Le coup de grâce

Lorenzo Lamas stars as Nick Taylor a washed up kickboxer who trains a kid named Danny (Michael Worth) to fight the fighter (Jeff Langston) who humiliated him in this poor fight flick. Final Impact is a movie with a low degree of style and imagination making this one for only die hard martial arts junkies, however even the fightscenes are surprisingly sub-standard, making this a movie with no real worth.

My review was written in January 1992 after watching the movie on a PM video cassette.

Actor Lorenzo Lamas continues to make inroads in the popular kick fighting genre with "Final Impact", a "Rocky V"-styled aging warrior picture.

After impressing in "Night of the Warrior", Lamas is cast as a cynical ex-champ who now manages fighters. Pushy young Michael Worth wants Lamas to pilot his career and Lamas agrees to do so, plotting to use Worth for his revenge against the current champ, Jeff Langton.

At times, the pic has a more serious, even somber, tone than usual for the format, though directors Joseph Merhi and Stephen Smoke include exploitation angles such as sexy female oil wrestlers in the opening segment.

Though he's not a bona fide champ in real life, Lamas brings an animation to his role that's often lacking in belt holders. Worth is a promising newcomer, and Lamas' wife Kathleen Kinmont provides convincing support. There's also a nice bit by Kathrin Lautner as a Las Vegas hooker who reduces Lamas' self-esteem to zero.

The fights, choreographed by Eric Lee, are frequent and unexceptional.

Better than expected. I actually thoroughly enjoyed this low-budget, straight-to-video film. A few surprises, as well. Lorenzo Lamas made a credible hero.

Final Impact is one of my favorite kick-boxing movies. We're talking about B-movies, I know it, but the 9 I gave wasn't out of place at all. I couldn't say how many times I re-seen this flick principally for the action scenes, stunning and entertaining, truly at Van Damme's level. Mike Worth is a tough guy and a good actor too. Don't you think he's quite underrated ?

The story was a pure cliché of the genre, the formula is the same of Karate Kid or the latest "kickboxer" episodes, but here was before it became rotten (mid 90s) and out-of-date. I hope many of you agree with me about the fantastic scene of the cumulative fights of the championship. Well shot, breathtaking edited, blow by blow in a whirling minute of action. It's a classic for these kind of movies, but even Bloodsport's or Kickboxer's aren't at this level. Probably just Mehri's next year "To be the best" (a must see movie) or Bloodsport 2 (another pearl). Gary Daniels was a great fighter and his two bouts against Worth are thrilling and cheesy. Too bad Ian Jacklin didn't have a role; we barely see him in the starting scene. He made a great job in other movies either as the bad or the good guy.

The DVD doesn't offer a thing. No extra scenes, rare material or interviews. I hope in the future (when perhaps, I hope, this genre will return mainstream) will be release a decent product, worthy to be called "DVD".

This film will please solely the genre lovers, but being so underrated seems just an average, meaningless clone.

In my search to catch up on all the PM Entertainment movies that have somehow eluded me over the years, I finally checked out 'Final Impact' today. And I have to say that I enjoyed it.

I was a little disappointed by the lack of action, but genuinely surprised by the amount of drama.

Llamas plays Nick, a former champion kickboxer who can't handle the realities of life after losing to over-the-top bad guy Jake Gerrard, succumbing to alcoholism and depression. Nick finds a way to turn it all around by training a young Michael Worth (who delivers a good performance) to take on Jake and exact his revenge in the ring, fist-to-fist.

It's no 'Rocky,' though it tries to be. The fight scenes are decent and shot pretty well (the foley work is laughably cheese at times). But the performances are all around solid and the music is enjoyable. Vegas made for a beautiful backdrop to the film as well.

'Final Impact' reminded me greatly of another PM classic, 'Deadly Bet.' Though, 'Deadly Bet' has slightly better action so I give that one the advantage.

If you like PM Entertainment films, or a little drama with your kickboxing, you really can't do any better than 'Final Impact.'