Day of the Warrior

Easily a terrible movie, but also extremely funny. This has become a classic among me and my friends because it is so bad. There are moments when you can't help bursting out with awkward dialogue and gratuitous clothes changing. Elvis Fu is a virtual bevy of ethnic jokes.

The dialogue is so bad it's entertaining. I quote:

"Back in Kansas, it's so flat, when your dog runs away you can see him for THREE DAYS." "Wow, that's flat." End of scene. Just one of many awful exchanges. I recommend it.

After a break of two movies, Andy Sidaris takes back the directorial reigns from his son Christian, but by this point his "Bullets, Bombs and Babes" series has devolved into complete camp (the climax is a private pro-wrestling match: Julie Strain and Gerald Okamura vs. Marcus "Buff" Bagwell). Undeniably there are some funny lines and situations in this film (the Asian Elvis impersonator, the owl that gets blasted with a shotgun, etc.), but some of the action scenes are embarrassingly bad, and the padding to stretch the movie to 90 minutes is all-too-obvious (Sidaris spends about half the running time showing us how the characters travel from point A to point B). The new member of the female cast, Shae Marks, has a gorgeous face, a beautiful smile, and breasts so enormous they are more distracting than erotic. The only woman who shows some action potential is Raye Hollitt - but Sidaris drops the ball again when he sets up a catfight between her and Julie K. Smith and then has her defeated with a single punch! What a shame. If you take this film as a comedy it may get ** out of 4, but if you're looking for action subtract one star.

The 1996 venture into the L. E. T. H. A. L. franchise sees writer and director Andy Sidaris back at the wheel, taking over after two rather disastrous jabs at the franchise from his son Christian Drew Sidaris.

And with the memory of the two previous not-so-lucky-movies, then I have to admit that I sat down to watch "Day of the Warrior" with almost no expectations. But in all honesty, then I have to say that writer and director Andy Sidaris does manage to step up and bring the boat around, as he managed to get the franchise back on track. Of course one can argue whether or not the L. E. T. H. A. L. franchse ever was on track, but at least he brought the movie back to the level it was before he handed the reigns to Christian Drew Sidaris.

The storyline in "Day of the Warrior" is pretty much as expected from a movie in this franchise, but at least is the excessive focus on lewd sex scenes shelved, and the focal point of "Day of the Warrior" is back on the actual story and the action. That being said, of course there is still nudity and a little bit of sex scenes in the movie, but nothing like the way-too-much-and-over-the-top as in the two previous movies. So yeah, it definitely was nice to see the movie return to form.

The acting was as expected in a movie such as "Day of the Warrior", and if you have seen the previous many L. E. T. H. A. L. movies, then you know what you are getting here. There are returning cast members to the franchise, which included the likes of Julie Strain and Rodrigo Obregón.

All in all, a pretty generic and straight forward venture into the franchise, but you know what you are getting here, for better or worse. And of course, nice to have writer and director Andy Sidaris take charge and bring the franchise back on track.

My rating of "Day of the Warrior" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Some people (not Robert Bresson) proclaim a basic law of cinema: "whatever the movie is about, it will be better with breasts and zombies". Well, in "The day of the warrior" there are no zombies.

There is little to add to Sickcritik's brilliant dissertation on this movie. If you enjoy watching "apparently" bad movies, this is a good option. You will enjoy with Andy Sidaris' master subtlety to include scenes with naked breasts. The special effects (those explosions, those weapons...) will fascinate you, the thrilling acting will carry you away (the comic couple, the hispano, the Shakespearian actresses...), you will fear the extraordinary evilness of the villains, as the owl-killer blonde or the Warrior, a psychopath who loves to kill his victims with wrestling techniques, you will be surprised by a soundtrack that it's maybe the worst thing of the movie (and that's a merit!) and finally you will meet the mythical Elvis Fu: I think everybody should meet Elvis Fu before death.

So enjoy it!, but remember, don't expose to this movie's quality more than ten minutes every time: more is dangerous for your health.

Some direct-to-video action films aren't half bad. Some are so bad they've given DTVs the reputation they've developed. DAY OF THE WARRIOR falls in the latter category. I was working at Blockbuster Video in 1997 when this movie hit the shelves. As soon as I saw the cover (featuring two girls whose outfits looked like it could barely contain them while they each held some big automatic weapons), I knew I had to see it. Forget about a story. Heck, forget about intelligence. This film is about some of the most physically-endowed girls I've ever seen trying to stop a terrorist (who looks like a WWF reject) from doing some evil plot. I don't even remember what the guy was up to, and it's probably just as well. This film has nothing going for it with the exception of a good dose of flesh and gunfire. Shae Marks is hot, and deserves a special award for being not one, not two, but three of the best things about this movie.