and classy) nudity. The movie only gets better from there as it goes on till the end. The end is sooooo good, I won't tell you what happens I will just say that it is like all this fighting and you aren't sure who's going to win and then it ends and you're like whoa no way, did you see that? But you did.

I have seen the 1992 martial arts action movie "Blackbelt" once before, when I had it on VHS tape back in the day. However, I must admit that I have entirely and wholeheartedly forgotten about the storyline. And thus, when I happened to stumble upon the movie by random luck here in 2023, of course I opted to sit down and revisit it.

The storyline in "Blackbelt" is pretty straightforward. It was an adequate script and storyline for a martial arts action movie of this sort. So writers Robert Easter, Neva Friedenn, Paul Maslak and Charles Philip Moore actually put together a fair enough movie here.

There wasn't a whole lot of familiar faces on the cast list, aside from Don Wilson and Alan Blumenfeld. Actor Matthias Hues was a wonderful villain, playing John Sweet, especially with that hair of his.

Why is it that guys wearing leather jackets have to be shirtless beneath the jacket? It just makes people look like douches, yet both Don Wilson and Matthias Hues opted to go that way in "Blackbelt".

Watchable for what it is, "Blackbelt" is a stereotypical early 1990s martial arts action movie.

My rating of "Blackbelt", from directors Charles Philip Moore and Rick Jacobson, lands on a five out of ten stars.

Another movie on my Plex watchlist is a spinning back kick to the head from the martial arts pro in the 90's Don The Dragon Wilson.

I actually thought this was a movie with a Karate turnement in it however it felt like a B grade version of The Bodyguard.

Don's character is hired to protect an up and coming rock singer as their is a mad killer on the loose to kill her and make things right for him however with Don on the case its Dpn Its Good. Shes in safe hands and we see a lot of martial arts action.

However this is not something for any kids its a direct adult oriented film as it has nude scenes and sex scenes.

I have to agree with other reviewers here and say yes its one of Don The Dragon Wilson's best films but overall I have seen better martial arts films but you have to think of the time being "92 this ain that bad and has aged ok considering you can tell the coreagreaphed fight scenes.

You can watch this on Plex and Tubi for free.

Don Wilson stars as Jack Dillon, a karate instructor (Also ex-cop) who protects the superstar singer Shanna(Dierdre Immershein) who is the target of a psychotic fan named John Sweet(Mattius Hues), seems Sweet had a love affair with his mom(Eeew!) and Shanna reminds him of mom which is why he kills brunettes and sends their fingers to him. (A true romantic, if there ever was one.) Also on board are the mobsters who look to collect the insurance on Shanna's contract, due to her reluctance to sign again, this all of course leads to a three way fight with Dillon fighting not only the mobsters but also a psychopathic serial killer. Blackbelt is a better than expected martial arts action flick which ripped off 'The Bodyguard' only this time there are a lot of fight sequences and less bad singing. (Although the soundtrack and the 80s music is terrible also) This of course works for the type of angle that the movie aims for. Also the climax in particular is exciting and the movie is packed with gore and enough action to entertain any schlock movie fan. I saw this back in 96 on WGN and because I missed about 20 minutes of it, I decided to rent it the next day. So far it ranks as the only enjoyable flick I've seen from Don Wilson and as a guilty pleasure.

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

Look Don The Dragon Wilson may be a great legitimate fighter but he is terrible on screen in this movie. The movements are slow and the choreography boring and ponderous. he also makes Chuck Norris look like Laurence Olivier in that he has ZERO acting ability and almost no charisma. This is a problem when you are carrying the movie.The singer girl here was annoying and unlikeable but the villain was fairly creepy and well done. Overall this was just a low rent waste of time and no amount of blood or nudity can change that. Watch something else!