Bloodfist IV Die Trying

I just sort of stumbled onto the low-budgeted, popular kung-fu action series, BLOODFIST. Mind you, after Bloodfist II, these movies bare no connection to each other, so after Bloodfist II, it really doesn't matter what order you watch them in.
Bloodfist IV:Die Trying was the first one I saw, and let me tell you, it quite literally kicks [rear-end]. Don "The Dragon" Wilson isn't as bad of an actor as his reputation might suggest, and he makes a very impressive action star. Every last fight in all the Bloodfist movies is fantastic, and Die Trying is no exception. The best one here is withou a doubt the one in the room full of tear gas. I own the first four Bloodfist movies, and
Bloodfist VII:Manhunt, and I'm relentlessly hunting down Bloodfist V:Human Target and Bloodfist VI:Ground Zero on the internet, as well as some of Wilson's other flicks, like Blackbelt and The Capitol Conspiracy. Trust me, if you enjoy the high kickin' performances of Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Jean-Claude Van Damme, or if your'e familiar with legends like Bruce Lee, or his son Brandon Lee, Don "The Dragon" Wilson is right up your alley, and the Bloodfist series is a great place to start.

It's not a perfect film. Now that thats out of the way, everything else about Bloodifst IV is. The fights are very realistic. The characters are convincing. The story is exceptional with twists, surprises, and a plot that keeps you guessing. For a B movie, and especially a Don Wilson movie, this is top notch.

Bloodfist IV has not a single highlight moment that stands out in the film. Instead, every scene keeps you equally engaged form beginning to end. I was captured by the story before the action in this one. This is one of those movies where the time seems to fly by while watching it, it was that good. Don't go into this movie thinking Hollywood blockbuster, or it will suck. But from the viewpoint of a typical martial arts film, this is a highlight.

The fights are only a minute to 3 minutes in length, each. But every fight is very well choreographed, looking real and adding to the story. Gary Daniels has a role in Bloodfist IV, and participates against Don Wilson in 2 of the best fights in the movie. Dale Jacoby (Bloodmatch, Ring of Fire) also has a small role, and takes part of another very good fight near the end, in a restaurant. Nothing is memorable like say Jackie Chan's 20 minute fight in Legend of Drunken Master, or Jet Li's in Fist of Legend. But you get real quailty action that is believable.

Bloodfist IV is just a good solid movie, even for a movie period. Nothing in this film puts you quite on the edge of your seat, but I give 4 stars for almost being there from start to finish.

Yes, very much the Martial-arts movie, but fights/fighting is perhaps even above-average, I wouldn't particularly choose Don Wilson or any of his opponents like Daniels or the rest seen here even if I was looking for a fight, based on this, are brutal, dirty, brawlish and relatively believable, except perhaps how much punishment Wilson and Daniels heap on each other before there is a winner. The fight in the restaurant towards the end, between Wilson and the two thugs, was pretty real, you could almost believe that might happen with 3 good street-fighters or something..its no messing around direct sort of fighting compared to some movie martial-arts.

Director Sziller missed an opportunity with this, IMO, to further use and play-up the female villainess/fighter , the dare i say fabulous late Cat Sassoon, who battles Wilson twice during the movie: jumping him and heaping a beating on him in the movies last fight sequence, before Wilson turns it around just as hes about to be finished off with her trademark switchblade.

Now Catya Sassoons 'Lisa' would have to be one of the most evil//sadistic/sexy femme fatales villainess/henchwoman ever to appear on any screen,as far as actual hands-on violence villainesses go anyway, in this second clash with Wilson her 'outfit' speaks for itself, and shes the main reason many will watch or want to own this video, frankly, but we see FAR too little of her, despite the 40-second treat of this last fight,which she loses by KO in the end,sadly, although well ahead on points at the time, lol..the would-be devastating kick to Wilsons groin we could barely see,( black boot against a very dark background set, which WOULD have won the fight for her in the real world, surely!) even though patently obvious it was so good we were totally ripped-off even here.

Now Sassoon, who starred in 'AngelFist' as the main character, is sometimes talked about as not having genuine martial-arts ability, and I'm not an expert, couldn't say, I know she held some M.A. title in real-life,NA Forms/Weapons or something, but I guess there are lots of cereal-box M.A. titles, but that criticism is more for hard-core MA fans than for fans like me,(surely few would believe that in real-life Sassoon or any other female fighter could hold their own with Wilson or the the other men in the movie, but that is SO NOT the point !)to me, and many I'm sure, the unique key with Sassoon was her appearance, she was attractive, yes, with good figure, so are many others,maybe even some female fighters, but she has a particular one-off appearance and attitude with slicked-back hair as here that could have made her the #1 film villainess cult icon of this genre of cinema history, right here, in this film. Now, Sziller could have made his cult-mark with this film, by showcasing her more, more scenes, her 'doing' a few more people, including goodies, she kills in split-second two fellow bad-guys that have outlived their usefulness in one devastating scene , actually, but Sziller, apart from under-using her, also makes a dogs-breakfast of basic lighting in most of her scenes in the movie, the scene at the door with the other two bad-guys just mentioned is totally badly lit and filmed, and so is her final fight with Wilson, filmed in a gloomy room, with 'Lisas' unique spine-tingling dark looks and eye-goggling black outfit and boots making it sadly even more difficult to see her properly against background as she goes about punishing Wilson down the staircase, across the floor, and up against the wall, at the fight climax..which you want to see every detail of. I've got stills of this sequence, and its apparent in them how poor the direction and floor-management was, and how much this cost,the film and probably Sassoons own stardom.

Apparently Wilson remade the film himself, I'm not sure if he reprised her character and who played her,Sassoon was not in it, and if it was any improvement in lighting and filming at least, but it was a 'stinker' generally, apparently, was worse than this in film merit terms.. Sassoon lost her life tragically in 2001, we could and should have seen more of her, and we would have, if better-promoted through this film, which had the makings but not the execution.

Good bone-crunching brawling fight-scenes, though..Don't 'pick on' Don Wilson, would be my instinct and advice.