Terminator Woman

Bickering California cops Jay Handlin (ex-kickboxing champ Jerry Trimble) and Julie A. Parish (ex-karate champ Karen Sheperd) have to escort a witness back to South Africa because he knows the hidden location of a gold stash belonging to crime boss Alex Gatelee (Michel Qissi, who also directs). Why do these two cops dislike each other? Seems Jay handed Julie her ass in a mixed karate finals a few years back. Really. So when Julie is kidnapped by Gatelee's men, Jay kinda starts looking for her to save her. Don't get your hopes up (like I did) and think you are going to get a robotic woman kicking ass in this a la LADY TERMINATOR (1989). Julie just happens to be a lady who terminates with no cyborg connotations to be had. Aw shucks. Believe it or not, this is the first leading role vehicle I've seen for both Trimble and Sheperd. Both of them are quite good at what they do (kicking, punching, doing the splits) and aren't as stiff as some of their contemporaries. Trimble kind of looks like an Estevez/Michael Douglas hybrid, but he throws some pretty amazing kicks that put him on the level of someone like Hwang Jang Lee. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the film is that debuting director Qissi - better known as KICKBOXER's Tong Po - knows how to shoot some effective fight scenes. I guess all the time spent hanging out with Van Damme paid off. He does have a bit more trouble in the plot dynamics as Jay doesn't really seem to be looking too hard for his missing partner and is absolutely no help in her escape at the end. He does kick Gatelee onto a stalagmite though.

Police sergeants Jerry Trimble and Karen Sheperd track down chief villain Michel Qisi and engage in martial arts against various baddies in this movie.

There are lots of dumb sequences, like Ms Sheperd leisurely descending a rope ladder from a helicopter for her big final fight with Myra Bolo; Ms Bolo doesn't seem to notice any of this until Ms Sheperd in on deck. Otherwise, barring the lead role of Ms Sheperd, this seems to be a standard and otherwise unremarkable martial arts film. Ms Sheperd was rated #1 Women's Black Belt Forms Champion for the "Karate Illustrated" ratings in 1979 and 1980. She parlayed this into a movie career for ten years. She has appeared in movies and TV subsequently, and on the stage.

Up until the somewhat under-heralded release of low-budget Karen Sheperd-starring chop-schlocky sensation 'Terminator Woman', brooding, broad-shouldered, B-movie villain par excellence Michel Qissi was better known as the towering, pony-tailed tibia-thrashing Muay Thai champion Tong Po, and the charismatically evil Qissi creates another memorable martial arts maniac in the scar-faced guise of merciless mobster Alex Gatelee, a wealthy, wholly corrupt businessman whose myriad larcenies include gold smuggling and human trafficking. Now desperate to retrieve his stolen gold bullion Gatelee kidnaps Julie (Karen Sheperd) one of the tough Kung Fu-fantastic cops hot on his trail, a crude gambit which proves injudicious as Julie is infinitely more resourceful than Gatelee's lumpen thugs, and her equally determined, punch-happy partner Jay (Jerry Trimble) being no less resolute! Atmospherically set in a dusty, sun-hazed African locale, the talented polymath Qissi equips himself remarkably well as actor/director/fight-coordinator, and while the script is rarely better than prosaic, the suitably gruff-voiced Trimble & sinuous Sheperd are likeable, boisterously bantering, head-knocking,high-kicking heroes, both clearly capable screen-fighters, and Qissi maintains good energy throughout, orchestrating an edifying number of kinetic fight scenes, Gung ho gun battles and a suitably blood-thirsty climax, wherein agile karate cops Karen Sheperd and Jerry Trimble really get to strut their red-hot pugilistic stuff, and capable composer Bruce Cassidy's bouncy score adds some additional pep to the fabulous fist-fighting ferocity! Fans of PM Entertainment, 90s-era Steven Seagal and Andy Sidaris should certainly make the effort to seek lost 90s action gem 'Terminator Woman' out.

'Legendary 'Kick Boxer' icon Michel Qissi's chop-schlocky skull-smasher 'Terminator Woman' is a triumphantly trashy, bone-crunchingly blissful B-Movie delight!' - Tor Bronson / 'The Heroic Blood Shed'

'Head-turningly hard-bodied, head-knocking, karate-kicking cooze Karen Sheperd can whoop my pizza dough-soft, bad movie-watching ass ANY day of the week!' - Goosey Lucy / Buxom Bloodfiends.

Not a bad martial arts film. Fight scenes were good. Michel Qissi did a good job directing his first film without Van Damme. Story worked without foul language and too much blood. Screenwriter Jeanette Francessca has a good line to the story that works. IT would be great to see something else from her in the same genre. She likes the art and having strong women promenant. IT was definitely worth watching. I recommend the film to all drama and martial arts lovers.

This film has got several key flaws. The first and most significant of which is the clear lack of a good plot! This sadly makes the film not only difficult to watch but also sends the watcher certain feelings of hopelessness, as if he or she is wasting valuable time of their short life. This means that the film cannot captivate it's audience, instead it encourages the viewing public to grow contempt for the film and everything associated with it! In short, it really is very very very very very very very BAD! Do yourself a favour and chew on a large rubber shoe, you'll find it far more interesting and enjoyable than watching Terminator Woman.