Ring of Fire III: Lion Strike (1995)

Why so much hype?

So much average

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

I should admit at the beginning of this review that I haven't actually watched any of the other RING OF FIRE movies, of which this is the third. However, I don't think I need to worry as they seem to tell unconnected stories. This one sees '90s action hero Don "The Dragon" Wilson playing a doctor (!) who accidentally comes into possession of a valuable computer disc that Russian gangsters are trying to get their hands on. Mucho action ensues.This is a very typical offering from PM Entertainment, but at least it offers tons of action so you can take your mind off the less-than-stellar scripting. The first half is the best and features attacks on hospitals by motorbike goons and Wilson kicking the heck out of anybody who gets in his way. The second half is mostly set in the woods and is less inventive, but still quite fun. The action is a good mix of martial arts, shooting, and the usual explosions. Watch out for Robert Costanzo, the traffic cop from DIE HARD 2, as one of the bad guys.

It's like they put all of the biggest cliché's together and made a movie out of it. Every thing is wrong about this film: stereotypical portrayals of Russian villains, the mafia and ghetto thugs (and kick-boxing champions). Unbelievable coincidences like the fact that Dr. Wu has exactly the same bag as the burglars (so of course the bags are mixed up). And in the same scene Dr. Wu is first threatened with a gun, kicks the gun out of the mobster's hands and then starts to fight with the other mobsters, while no one thinks of pulling a gun and simply shoot the good ol' Dr.Painstaking efforts at acting, especially in the scenes that are meant to be sentimental and/or romantic. And cliché up on cliché... The fighting scenes are of the most boring kind; if this guy is a kick-boxing champion, then kick-boxing must be very lame...

WARNING: Possible SpoilersI wasn't too sure what to expect from this movie, as Don "The Dragon" Wilson is responsible for the original "Bloodfist", one of the most tedious and laughably cheap looking "martial arts" movies ever as well of a bunch of bad but fairly entertaining, or just plain bad Roger Corman produced flicks. However, this 1994 release from PM Entertainment is MUCH better and if you have 83 minutes you want to pass quick, then this is a worthwhile piece of 80's style entertainment.Don "The Dragon" Wilson stars as Doctor Johnny Wu. Yes, it does seem awful odd to cast him as a doctor, but luckily you don't see much of that. He's about to go on holiday with his son up to a friends cabin in the mountains the same night. Meanwhile, a group of petty thieves break into the Mafia's basement and steal from the safe. They grab 2 bags from the corner which unfortunately for them, one contains a floppy diskette containing evidence which could put them down. The mafia catch them as they're escaping and a gunfight erupts, 3 get killed but the one with the money and the diskette manages to jump in a car and we get a typical PM Entertainment style high speed pursuit. If you've seen other PM movies such as "Rage" with Gary Daniels and "Executive Target" with Michael Madsen and Keith David then you know the score. Lots of vehicles crash and blow up without reason in a totally ridiculous but stupidly entertaining style. Eventually the one remaining petty thief crashes and the Mafia catch him, he refuses to let go of the bags. Meanwhile, Doctor Johnny Wu is on his way home from work and catches this and defends "Fingers", our petty thief. as the cops come, the Mafia leave the scene. An ambulance is called and "Fingers" is taken away. Meanwhile, Dr Johnny Wu picks up one of the bags which happens to be the one with the diskette and proceeds home. The other bag is brought into the ambulance. The Mafia then ambush the ambulance and find that the bag is not there, so they have problems. They then go to the home of Doctor Johnny Wu (how they found where he lives remains to be explained) and find out from his mother that he's spending the night with his son in a cabin up in the mountains. Meanwhile, Dr Johnny Wu has just met Kelly (Bobbie Philips), a female forest ranger who he spends the night with. She just leaves as the villains arrive and attack the cabin, his son manages to escape and is rescued by Kelly, who leaves him with an old friend of hers who lives locally. What follows is a cat and mouse game between the villains and Johnny Wu and Kelly. I won't spoil the rest for you, but you'll already have worked out that the good guys win.Visually, the scenery is nice and much more importantly looks A LOT better than the Roger Corman produced Don "The Dragon" Wilson movies. The fight choreography is WAY better and at times looks rather impressive and a lot more convincing than the big budget Hollywood drivel ripped off from The Matrix, full of computer generated effects, slow motion and stunt doubles. The villains are all rather typical action movie villains who make tons of silly mistakes. The scene where he directed one towards a bear trap claiming the disk was there was pretty damn funny to say the least, many others shoot frantically at nothing, get crept up on and beaten up. Sound familiar? Well it is, but it's fun, moves quickly and if you like plain old 80's style action, I can almost assure you you'll watch this from beginning to end.Nobody is going to win any awards for their acting but let's be honest, did you expect an oscar winning performance in a movie like this? I wasn't, and was able to accept what I got as nothing was outrageously bad.If you're into an easy to follow, pass the time movie with non stop 80's style action then this will do nicely. In no way a cinematic masterpiece, but an incredibly fun dumb action flick for a Friday night.Rating: 08/10

Don Wilson kicks the s**t out of some cardboard character b-movie villains (Russian mob, American mob, garden variety street thugs) and delivers some stultifying dialogue with the brain-dead child playing his son (ominously with the same last name) and Natalie Barish, who plays a Ranger. (A Sloane Ranger maybe but that's all she could ever be.) Ah well, the Pacific Northwest settings are nice. And the fights are good. If ya like that sort of thing.