L'arène de feu 3

PM Entertainment stuntman, fight choreographer Art Camacho and star Don "The Dragon" Wilson penned the story. Three directors credited which might make a person think it had a troubled production history. Whatever the case you can either see 'Ring of Fire 3' aka 'Lion Strike' for the dtv piece of cheese it is (in a series that didn't exactly start off on a great foot) or turn back right now.

Low level thugs see an easy payday ripping off their mob boss Louie (Robert Costanzo), but things go sideways. Doc Johnny Woo (Wilson) tries to render medical aid and is brushed off by tuff Vinny (John Del Regno). A few moments later it's figured out the doc grabbed the bag he thought was his own, but actually has the stolen money and an important computer disc inside. Louie and a host of bigwig criminals have come together to sell highly profitable nuclear weapons and need it back. A holiday vacation for Johnny and his young son out in the country is about to get disrupted and a whole lot more deadly.

That sounds like the generic plot to just about fifty flicks I've sat thru in equal measure. The opening involving a guarded hospitalized elderly mob boss and an averted breakout by the butt-kicking doc is laughable, ridiculous. 9mm gun takes down a helicopter while the hero hangs off the side of the building with one arm. Supporting player / stuntman Carl Ciarfalio easily recognizable for his small but memorable role as Tony Dogs from 'Casino' here as a baddie like Costanzo, Regno (Another 48 Hrs) later. Michael DeLano is the only holdover from the first two flicks. Returning as detective Lopez while everyone else is gone. Only the tiniest explanation of Julie's fate.

Dialed up visuals in the form of big explosions made the first sequel 'Blood and Steel' slightly better than the original. 'Lion Strike' doesn't get that same honor plodding all too familiar ground and with not much to show for it. Russian bad guys get inserted of course and a lame but predicable new love interest in forest ranger Kelly (Bobbie Phillips). Keep an eye out for Michael Jai White in one of his earliest roles if you're gonna give it a go otherwise not much worth talking about.

"Lion Strike" aka "Ring of Fire III" begins with a friendly sparring match between Don "The Dragon" Wilson and another guy on the roof of his hospital ("what kind of doctor are you?"), which is interrupted by the escape attempt of an elderly mobster patient via helicopter. Wilson manages to stop the attempt and kill all the bad guys, but his friend also gets severely shot. Then this entire sequence is completely forgotten and never referenced again. I've rarely seen a more random and incoherent way to open a movie. If you get past the first 10 minutes, this is a fairly OK low-budget actioner. Wilson is in pretty good form, Bobbie Phillips (is it just me or does she look a bit like Angelina Jolie?) makes a charming and compatible sidekick for him (but gets only one real chance to show her moves), there are some spectacular stunts and some pretty woodsy/snowy locations. A film you can take or leave. ** out of 4.

Don Wilson kicks the s**t out of some cardboard character b-movie villains (Russian mob, American mob, garden variety street thugs) and delivers some stultifying dialogue with the brain-dead child playing his son (ominously with the same last name) and Natalie Barish, who plays a Ranger. (A Sloane Ranger maybe but that's all she could ever be.) Ah well, the Pacific Northwest settings are nice. And the fights are good. If ya like that sort of thing.

This is actually the best of the Ring of Fire series. If you're like me and you love straight-forward '90s action/martial arts flicks, you'll enjoy this one. Don't expect a complex story with loads of character development. What you get here is a simple plot with a likeable protagonist and some solid action sequences. This reminded me of some of the early Steven Seagal films. If you're a fan of that kind of thing, give this one a shot.

It's like they put all of the biggest cliché's together and made a movie out of it. Every thing is wrong about this film: stereotypical portrayals of Russian villains, the mafia and ghetto thugs (and kick-boxing champions). Unbelievable coincidences like the fact that Dr. Wu has exactly the same bag as the burglars (so of course the bags are mixed up). And in the same scene Dr. Wu is first threatened with a gun, kicks the gun out of the mobster's hands and then starts to fight with the other mobsters, while no one thinks of pulling a gun and simply shoot the good ol' Dr.

Painstaking efforts at acting, especially in the scenes that are meant to be sentimental and/or romantic. And cliché up on cliché... The fighting scenes are of the most boring kind; if this guy is a kick-boxing champion, then kick-boxing must be very lame...