Terminator Woman

One scene demonstrates the mentality of "Terminator Woman" pretty well: Karen Sheperd and another woman are trying to escape from the villain's camp. Karen runs across an armed guard, who points his gun at her, but after a few seconds throws it away and challenges her to a fight. Karen kicks him in the balls, picks up the gun and runs away! Then again, when a film is directed by a martial artist and written / produced by another member of his family, you know you shouldn't expect too much. Karen Sheperd and Jerry Trimble do get some amusing banter going early on, and the film might have turned out better if it had focused more on their love-hate relationship. But after about 20 minutes they get separated, and the film slows to a crawl, and even with the occasional fight scene to liven things up, it lacks excitement. The finale has Trimble fighting Qissi inside a cave and Sheperd going womano-a-womano against the beautiful Ashley Hayden on a speedboat, but the fights are intercut in a way that breaks their flow and diminishes their value. On the positive side, kudos to the costuming department for giving Karen the chance to show spectacular cleavage throughout the film! (*1/2)

Police sergeants Jerry Trimble and Karen Sheperd track down chief villain Michel Qisi and engage in martial arts against various baddies in this movie.

There are lots of dumb sequences, like Ms Sheperd leisurely descending a rope ladder from a helicopter for her big final fight with Myra Bolo; Ms Bolo doesn't seem to notice any of this until Ms Sheperd in on deck. Otherwise, barring the lead role of Ms Sheperd, this seems to be a standard and otherwise unremarkable martial arts film. Ms Sheperd was rated #1 Women's Black Belt Forms Champion for the "Karate Illustrated" ratings in 1979 and 1980. She parlayed this into a movie career for ten years. She has appeared in movies and TV subsequently, and on the stage.

Bickering California cops Jay Handlin (ex-kickboxing champ Jerry Trimble) and Julie A. Parish (ex-karate champ Karen Sheperd) have to escort a witness back to South Africa because he knows the hidden location of a gold stash belonging to crime boss Alex Gatelee (Michel Qissi, who also directs). Why do these two cops dislike each other? Seems Jay handed Julie her ass in a mixed karate finals a few years back. Really. So when Julie is kidnapped by Gatelee's men, Jay kinda starts looking for her to save her. Don't get your hopes up (like I did) and think you are going to get a robotic woman kicking ass in this a la LADY TERMINATOR (1989). Julie just happens to be a lady who terminates with no cyborg connotations to be had. Aw shucks. Believe it or not, this is the first leading role vehicle I've seen for both Trimble and Sheperd. Both of them are quite good at what they do (kicking, punching, doing the splits) and aren't as stiff as some of their contemporaries. Trimble kind of looks like an Estevez/Michael Douglas hybrid, but he throws some pretty amazing kicks that put him on the level of someone like Hwang Jang Lee. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the film is that debuting director Qissi - better known as KICKBOXER's Tong Po - knows how to shoot some effective fight scenes. I guess all the time spent hanging out with Van Damme paid off. He does have a bit more trouble in the plot dynamics as Jay doesn't really seem to be looking too hard for his missing partner and is absolutely no help in her escape at the end. He does kick Gatelee onto a stalagmite though.

This film has got several key flaws. The first and most significant of which is the clear lack of a good plot! This sadly makes the film not only difficult to watch but also sends the watcher certain feelings of hopelessness, as if he or she is wasting valuable time of their short life. This means that the film cannot captivate it's audience, instead it encourages the viewing public to grow contempt for the film and everything associated with it! In short, it really is very very very very very very very BAD! Do yourself a favour and chew on a large rubber shoe, you'll find it far more interesting and enjoyable than watching Terminator Woman.

Terminator Woman is hilarious, obviously for all the wrong reasons!

There is no terminator, but there is a woman. In fact, a few. But the one in question is co-star Karen Shepard who looks fantastic in her action scenes, and isn't the worst actor in the bunch.

In fact, everyone kinda passes the acting bench okay. Typically mid 90's dress sense, lifestyle and humour makes for more than a few unintentional laughs though, but that just ads to the charm!

Shot in South Africa, cops on holiday, Karen Shepard and super kicker Jerry Trimble are soon brought into the action against super bad ass and director Michael Qissi. This in turn leads to some fantastic fight scenes, some of which are probably both of their best and are fun to watch.

Terminator Woman may not be a classic, but for fight fans or that of the stars, its worth a place in anyone's collection!