Extreme Force

Rating:
Summary: Tong-Po: Back in Action?
Review: The energetic Hector Echavarria stars in this low-budget martial arts actioner which surprisingly has a lot going for it. He stars as Marcos De Santos, a Robin Hood style thief who wants to escape his life of crime and spend the rest of his days with his girlfriend. Problems arise when his partners talk him into doing one last job - to steal a priceless Mongolian artifact. Now, anyone with less than a minutes attention span will already guess that this a big con, and our hero De Santos is presumably left for dead. Quickly rescued by the owners of the stolen artifact and nursed back to good health, he is sent to get it back. Buddy-style antics are the order of the day as De Santos is partnered by a Mongolian bodyguard, and between the two of them they kick, punch and fight their way through 90 minutes of redneck beating, coconut crushing and major kickboxery mayhem!

The cast are uniformally good, which is quite a shock for a film of this kind. Echavarria is one to watch, and one wonders what he could do with a bigger budget. Youssef Qissi (who portrays the main villain, and De Santos' nemesis) is great - an evil look and an equally good screen fighter to match. Playboy model Nikki Lemke turns up as the manipulative partner of De Santos, and she too is really good in her role (check out the camera, as it seems to be mesmerised by her never-ending legs!). Director and co-star Michel Qissi (Yeah, bad-movies fans rejoice! It's Tong-Po from the KICKBOXER movies) is great as the Mongolian bodyguard. He deadpans his way through all of his lines - and to his credit, he handles this movie very well behind the camera as well. The action scenes are well choreographed and the film has a sharp professional look that elevates it above many of its direct-to-video peers.

Released in the UK (with an awful cover) under the shabby title EXTREME DRAGON (this review actually refers to that Third Millennium release), the movie bears no widescreen option or any extras to speak of. This is a shame as a short 'making-of' would have helped the package further. Not even a trailer? C'mon, this is DVD isn't it? Not VHS. I cannot speak for this US release, whether it will have any extras or anything to speak of, but for the movie alone - it is worth a looksee. If you are a fan of those old Kickboxer-type movies of the late 80s/early 90s or like your action with a little direct-to-video edge to it, then this could very well be for you.