Firepower - Il ring della morte

This is one of those films that falls under the category of "so bad it's good". This is a piece of pungent cheese of the sort that shows up regularly on MST3K, rife with laughable acting and wafer-thin plot. It takes place in not-so-distant future Los Angeles, where a desperate metropolis has tried to deal with rampant crime by creating a "Zone of Personal Freedom" in the middle of the city, where basically anything goes. Of course, this doesn't work, and a shipment of AIDS vaccine is hijacked and taken into the Zone. Two tough LA cops go undercover to find it, and the plotline is quickly lost as they become fighters in this weird Thunderdome-like gladiator tournament run by the guy who (surprise) stole the vaccine. Terribly bad, but a whole lot of fun to watch and laugh at. Two bright spots are martial arts action hero Gary Daniels as the only cop in LA with an Australian accent, and Jeff Hellwig (pro wrestling's Ultimate Warrior) as a tournament combatant. He's only got two lines in the whole movie ("Get me out of here now!" and "Arrrrrgh!") but he delivers them better than anyone else in the film.

This movie delivers the goods if you're a true, hardcore action fan. It has lots of flexing, brutal violence, really cool fighting scenes and a typical straight-to-video story. The plot was somewhat interesting, even though it's a typical "dark future"-plot that was so normal for the 80's and early 90's. Gary Daniels is great in this movie. Of the people involved in this movie, he performs the best fighting of them all. I wonder why he isn't more well known among people. He should be right up there with van Damme (and far above Chuck Norris). The story in this movie also has a huge surprise to it, but I won't reveal it here. Watch the movie for yourself instead. Oh, how I just love fighting tournament movies!!

During the 2010s i got deep into all sorts of American martial arts/kickboxing movies and rented, ordered on ebay, found in used market, well basically got my hand on anything i could from anywhere until i felt i had pretty much watched all that was made. Yet i never heard of this one wich i stumble on recently along another one i will surely watch soon as well.

Firepower (what a generic title) stars Gary Daniels and Chad McQueen wich i was not super familiar with beside in the first Karate Kid.

Daniels is one of those underated martial arts actor that usually plays a vilain or a side character. He did star in some movies of that era, but never made it big, probably because his acting was never that great. But he does have the physical moves and presence tough.

McQueen was a bit unconvincing as a "martial artist" and his fight scenes were much less entertaining than Daniels, but he does have a bit of better acting skills.

Now when it comes to the movie itself, well its always funny how movies made in the 90s try to portray a "dystopian futur" of the late 2000s. Watching this in 2025 it always make me chuckle on its own. Police officer here have uniforms that remind you of Robocop, you got the cheesy computer grids of that era as targetting systems, video calls but on old techs, and of course the whole "cities gone so bad there is zones where the police won't dare intervene".

The first part of the movie is a bit hit and miss, as it present to you this world and thats probably my biggest pet peeve of the movie, how the "zone" is basically without any borders and you can come and go at will. Now i seen movies with this concept like New York 97/Los Angeles 2013 where they made some big cities or such a prison and criminals basically operate it as they want, but here its not even a prison, its simply anyone who can enter and leave.

But once the movie really kick in its martial arts aspect in the "death ring", this is when it got a lot more fun for me. There is plenty of fights starring both protagonists, other characters and the vilain "Swordsman" played by The Ultimate Warrior wich was a wrestler in the WWF (now WWE).

Overall i had a "good time" with it because it had been a while i had not watch one of those (at least one i didn't watch before) and it gave me nostalgia vibes of 15 years ago when i started my journey in this subgenre of movies. But objectively reviewing it, it ain't that great of a movie. Some cool fights for sure, but its very cheesy and the story is as basic as it can be.

Still i am happy i watched it and i think it deserve at least a 6 out of 10.

What can a say. Firepower is the personification of B grade action that is very entertaining. For lovers of the action genre this movie is a must have for your collection, especially if you are a wrestling fan also.

I stumbled across the movie whilst researching Gary Daniels filmograghy on this site. After reading on fans review of the movie and its villain I knew I had to buy it.

Chad McQueen is OK in the leading role and while he comes across as a poor mans version of Tom Sizemore, he does a solid job which his father would be proud of.

Gary Daniels as always come to the table with a great physique and good fighting sequences. HOWEVER, the show is stolen by one man...The Swordsmen. Without doubt The Sworsdmen (Ultimate Warrior) is the greatest villain to ever grace an action movie. While his only words throughout the film are 'Arggghhhh' he delivers them better than anyone and his on screen presence in undeniable and rivalled by none.

The only bad thing about this movie as that the The Swordsmen wasn't in more scenes. When the Swordsmen is not fighting in the 'deathring' and decapitating others with his fists and blade, he is walking around the 'Hellzone' shirtless, only wearing an apocalypitic leather trench coat. Sooo intimidating and cool it has you screaming for more.

Go see this movie now...Arggghhh

So directors, explain yourself. Why did you call this movie firepower when the story has NOTHING to do with firepower, huh???

With that out of the way, this movie sux. The basic story is that the cops have made a 'zone of personal freedom' in the middle of LA, where there is no police assistance provided. But, those crafty criminals (i thought it would have been pretty obvious), they commit crimes and then run and hide in hellzone. So anyway, one time, the most feared gang leader, the swordsman (ooooohhhhh) is arrested and then his crooks break him out of jail in a bloody attack on the police station. Then, these two cops decide they have no choice but to go in after them.

This is where the movie loses it completely. Why the hell do they need to go in after the crooks into hellzone? Basically, they arrive, see a fighting ring, watch for 10 minutes (the audience is treated to the whole 10 minutes of fighting), and then completely forget about their mission of revenge and decide that their only option is to enter the death ring competition and FIGHT! Apparently this is to infiltrate the baddies (like ANYONE cares, its actually legal anyway), but they achieve nothing as they have numerous oppurtunities to get the baddies. So basically, the ENTIRE movie is fighting. Yep, they soon jettison the story and have non stop death ring matches. I guess i should have seen it coming with a WWF wrestler, but still.........

Anyway, to sum it up i wrote a haiku:

This movie sux hard It has no story and that what a crap movie.

I hope this assists you in making the decision not to watch it (not that you'll be able to find it anyway........)