Bloodfist VIII: Trained to Kill

"Bloodfist VIII" is about as watchable as any "Part VIII" of a film series could ever hope to be. Not that it has to do anything with the previous entries anyway - is the name "Bloodfist" such a money maker that they couldn't simply release this as "Trained To Kill"? At first, this appears to be an acting stretch for Don Wilson - he is a math teacher with typical problems in his relationship with his teenage son. But don't worry, we soon find out that he is an ex-CIA agent, targeted for death by Italian hit men and even some of his former employers! The one new element here is the Irish setting for much of the action - and apparently someone thought we were too thick to get the fact that we're in Ireland, because there is this "folk" (I don't know how else to describe it) music score that keeps on playing throughout. At least the close-contact fight scenes are mostly good, with Wilson in top form. (**)

Don Wilson.cannot be the greatest kick-boxing champion of the world because in EVERY movie he plays in, he has no idea how to fight. People go to hit him & his hands are down all the time which is unheard of in any type of fighting.

No one only hits someone a few times after they just tried to kill you, you kill them immediately & don't give them a chance to come after you a second time.

Any actor that allows a director/producer of a movie to allow non instant kills each time is a idiot actor & needs to be banned from making any movies until they smarten up & only take roles that portray real life scenarios.

No one is going to sit there & lie to me or anyone else & state that after someone just tried to kill you or your family, you are going to walk away & let the killer walk away alive.

Don't waste your time on ANY of the bloodfist series of movies because every one of them has garbage fight scenes that make no sense. Watching paint dry is far more exciting & enjoyable :o)

The worst of the series, although none of them were that great to begin with. This final Don Wilson entry has him as a former CIA agent now employed as a high school math teacher, and struggling to connect with his long-estranged son. Things pick up when something out of his (recent) past comes back to bite him in the rear. Fight, fight, punch, punch, kick, kick. And the action moves very quickly to...Ireland? Ok. This film's greatest sin was good old-fashioned dullness. There was a decent amount of action, but heavily weighted towards gunplay. What little martial arts was on display was filmed a little too close to really get a good look at the choreography/stunt work. A shame because that's basically the selling point for a Don Wilson movie. Beyond that, there were some line readings that gave me some chuckles. Overall, very inconsequential, even for a direct-to-video action movie.

It was around this time that Ireland started offering foreign filmmakers generous tax breaks for making movies in Ireland, which got a number of B movie filmmakers to film there, including Roger Corman. Since he was able to stretch his dollar further, this final entry in the "Bloodfist" series looks a little better than the previous few entries. The movie has some atmosphere, looking dark and moody, and the movie looks somewhat more expensive, with the climax of the movie taking place out in the ocean on a boat, which probably would have been too expensive for Corman if he made the movie stateside. Unfortunately, that's about all that's positive to say about the movie. The first part of the movie (set in the U.S.) tries to disguise the Ireland shooting locations, and it's pretty laughable. The movie is shot with the camera jammed up right at the actors most of the time, which makes it hard to see the surroundings. The action is pretty disappointing, with dull shootouts and unspectacular martial arts sequences (this entry in the series may have the least number of martial arts sequences than any other entry.) Mercifully, the series came to an end at this point.

This is a solid martial arts/action thriller that has Don "the Dragon" Wilson as an ex-CIA assassin teaming with his teenage son to track down the men trying to kill them. Easily the best of Wilson's numerous martial arts movies, this one effectively combines good writing, stunt work, action scenes, and editing to create an entertaining film that can be appreciated by action fans.