La mort rôde à San Francisco

In San Francisco's Chinatown, Eric (Eric Lee) runs a martial arts school. His skills come in handy when a band of thugs kidnaps his half-sister for a large Chinese gang. The head thug took the job because he has a score to settle with the girl's father. The Chinese gang wants ransom money from the girl's mother, who, despite living modestly, has enough to pay it. Eric gathers a team of expert fighters from his school and goes off to get the girl back. But emotions run high when the team is joined by the father who had left his family years ago. Later, they'll be joined by a kidnapper with a conscience (Louis Bailey). In the hills, the girl escapes and gets recaptured several times. The hills are teeming not only with the members of the Chinese gang, but with female assassins and cruel bikers, too.

There's plenty in this low-grade action film to satisfy bad movie fans. Eric's mother speaks perfect English (though she often flubs her lines), but Eric himself seems to be reading his lines phonetically. All the performances are cardboard, except that of Bailey, who somehow manages to seem intelligent. Eric's band includes only one man with a gun: Paul (played by the writer and director, Paul Kyriazi), who seems a much more efficient killer than the rest of his team, especially since no one in the Chinese gang has a gun either.

The good guys always manage to win their fights, even though they're always ludicrously outnumbered. Late in the movie, the female assassins are given a big introduction in slow motion. Considering what happens in their very next appearance, it seems in retrospect much ado about nothing.

The fight scenes are violent and cartoonish, and show off the impressive skills of the martial artists. Even a bad martial arts movie needs good fighters.

Hi, Everyone, The story here is more or less Mike Brady (Robert Reed) of the Brady Bunch tries to rescue a stupid girl. It isn't really Robert Reed, but it looks like Robert Reed and we first see him in his living room so it is easy to get confused.

The kidnappee girl falls down a lot. The bad guy is a cross between a young Boris Karloff and an old Nick Nolte. He is mean and snarly. Even the bad guys don't like him.

One of the bad guys takes on an entire motorcycle gang when the gang decides to rekidnap the dumb girl. The fights are OK but sometimes it is hard to figure out for whom we rooters are to root. The toughest bad guy might be the nicest bad guy if we consider his redemption halfway through the movie.

There's this other bad guy who is the leader of the kidnappers because he is the one who hires the kidnappers to kidnap the girl nitwit. He is pleasant enough for a mob boss who likes to threaten people with a big sword and fifty or so bodyguards. They are all conveniently dressed in black so we can tell they are bad.

The young good guy in white is attractive. He has a nice face and body and he definitely knows his Karate moves. He has a couple of good fights especially one where the bad guy's sword goes flying way up into the air and then something happens. I will let you watch to see what happens.

There is a Ford Bronco. The five rescuers drive it and ride to the rescue. One of the rescuers is intelligent. He carries a gun and shoots the Karate bad guys. He looks like Richard Dreyfuss when Dreyfuss made Jaws, but with a Ron Ely build.

The foolish girl has a mom who is also the mom of one of our heroes, but I will let you watch and keep score on who married whom and who is the Daddy of the girl who gets lost a lot.

I almost forgot to mention there is a bad girl gang of Karate fems. They pop up out of ditches holding swords. One has a red dress. Her hair needs something.

I liked the movie. It is a good one for bad movie night. For a nice double feature, watch this with Detour which also has a tough girl. Instead of a Ford Bronco it has a Lincoln Continental circa 1941.

I don't guarantee you will like this movie, but you will get a laugh here and there.

Tom Willett

Cinematography is poor, choreography is weak. Some of the one-on-one fight scenes are good due mostly to the physical abilities of the individuals. Too many characters to get to know any of them. Character development is very weak and shallow. Those with deep 'secrets' spill them without much protest.

There is a very weak plot line that sort of ties it all together. Pretty much any time more than two people get together they start swinging at each other. Not a lot of contact is made, but they swing a lot! We have the Chinese crime syndicate hiring a bunch of American thugs to do a kidnapping. The expected evil heavy is bald and carries a bag full of weapons, only a couple which get used before being defeated by the good guy. There is the typical character that is on the side of the bad guys, but is good at heart. Throw in a hoard of women and a motorcycle gang and a couple of double crosses and you've got it! Weapons include pistols, clubs, bow and arrow, swords of all types, spear (the most interesting one in my opinion!), a mace and claws.

Greatest martial arts movie never seen! Until now. I just watched Weapons of Death on DVD last night. Even though it wasn't a 'big Hollywood production' and all of that, almost 100% of the characters this movie are Masters of many different martial arts styles. Not just paid actors. And on top of that, most of them did it for free at the time. I was especially impressed with Master Eric Lee. His skill is extraordinary! Even to this day. This movie needs more exposure. I want to see it on TV one day for all to see.

Special thanks to my Godfather, Nathan LeBlanc (the bouncer in the opening scene) for me letting borrow it to watch it. He makes Arnold look like a stick figure! These are the Greatest martial artists and fighters most of the world has not seen. The weapons are real and so is the skill.

Take some time to watch it. You'll be impressed. I was, and iv seen every martial arts movie there is. Im gonna watch it again tonight.

I suggest you find this title if you're a mega die-hard martial arts fan. This one's completely monotonous! In opening this picture, we see a Hulk Hogan impersonator having a bad temper while smashing the jukebox and throwing chairs. Child's play! The fighting battles are what makes the movies, but this has got to contain the sloppiest choreographies ever performed. Notice how the camera jerks around too often, because that's when you realize no one's hitting anybody! Some celluloid materials include brawny bikers and battling babes with clubs. The lack of poorly dubbed voices is the best advantage this mediocre flick has to offer.