Night of the Warrior

"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.

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.

Like Michael Corleone, Lorenzo Lamas wants to kick the kickboxing racket because he's paid his debt in full to the folks he borrowed money from to start his dance club. But he's being pulled back in again because fight promoter Anthony Geary is in debt to some Korean gangsters also in the kickboxing promotion business. And Geary will do just about anything to get Lamas back especially after what he sees the Koreans are capable of.

That in a nutshell is Night Of The Warrior and Lorenzo Lamas has made a nice career in doing competent action films, but this isn't one of them. In fact it drags considerably in spots as Lorenzo is shown to have a sensitive side and an interest in photography. It's his real passion.

Why he's doing the dance club thing is more for his mother played by his real life mother Arlene Dahl. She's an old Broadway dancer who knows little else and this gives her a living. She's the best one in a rather mediocre film.

I'm sure Arlene Dahl missed the big studio glamor at MGM from her salad days. But she's a good mom and no doubt Lorenzo's a good son and she's helping her offspring. But Lorenzo kicking and Arlene's still ravishing beauty can't save this.

My review was written in July 1991 after watching the movie on Vidmark video cassette.

Lornzo Lamas turns into a believable martial arts star in "Night of the Warrior", a family effort co-starring his mom and wife. Film was released theatrically in the midwest in June and will hit video stores from Vidmark in September.

Dog-eared plot has Lamas (who also co-produced the feature) as a kickboxer who's paid off a loan from gangster Anthony Geary that financed his nightclub, co-owned by mom Arlene Dahl (Lamas' real-life mother).

Geary wants his meal ticket (Lamas) to keep fighting, but Lamas is determined to retire. The bad guy stops at nothing, killing a former girlfriend (Felicity Waterman) to blackmail Lamas, beating up Dahl and even kidnapping current girlfriend Kathleen Kinmont (Mrs. Lamas) in his efforts to get him back kicking.

Final fight of Lamas against a Korean expert is exciting but the pic takes too long to arrive at this point. Helmer Rafal Zielsinski is better known for comedies ("Screwballs", "Ginger Ale Afternoon") than actioners.

Lamas is comfortable in the larger-than-life hero role, and the film benefits from several flash dance interludes at this nightclub featuring choreographer Sarah Elgart and other dancers. It's nice to see Dahl again (her first feature film in 20 years) though her role as a faded star dreaming of her salad days is wafer-thin.

Extremely tall actress Kinmont is well-matched again opposite her husband, though she surprisingly went further in her romantic scenes opposite Wings Hauser iin the recent "The Art of Dying".

Soap opera star Gear hamis it up as the self-pitying villain. Ken Foree, heretofore a good guy, handels a baddie role as Geary's henchman with panache.

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.