Punhos de Honra

Around this point of time, PM Entertainment heads Richard Pepin and Joseph Merhi were starting to make movies that were a definite improvement over the movies they made just a few years earlier. The positive attributes of "Fist of Honor" are pretty evident from the start. The movie looks like some expense had been put into it, with some good production values, including some striking photography. Unfortunately, when it comes to entertaining the audience, the movie is still lacking. The story, if it can be called a "story", is very slow moving - the hero does not find himself in a real crisis until more than AN HOUR of the running time has passed! Yes, there are plenty of fist fights along the way, but they not only come across as all alike, they are also equally unexciting. And fans of Abe Vigoda or Bubba Smith will be disappointed that their roles are pretty brief and have little impact to the rest of the movie. Skip this movie and watch a PM Entertainment movie made a few years later - by then they had learned how to make a good action movie.

"Fist Of Honor" is another guilty pleasure from PM Entertainment. The plot: "Fist" Sullivan (Sam Jones) is an enforcer to the mob. His sole purpose is to beat up the rival mob's goons. When the both mobs declare a truce, "Fist" has nothing to do. But when Sullivan's boss Dino Diamond (Harry Guardino) decides to break it, "Fist" is set up in the death of rival mob kingpin Victor Malucci (Abe Vigoda). "Fist" now has to make his name count to save his life.

I said the name "Fist" three times in the plot description to make a point: Every character says his name a hundred times. Also every scene of the movie is "Fist" beating up some mullet-headed goon. How can you not enjoy that? The first fight in the movie is the worst ever though. It's so fake and the opponent looks like he's gonna throw up every time the camera goes for a closeup. Let's not forget Bubba Smith as a helpful detective. He puts in a decent performance.

Sullivan's big line is "When someone challenges me, I fight!" With that line in mind, you know you're not watching Shakespeare.

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Sam Jones as the lead in a martial arts movie? Well it actually works, because Jones doesn't really do much martial arts: he's mostly just a street brawler who uses his size and strength to counter the attacks of his opponents (he takes a lot of hits, but it's like hitting a brick wall). Not 5 minutes pass in this flick without him getting into a fight; in between, there are car explosions and bloody shootings to fill up the space. The rest of the movie, full of with stereotypical mafioso characters, is not really worth discussing, though Ali Humiston, who plays the young girl, is a promising actress. One element that really falls short is the hero's "revenge" at the end: ridiculously inadequate for what the other guy had done. ** out of 4.