By Geno McGahee
The fifth and final entry in the KICKBOXER series (I think) is arguably the best since the first entry. It may not have been written to be one of the series, which is my suspicion, but they tied it in. David Sloan, played by Sasha Mitchell, had a very tough life. In the second, we learn that his two brothers were murdered by Tong Po. He went on to get revenge and beat Tong Po, but on a trip to Rio de Janeiro he encountered a sex slave ring and a crooked kickboxing promoter that really abused him. David overcame all that, but Tong Po wasn’t done with him. Po had him set up and sent to prison, moved to Mexico, learned English, kidnapped David’s wife and kept her as a sex slave and started an underground fighting tournament. Are you still with me?
Tong Po loses again, David is reunited with his wife, and now we fast forward a couple years and we learn that some new bad guy, Negaal (James Ryan), has had him murdered. It was sort of said in passing. “Did you hear about David Sloan?” “Yeah, that’s a damn shame. OK, what else is new?” So, I think they forced that line in there to make this a KICKBOXER MOVIE, but that’s OK. They got the great Mark Dacascos in the lead as Matt Reeves, a former kickboxer that is training fighters, much like Sloan used to. His current fighter, Johnny (Denney Pierce), fights for the title against a great fighter with a great mullet. There were many mullets in this film. At least Dacascos understood that the hairstyle wasn’t a very good idea. The others in the film weren’t as aware.
Johnny wins the title and meets up with an evil-looking guy, Moon (Tony Caprari), and an offer is made. They want him to fight for the newly founded Negaal kickboxing league in South Africa. When he refuses, he is murdered and Reeves witnesses it, making him a marked man. Negaal hires Paul (Geoff Meed) to kill him, but he has issues with Negaal too and won’t comply. He actually teams up with Reeves to take down this evil group.
Negaal is so evil that he kills one of his men for merely suggesting that they continue doing the business stuff…drugs, hookers, etc. They are making a world of money. Why do the kickboxing stuff? Negaal takes offense at what Jack suggests and kills him with a vicious karate chop to the side of his head. Poor Jack. Why do you hire an advisor if you’re not going to listen? RIP Jack. You were just doing your job.
Matt and Paul fight countless Negaal goons, leading to a big showdown at the casino that the crime lord owns. Somehow, and maybe I missed the reason, Matt plays roulette and wins every time and that sends a message to Negaal. How did he know the winning numbers? Just lucky? Superpowers? Rigged in his favor? I missed it if it’s explained, but whatever the case, Negaal was not pleased and the two go to battle as Paul faces the man that sent him to prison at one time, Bollen (Greg Latter). When I saw Paul in prison and heard that he was set up, I would have bet money that it was Tong Po up to his dirty tricks again, but it wasn’t.
KICKBOXER 5: THE REDEMPTION is a good action flick. Dacascos was a very good choice for this role. Although he has had a great career, I think he’s been really overlooked as a potential big action star like Jean-Claude Van Damme. I think he was on the track to become one, but the 1994 DOUBLE DRAGON fucked it up. He always gets work, but he probably should have been a bigger star than he became.
In the end, this is absolutely worth a watch. Much like the third entry of this series, it doesn’t feel like a KICKBOXER movie, but this one is actually good. I just wish they made one more where Dacascos takes on Tong Po. That prick is still alive! I recommend it.
Rating: 7/10
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