Universal Fighter

While William Shatner's performance was the best part of the movie, the rest of the acting by every single every other person in this movie is just awful. The music is one of the worst scores I have ever heard, and the car chases are just non-stop and totally unrealistic. On the plus side, the hand-to-hand action scenes are actually entertaining. If you feel like watching a movie that really defines 'B-movie,' this is it.

PM Entertainment made some good action movies, but this isn't one of them. It does have its trademark high production values (for direct-to-video movies), and it has a few good stunts. The rest of the movie is pretty poor. The acting is terrible - Shatner hams it up, and Speakman isn't much better. The action sequences are poorly directed - the martial arts become a jumble of fast-moving limbs, and the driving sequences frequently use slow-motion that make them as exciting as pouring molasses out of a jar. The rest of the movie is just as slow-moving, and it seems to take forever to end. And you would swear that the movie's music composer wasn't watching the movie he scored, because he always uses the same somber-sounding military music, even during the action sequences! If you want to see a good movie from PM Entertainment, try RAGE, LAST MAN STANDING, EXECUTIVE TARGET, or THE SWEEPER instead.

This seems to be a parody of a parody. The overly-patriotic music (the composer will probably claim "West Wing" was inspired by his score) and the action scenes are especially bad. Each involves every single person who tries to kill Jeff and his wife and annoying kid being incredibly stupid, slow-footed, and a lousy shot. There was one moment early on when Jeff Speakman is karate-chopping a security guard in slow-motion, and I wondered why it seemed so familiar. Then I remembered the karate moves of the old "Double Dragon" NES game series, from 10 years ago. The only difference was that those games had more believable characters and plotting.

How sad to see talented actors like Chris Robinson and Chris Lemmon stuck in the middle of this latrine. If you ever wanted to see Mac from "Night Court" (Robinson) punch someone in the gut, then this is the movie for you. The best laugh of the film.

Watch only if you want to laugh, or learn how *not* to make a film.

The parallels in this film to the modern-day political scene is amazing.. The film is average but almost predicts the future 20 years away... Shatner is great as a corrupt lying right wing trumpian character trying to take over the country.. it's a early '80s karate fest in 1998.

Well, nothing original here in terms of plot. Action? Yes, plenty! If there is anything to talk about this film, it's due to the endless action that happens through out the film, whether is be between cars, people, or both. I was highly surprised by how well the stunts were performed and even the fighting sequences. Although my comment is on the good work the stunt people have done for this film, the fact is that ever car winds up being launched in to the air.

I was impressed that most cars didn't blow up for just being in an accident - something Hollywood does far too often. The ultimate for me was the school bus car chase, lots of damage. Not only did this bus ram innocent people, it even rolls over a few! The bus scene is worth an extra star.

This film ranks well with me for mindless violence. I expected a cheesy movie that I wouldn't be able to watch, but instead, the constant supply of bad guys to kill or cars to destroy makes this actually entertaining to watch.

One element I laughed about was the soundtrack. The composer seemed to mismatch happy, sad, action, and serene music with the entire opposite scene.

The film truly is shot and directed well, sadly what does this film harm is the lack of believability in the story. The film has constant car accidents, gunfire, and murder, yet no police ever intercept. I'm sure that you can't steal a bus and run 20 cars off the road without getting at least ONE person calling the cops!