El Jaguar aún vive

Jaguar Lives! Is a strangely shot yet alluring yarn about globetrotting martial arts expert Joe Lewis who works on a ranch with sensei Woody Strode, somewhere in Spain. The entire movie was filmed in Spain in September 1978. When Lewis' services are needed, a goddess (Barbara Bach) arrives from the sky in a helicopter to tell Lewis where to go and what to do. It jumps around a bit. I didn't really try to understand what was going on too much, and found it to be an interesting watch, not so much for the plot. It's sort of James Bond meets Mission Impossible meets Steven Seagal meets Beverly Hills Ninja. Being familiar with Lee, Pleasance, Strode, and Bach, I figured a movie with that cast couldn't be too bad. And it wasn't. Lee is his typical staid and villainous self. Donald Pleasance is especially amusing in his role as a dictator, but it is only slightly more than a cameo appearance. The reason I watched was because of Bach, with Jaguar Lives! coming up on a search result for her. She was good as always but her parts too few and far between. Lewis, who was a complete unknown to me, pretty much hogs the screen. I would've liked to see more of Bach, obviously, but Lewis was actually better than i expected him to be, and this is a martial arts movie, so for what it is, i think it succeeds to an extent. Watch it twice if you don't believe me.

A run-of-the-mill action/thriller/kung-fu movie with good main and support cast and ordinary theme about brave secret agent busts international crime ring plot . The world's new Karate hero , Jonathan Cross (Joe Lewis) who is out to stop enemies. Helped by Sensei (Woody Strode) , Cross battles drug dealers , nasty bands , and help save the world from an evil con (Sir Christopher Lee) and other defector agents . These treacherous times demand a new style of hero. Now is the time for Jaguar . Now is the time for a great new screen hero. Now is the time for Jaguar.

A no-interest , tacky and multi-location action movie that takes its cues from early 007 movies , cheapo chop-socky movies and Chuck Norris films . In fact Joe Lewis was a world class Karate champion, and trained with Chuck Norris and even fought several matches against Bruce Lee in the 1960s . It turns out to be the listless, tedious hokum of the secret agent battling an international conspiracy , that nowadays it looks hopelessly anachronistic in even the baldest commercial terms . Here stands out the appearances from notorious international actors at the time , such as : Christopher Lee at one of his ordinary 70s roles as a villain , Donald Pleasence as an overacting dictator , the gorgeous Bond-girl Barbara Bach , the elegant and cold Capucine , Joseph Wiseman as an old blind man , the hunk Woody Strode and actor/director John Huston . Being a US/Spain co-production with brief intervention of Spanish actors , such as : Luis Prendes as a prison chief , Simón Andreu , George Rigaud , Emilio Rodríguez , Víctor Israel , Taida Urruzola, Fedra Lorente , Maribel Hidalgo, among others .

Highlights the gorgeous and colorful cinematogrophy by John Cabrera shot in several locations in USA , Tokio , Macao , Hong Kong and shot mostly in Spain : Desert Tabernas , Almeria , La Alcazaba, Almería, Andalucia , Dehesa de Navalvillar, Colmenar Viejo, Madrid, El Escorial, Madrid, Valle de los Caídos, Madrid and Castle of Belmonte, Cuenca, Castilla-La Mancha where long time ago was filmed Anthony Mann's El Cid . The motion picture was lousily directed by Ernest Pintoff . Ernest was an ex-cartoonist and once once-touted filmmaker and winning the Oscar for best animated short for The Critic (1963), a satire on modern art written and narrated by Mel Brooks. Pintoff previously earned an Oscar nomination for his animated short The Violinist (1959), narrated by Carl Reiner. For television Pintoff directed episodes of numerous series, including Hawai 5-0 (1968), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974) and Falcon Crest (1981). As part of NBC's "Experiments in Television" in the late 1960s, he directed the documentaries "This Is Marshall McLuhan" and "This Is Sholem Aleichem." Among Pintoff's feature credits as a director are the low-budget Who killed Mary Magdalene (1971), starring Red Buttons, and Dynamite Chicken (1971) . Jaguar Lives! (1979) rating : 4/10 , inferior and embarrassing action movie .

This flick has one of the most incredible casts ever assembled for a B-movie! You've got Christopher Lee, Donald Pleasence (fresh from "Halloween"), Barbara Bach (former Bond Girl), Woody Strode (those who've seen "Spartacus" aren't likely to have forgotten him), Capucine (Inspector Clouseau's wife in "Pink Panther"), even the legendary director John Huston (not his first useless supporting role; remember "Tentacles"?). Unfortunately, none of those performers get a chance to stand out and do anything memorable, the story is confusing (although the main villain's "hidden" identity is easy to guess) and karate expert Lewis, who stars, knows all the right moves but has little acting charisma. (*1/2)

Legendary heavyweight kickboxing champion Joe Lewis kicks off his mysteriously brief movie career with this globe trotting martial arts actioner in which he assumes the eponymous role of The Jaguar, a sort of James Bond type agent sans the gadgets (other than his lethal fists and feet)

The first thing that becomes immediately apparent whilst watching, is that a large amount of money was put into this judging by the multiple foreign locations and some of the incredible cast that has been assembled here. Such cinematic luminaries as John Huston, Christopher Lee, Donald Pleasance and Woody Strode all put in appearances! (albeit briefly) Also along for the ride is the familiar and welcome face of Anthony De Longis as Jaguar's friend and fellow agent.

All well and good so far then.....however it has to be said that for what is ostensibly an action movie, there is in fact far too little action on offer here. The majority of the films running time is taken with our hero jet setting from one beautiful location to another searching for clues as to the identity of an international drug dealer who in a somewhat lame and predictable twist at the end is revealed to be.....well I won't say it here.

Still, despite the above criticism the action sequences when they do arrive, turn out to be very exciting indeed. The final climatic fight especially, set atop the scenic splendour of an old castle, between Jaguar and his nemesis is very exciting and well handled.

It's rather sad that other than a tiny handful of other films, Lewis never further pursued his movie career. From the evidence here, although obviously not trained as an actor he nonetheless possessed a rather powerful on screen presence in much the same manner as the likes of the late great Charles Bronson.

Overall then, the film is certainly worth a watch for fans of martial arts, not least of all to see a genuine kickboxing legend in action, although it has to be said that it could have been so much better with less of the excessive talking and a bit more of the said action.

"Jaguar Lives" is very slow and plodding entertainment, despite a tip-top cast being associated. The action (well that's when it gets around to it) is too little and unexciting martial arts... because we have to wait through long dry spells of talk. The climax battle is the only thing worth waiting around for. Not helping is that the twists in the story are plain easy to pick up on and it doesn't make too much sense. Wow, just look at the names! The main reason I decided to give it a look. The likes of Christopher Lee, Donald Pleasence and Barbara Bach are simply wasted, and Joe Lewis is just too deadpan in the lead role. Fun this is not. No wonder why it's not too well known, as it's largely dismissible.