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.

STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits

Will (Loren Avedon) returns to be with his CIA brother Casey (Keith Vitali) at their father's 65th birthday party. However, when the old man is murdered by the evil Franco (Rion Hunter) they are both re-united in a quest for revenge...

When the movie opens, we see a foiled bank hold-up where American Imperialism self-righteously prevails when we see that the gangs agenda appears to be against American-imposed wars abroad. From there, we're left to gawp at just how much charisma Avedon actually had and how sad it was that he never moved on to bigger and better things. His delivery's a little ropey, but other than that, he's a spot on action star. Hunter in the bad guy role also has a genuine presence to him that is typical of DTV action fudd of the time that this movie was released.

From here, we see what is essentially a very weak film. It's predictable, clichéd, simplistic and lazy. But, for fans of the past two films, who get a kick out of the hammy over-acting, corny 80s soundtracks and the cleverly choreographed martial arts sequences, it may just pass muster all the same, but it is an undeniably wise final edition to the series. **

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 was to me the best movie in it's 5 part series you can say. Two brothers constantly at each others throats until their father dies, which eventually brings them together. Ron Hunter displayed some very good martial arts techniques. The acting was not that good at all, but then would you rather have good acting and bad fight scenes (Matrix Reloaded, Matrix Revolution, Cradle to the Grave) or bad acting good fight scenes ( Blood Moon, Super Fighter, and Drive). If you are not an acting snob then please by all means give this a shot. If acting plays a big part to you then I would say don't really bother, but if you like good fight scenes this is a definite looker.

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!