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| It’s hard to know what is most sickening: the brutality, the racism or the sentimentality. Enjoyable as a treasure trove of martial arts cliches, this is a trash collector's item. |
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| MIXED |
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| "Macho nonsense full of cliche characters and risible dialog. There is no denying, though, that the fight scenes - choreographed by Van Damme - are well handled." |
| (Variety) |
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| “A laughably stupid film, but certainly an accomplished little piece of action exploitation.” |
| (Kim Newman, Film Review) |
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| "[Van Damme's] character is a sensitive kind of guy who likes children, flowers, and little white bunnies; on occasion he cries, which probably makes it all right for him to ram his opponent's teeth down his windpipe and slice through his face with cut glass... [the film] affords considerable amusement, not much of it intentional, which prevents it from being totally objectionable." |
| (Sheila Johnston, Independent) |
|
| ANTI |
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| "Mr Van Damme is a sensational discovery, combining the balletic grace of Mikhail Baryshnikov with the acting ability of a turnip." |
| (Christopher Tookey, Sunday Telegraph) |
|
| "The usual limb-flailing Oriental potted philosophy that has them queuing round the block at the late-night Gaumont. Need I say more? Okay - it stinks." |
| (Sue Heal, Today) |
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| "Elder brother Eric built like a cross between an Oxo cube and a piledriver, gets his back broken... [His] problems are as nothing to those of the script, however, which is dead from the neck up." |
| (Hugo Davenport, Daily Telegraph) |
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| "Thailand and its people simply serve as a beautiful and submissive backdrop to the offensive racist nonsense." |
| (Mike Naughton, Morning Star) |
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| "Don't see it for psychological complexity, social comment, acting, plot or humour; go, if you must, just for kicks." |
| (Tom Charity, Time Out) |
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| "Violent stuff, but those who like this sort of thing probably won't mind the quality of the acting or the plot." |
| (Rose) |
|
| "The Karate Kid for sadistic adults... completely unconvincing." |
| (Quinlan) |
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, Dennis Alexio, Dennis Chan
