Muscle Heat

Take care not to be misguided by the other comments on this movie! The action in this movie does not amount to "good" and it hardly even qualifies as mediocre. With a bad plot and too much bad storytelling instead of action, there is very little to entertain an experienced and/or demanding observer.

Kane Kosugi is good in his movie-display of martial arts, but worthwhile action is presented only in 2 and a half minutes of the entire movie.

The other fights have choreography, the quality of a bad Van Damme movie. ("I will block your kicks with my face until your feet start bleeding!") The showdown disappoints the most. It made me wonder if the action choreographer had left the crew, by that time. Cut-scenes, in no particular order, and devoid of any tension, are supposed to excite the audience. You may be familiar with that if you have seen the showdown of "Naked Weapon".

PLOT: An American soldier, locked up for disobeying orders, gets sprung from prison by a Japanese detective looking for help to fight a new drug. They go to Japan, where the detective is subsequently killed, leaving the American to battle the druglord himself.

"Muscle Heat" is an awful title, but the movie itself isn't so bad. There's a lot of awful stuff in-between the action scenes, but it's the action scenes that sell the movie. Kane Kosugi, whose father I consider something of a perseonal God, does all right as the Japanese-American lost in Japan. Although Kane seems more comfortable punching and kicking someone in the face then doing dramatic scenes, he's still a much more natural actor than his fellow action brethrens like, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jean Claude Van Damme-I-Can't-Act.

So go in "Muscle Heat" for the action, because nothing else is fleshed out enough to really care about. And although the drug is supposed to be this big bad drug, how is it possible that it's such a plague if the Japanese cops don't even bother to crack down on it? I mean, there's this big industrial place where the drugload hangs out, sends people to their death in his Muscle Dome on a nightly basis, and the cops don't seem to give a hoot. ANd yet we see all this poster and news reporters about how bad the drug, Blood Heat, is, but the only people I ever see taking it are the people who fight in the Muscle Dome!

Anyways. Good action, and Kane Kosugi is something to look out for. He just needs a better script and to, from now on, avoid this whole Tournament Fighting thing. Tournament Fighting movies are just so...Van Damme-ish.

It was actually a very solid movie with good plot and acting, considering the budget. I was happily surprised and really enjoyed this movie. Most characters got a little bit of background and they behaved within their personalities. Many of them are also good actors that are frequently found in prime Japanese drama.

I wish they can give Joe a little bit more Japanese lines because Kane do speak Japanese. I have seen his performance in other movies and shows, so I would like to see more of him in this one too.

Overall I would consider this as a nice movie if you are interested in any of the top billed casts.

I have to say that despite having one of the worst titles ever, I really enjoyed this action film. Watching Kane Kosugi with his dad in the 80's, it is clear that he not only improved but action wise, he is better than what I used to see from him in the 80's. The plot is a typical B-movie by standards, but man was the action awesome. Seeing Kane spin in the air to do a split kick knocking two guys down is just astonishing...oh and look for Jackie Chan for literally 1 second in the opening before Shinya Hashimoto fights Ken Lo. Awesome film...Kane Kosugi is back!!!

Although the title sounds like it came from an '80s dance movie or a low-budget porn, "Muscle Heat" is actually a fairly decent action movie. Starring Kane Kosugi as Joe (son of Sho Kosugi), it takes place in Tokyo in 2009, although isn't really far out enough to be considered sci-fi. Joe is a US marine who is courtmartialed for refusing to follow orders (revolving around shooting kids), and he is set free by Aikawa Show, who plays Japanese detective Aguri Katsuragi, and given "amnesty" (for reasons that are unclear) to go to Japan (which is in a severe depression and has pretty much gone to hell) to work with Aguri in stopping the illegal drug trade in "blood heat", a powerful and addictive drug, and stopping the lead dealer, Rai (played by Masayo Kato, from Beat Takeshi's "Brother", and Takashi Miike's "Araburu Tamashitachi"). Even though Kane's acting ability consists of a permanent scowl, the actions scenes are good, solid martial arts fighting, and good gunfight action, reminiscent of "Returner". The Sledgehammer fight scene at the end is something new, and worth a look. Not much in the way of complicated plot, but Aikawa Show is always worth a look when he is shooting people, and even though Kane Kosugi isn't much of an actor, he knows how to throw an impressive kick. And keep an eye out for Takenaka Naoto, who plays a greasy street bookie - I swear that guy is in every Japanese movie ever made...