Bullet Points: Death Fighter
There is a point in every great action heroes career that they enter their giving back phase. These selfless action heroes have had their time in the sun and realize it is time to use their action movie credibility to help establish the next generation of action heroes.
Two martial arts and action movie legends that have embraced their supporting roles over the past decade are Don “The Dragon” Wilson and Cynthia Rothrock. And one movie that really made the most of Wilson and Rothrock as supporting players is the subject of this review, 2017’s Death Fighter.
- Working Vacation: FBI Agent Michael Turner (Matt Mullins, Blood and Bone) and his wife are on vacation in Bangkok or at least that’s what Michael told the FBI brass… in reality, Michael is in Thailand helping his partner and mentor, Conrad (Joe Lewis, Force: Five) finally take down a nasty Russian named Draco (Gigi Velictat, Hard Target 2)… a nasty Russian that Conrad has spent most of his career with the FBI chasing. Conrad has learned the location of a dirty human trafficking deal Draco is going to be a part of and that is where he intends on ending Draco once and for all… Michael pleads with his colleague to get the local authorities involved, reminding Conrad that they have no jurisdiction in Thailand, but Conrad does not want to hear it. The result… Conrad meets his untimely demise, Michael is stuck explaining what happened to the Thai police and worse, Draco puts a bounty on Michael’s head.
- Off The Record: After being advised by the Thai Police to leave the country, Michael has an unexpected visitor in his hotel room in the form of the officer he spoke to at the police station. The cop understands that Michael wants to avenge the death of his friend and that the scum bag Draco needs to be brought to justice, but officially there’s not much he can do. Unofficially however, the cop tips off Michael about a mercenary in town that could help Michael track down Draco. So Michael makes his way to the bar where he was told he could find this mercenary…
- Enter The Dragon: When Michael gets to the bar he gets quite the introduction to the mercenary he is there to find, Bobby Pau (Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Blackbelt). Bobby is embroiled in the obligatory action movie bar fight and is kicking some major ass, before he talks to Michael and they start making their plans to go into the jungle and find Draco. This also about the time where Michael meets Bobby’s somewhat kooky sidekick Otto, who is something of a scene stealer. We eventually learn that Bobby has some skin in the game where Draco is concerned and this mission is as personal for him as it is for Michael.
- The Village People: Shortly after their jungle expedition begins, our trio of heroes find themselves in a village seeking emergency medical treatment after Michael is bitten by a deadly centipede. It is there we are introduced to Yui… Yui is the village doctor and she is the one who administers the antidote to Michael… but once he is fully recovered it isn’t long before the two are butting heads and there is a real sense of sexual tension between the two. But there is no time to start a romantic subplot when some of Draco’s men led by his right hand man Peter (Jawed El Berni) show up in the village and all hell breaks loose. Peter ends up slitting the throat of a man who was at the village recovering… a man who had escaped from Draco’s secret camp and who could potentially spill the beans on the whereabouts of Draco’s nefarious operations. There are fight scenes taking place all over the village and before it is all said and done are heroic threesome becomes a heroic foursome as Yui inserts herself into the equation since she knows where Draco’s HQ is!
- An Action Gold Mine: At this point in the movie the action really picks up… our heroes free the refugees that Draco had imprisoned and in doing so incur the wrath of Draco and his two top minions Peter and the sadistic Valerie (Cynthia Rothrock, Sworn to Justice). In typical action movie bad guy fashion, Draco foolishly believes he has eliminated the heroes with relative ease and begins his Thailand exit strategy, which involves heading to the gold mine and loading his trucks up with as much gold as they can carry. The gold mine serves as the backdrop for some big final encounters including a beautifully choreographed battle between the “no way he died” Michael and Peter. Speaking of beautiful battles, I thought for sure we’d get to see Yui and Valerie fight so they could prove the ladies could kick as much ass as the guys… but Death Fighter had something even more intriguing in store for us… The Dragon vs. The Lady Dragon! That’s right it was Don “The Dragon” Wilson against Cynthia Rothrock!
I would put Death Fighter in my pleasant surprise category. I did not know much about the star of the film, Matt Mullins, going into the film other than the fact that like many of the action stars that have been popping up in the last few years Mullins had worked extensively in the stunt side of the business. But Mullins made a good first impression on me as an action hero. The fight scenes were fun. And the movie knew how to get the most out of Don “The Dragon” Wilson and Cynthia Rothrock, while still keeping the spotlight on Mullins.
I would put this next set of bullet points in the Bonus Bullet Points category…
- In Memory Of: Death Fighter was dedicated to the memory of martial artist Joe Lewis, who played Conrad. One of Lewis’ claims to fame is he is one of only five men who ever defeated Chuck Norris in competitive karate.
- Product Placement: Throughout the movie Don “The Dragon” Wilson can be seen wearing a Dragon Traditionz t-shirt. Dragon Traditionz is a clothing line owned by Don’s brother, James Wilson.
- Useless Character Award: Michael’s wife appears early on in the film. Her scenes involved her being upset with her husband for working on their “vacation” and then leaving him after Conrad dies and telling him if he makes it back to the United States alive, she won’t be waiting for him. I think Michael could have just shown up in Thailand at the request of his friend and they could have dropped the “vacation with the wife” and more importantly the totally unlikable wife character.
- Be Mine: If Death Fighter taught me anything it is that a surefire way to impress a woman that has stepped on a land mine, is to take her place on said land mine… if you survive you are almost guaranteed to win that lady’s heart.
