The Redemption: Kickboxer 5

As usual Dacascos displays some excellent moves and great style in the fight scenes. The choreography ain't half bad either. However, thats the only compliment I can come up with for this movie. The dialogue will have you cringing and the plot is extremely weak and full of holes.

Continuing my journey through the Kickboxer universe, I've arrived at Kickboxer 5, the last (so far) numbered sequel. Unfortunately, they saved the worst for last.

From the get go, the cheapness is overwhelmingly obvious. When your opening title sequence looks cheaper than the last iPhone video you took of your cat chasing a flashlight beam, you know you're in trouble.

David Sloan is gone, murdered by a South African kickboxing syndicate for reasons I'm not entirely sure of. Are kickboxers kidnapped, falsely imprisoned, and murdered as much in real life as they are in the Kickboxer movies?

The always-awesome Mark Dacascos plays...I don't remember his character's name. I'll just call him Kickboxer. Kickboxer has to go to South Africa and do something kickboxing related...I think. I just finished watching it and I really don't remember.

One unusual plot point that is never expounded upon is the relationship between Kickboxer and his elderly, sweater-vest wearing, gentleman friend. At first, it seems that the gentleman is Kickboxer's gym manager, but a bit later, it appears they live together. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

MST3K fans will, of course, recognize James Ryan , here playing the head of the evil South Africa kickboxing syndicate, as "MacPhearson" from the classic Space Mutiny episode. Every time he appeared on screen I reflexively started yelling out David Ryder's nicknames.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to moving on to the next entry in the franchise.

Kickboxer 5 isn't the best movie out there...it is by far not the worst.

The Kickboxer franchise missed its superstar Van Damme after Kickboxer. Though most fans really enjoyed the sequels with the charismatic Sasha Mitchell (David Sloane) who was good at fighting and good at comedy and despised the beastly Tiger Tong po character from 1 and 2.

This title has neither Van Damme, Mitchell or Tong po. We can also forgive KickBoxer 4 from switching the tong po character star Michael Qissi, though this movie barely connects to the kickboxer franchise, the only connection is a weak Six degrees of separation to the character of David sloane which is obviously mentioned to justify the title.

The movie seemed like a very poorly produced title to try and make a bit of a profit from the cult following this series has, as well as to appeal to the straight to DVD audience/market.

Costs are now down due to the removal of Mitchell. The shooting location of South Africa confirms how the costs were kept down, The lead actor Mark Dacoscos seems like a talented Martial Artist and stars in this movie with Geoff Meed and james Ryan. The action is Very good and fast paced, a small concern is the fact that all the stars appear to be doing other styles of fighting instead of Kickboxing or Muay ti.

Overall the movie ain't to bad. It is a let down compared to the other Kickboxer films. I believe the title grab of Kickboxer 5 was more a money grab to receive more profits, when without the references to the Sloane family and the Kickboxer name as well as a bit more drama/character development this film could have easily Stood Alone and Made the same money without the kickboxer name.

Overall 4/10

This time Mark Dacascos is the headlining kickboxer who destroys the company that killed his friends. Seems like the Negall federation has killed off champions who refuse to join (Including Sasha Mitchell's character David Sloan) of course this leads to a final confrontation between Mark Dacascos and James Ryan. Redemption:Kickboxer 5 is the only film of the series that I had never saw prior to my ordering of the Kickboxer 5 pack. This particular entry for some reason never played on USA or TBS like the others did. After watching the final product it's not hard to see why. First off the David Sloan killed off in this film looks so unlike Sasha Mitchell (Why didn't they use Geoff Meed who bares somewhat of a resemblance?) that I refuse to acknowledge that this indeed has anything to do with Kickboxer 1-4. I must admit that I rated Kickboxer 1-4 higher than I normally would due to my nostalgia at the time, I would get home from my gas station job and plop down on the couch and that would be on TV much to my delight. Redemption:Kickboxer 5 doesn't even have that to fall back on and indeed there is hardly any kickboxing at all to be found in this super lousy sequel. Dacascos has natural screen presence and James Ryan has his moments as a bad guy but I prefer ass kicking in my kickboxing movies and therefore this movie adds up to less than nothing for me.

1/2* out of 4-(Awful)

"Matt Reeves, a retired kickboxing champion must resharpen his hard-hitting fighting skills in order to take on his best friend's murderer in an explosive fight to the death." This film is full of exciting explosive action and contains some decent acting. Mark Dacascos shows off some awesome martial arts moves and the fight choreography is fast-paced and original. The storyline is nothing new but this movie has better action and excitement then the first 3 sequels. I bought the 5-disc DVD collection and was happily surprised with how entertaining the film was. After watching the Kickboxer 2,3 & 4, Redemption:Kickboxer 5 is without a doubt the second best film in the series. if you like martial arts action films this is a movie you will probably enjoy and have a good time watching. If your not a hardcore kickboxer fan you might not appreciate it. But it is also one of Dacascos' best films.