American Streetfighter (1992)

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Jake Tanner (Daniels) is just a guy with silly long hair who runs into tragedy when he and his friend Ito's (Roger Yuan) plan to blow up a jukebox (?????) goes horribly wrong.Ten years later, Tanner is a high-powered businessman in Hong Kong and has gotten a haircut. He receives word from America that his estranged brother Randy (Jacklin) is now an underground boxfighter (like punchfighting but in a warehouse of boxes...there may also be some boxing involved). This upsets Tanner, who is also a Karate master. He comes home and tells Randy not to sign a fight contract with the evil Ogawa (Okamura). Randy disobeys, but Tanner agrees to fight in underground matches in Randy's place. He takes on the baddies while reconnecting with lost love Rose (Dali) and her ten year old son Billy. Of course his name is Billy. When Tanner is injured when Viper (Dennis Reese) fights dirty, he must recuperate and re-train. With the help of the plucky Billy, who he forges a sweet relationship with, he comes back stronger than ever for the final showdown with Ogawa.The most important thing to mention about American Streetfighter is that Gary Daniels single-handedly carries the film. Without his charm and fighting skills, this movie would be nothing. I.e., it would be Expert Weapon. It's by the same director and also has Ian Jacklin. It even has the same scene: a motorcycle breaking through a wall and going around in circles. Director Austin must think that is the most awesome stunt ever. The baby-faced Jacklin has zero acting ability, but that makes it all the more fun to watch. Every word he says just sounds wrong somehow. Ian Jacklin makes Asher Brauner look like Andy Bauman. His silly fighting pants have more personality than he does. While this movie does share the cheap, shoddy, low-budget quality of Expert Weapon, thankfully this movie features Daniels, which saves it.You may be wondering why, if the film stars Gary Daniels, it is called American Streetfighter. There is a good explanation for it, but you have to watch the movie. However, he gets a great quote with "I like the sound of breaking bones!" Billy, the squeaky-voiced ten year old is obsessed with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (which were very popular in 1992, don't forget). He even says to Jake Tanner, "You're no ninja turtle!" The fight announcer looks exactly like Ryan Seacrest. Maybe it is him. He has a lot of jobs.Okamura is great, but incoherent, as the main bad guy. His bellowing "Noooooo!" is one of the best we've heard.Sure there is flat acting, dingy film quality, and the punches don't always connect, but the presence of Daniels rises above it all. With just a LITTLE more professionalism, American Streetfighter could have been better, even rising to more prominence in people's minds. As it stands today, it is a film for Daniels fans and has very little else to recommend it.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

Gary Daniels stars in this atrocious martial arts flick as a martial artist who battles bad guys who set up death matches that lead to harvesting of organs and in which Daniels must protect his lunkheaded martial artist brother (Ian Jacklin of Kickboxer 3 fame) from competing in such a fight. People seem to hate Kickboxer 3 a lot, with tons of people saying it's the worst of such a series (I say 5 is worse and that it's about on par with 2.) Still while I always found that film to be sort of a guilty pleasure, Ian Jacklin who was the bad guy in that one was easily the weakest link, and in this film he is even worse as a good guy. Jacklin always comes off as a dumb jock and here you'll be rooting for him to buy it quickly. Gary Daniels meanwhile is in his salad bowl days and he clearly would go on to far better things. This is a very bad martial arts movie that has terrible fight sequences and even worse acting. It really is as abysmal as they come with nothing of any worth. Gary Daniels is a wooden actor but it wouldn't be fair for me to say that he is the reason this film is so horrid. Indeed Daniels was effective in Spoiler and he made some enjoyable trash with PM. American Streetfighter is definitely one of those films Gary Daniels wishes he could forget, and one that I would like to forget as well.1/2* out of 4-(Awful)

After the total disaster whose name was "Capital Punishment", every person with a tiny bit of sense in his/her mind should think that Gary Daniels would actually try to make a better movie this time. But no! This is nearly as bad. The only thing that's better here is the story. Although it was really bad, it still was progress from the total lack of plot in "Capital Punishment". Here, you could at least understand what was going on. Anyway, when a martial arts movie has a bad story (as they usually do), you focus on the fight scenes. There are lots and lots of them, but unfortunately they all just stink. It had been better if they had come up with ONE decent fight instead of about 15-20 extremely bad ones, but I guess the people behind this movie thought that quantity was the key.Well....it wasn't!!

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.