The Redemption: Kickboxer 5

Not as good as the first Kickboxer movie but better than all the other ones. I recommend this movie if you like the Kickboxers movies because it is a good movie and Mark Dacascos is pretty good in the movie and it is also a good martial arts movie.

Mark Dacascos delivers the moves and his usual workman-like acting job in this utterly predictable martial arts revenge flick. James Ryan is appropriately evil and vicious--until he just caves before our hero. But little, not even the location filming in South Africa, can save this by-the-numbers film, especially with a climax that is...well, just not climactic.

THE REDEMPTION is the last of the KICKBOXER franchise. This fifth part was shot in South Africa and has little to do with the preceding films, given that the hero of those is killed off in the early scenes and Mark Dacascos is the newcomer hero.

There aren't really many tournament scenes and indeed not really much of anything when it comes to the plotting. There's your routine villain responsible for various deaths and the like and the clean-cut hero who's busy trying to track him down and get revenge for various grievances. It's all very cheap-looking and the dull direction from Kristine Peterson doesn't really help much either.

I always like Dacascos as a fighter and to be fair he isn't so bad here in the action stakes. There's still plenty of action and even if none of it particularly wows you, it's still fun to watch. However, THE REDEMPTION is let down by a very poor supporting cast, particularly the villain who isn't imposing in the least, and Geoff Meed is just as wooden as a supposed henchman who becomes something else as the story progresses. If you're a massive fan of '90s-era fight action you might get a kick or two out of this, but it really is barrel scraping stuff.

This time Mark Dacascos is the headlining kickboxer who destroys the company that killed his friends. Seems like the Negall federation has killed off champions who refuse to join (Including Sasha Mitchell's character David Sloan) of course this leads to a final confrontation between Mark Dacascos and James Ryan. Redemption:Kickboxer 5 is the only film of the series that I had never saw prior to my ordering of the Kickboxer 5 pack. This particular entry for some reason never played on USA or TBS like the others did. After watching the final product it's not hard to see why. First off the David Sloan killed off in this film looks so unlike Sasha Mitchell (Why didn't they use Geoff Meed who bares somewhat of a resemblance?) that I refuse to acknowledge that this indeed has anything to do with Kickboxer 1-4. I must admit that I rated Kickboxer 1-4 higher than I normally would due to my nostalgia at the time, I would get home from my gas station job and plop down on the couch and that would be on TV much to my delight. Redemption:Kickboxer 5 doesn't even have that to fall back on and indeed there is hardly any kickboxing at all to be found in this super lousy sequel. Dacascos has natural screen presence and James Ryan has his moments as a bad guy but I prefer ass kicking in my kickboxing movies and therefore this movie adds up to less than nothing for me.

1/2* out of 4-(Awful)

"Matt Reeves, a retired kickboxing champion must resharpen his hard-hitting fighting skills in order to take on his best friend's murderer in an explosive fight to the death." This film is full of exciting explosive action and contains some decent acting. Mark Dacascos shows off some awesome martial arts moves and the fight choreography is fast-paced and original. The storyline is nothing new but this movie has better action and excitement then the first 3 sequels. I bought the 5-disc DVD collection and was happily surprised with how entertaining the film was. After watching the Kickboxer 2,3 & 4, Redemption:Kickboxer 5 is without a doubt the second best film in the series. if you like martial arts action films this is a movie you will probably enjoy and have a good time watching. If your not a hardcore kickboxer fan you might not appreciate it. But it is also one of Dacascos' best films.