Dale "Apollo" Cook may be considered among the best kickboxers of America, but he's also among the worst action heroes of the 90s to have a substantial solo career. For whatever complex reasons contributing to the overall quality of a star's output, Cook repeatedly starred in disappointing kick flicks, most of them shot in the Philippines. Among the most disappointing of these is FIST OF GLORY – a kickboxing picture masquerading as a war film, and Cook's first movie ever. In short, it stinks.
The story: A soldier serving in Vietnam (Cook) enters a deadly underground fighting circuit to free his drug-addled comrade (Maurice Smith).
Along with the VHS cover, the film's opening 28 minutes would have you believe that this is a typical war movie, as it's comprised of Cook leading a team of soldiers through a jungle before engaging in a massive firefight. Afterwards, the story abruptly changes to Cook looking for Maurice Smith, who plays the heroin-addicted champ of the aforementioned fight circuit. I could accept the sudden genre change if the filmmakers made it worth my while, but it turns out that the latter portion of the film is just as bad as the former. FIST OF GLORY is boring, beginning with characters that are difficult to invest in and a consistently tiresome tone. Like so many movies shot in the Philippines, it's produced without flair and is tedious in its colorlessness. It's hard to care about anything going on here, including the action scenes.
The one thing the action content has going for it is amplitude: boasting 14 full-length fight scenes and at least two major firefights, you'll never have to wait long to see someone get punched or gunned down. There are a couple moments of inspiration, including the vengeful final shootout and the film's best match, which plagiarizes BLOODSPORT in the form of a burly crowd favorite (Cris Aguilar) who temporarily blinds Dale. However, as a majority, the shootouts last way longer than anyone can be interested in. The brawls feature no fighters worth caring about, as well as choreography so bland and lackluster that it makes the matches of Jean-Claude Van Damme seem as creative as Jackie Chan's.
FIST OF GLORY floats on a slow tide of mediocrity - never sinking so low as to achieve a rock-bottom rating but never rising beyond its very meager standards. In the future, Cook would show some improvement (primarily through the efforts of more talented costars), but his freshman vehicle is worth ignoring. Leave it be, folks.
