No Surrender Cinema: Bloodfist IV: Die Trying

Come spend some time with an old friend in this month’s edition of No Surrender Cinema! Don “The Dragon” Wilson is once again a marked man, putting his (blood)fists and feet to the test as he fights to save his daughter from an arms dealer and avenge the deaths of his friends. Will our hero stand tall without knowing who he can trust, or will he Die Trying? Let’s sit back, relax, and breakdown Bloodfist IV!

Released hot on the heels of the fantastic Bloodfist III: Forced To Fight (a movie discussed previously in No Surrender Cinema), Bloodfist IV: Die Trying is another Roger Corman production featuring former kickboxing champion Wilson in the lead. As mentioned in my review of the third installment, the Bloodfist series stopped focusing on the character of Jake Raye after the second movie, and every entry thereafter had Wilson portraying a totally new character in a standalone story, with nothing to tie Bloodfist entries 3-8 (yes, there were 8 of these) together. Here Wilson plays Danny Holt, who makes ends meet by working as a repo man. We’re introduced to Danny while he’s on the job, as the opening minutes show him having to repossess a car owned by a man played by the legendary “Judo” Gene LeBell! This goes about as well as you’d expect, with The Dragon and Judo Gene throwing down right there on the front lawn. While “The Dragon” vs. “Judo Gene” sounds like the opening match on an episode of WWF Superstars from the 80’s, here it was nothing more than to show that Danny Holt is a nice guy who takes shit from no one.

Now that we know that Danny is a skilled martial artist, we are then shown his soft side, as he’s also a single father raising his daughter, Molly. Molly’s introduction into the story should be a red flag to anyone who knows how these types of movies go, because it won’t be long until she’s victimized in some way by the film’s villain. Speaking of, Danny’s nemesis is introduced to us during another attempted repossession, and astute action movie fans will recognize Gary Daniels doing his best Matthias Hues impersonation here, with his long blonde locks and a bad attitude. He’s got some shit luck, because he just got done putting someone else’s plates on his BMW, but those plates belong to the car that Danny was sent out to repossess. Of course, the disagreement between Danny and Scarface (I bet Corman died trying to come up with such an original name) leads to a fight, one which Danny is able to drive away from. Apparently Scarface’s shit luck is contagious, because while he had made the mistake of getting some cheapskate’s plates for his car, Danny drops some paperwork which lets Scarface know where his new nemesis (and the car) can be found.

Why does Scarface need the beamer back so badly? Because it contains a box of chocolates, which contains nuclear triggers that belong to his boss. Apparently Forrest Gump was right about that box of chocolates, you never do know what you’re gonna get! The leader of the criminal organization, Weiss, (Kale Browne) decides that visiting the impound lot should be a group outing for his employees, so they descend up it with every intention of getting back the triggers before they’re discovered. Since this is an action film, nothing is going to be that simple, as the office is shot up, all of the other employees are killed, and Danny’s daughter is kidnapped by Weiss. As you might expect, not everyone is buying into Danny’s side of the story, so he’s also got to contend with cops and the CIA, unsure of who to trust as he cuts a path of vengeance through Weiss’ henchmen. There’s a very real fear that everyone is out to get him, especially when he can’t even walk into his own home without having to fight off an assassin posing as the replacement babysitter!

Much like he did with Bloodfist III, Corman has assembled a rather impressive lineup of actors for a low budget production. John LaMotta, who appeared in Cannon classics Revenge of the Ninja and American Ninja is Sal, the owner of the repo company. Another Cannon alumni, James Tolkan of Masters of the Universe fame, does what he does best and plays a cop who doesn’t take any shit. TV actresses Liz Torres and Amanda Wyss contribute their skills as a police lieutenant and the only person that has any faith in Danny, respectively. Even everyone’s favorite karate flick douchebag, Dale Jacoby (who tangled with Wilson previously in Ring of Fire, and before that was a sleazeball in No Retreat, No Surrender), is here to dress and act like an asshole so that Danny can beat the hell out of him during the climax. Oh, and in one of the randomest bits of trivia you might ever learn while reading any of my No Surrender Cinema reviews, iconic hairstylist Vidal Sassoon’s daughter Cat plays Lisa, the female assassin who squares off against Danny on several occasions throughout the film. I mean, how often is it that an evil kickboxing assassin is being portrayed by an heiress to a hairstyle fortune? I never would have guessed that she was conditioned for such a role.

(See what I did there?)

The fourth entry in the Bloodfist series is nothing out of the ordinary, but it’s an enjoyable hour and a half. There’s honestly nothing that stands out here, but don’t take that as a knock on the film. Sometimes we all just need something simple to sit back and enjoy, and that’s where a movie like this comes in. The fights are fast, well choreographed affairs, and Wilson’s skill is on full display as Danny goes up against all of Weiss’ heavies. As mentioned earlier, the cast is a little better than your normal Corman outing, and we’ve got some honest to God good actors carrying the workload. The plot of Die Trying it its weak point, and though it might be thinner than a stick of gum, it broke “The Dragon” away from falling victim to a recycled script. After spending the first two Bloodfist films portraying a vengeful kickboxer, and portraying a wronged man stuck behind bars in Forced To Fight, it was refreshing to see Corman go a different route. Much like Van Damme and Seagal before him, Wilson’s popularity helped him segue into more of your typical action fare and not pigeon hole him in the martial arts market.

Bloodfist IV: Die Trying is an easy watch, and the turning point in a series that would continue on for four more entries that feature everything from amnesia to espionage. Anyone who wants an action packed timekiller could do a lot worse, and who doesn’t love “The Dragon”? The movie is currently available in full for free on YouTube, and can be had on DVD pretty easily both on its own and on a “Dragon Pack” DVD which contains both Bloodfist III and the amazing Blackbelt. Though this film may not measure up to those entries in “The Dragon’s” filmography, it’s one of the better installments in the Bloodfist series. With one of the most popular stars of martial arts B-movies as the star and a plot that’s really just there to get us from Fight A to Fight B, viewers who don’t want to overthink their action films will love this one.