American Streetfighter

This movie has all the martial arts action Gary Daniels fans expect from the master. But, it also has a good story. It moves at a fast pace and there is a fight about every 5 to 10 minutes. The training scenes are awesome! A must see for Gary Daniels fans. Just don't waste your time on the so called sequel.

The acting in this movie is up there with Tommy Wiseau The Room (2003) or Angel Town starring. Olivier Gruner from 1990. I had to pause the movie and laugh a few times.

The hair in this movie is glorious for our two heroes, the brother Randy certainly didn't get the role for his acting skills as if I was the director and had a bad day on set it would cheer me up where I'd believe in this movie again listening to Randy or whatever Gary Daniels actor "act". This made me want to watch the first two seasons of Arrow again. As in the only two watchable seasons.

Alright back to the movie, about 42 minutes in the movie got so silly that I lost any respect in it. Sure I finished it but the 10 year old boy absolutely RUINED the movie. One of them being a tired old cliche, the other being that he helps our hero become a better martial artist. It's like opposite land of the Karate Kid or similar movies where Mr. Miyagi is up on that wooden post doing the kicks and waxing the karate kids car in that decrepit apartment.

The fighting is good, hence higher than a 2 or 3 this deserves, some diverse shots but how the movie ends is just silly. The musical score is OK too for what it's worth. The bad guy was forgetful and there's some plot in there, some, don't get excited, it's far from the complexity of an adult film but who knows I'll probably watch it again for a laugh as the scene of the boy getting saved from a truck is deserving of some sort of youtube highlight reel of over the top silliness.

Gary Daniels has made a number of B-grade martial arts movies that I have enjoyed. Unfortunately, this early effort with him is not among his gems. I am sure he himself is embarrassed by this movie for a number of reasons. Here, he has a haircut (or rather, lack of a haircut) that is unintentionally funny, and he (as well as many of the other actors) have looped their dialogue in the recording studio with voices that often don't match with the mouth movements and body movements of what's on screen. Movie is hastily shot, with very little on screen that you would identify with "American". As for the fights, they are nothing exciting at all. You can safely skip this one.

The story is OK and so is the acting but your first clue that it's not that great is the fact it's only a $1 and in a cardboard sleeve.

It really is just another Martial arts movie not much to be said. It's from the early 90's and it shows. Not the amount of violence we love to see in todays movies a decade later. Honestly it's not to bad and I'd probably watch it again. Gary Daniels is honestly not a bad actor and is a pretty decent fighter.

So when you judge this movie please realize it's not up to today's standards. It doesn't have big name actors and was probably a low budget film.

The DVD box displayed such phrases as "There are some streets you don't double-cross" and "When war comes home, and home is the streets, you turn to... American STREETFIGHTER". Say that in the movie-trailer voice, and it will sound awesome. I was hoping that this would an overblown action movie, not good, but entertaining enough that I could laugh at how stupid it was. No luck.

The movie is... mediocre. The story is mediocre, the fight scenes are mediocre, the acting is mediocre. Okay, it picks up a little during a fight at the dojo, which is enjoyably stupid- featuring a motorcycle driving through a door that is quite obviously made of styrofoam, and the one guy in the movie with a gun choosing to pistol-whip people instead of, I dunno, shooting bullets at them. Still, the whole experience is mediocre- It's not bad enough to laugh at, and it's not good enough to enjoy. The whole thing is just boring. Two years later, Street Fighter, starring Van Damme and Raul Julia came out. At least that one you can laugh at.

And for a movie about street-fighting, there sure is a lot of time spent in the countryside...