Terminator Woman

Not a bad martial arts film. Fight scenes were good. Michel Qissi did a good job directing his first film without Van Damme. Story worked without foul language and too much blood. Screenwriter Jeanette Francessca has a good line to the story that works. IT would be great to see something else from her in the same genre. She likes the art and having strong women promenant. IT was definitely worth watching. I recommend the film to all drama and martial arts lovers.

Police sergeants Jerry Trimble and Karen Sheperd track down chief villain Michel Qisi and engage in martial arts against various baddies in this movie.

There are lots of dumb sequences, like Ms Sheperd leisurely descending a rope ladder from a helicopter for her big final fight with Myra Bolo; Ms Bolo doesn't seem to notice any of this until Ms Sheperd in on deck. Otherwise, barring the lead role of Ms Sheperd, this seems to be a standard and otherwise unremarkable martial arts film. Ms Sheperd was rated #1 Women's Black Belt Forms Champion for the "Karate Illustrated" ratings in 1979 and 1980. She parlayed this into a movie career for ten years. She has appeared in movies and TV subsequently, and on the stage.

One scene demonstrates the mentality of "Terminator Woman" pretty well: Karen Sheperd and another woman are trying to escape from the villain's camp. Karen runs across an armed guard, who points his gun at her, but after a few seconds throws it away and challenges her to a fight. Karen kicks him in the balls, picks up the gun and runs away! Then again, when a film is directed by a martial artist and written / produced by another member of his family, you know you shouldn't expect too much. Karen Sheperd and Jerry Trimble do get some amusing banter going early on, and the film might have turned out better if it had focused more on their love-hate relationship. But after about 20 minutes they get separated, and the film slows to a crawl, and even with the occasional fight scene to liven things up, it lacks excitement. The finale has Trimble fighting Qissi inside a cave and Sheperd going womano-a-womano against the beautiful Ashley Hayden on a speedboat, but the fights are intercut in a way that breaks their flow and diminishes their value. On the positive side, kudos to the costuming department for giving Karen the chance to show spectacular cleavage throughout the film! (*1/2)

It's been too long since I have watched Terminator Woman until today. I am kinda feeling little sorry for myself (I've been given a few days off from work) because I fractured my wrist in sparring while doing martial arts the other night but this little gem managed to keep me entertained as I'm waiting for the pain killers to kick in.

I have a feeling the previous reviewers who had bad things to say about this movie don't like other films of this genre...I love them.

In Terminator Woman we have plenty of martial arts action. Jerry Trimble Jr and Karen Sheperd make an awesome team together. I give this 10 out of 10 because the movie involves many great fight scenes, yes the acting is really bad but if you are like me and can watch a movie for the fun side of it, then I am sure you can enjoy this nice little martial arts gem from the good old day as long as you don't take the movie too seriously.

This was actually an alright movie. There is an abundance of action, and Jerry Trimble makes for a pretty good hero. Michel Qissi, although his directing skills might lack a little, his martial skill is impressive. It was quite a surprise to see Qissi's "real" face. There is only one song on the soundtrack "Body Talk". I have to say that is incredible, and of course, impossible to find. I really enjoyed that song, and it was a splendid choice for the film, although they could have put more songs in there. Jerry Trimble is also very good in "Breathing Fire" starring as an evil drug lord with co-star Bolo Yeung who is amongst my favourites. I would strongly recommend "Breathing Fire" to any martial arts film enthusiast.