Final Round (1994)

That was an excellent one.

Fantastic!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Not the worst movie of its type. Not even the worst movie of the same plot. But, still kind of bad. The production values and the photography were okay. The direction was unobtrusive. And they could have gone for a lot more gore than they did. (This is a good thing) Most of the acting was mediocre, at best. Lorenzo Lamas is sort of known for this. Same same. The fighters were utter caricatures, and the fighting was medium to badly choreographed. The best acting was by a woman playing a mobster's moll. I guess from the cast list it must have been Isabelle Mejias. Kathleen Kinmont was okay. Those of you looking for erotic nudity (you know who you are) should look elsewhere. Kinmont looked good, and the boobies were nice, but in the sex scene it looked like Lamas was trying to pop them. Not really worth a rental.

"The Running Man"'s poor cousin. There, that should be enough for a plot description. Not that "Final Round" doesn't have a certain amount of B-movie charm, and even a sense of humor at times. But it is VERY slow-moving, with limited and basic kickboxing action. Of course the fact that Kathleen Kinmont does a striptease followed by a love scene in this film may be enough to make it worth seeing for some viewers, including me (she looks incredible), but her basically helpless character is a far cry (and not in a good way) from the ass-kicking Alexa that she played in two movies also co-starring Lorenzo Lamas at around the same time. Worth noting: Isabel Mejias (who was really impressive as a killer child in the 1982 thriller "Julie Darling") has a very small role - the girlfriend of a mob boss who has bet millions of dollars on Lamas being the last man standing - but she manages to make it funny and memorable. (**)

At the very least, one of the greatest examples of editing in modern film history. This film features Lorenzo Lamas dawned in a fetching pair of acid-washed suspender jeans and his acting is superb as always... his expertise in twirling and baton-like weapon that he can find is incredible. Delongis as Delgado is especially amusing as the villain with knack for whips and switchblades. The dynamic between the rich gambler that threatens to change the scope of "the game" and the Delongis is fantastic. You really can't write this kind of dialog... it must be written by some kind of generic script writing software. If you are into really bad movies, you'll really love this one. It's filled with bad acting, unrealistic scenarios, and the kind of corny one liners that make any bad action movie great.

Target audience: Adolescent boys. Period.Variation on "Running Man" - ok - who are they kidding? RIPOFF of any Arnold movie complete with such dialog as "uplink" and "Hasta la vista, baby." Lorenzo Lamas as an Arnold wannabe that actually claims to be a "Chuck Norris fan", at one point. Good grief.Bad acting, bad music, paper thin script, oh so silly. Next time I'm flipping channels and I see Lorenzo Lamas in the credits, I'll just keep on flipping...as I usually do. Maybe I just couldn't locate the remote and I was feeling particularly lazy that day. Who knows?Here's another Lamas line: "Ya, I think I've seen this movie before." Me too. So why'd you make another one so badly?