Bullet Points: Martial Outlaw

Sibling rivalries are nothing new…

The Bible tells the story of Cain and Abel. There was the undeniable tension between Jan and Marcia on The Brady Bunch. In the NFL, there was the sibling rivalry between coaches John and Jim Harbaugh. In the WWE, there was a classic feud in the 90’s between Bret Hart and his younger brother Owen. And what about Liam and Noel Gallagher from Oasis.

You may be asking yourself why I am talking about sibling rivalries, well that’s because it is a major plot point in the movie I will be reviewing today, Martial Outlaw.

• The Premise: Martial Outlaw tells the story of the brothers White, DEA Agent Kevin White (Jeff Wincott) and Jack White (Gary Hudson) who is a sergeant with the LAPD. We quickly realize despite both being in law enforcement that Kevin is the golden boy of the family, while Jack is more of the black sheep. And if you didn’t gather that in the early goings of the movie, you could have probably figured it out by checking out the Martial Outlaw poster.  I thought the whole good brother/bad brother concept was an interesting twist and allows Martial Outlaw to stand out from your typical action movies.
• The Job: Kevin White goes undercover to take down drug kingpin Nikolai Rachenko. The same Rachenko that his brother Jack takes money from to keep the police off his back. This obviously further muddies the waters between Jack and Kevin. And as you watch you’ll find yourself wondering how far Jack will go? Jack is definitely under some serious stress, he has gone down the dark path and seems capable of anything especially with such big money involved. He even accuses his own wife Lori of having intimate feelings for Kevin. I sure hope Jeff Wincott and his actual brother, Michael Wincott, don’t have these types of problems.

• The Action: I have yet to be disappointed in the action and physicality in any Jeff Wincott movie. I may have said this before, but it bears repeating, Wincott is one of the most underrated action stars of all-time. He looks the part and the man has skills. When Wincott needs to open up a can of whoop ass, not only does he, but he does so at a very high level. There are numerous fight scenes through out the movie that allow Wincott to display his martial arts skills and the law enforcement aspect also means we get some shoot’em up action too.

• The Supporting Cast: I would like to point out the work of Gary Hudson in this movie. You may remember Hudson from his role in the Patrick Swayze classic, Road House. Hudson is great here as the brother who was desperately trying to get out of the shadow of his more successful brother. Hudson’s character may be the most important in the film, he’s a real catalyst… Richard Jaeckel plays the father of the battling brothers. You may remember Jaeckel from his work in The Dirty Dozen, Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection, The King of the Kickboxers or in his recurring role on Baywatch as Lt. Ben Edwards. Martial Outlaw was actually Jaeckel’s last film prior to his death in 1997.

While all of Wincott’s films do have some similarities (Wincott has been a cop in all 4 movies I have reviewed) they also have a little something that helps differentiate them from the rest.

I have reviewed four Jeff Wincott movies for the site and I have genuinely enjoyed all four of those movies and would recommend every one of them. If this keeps up I may have to start referring to this phenomenon as The Wincott Streak.

Finally before I conclude this edition of Bullet Points, here are a few bonus Martial Outlaw Bullet Points…

• Target Practice: While watching Martial Outlaw you will have the opportunity to marvel at Wincott’s awesome 90’s sweater as he gets some target practice in.
• Give The Man Some Credit: Bulletproof Action favorite Al Leong has an uncredited role in the film.
• Another Familiar Face: Like Al Leong, Stefanos Miltsakakis is another guy who has made a living at being a bad guy in action movies. He’ll always be the guy who had a pen shoved in his ear in the dreadful Bloodsport 4. An interesting Stefanos Miltsakakis fact… he has played a character named Stavros in three different movies. First in Best of the Best II with Eric Roberts and Phillip Rhee, then in Derailed with Jean-Claude Van Damme and once more in Daredevil with Ben Affleck.