L'oeil du dragon

Fearless Tiger was a complete surprise to me - a previously unheralded bad movie with scenes so jaw-droppingly bad it had me rewinding several scenes just to immediately enjoy them all over again. There's almost no let up here to the amount of joy Jalal Merhi fires at the audience.

A bad guy who looks like someone inflated Robert Plant and then burst him with a fork is taking a new drug called Nirvana to the streets of America (via Hong Kong). Jalal's brother gets hooked and overdoses on the stuff, causing Jalal to go to Hong Kong and get trained up to kick everyone's head in. Sounds simple? It is. But:

Jalal's girlfriend in the film is much, much taller than him, and cannot act to boot. Therefore, every time she appeared on the screen I was in fits of laughter. Just watched her roll her eyes in a "Oh, that Jalal" way. She's bad, but nothing can prepare you for the police chief. His initial scene, where he struts about like a chicken and sputters out his lines, is so bad I swear you'll be rewinding it over and over again. Brilliant!

Add to this the crazy action scenes (I nearly burst a gut at the gang battle near the start, where a bad guy is too busy gloating at his enemies to notice the car he then plows into with his motorbike), the toilet set round the neck move, or the death of one of the villains, who has both his feet poking out the sunroof of a car at the time. You've also got the fight in the back of a garbage truck, a bad guy with the tightest white guy afro ever, and the training scenes with Bolo, which has Bolo, Jalal, and some chick apparently involved in some sort of crazy dance off (or so it appears to the viewer anyway).

Instant classic! See it now!

In 1991, jeweler and competitive martial artist Jalal Merhi introduced himself to the film world with no less than a starring action vehicle. Merhi's fascination with kung fu - different from the karate and kickboxing standard in films of the time - helps set this one apart from the ton of other flicks released around this time, but the questionable acting and fluctuating quality of the fighting nullifies this uniqueness. Nevertheless, after watching the film with very low expectations, I'm surprised that I enjoy it enough to offer it a respectable rating.

The story: After his brother overdoses on a lethal new drug and the dealer remains untouchable, Lyle Camille (Merhi) abandons both the family business and his fiancée to train in martial arts so he may exact vengeance on the responsible entities.

The worst aspect of the movie is the dramatic content. The movie is largely populated either by non-actors and non-native English speakers, resulting in some genuine trainwreck moments of acting - most scenes involving lead villain Lazar Rockwood qualify as such. The saturation of questionable dramatics is contagious, infecting even veteran Jamie Farr, whose character inexplicably develops an accent over the course of his scenes. More amusing is the vague aura of strangeness of the screenplay, which features scenes like Lyle introducing himself to his master (Bolo Yeung) by approaching him while striking forms. Clearly, this isn't the kind of movie you're supposed to take too seriously.

Despite his faults, Jalal is physically in top form here: he'd have better fight scenes in the future, but the impressive moves his pulls off are definitely his most impressive ever, with some very graceful katas and lots of high jump kicks. And while the fight scenes definitely have their low points, the quantity and ferocity of the action is surprising. During the middle act, a tournament takes place, and even though most of the matches are presented in montage form, their choreography and the physicality of the performers is admirable. Merhi stuffs his cast with little-known but legitimate martial artists, among them UFC alumnus Harold Howard and pro wrestling personality Sonny Onoo, and it pays off in a respectable action display...with the exception of the awful ending fight in the back of a garbage truck.

This is definitely not everyman's martial arts movie, but anybody who's followed the careers of other B-movie dragons will know that the first solo vehicles tend to be shaky. Jalal Merhi makes the absolute most of his limited experience, and that makes FEARLESS TIGER / BLACK PEARLS decent. Fans should give it a look by default.

This film is so bad, that I'm sure it must have been planned that way all along. The plot is no worse than a typical martial arts action film, but the writing is hack. No performer, writer or director could have read this script without seeing the quality dearth. So like others who have posted, I enjoy this film for what it so clearly is--a tireless parody of trite action movies, a biting satire of the martial arts genre.

The fight scenes are reasonably well choreographed, though not flashy. Most of the fighters in the film appear to have martial arts training, and the director does not resort to cheap tricks--like changing speeds or cropping shots--to make things strikes appear impressive.

I laughed quite a bit at this film, but once the novelty wore off I was just in shock. Why? Mainly because the script is so bad that it's funny. The lead star Jalal was a boring actor and everyone else was just as bad. If you're thinking of getting this film because Bolo is in it, I wouldn't, cause he's dubbed and he's only in it for about 4 minutes with a crap part. The best thing about this film is that there are some good martial arts, but the plot feels like it was made up as they went along, and the editing is just ridiculous sometimes. However, if you like bad B-movie martial arts films, then this isn't so bad at all.

Haha it would appear I am the only one that liked this movie, but then again I have always been a sucker for cheap martial arts action movies. One thing I will say with Jalal Merhi type movies, is when watching you really have to get your mind in that state. If your expecting a good martial arts movie like Van damme, or Jackie chan you will for surely be disappointed. However for a cheap low budget movie (with bad acting) I didn't mind it. Jalal might have bad acting, but his martial arts skills (atleast to me) are worth watching for. Point is, I have seen worse and I have seen a lot better. But black pearls was on TV a few weeks ago and I actually enjoyed the movie. The other 2 friends of mine that watched it with me hated it :P But I have yet to find a bad Jalal Merhi movie other then G.O.D or whatever that crap was called. I liked Tiger Claws 1 2 and 3 and I loved Operation Golden Pheonix.