Night of the Warrior

This movie has more then just action. It has heart and soul as well.We see a group of full dimensional characters spotlighting Miles Keane(Lorenzo Lamas).He has a melancholy relationship with his mother(Arlene Dahl) and a trusting passionate relationship with his girl friend(Kathleen Kinmont). Kathleen gives the best performance of her career.She is thoroughly charming. Lorenzo is always at his best.This is no exception.He goes from rough backstreet fighter to sensitive artist in the bat of an eye. And Tony Geary is the guy you love to hate as the fight promoter who will stop at nothing.

Although this film is not very well known or the best film ever made, it is a film that is worthwhile of your time to check out if you are interested in martial arts films. I personally was not impressed by the action scenes, but I was impressed by the romantic story involving Miles (Lorenzo Lamas) and the beautiful Katherine Pierce (Kathleen Kinmont). I believe that in this movie, Kathleen Kinmont is at her best as far as acting, looks, and sexiness. She plays her character with charm, sexiness, and very human qualities. There are two love scenes in the film that feature Lorenzo Lamas and her, the first of which is at his apartment and the second of which is in an alley on his motorcycle. I found those to be, although dark and shadowy at times, beautifully photographed, as well as the scene where they dance at a restaurant. I won't give away the story, but I will tell you that if you are interested in either action movies involving martial arts or romantic films involving erotic love scenes, then this is the movie to watch.

I've actually read some posts on various message boards saying that this is one of Lorenzo Lamas' good movies. The people who wrote that are either 1)joking, 2)extremely delusional or 3)Lorenzo Lamas himself. How it managed to obtain a 2.9/10 ranking is beyond me. It deserves nothing more than the 1/10 I so rightfully gave it. Why is that? When a movie is in the action/martial arts genre, you expect to see what? Do you know the right answer? Sadly, the people behind this movie didn't know it. (The answer is martial arts scenes/action scenes, btw.). Instead, we get a lot of pointless scenes from some very dark locations, an extremely slow plot development and I guess a lot of additional crap that I've already forgotten about. It's not as bad as Gladiator Cop, but it's close. VERY close.

Lamas plays stereotypical beefcake complete with bike and leathers riding about and beating people up, determined to shake off his illegal bare knuckle battles now that his debts are paid off yet the bleeding hoodlums who run the racket won't let him be. He's wanted for one last brawl, yet upon his refusal, the meanies get mean and start to terrorise the poor chap, torn between his life and his loyalty to others. A pointless B-movie with arthouse credentials, the film is more pretentious than classy, and a complete waste of time even if there is nothing else on.

"Poe's Law" is usually used to describe the confusion that results from a politician or religious leader being so "out there" that it is almost impossible to distinguish him from a parody version of the same type of person. I think we can apply Poe's Law to almost every bad action movie ever made (i.e. Steven Seagal, J.C. Van Damme, Lorenzo Lamas...Don't get me wrong, I love these films and sometimes the worse they are, the more I can enjoy them). This film is no exception with it's trite dialog and flimsy plot. Some highlights include the music score, which is slightly more creative than most films from this genre, but I laughed out loud when Lamas confronts an art museum tour group by pointing at a photo of a homeless guy and angrily yelling, "Do any of you see that the man in this photograph spends the night freezing, out in the cold?" They all shake their heads like imbeciles, "No, we can't see it". Lorenzo's character is soooo deep (uh, not)! I gave this film a 4 out of 10 within the bounds of the action movie genre.