Onore e gloria

HONOUR AND GLORY is a feather in the cap of Hong Kong director Godfrey Ho, the man best known for his cut and paste ninja movies of the 1980s. Before and after those films, however, he had quite a career making low budget action features, and those of the early '90s have aged quite well. These are classic examples of so-bad-it's-good cinema, with elaborately staged fight scenes and plenty of jaw-dropping overacting.

This film's no exception. Ho shot the film in America with an American cast and the plot is simplistic stuff about various characters teaming up to fight back against a crime overlord. Headlining the cast is Cynthia Rothrock, who doesn't get too much screen time but is more than adequate when she does show up. The little-known Donna Jason plays Rothrock's sister, a roving reporter who also knows a thing or two about martial arts.

The best thing about this film is the human he-man John Miller as the villain of the piece. He goes way over the top in the acting stakes and is completely hilarious as a result. You may or may not remember him as Rothrock's cop partner in the even funnier UNDEFEATABLE. Miller is surrounded by bodyguards and spends the whole film beating on people. The fights are slow and quite awkward but like the cinema of Amir Shervan, HONOUR AND GLORY is too much of a treat for bad film lovers to dislike.

Look at the cast we have here! Cynthia Rothrock, Chuck Jeffreys, Robin Shou, John Miller: all of them real-life martial artists. And then there is Donna Jason, who has probably had some martial arts training, and even though she's not at the level of the others, she gets extra points for hotness (great smile!). In theory, "Honor and Glory" should have been a non-stop fighting fest, but it didn't quite work out that way. The film devotes too much time to its plot, which is scattered all over the place and never seems to really get started, and the actual fight scenes are only average in quality - not bad, but definitely not top-grade either. The film does have its moments (including Cynthia's scorpion kick and Donna's workout routine), but with this cast, we should be excused for expecting more. (**)

This is the best Cynthia Rothrock movie I've seen since "In the Line of Duty".

I've never been impressed with the quality of Cynthia Rothrock's movies made in the United States. I was impressed with the quality of this movie. Then I realized that it's a co-production between US and Hong Kong movie companies, and everything made sense. The story has more juice to it, and there are lot more characters involved in making the story than your usual 3 person movie that Cynthia Rothrock stars in.

This, and the Tiger Claws represents the best of Cynthia Rothrock's movies made in the United States. This was an entertaining movie to watch, and was a good action movie as well.

Sharing many of the same cast from Ho's later crap classic, Undefeatable (although sadly, Don Niam is nowhere to be seen here), this carefree kick-about is similarly stupid and entertaining stuff from glorious start to finish.

The plot concerns two sisters, one a feisty FBI agent (played by perennial high kicking sweetheart Cynthia Rothrock) and her intrepid news reporter sister (played by Donna Jason) who by a bit of an unlikely coincidence involving their father, a CIA operative(!), both end up trying to bring down a particularly nasty business tycoon by the name of Jason Slade (played hilariously OTT by John Miller) who is attempting to procure a nuclear trigger of some description.

Also along for the ride are Robin Shou, playing a Hong Kong detective and Chuck Jeffreys who looks and sounds uncannily like Eddie Murphy(!!!) and who similarly ends up embroiled in the sinister affair.

What transpires is typically riotous fun, including a plethora of fights, over acting aplenty by all involved and some thankfully brief, but hilariously cringe inducing attempts at melodrama including the obligatory reconciliation between one sister and her father.

Other highlights on offer include one side splitting scene in which Rothrock's sis, high kicks a coke can into an irate woman's head(!), the main testosterone oozing villain taking time to flex up his muscles after wiping out an opponent(!!) and a cool, multiple fight finale which subsequently ends up with all four of our hero's required to tackle the movies nemesis.

Well worth a watch!

Like a lot of the martial arts movies of the early 90s,, this is terrible. Lol,, the rifftrax version makes it better though.