Martial Law

Chad McQueen is perhaps one of Hollywood's most underappreciated actors. While his performance in Martial Law is not his best, it is one of the most tender, in that he plays a street-hardened cop torn by the death of his brother. McQueen brings together a fine blend of toe-jamming action and heart-wrenching drama. His sexy co-star Cynthia Rothrock, also comes from the "west coast" drama scene. An accomplished actress through out college and beyond, she lends her acting talents to this fine film. If you've never seen her in the off-Broadway production of "Hair" you haven't lived yet. This movie is a powerful blend of action and drama.

Cheap DVD + Cynthia Rothrock + David Carradine + Chad McQueen as a butt-kicking cop whose nickname is Martial Law = Instant winner.

Chad McQueen stars as Sean Thompson, a cop whose martial-arts skills are so good that even his brother Michael calls him Martial Law more often then Sean. Sean teams up with another cop, Billie Blake (Cynthia Rothrock) to beat bad-guys up and stop a gang of car-smugglers and drug-runners under the command of Dalton Rhodes (David Carradine). Sean and Billie are going to need all of their skills to take on Dalton, as he has a nasty habit of killing nearly everyone he meets.

Plot? What plot? Just remember the term 'Dim Mak', and you'll know how Rhodes goes about killing people. There are some points where McQueen and Rothrock seem to forget that they are in an action B-movie, as McQueen's character laments that he abandoned his brother to go to Hong Hong, and has nothing to show for it apart from martial-arts championship trophies. Awesome.

'Martial Law' has some nice fight scenes, although none stand out as being anything special. It is entertaining, and all that really matters is we get to see Cynthia Rothrock and Chad McQueen in plenty of butt-kicking action.

As far as action B-movies go, 'Martial Law' is nothing special, but is fun to watch - 6/10

Cynthia Rothrock kicked off her movie career in Hong Kong, but was eventually lured back to the U.S. to star in numerous martial arts films, very few of which come close to the quality of her Eastern output. Martial Law, one of her earlier American efforts, is a forgettable action flick with Ms. Rothrock relegated to supporting character, vice cop Billie Blake, love interest of Sean Thompson (Chad McQueen), who goes undercover to bring down the bad guys responsible for the death of his wayward younger brother Michael (Andy McCutcheon).

With such a clichéd plot and with Cindy playing second fiddle to McQueen, the film doesn't offer much for fans of the lovely lethal lady to get excited about. There are sporadic fight scenes that fail to impress thanks to uninspired direction from Steve Cohen and weak choreography, and the casting of David Carradine as crime-lord Dalton Rhodes leads to a rather disappointing final showdown, the actor (54 at time of shooting) unable to pull off any impressive moves. The most memorable performance is by Philip Tan as Rhodes' Cockney right-hand man Wu Han - he's a blast. Also look out for the great Bennie 'The Jet' Urquidez as a nameless henchman.

Now, I have been been a fan of Cynthia Rothrock, and I have always avoided her movies during my youth. But within the recent years, I have started to watch her movies, if I have had a chance to sit down and do so. Not that I am actively seeking out her movies, nor am I a fan of hers in any way, but since I haven't seen her movies before, I do so whenever I get a chance.

And thus I happened to come across the 1990 crime action movie "Martial Law" here in 2022. Sure, I knew about the movie by its title, but I had actually never seen it before now in 2022. Were I impressed? No, not really. Sure, "Martial Law" was a watchable enough movie, but it was a rather generic martial arts movie, so writer Richard Brandes and director Steve Cohen weren't exactly delivering gold here.

The acting in the movie was adequate, with the likes of Chad McQueen, Cynthia Rothrock, David Carradine and others on the cast list. While I still am not a converted fan of Cynthia Rothrock, I will say that she does know how to fight.

"Martial Law" had adequate martial arts and fighting sequences to it, which made the movie all the more bearable to watch, truth be told.

Having seen "Martial Law" now, for the first time, I am not particularly much a fan of the movie, and I doubt that I will ever return to watch it a second time.

My rating of "Martial Law" lands on a bland five out of ten stars.

Although her role is actually secondary to Chad McQueen's (who is an OK action lead), Cynthia Rothrock is at her near-best in "Martial Law", both looks-wise and fighting-wise. She even goes 1-on-1 against Benny "The Jet" Urquidez at one point, though her highlight is probably when she delivers 6 or 7 rapid kicks in a row to a guy's head! But the script & direction are perfunctory, the "family drama" stuff is so lame and tiresome that it should have been left out altogether, and David Carradine is a weak, boring villain. If you find yourself watching this movie, my advice is to fast-forward through ALL of the dialogue scenes and focus only on the fight scenes - you won't be missing a thing, and you will be getting the maximum value for your money. (**)