L'arme parfaite

This is one of my all time favorite martial arts flicks. Is the acting going to win any awards? No. But what makes it great is that Speakman takes hits when he is fighting, a lot of hits and sometimes he goes down and other times he uses incorporates the hit into his attack but he isn't Superman and he does take a beating. This gives the fight scenes a realism missing from so many movies of this kind. Unfortunately in his small catalog of movies Speakman never had another of this level. As much as I want to like LWM (and part of me still loves the movie) I hate Chuck Norris too much to separate his nonsense from his characters. I know this statement will win me no love for this review but Jeff Speakman should have had that long, successful run over crazy old Chuck Norris.

As Steve Segal's career began to decline, Jeff Speakman's was on the rise. Of the various martial arts movies Speakman did,l this is by the far the best, although Lord knows it is no masterpiece. There is very little plot other than revenge, but the fight scenes are well done and plentiful. Many familiar faces (Mako, James Hong, Toru Tanaka) are on hand to support Speakman, who is about as good an actor as Segal, which is to say not particularly good. But he looks great in the fight scenes. A young and delectable Mariska Hargitay, later of L&O: SVU, is along for the ride. Speakman was one of several actors that Hollywood briefly employed to capitalize on Segal's success. None lasted all that long. It took the arrival of Jet Li to spark new interest in martial arts flicks.

..But that's not to say the movie is all-around great. It's a very typical low-budget action flick. The story is pretty cookie-cutter as far as action movies go. It isn't Shakespeare believe me. And the acting is substandard at best. But Jeff Speakman to his enormous credit is a very accomplished martial artist. And having studied Kenpo for many years I can safely say that it's one of the most faithful films to capture the art. And what is even more impressive is the way the film portrays how Kenpo works when compared to different styles (like Tae Kwon Do).

So despite some minor inadequacies it's pretty awesome in many other respects. So for that I give it major credit. And to be honest it's a fun, feel good flick. I would recommend it to any martial arts fan. It's a good time.

Jeff Speakman(The master of kempo) made his debut in The Perfect Weapon, in this he plays Jeff Sanders a construction worker/drifter who brings vengeance to the Korean mobsters responsible for his mentor(Mako)'s death, his cop brother Adam(John Dye) keeps trying to tell Jeff that there are proper procedures but Jeff proceeds to hunt and pulverize anybody who gets in his way. There was just something about martial arts movies that I loved, something to this day I can't put my finger on. The Perfect Weapon was made to rival Steven Seagal, as Warner Bros had Seagal under contract, so Paramount introduced us to Jeff Speakman. Speakman should have had a bigger career at least on the basis of this, The Perfect Weapon features everything you would expect from a martial arts action flick but also has a stronger narrative and a sharper pace. That being said there are a couple of slow moments but Speakman is always there to kick life into the movie and on this level The Perfect Weapon works as a great guilty pleasure. Also Professor Toru Tanaka makes for a great villain.

* *1/2 out of 4-(Pretty good)

This is my favorite martial arts movie. The plot is easy to follow, which makes it good for non-martial arts viewers like me. Jeff has an easygoing personality and is very easy on the eyes. There are some elements of Asian-American meets Asian, and Jeff melts into that world almost effortlessly. The opening scene is memorable as Jeff shows us some of his martial arts moves in full condition, and has a good opening song. The film never drags. Great movie for couples to watch together as it isn't necessarily a "guy" film. Unfortunately, Jeff never followed through on the promise he showed in this, his best film. He later started doing mellow kind of dad movies. His time would have been better spent developing his acting abilities, which are rather wooden. But it's a good kind of b-grade acting.