THE PERFECT WEAPON
A film review by Greg A. Hooten
Copyright 1991 Greg A. Hooten
First of all, let's get one thing straight: martial arts films are not in the same league with major motion/action pictures. There is, for some reason, a lack of large budgets, good writers, and great actors who can do both martial arts, and emotion. Those actors who know martial arts and have been in the business for a long time (James Caan, etc.) have no desire to do martial arts films. So, let's look at the scale of stardom here. I rate ENTER THE DRAGON as four-star, not for its plot, or its great fight scenes, but because it did more than any other film for its day. Bruce was dynamic on film, and was great in his motion. ABOVE THE LAW was a one-star, no range of emotion, the same techniques were repeated over and over and over... .
That being said, I liked THE PERFECT WEAPON. Not because Jeff Speakman (the staring role) was such a great actor, or had a great range of emotion, or that the film was non-stop action from start to finish. It was none of these things. Although Mr. Speakman is a credible actor, he is certainly better at emoting than Seagal, he is not in the league of top-billed actors, but then again, he never claims to be. He claims he can act, and he can. Enough said.
What I did like about the movie was the little things, the one liner that Jeff pulls off. Unlike Seagal's badder-than-all attitude, Speakman tries to deal with the fact that he doesn't want to kill people, though he still does.
I like the kid who helps him. He is a more natural actor, and helps the movie. He is not just a foil who constantly gets in the way or into trouble.
No one in this movie seemed incompetent. Many movies have some dumb cop who cannot get untangled from his own limbs to get an arrest, not here.
Speakman gets *bruised*! He gets hit, and then has a bruise that lasts. I thought bruises went away in ten minutes.
He is "The Perfect Weapon," not because he is so good, only because he is an outsider. Most movies would have made it because he is invincible.
He loses a fight to low odds. It is not ten to one where he loses, granted, I was curious how he could get kicked so many time and not go down, but goes down to this one attack, but hey, he does go down.
Okay, the script is predictable, there are no surprises. You see the ending long before it happens, it is obvious. But I like the way he moved, the way he hit, and kept hitting until all opponents were down. No attacker waits until a previous attacker is beaten until he attacks, all attacks seem very realistic.
A look at the movie. This is a revenge movie, essentially a troubled kid is placed in Kenpo training to teach him to control his anger. After years of training and a falling out with his father, he meets up with his old Oriental friend who got him into karate when he was young. The man (played by Mako) is in trouble with the Korean mafia and is killed by Tanaka (his real last name, and character name). The movie follows Speakman trying to unravel who did it and get revenge for his friends death.
Most predictable. But all in all, a good movie. I will give it two stars. A workman first effort with a little too much commercialism on the Kenpo name, but also good choreographed fight scenes that need closer scrutiny under slow-mo and stop action.
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