Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight

Bloodfist III is a credible movie on many levels. It is an excellent prison movie, a legitimate hand-to-hand combat movie, and even a good message movie. It's far better than Stallone's Lock-Up. The fight scenes are much closer to being real than most of Don "The Dragon" Wilson's movies. Most people wind up hurt severely and unconscious after just one of two blows (just like real life). I'd give this one a solid 8.

Jimmy Boland, a Japanese-American serving time in a Los Angeles prison after being wrongfully convicted of a barroom brawl, is moved to the prison's toughest section after killing the prison's kingpin for revenge over the rape & murder of Jimmy's young friend. He is placed in the same cell as the prison's jailhouse lawyer Samuel Stark. At first, Jimmy wants to do his own time, but with two opposing groups after him as a star recruit, Jimmy begins to use his formidable fighting skills to stay alive – and in doing so embarrasses the prison's incompetent warden.

The Bloodfist series has become one of the 1990s' most prolific B-grade action franchises – which is somewhat surprising since the original Bloodfist was nothing more than a cheap rip-off of the early works of Jean-Claude Van Damme (think BLOODSPORT & you're halfway there). A cheap knock-off it might have been, but the original Bloodfist was surprisingly successful in its limited theatrical release, so much so that producer Roger Corman greenlit something like eight sequels to date.

I went into Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight expecting more of the same plot-less kickboxing mayhem that the first two films made a living off, only to be somewhat surprised. Forced to Fight doesn't feature much in the way of brutal hand-to-hand combat (unless you count the several bouts between Don "The Dragon" Wilson & his fellow inmates) but actually is the first film in the series to focus on the story. Granted, the story isn't terribly innovative & the character arcs are predictable, but the film wears its well-trodden concept as a badge of honour.

There were some things that I found extremely unusual in a film like this. Director Oley Sassone shakes things up in a passable fashion – the hero is wrongfully accused of a fatal brawl & is serving time for it (an indictment of racial profiling) who kills the prison's kingpin as revenge for the prisoner raping & killing one of the hero's friends, resulting in the prison being split along racial lines. There is even a riot at the film's climax. The most unusual thing is the inclusion of a child molester as one of the hero's friends – I found this to be quite repellent but at the same time intrigued by the screenwriters' bold move, probably an attempt to show that all prisoners are only human, no matter what crime they are accused of.

The film features some excellent performances. Wilson still has the acting range of a plank of wood but he is steadily improving. Here, he is given some rope to deliver more dialogue than he did in the previous three films he had made (the first two Bloodfist films & the cheapjack futuristic thriller FUTURE KICK). There is even a scene where he simply holds up his fist & remarks "This is my power." which is indicative of the career he has made for himself so far. Richard Roundtree is by far the best actor of the bunch, playing the jailhouse lawyer to good effect. Gregory McKinney & Rick Dean both are suitably slimy as the two opposing faction leaders in the prison & their eventual alliance is a sign that even in prison, allegiance is relative to human nature.

The third in the BLOODFIST series takes a spin in a different direction. Don "The Dragon" Wilson still headlines the cast, but he plays a different character. He plays Jimmy Boland who is in the clink for manslaughter. It is a darker, meaner character than Jake Raye, but to be honest I thought it was the same character and prison time had done that to him. Anyways, everybody in the slammer wants Jimmy dead since he killed an inmate who had just murdered another inmate. So, its about Jimmy and his survival against the odds I suppose. At first he does not want to be anybody's friend, but he gets a new cell mate in Samuel Stark (really well played by Richard Roundtree) who he grows to become friends with. Roundtree in fact almost all alone made this film good and worth watching, but I really do believe they went way too far in showing that yes even the higher ups including the warden and all the guards wanted Jimmy dead too. So, they just don't really exist in the movie. They are NEVER present, so its like they just let the inmates wonder around and do whatever they please. Better than the previous two in the series, but just not good enough sadly. Like the previous two produced by Roger Corman.

My review was written in January 1992 after watching the movie on New Horizons video cassette.

This prison story is the best screen vehicle to date for kickboxing champ Don (The Dragon) Wilson. Currently in regional theatrical release, "Bloodfist III" should prove a winner for fledgling home video label New Horizons.

Action genre stars Sylvester Stallone, Tom Selleck and Jean-Claude Van Damme were in stir a couple years back, and the Big House also works well for Wilson.. He's a wrongly convicted guy in a state pen who continually has to prove himself against bigger and feistier convicts.

Scripter Allison Burnett and Charles Mattera wisely resist the temptation to write in a round-robin competition or some other corny excuse to put Wilson and fellow cmaps Stan Longinidus and Peter Cunningham in the ring. Instead, all the pic's well-executed fights are part of the dramatic action.

Under director Oley Sassone (a/k/a Francis Sassone), who previously co-scripted the radically dissimilar Disney family film "Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken", the film is tightly constructed. Wilson befriends John Cardone, a nerdy prisoner shunned by the other inmates and is in turn taken under the wing of prison sage Richard Roundtree.

Racism is the key theme, as white and black cons are continually fighting, with "half-breed" (half-Japanese) Wislon caught in the middle.. Per genre tradition, when the baddies attack Wilson's best friends, the star whips into action and cleans up the place. In a character roel, Roundtree is extremely sympathetic while laconic Wilson fits the bill as a no-nonsense hero. Cast is nearly all-male, except for a small role assigned to Laura Stockman as a TV news reporter covering the prison beat.

Don "The Dragon" Wilson stars as Jimmy Boland a prisoner who is forced to fight, after he kills a man named Luther, in self defense, Luther's partner Blue (Gregory McKinney)vows revenge, however when Boland turns down the help of a skinhead Wheelhead (Rick Dean) he finds himself being hunted by both the leaders. Enter Stark (Richard Roundtree) a peaceful man who shows Boland the ropes. Bloodfist III is by far the best movie Don "The Dragon" Wilson has made, thanks to some excellent actionscenes as well as a decent story, Bloodfist III is overall a solid effort, Making the next Bloodfist entry worth looking forward to.