Lua Sangrenta

This is Gary Daniels' best action flick since "White Tiger". He plays Ken O'Hara, a former police detective/profiler who is called back into action to partner with another detective and investigate a string of murders of world fighting champions. The villain challenges the victims to a seemingly fair fight then kills each one during the battle. There's a subplot involving O'Hara and his ex-wife that slows the movie a little.

Daniels is in fine form here, as usual. His acting still sucks but he's still got the moves. His final fight scene in the warehouse is quite a workout. Chuck Jeffreys is an excellent foil as the hotshot detective who reluctantly teams with Daniels at the police chief's request. His martial arts skills are just as impressive and he shows more emotion. Jeffrey's does a lot of film choreography on other movies ("Blade") and stunt work most likely for Eddie Murphy who he resembles a lot. Villain Darren Shavi is no slouch either. He's fighting legitimate ass-kickers, so he'd better know his stuff.

The fight scenes are some of the best I've seen in a straight-to-video release with American stars. The choreography in each scene is elaborate and well staged, especially the scene with O'Hara's old martial arts teacher, fighting Kendo style. The punches don't look as fake as in some of Daniels' other movies ("Black Friday" yechhh!!!!). The wire work is better though sometimes a bit annoying. Look for WWE wrestler Rob Van Dam as one of the battle victims.

This is one of those films you see and go tell your friends all about it. The action is well done and Chuck and Gary both have terrific martial arts abilities. Although I do think both men should have fought Darren at the end it was still a great film. It was rather fun to point out the obvious stunt doubles, but the action is in the same category as such films like Drive, Super Fighter, and No Retreat No Surrender 3. I hope I'm not offending anyone when I say this, but this proves that Asian choreography is much better than most American choreography. Darren kicks really good but I still am a big fan of Donnie Yen's (Iron Monkey Ballistic Kiss) kicks by far. This movie scores high in my words so check this one out. You will not regret it.

On the positive first, the fight choreography in this is top notch. One of the best I have saw for this genre. It literally hits, and it feels like there were painful touches in there. Its shockingly quite raw tbh. It does not have the dance quality of higher budget films that I hate. In fact, there is a point that I feel that maybe they are taking this fighting far too realistically. Its the clear highlight of the film.

What really makes this though interesting is the concept. Silence of a Kungfu Champion is a good summary for the story. It makes you like double take and seek it out.

Then story and presentation. I am more mixed to be honest. It is very sitcom-y. Let's say that. Its literally a Buddie cop but quirky and less realistic than your higher budget films. Each line has a weird hokey joke with it and its mostly campy fun in some ways. Sadly, it works 2/3 of the way (felt the middle part is far too slow). It loses a lot of momentum once the master got killed AND it got really muddled with a lot of the plot beats.

Soft recommendation. The fight scenes are the best.

This is probably on of the worst movies i have ever seen. The plot, characters, production values, location, cinematography, etc. are some of the most poorly contrived attempts at film-making yet. But, this is exactly what makes this movie so god damn entertaining!!! Thats right folks, if you are looking for a movie that will make you laugh every single time, than look no further. Where else can you find an all-American dad who persistently talks with a British accent? For being the hero of this movie, Gary Daniels is one of the worst, unintimidating actors of all time. The scene where he is sitting down and suddenly tosses a pile of papers in the air while saying, "Not again"" has yet disappoint me since I always end up laughing on the floor. The best part is that Gary Daniels isn't the worst actor in the movie. By far, the worst actor (or should i say extra) I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing is a cameo by MR. Pay per view, Mr. Monday Night himself: ROB VAN DAM. I cant even begin to describe the pain in my stomach when he says, "Okay, lets dance!."

The film itself looks like crap, which is probably cause the studio who was blackmailed into making this movie, did not have one single permit to shoot. I mean come on, there were at least a dozen of scenes in the film where people would just blatantly run stop signs and more noticeably, stop lights. Which brings me to another concern: What the hell was the editor doing during this movie. He was probably so scared of seeing his name on the credits for this piece of crap movie that he suddenly vanished in order to salvage his career. Now i can go on and on with how awesomely bad this movie is but I just have one simple question: Why was this movie made? How could the director not foresee the pile of crap this script was written on? My only reasonable conclusion is that this movie was produced for the sole purpose of seeing how a film should not be made and more importantly, for people to see a film that is a guaranteed laugh Every time!!! (whether intentional or not).

From the opening scene that shows an obvious red cardboard cut out of a moon hung from a clearly visible wire to the ridiculous and improbable ending that shows how a tape recorder can set to perfectly coincide with the explosion of a confetti bomb (dont ask), this movie will leave your stomach and mouth in pain from the sheer amount of laughter that you will experience.

Although the DVD cover and plot synopsis tries to promote "Bloodmoon" as a serial-killer thriller, that part of the film is the least successful one. It works much better as a "buddy movie" and a martial arts flick. Gary Daniels and Chuck Jeffreys have a surprising amount of chemistry: Jeffreys is obviously the better actor of the two, and perhaps working with him inspired Daniels to work a little on his acting as well. And Darren Shahlavi is truly spectacular as the villain - how can this guy move so fast? The action choreography in this movie is terrific; not one fight scene is bad, but the final showdown in particular is about as good as it gets. Do you remember Jackie Chan's fight against that deaf-mute guy at the end of "Police Story 2"? That's the level of combat I'm talking about. The Hong Kong influence can be clearly seen in the speed of the fighting, the occasional (don't worry, it's very occasional) use of wires, and the crazy, over-the-top stunts. In short, if you're a fan of the genre, "Bloodmoon" is at least worth seeing, if not owning. (***)