No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers

I just love the No Retreat, No Surrender series. All three movies are great. Even though the actors are mostly totally unknown, the budgets aren't that huge and they're generally not that well-known, it fun and entertainment from start to finish. This particular installment in the series sees Loren Avedon from the previous movie teaming up with Keith Vitali. The opening scene with Vitali is hilarious, and you start wondering if you're watching a slapstick comedy. That's the level this movie is at, it's an extremely easygoing piece of action movie which delivers the goods when it comes to the fight scenes. As always they are truly great, and way better than most other movies of both past and present. It looks to be inspired of the wirework from Hong Kong, and the execution is satisfactory.

I wasn't expecting much from No Retreat NoSurrender 3: the DVD I watched was a bare bones pan and scan effort (meaning that the distributor either couldn't be arsed or thought the film unworthy of much attention), and the director and 'stars' were unknowns to this fan of fight-fests. However, despite some awful acting and an unimaginative story, Blood Brothers actually proved to be quite good fun. Not groundbreaking in any way, shape or form, you understand, but solidly entertaining stuff nonetheless, particularly if you enjoy silly action trash from the 90s (it comes packed with nasty hairstyles, a naff soundtrack, and plenty of hard-bodied babes).

Loren Avedon and Keith Vitali play Will and Casey Alexander, two brothers who fail to see eye to eye; Casey is a womanising CIA operative, whilst Will is a selfish Karate instructor with a strong moral sense (but no fashion sense—check out his denim and leather blouson jacket, chinos, and aviator shades combo!). But when their father is murdered by a group of terrorists, led by white-mullet-ed baddie Franco (Rion Hunter), they eventually learn to work together in order to bring the killers to justice.

Casey uses his connections in 'the company' to locate the whereabouts of those responsible for his old man's demise, and then convinces Maria, his ex-girlfriend (and also an ex-employee of Franco's), to help him make contact with them; Will, on the other hand, is a little more impetuous and hot foots it to Florida on his own (after taking a peek at his brother's Top Secret file on the case), changes his name to Jessie, and gets a job with the bad guys as a 'heavy'.

Inevitably, Will's true identity is discovered and big brother Casey must come to the rescue.

Of course, it's not the quality of the story that matters in a film like this—it's the action. And with bone-crunching stunts, and loads of fast and furious martial arts, fans of the genre should not be disappointed. What Avedon and Vitali lack in acting skills, they more than make up for with their ability to kick ass.

The fighting is certainly impressive stuff: acrobatic, fast, and very painful looking, with bodies crashing through glass, falling from great heights, and generally being treated in a manner that would cause mere mortals like me to spend many months in hospital (or, quite likely, an eternity six feet under). The use of some unconvincing stunt-doubles, particularly in the film's closing moments, kinda spoils things a tad (Hunter's stand-in wears a VERY bad wig), but, on the whole, as low-budget actioners go, this one delivers the goods where it matters most.

6.5, rounded up to 7 for IMDb

This film is the best of the three No Retreat, No Surrender films. This is your typical revenge movie, but it involves two rival brothers, played by martial artists Keith Vitali and Loren Avedon. At first the brothers totally hate each other, but then their father's death brings them together as they take on the terrorists responsible for their father's murder. The fight scenes are a thrill-a-minute, the highlight being in a garage with Avedon and Vitali teaming up to fight terrorists. This is in fact the best of the three and I strongly recommend you see this film!

Wow. Just wow. This film and its video cover easily have the greatest tagline of any film, in the greatest series of movies ever. Putting this film into words does not do it justice. Loren Avedon is one of the most amazing action heroes of all time. The fact that his career during its success period only featured 3 amazing and mesmerizing movies, it's like he was Bruce Lee, in the way that he was so amazing for such a short period of time and he gave the art away. See it, but see it as a film enthusiast, starting from hiring it at the video store after studying and looking over the video cover, then come home and put it in the vcr on a summer evening. You will have an experience that only the most fortunate people on earth experience.

this third film in the series has no relation to the previous two other than the title.it's the best movie of the first three,in my opinion.there's much more action,plenty of pretty good fight sequences,and it's fast paced.the story line was nothing new or original,but it was well done nevertheless there are some exciting moments,and i was drawn into the action.it was almost compelling in parts.of course the bad guys were your typical stock two dimensional characters just like in the previous two films,but sadly,that's almost to be expected.apparently there are at least two more movies in the series,but i think i've had my fill for awhile.for me,No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers is a 6/10