L'implacable Défi

I like the West German dubbing title "The Death Fists of the Karate Tiger" much better for this KungFu knockout cascade, which was created in 1980 in a co-production between Hong Kong, Italy and the USA.

Bruceploitation star Bruce Le consistently fights his way through an outrageous plot involving the formula for a super drug that makes people sterile. Oh right! From Malaga it goes via Hong Kong to Macao. At Brucele's side is senior schlawiner Richard Harrison, who, as a CIA agent, roams through all the beds and also likes to appear bare-chested outside of the bedroom. The two heroes have to deal with terrorists and a gang of criminals. As a result, Brucele in particular gets into fights with different opponents.

Bolo Yeung, the Chinese Hercules, is crushed by Brad Harris as the super-cool bodyguard. In a particularly bizarre scene, the Czech heartthrob Josef Laufer doesn't belt out one of his schmaltzy songs, but lets his powerfully shaped chest muscles dance impressively, which is of course immediately punished by the good Brucele. Brad Harris's ultra-cool sunglasses are his undoing. But the brave Brucele gets an equal opponent in Jang Lee Hwang for the big final...

A wonderful piece of trash fun for all fans of the Bruceploitation genre!

Bruce Le (not Lee) teams up with Richard Harrison to solve an international crime that takes them in many different location filled with stock music (from major films), nudity, and fight sequence. This is another Dick Randall production that took Lee away from Hong Kong cinema to the heavy schlock cinema. Brad Harris plays one of the bad guy in an unremarkable role. Interesting seeing two former Hercules (Harrison/harris) in one film, and also fun seeing Italian gladiator actor Harris star opposite to Bruce Le. The plot is weak and action star Harrison comes off as a weak agent. The film was called something else, but when Gymkata entered the video arena, it was retitled to this title. Not recommended.

Then it must be because you have not allowed yourself to experience the amazing piece of cinema that is Gymkata Killer. I would hate myself too. I was once like you, and then I saw what can only be described as the best movie, EVER! It's so horribly, terribly, frighteningly bad that it cannot be taken seriously. Once the movie, like a horrible, disfiguring train-wreck, careens forward through the opening scene, you understand that it's actually a dadaistic masterpiece - it is truly a movie whose 'brilliance' is housed in its irrationality and negation of the accepted laws of cinema.

It's like looking through a peephole into a post-apocalyptic world in which a nuclear bomb did NOT go off.

(Cutting edge special effects... On par with the TV's Batman & Robin! -- the live action 1970s series, not the cartoons)

This movie is one of many Bruceploitation movies starring Bruce Le as a secret agent along with his partner Dick Cannon. Yes, that's his name. The movie has with bad acting, bad plot, and the plot itself is conveyed very incoherently. Sub-plots come and go at will, characters make decisions that don't impact the plot at all, and characters are kidnapped for no reason. With all these problems you may be asking why I gave this a four and not a one? Well, that's because as bad as it is it's still a fun entertaining movie, with nudity and a plot that makes no sense. I would recommend this movie if you're looking for a good time.

The Late Great Dick Randall, who also produced the film, leads an all star cast in this international spy thriller. Dependable Richard Harrison is the womanizing CIA agent (Richard Cannon) who is ably assisted by agent (Huang) played by the diminutive Bruce Le as opposed to the original Bruce Lee. Huang is quite a karate fighter who is in the habit of beating up a legion of bad guys while Richart is scheming on the ladies and only fights when he must. The third member of the CIA team is pretty Sharon Shira (Anna).

They are opposed by the ruthless Viet Cong led by surly Jeong-lee Hwang (Comrade Yang) and (Comrade Asian Girl) played by May Hung with an unfortunate unattractive hair do. The third group is a little less defined with multiple nationality's in the gang although they did through in a Sieg Heil so we would know they are definitely evil. This group is led by (The Boss) Tito Garcia and his partner in crime Dick Randall. Randall's character goes by the name of (Dick) to keep it simple I guess.. They have a fem fatal working for them the exotic (Maria) played by Nadiuska who was fine in the role but was probably better suited for her day job as a Super Model.

Each of these forces were desperate to get their hand on the, you guest it, Secret Formula. Challenge of the Tiger is a solid "B" movie in any language as the plot roles right along with members of all three teams getting, how can we say, neutralized with regularity. The portrayal of violence is perfect with it not being to graphic. A big shout out to Brad Harris who played the Boss's henchman (Leopard) with a lot of menacing intensity. At 47 years old the former great Eurospy star still looked buffed at around 235 lbs or so. Unfortunately, he lost his test of strength to our hero the 115 lbs Huang because Huang knows Karate I guess.

The film would rate a couple of points higher if it stuck to the cute nude scenes, of which they are thankfully many, and dispensed with the simulated sex scenes that almost turned it into a soft core film which bogged it down a bit. The ending could have also been a bit more thought out to tie up a couple of loose ends, but all in all this one's a winner. Thank's Dick.