No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers

Wow. Just wow. This film and its video cover easily have the greatest tagline of any film, in the greatest series of movies ever. Putting this film into words does not do it justice. Loren Avedon is one of the most amazing action heroes of all time. The fact that his career during its success period only featured 3 amazing and mesmerizing movies, it's like he was Bruce Lee, in the way that he was so amazing for such a short period of time and he gave the art away. See it, but see it as a film enthusiast, starting from hiring it at the video store after studying and looking over the video cover, then come home and put it in the vcr on a summer evening. You will have an experience that only the most fortunate people on earth experience.

Loren Avedon and Keith Vitali star as two martial arts expert brothers ho team up to take down the ruthless murderers who squashed their father. Lot s of martial arts battles are waged in the course of this film. Loren Avedon is a gifted martial artist and watching him fight is ultimately the real show to watch. He actually has somewhat of a screen presence and his acting while admittedly not very good is still better than his co-star Keith Vitali. What finds most strange about No Retreat No Surrender 3:Blood Brothers, aside from the obvious fact that it has nothing to do with the first (Sadly there is no ghost of Bruce Lee) or second (I guess, since I haven't seen it) is that it makes literally no dramatic sense on any level. There are so many scenes of gleeful stupidity that you can't help but cave and enjoy the movie as such. The action sequences are however are what make this thing great to watch. The action sequences are thrilling and in a Z-grade martial arts thriller, that is all that counts. I recommend it as a perfect way to avail yourself in glorious ass-kicking, that is why this movie is so enjoyable.

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

STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits

Will (Loren Avedon) returns to be with his CIA brother Casey (Keith Vitali) at their father's 65th birthday party. However, when the old man is murdered by the evil Franco (Rion Hunter) they are both re-united in a quest for revenge...

When the movie opens, we see a foiled bank hold-up where American Imperialism self-righteously prevails when we see that the gangs agenda appears to be against American-imposed wars abroad. From there, we're left to gawp at just how much charisma Avedon actually had and how sad it was that he never moved on to bigger and better things. His delivery's a little ropey, but other than that, he's a spot on action star. Hunter in the bad guy role also has a genuine presence to him that is typical of DTV action fudd of the time that this movie was released.

From here, we see what is essentially a very weak film. It's predictable, clichéd, simplistic and lazy. But, for fans of the past two films, who get a kick out of the hammy over-acting, corny 80s soundtracks and the cleverly choreographed martial arts sequences, it may just pass muster all the same, but it is an undeniably wise final edition to the series. **

This film is the best of the three No Retreat, No Surrender films. This is your typical revenge movie, but it involves two rival brothers, played by martial artists Keith Vitali and Loren Avedon. At first the brothers totally hate each other, but then their father's death brings them together as they take on the terrorists responsible for their father's murder. The fight scenes are a thrill-a-minute, the highlight being in a garage with Avedon and Vitali teaming up to fight terrorists. This is in fact the best of the three and I strongly recommend you see this film!

I wasn't expecting much from No Retreat NoSurrender 3: the DVD I watched was a bare bones pan and scan effort (meaning that the distributor either couldn't be arsed or thought the film unworthy of much attention), and the director and 'stars' were unknowns to this fan of fight-fests. However, despite some awful acting and an unimaginative story, Blood Brothers actually proved to be quite good fun. Not groundbreaking in any way, shape or form, you understand, but solidly entertaining stuff nonetheless, particularly if you enjoy silly action trash from the 90s (it comes packed with nasty hairstyles, a naff soundtrack, and plenty of hard-bodied babes).

Loren Avedon and Keith Vitali play Will and Casey Alexander, two brothers who fail to see eye to eye; Casey is a womanising CIA operative, whilst Will is a selfish Karate instructor with a strong moral sense (but no fashion sense—check out his denim and leather blouson jacket, chinos, and aviator shades combo!). But when their father is murdered by a group of terrorists, led by white-mullet-ed baddie Franco (Rion Hunter), they eventually learn to work together in order to bring the killers to justice.

Casey uses his connections in 'the company' to locate the whereabouts of those responsible for his old man's demise, and then convinces Maria, his ex-girlfriend (and also an ex-employee of Franco's), to help him make contact with them; Will, on the other hand, is a little more impetuous and hot foots it to Florida on his own (after taking a peek at his brother's Top Secret file on the case), changes his name to Jessie, and gets a job with the bad guys as a 'heavy'.

Inevitably, Will's true identity is discovered and big brother Casey must come to the rescue.

Of course, it's not the quality of the story that matters in a film like this—it's the action. And with bone-crunching stunts, and loads of fast and furious martial arts, fans of the genre should not be disappointed. What Avedon and Vitali lack in acting skills, they more than make up for with their ability to kick ass.

The fighting is certainly impressive stuff: acrobatic, fast, and very painful looking, with bodies crashing through glass, falling from great heights, and generally being treated in a manner that would cause mere mortals like me to spend many months in hospital (or, quite likely, an eternity six feet under). The use of some unconvincing stunt-doubles, particularly in the film's closing moments, kinda spoils things a tad (Hunter's stand-in wears a VERY bad wig), but, on the whole, as low-budget actioners go, this one delivers the goods where it matters most.

6.5, rounded up to 7 for IMDb