Bullet Points: Strike of the Panther
Back in November of 2020, I came across the Ozploitation martial arts “extravaganza” known as Day of the Panther starring Edward John Stazak. During my research for Day of the Panther, I found out that there was a sequel known as Strike of the Panther. What I did not know until I sat down and watched 1988’s Strike of the Panther was had I watched the sequel first, there would have been no need to go back and watch the original…
- Previously On Panther: The first twelves minutes of Strike of the Panther are devoted to recapping all the major highlights from Day of the Panther… from our hero Jason Blade’s (Edward John Stazak) graduation from the Panther School of the Martial Arts, to Blade’s Hong Kong special agent partner being murdered by the evil Jim Baxter (James Richards), to Blade infiltrating the crime organization that employs Baxter, the romance that he started with Gemma (Paris Jefferson), the niece of his Panther mentor, William Anderson (John Stanton) and the final battles that saw Baxter and his boss thrown in prison for life. The whole recap sequence was narrated by the William Anderson character and he teases that we have not seen the last of Jim Baxter.
- The Next Assignment: With the backstory told, we find out that Jason Blade’s success taking down Baxter and his boss has led to the police department wanting Jason to train a special task force. So moments after the flashbacks, we move into montage mode and that’s when Jason gets a special assignment… Julia Summers, the daughter of Judge David Summers, got herself hooked on heroin and in debt to some bad people. Now she finds herself working at a high class brothel to pay off her debts… Jason’s job will be to pose as a customer to get inside the brothel and get Julia out. The madame of the establishment eavesdrops on Jason’s conversation with Julia and she calls in security and things get wild… there’s blow up dolls, a guy in a chicken suit, another guy dressed as a school boy looking to be spanked and Julia even grabs a dominatrix whip to get in on the action and help Jason as he battles brothel security.
- Prison Break: While all this is going on Jim Baxter manages to break out of prison and it’s not long before he is sending too goons to intercept Jason and Gemma as they are about to meet William at the gym… Jason is knocked out, Gemma is kidnapped and William is run over by the car speeding away with Gemma and ends up hospitalized as a result. Baxter has Gemma tied up in an abandoned factory and is using her as bait to get revenge on the man who sent him to prison Jason Blade!
- Industrial Showdown: With a classic action movie backdrop established for the rematch between Blade and Baxter set, Blade moves in… and while he doesn’t physically have William at his side, the two are in near constant telepathic communication as Jason Blade battles an army of ninjas wearing different colored goalie masks and armed with some of the tools of the ninja trade. But Jason does not go in all on his own, a new character is introduced in the form of Interpol agent Lucy Andrews (Rowena Wallace) and her SWAT team, good thing too… because in addition to the ninja army and Baxter himself, the entire building is wired to blow… so while Jason does the fighting, Lucy can take care of the diffusing.
The whole third act of Strike of the Panther really outshined the less than satisfying third act in Day of the Panther by a country mile or country kilometer since the movie takes place in Australia. But with the long recap at the start, multiple montages through out (see the Bonus Bullet Points), the brothel side mission that has nothing to do with anything else… it really felt like they didn’t have enough material to justify a second movie, but dammit they made it anyway!
I do have enough material for some Bonus Bullet Points…
- One More To Go: There was not a second Panther sequel, but Edward John Stazak was in one more movie before he left the movie business, 1991’s Black Neon.
- Down Under Van Damme: I have to imagine that the producers of the two Panther movies had high hopes for Edward John Stazak and probably hoped he could be Australia’s answer to Jean-Claude Van Damme. EJS probably hoped that would happen too… but after seeing multiple love making scenes between Jason Blade and Gemma in both films, I was lulled into a false sense of security. Yes, he wanted to be the martial arts hero like JCVD, but he was a more modest man and was not going to be the show off like JCVD. Then from outta nowhere he has a full ass shower scene!
- Montage Alert: There are two solo Jason Blade training montages, in addition to the Task Force training montage and a romantic montage between Jason and Gemma too.
- One Question: One of the more memorable scenes from the original film, was Gemma and her awkward dance of seduction (it is included in the recap at the start of the movie). So going in I couldn’t help but wonder if Gemma would bust a move once again… the answer is a resounding yes!
