If Violence Is Your Addiction…
He’ll Kick You Like A Bad Habit.
Starring: Lorenzo Lamas, Anthony Geary, Kathleen Kinmont, Daniel Kamekona, Bill Erwin, Ken Foree, Felicity Waterman, Arlene Dahl
Director: Rafal Zielinski
1991 | 100 Minutes | Rated R
“I’ve given you enough blood, so take your dirty money and get out of my club.” – Miles Keane
I’m trying to give Lorenzo Lamas a fair shake. I found Night of the Warrior on demand and it’s go time. I always say the time to watch a movie like this is when you find it because you just never know when you will encounter it again. I generally don’t seek a lot of these movies out, I let fate do the work for me.
Miles Keane (Lorenzo Lamas) is an underground kickboxing expert who is hoodwinked by his promoter when he tries to retire. His girlfriend is kidnapped and he’s framed for a murder he didn’t commit. Now, the only thing that could save her and clear his name is a fight against a Korean kickboxing champion.
The first fight we get happens to be Miles’ final underground fight which means he has finally paid off his debt to whomever he owes. It’s a down & dirty affair, rolling around in the mud mixing kickboxing with ground fighting.
From this point forward Miles just rides around on his motorcycle, takes pictures of hobos and a random waitress, yells at junkie dancers and tends to his freaky dance club. Can you simply call it a dance club if it is only a room full of men watching women strip to their bras and underwear? Can you call it a strip club if the strippers never get naked? Hmmm, something to think about…
This version of Lamas is equally as not badass as the Lamas in SnakeEater. He, of course, still rides a motorcycle… a seeming prerequisite for Lamas movies. The SnakeEater Lamas was more likely to kill his opponents but this one fights a little dirtier when he decides he wants to fight. I will say this Lamas has a more genuine personality than the SnakeEater one but he is more interested in taking pictures of bums than of kicking ass. Herein lies the problem with Night of the Warrior. The utter lack of action.
I will say that when he does decide to fight the fights are damn entertaining. It’s just too bad there isn’t more of it.
For a movie with a guy throwing a wicked looking sidekick on its cover, Night of the Warrior is really lacking in fights. There are really only two decent fights and that just ain’t enough. I’m not counting small bar fights or drunken cripple sparring sessions, I’m just not. To be accurate the cover should have been Lorenzo Lamas with his camera. If a movie with Lorenzo Lamas taking pictures of bums on its cover sounds entertaining then, boy have I got a treat for you. But, if you are like me, this isn’t quite what you had hoped for.
Action Movie Fanatix 