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Maybe it was because that day I had gotten my first COVID-19 shot. Maybe it was because I was tired. But, I found this movie quite boring. What you never get with a Roger Corman movie is boredom, but unfortunately that is exactly what I was swallowed into about 5-10 minutes into the film.

Stephen Children (Mark Damon) wants to write a book about hot shot race driver Joe Machin (William Campbell) to expose him for the horrible person that he is. Yet he is drawn to him and begins to befriend him.

I found the film super talky, but the racing scenes were interesting. In the end though this oldie might be one worth missing. Does also star Patrick Magee and Francis Ford Coppola did 2nd unit directing and sound.

Sequel that I enjoyed more than original due in my opinion a better and beefy script from Max Strom and John Allen Nelson that spins this series in a different direction than adds more tension and excitement to the series. Robert Radler returns to direct and I must say it even seems more competently made by the director.

Mega wealthy moneybags named Weldon (played by Wayne Newton) runs an underground fighting club that at times its fighters fight to the death. Travis Brickley (Chris Penn) ends up fighting the big cheese Brackus (Ralf Moeller). He ends up dying in the fight and his two buddies Alex Grady (Eric Roberts) and Tommy Lee (Phillip Rhee) end up looking for him after Alex's son Walter (Edan Gross) witnesses his murder. The two end up getting trained by Tommy's drunk brother James (Sonny Landham) to be able to beat Brackus.

The story involving Roberts and his son I found was way better than the original and is much needed to the story. It plays out like a ROCKY movie at times and is way more violent than the original due to multiple limbs getting broken, but if you enjoy some martial arts give this one a watch. It might end up being worth a watch. Also starring Meg Foster.

I am probably gonna receive a bit of flack from some people on my opinion, because this film is loved by some people, but I do not think this one made the cut for me. There are elements to it that are good, but in the end I found the things that bring it down to me outweigh the good things with this film.

The U. S. is looking to put together a karate team to battle Korea in a tournament. Its about the team that is put together, them coming together as one and then battling the Koreans to see who win will the tournament.

To me at times the film gets shaky, then makes a rebound gets good and then becomes shaky again. I think the film needed to be slowed down a little. Maybe even as much as 15 minutes added to strengthen some of the characters. In saying that the characters here are better than a lot of martial arts movies with their depth, but honestly I wanted more. Eric Roberts plays Alex Grady and there is a nice little father son connection with his son. But, I feel that the connection with his mother played by Louise Fletcher was kind of wasted. A great actress and they should have given her character a little more to work with. In addition Alex's wife has died, but I think it would have been great to maybe dive a little deeper into that as well.

Another problem I had was some of the characters weren't really believable in their roles. In saying that though the acting was top notch and really much better than most martial arts movies I have seen. Yet, I do not believe that Chris Penn is one of the top 5 karate guys in the States. Just couldn't buy it. He does a good job in his role though. James Earl Jones as well I am not sure I can believe he would have all of the knowledge needed to make this group champions. I would believe the coach should be a karate master, which I do not believe Jones was. Like Penn though he does a very good job in his role.

Anyways the best part of course in the tournament itself and maybe if the rest of the film played somewhere near that level I may have rated this higher. Both Roberts and Phillip Rhee (who plays Tommy Lee and co-wrote the story) get into crazy fights in that tournament. Also starring Sally Kirkland and John P. Ryan.