Blackbelt

Released by: New Concorde
Released on: November 12, 2002.
Director: Charles Philip Moore, Rick Jacobson
Cast: Don 'The Dragon' Wilson, Deirdre Imershein, Matthias Hues, Richard Beymer
Year: 1992
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The Movie:

Don 'The Dragon' Wilson was busy in 1992. Blackbelt, directed by Charles Philip Moore and Rick Jacobson, was one of four pictures that he made for Roger Corman's New Concorde, a straight to video quicky that stands out amongst the countless Bloodfist films simply because, well, it's a very weird movie. Much weirder than most Don 'The Dragon' Wilson films.

When the movie begins we meet a sexy songstress named Shanna (Deirdre Imershein), a sort of Sheila E. type character whose star is starting to rise thanks to the efforts of her sleazy boyfriend/manager, Bobby (Jack Forcinito), and his mobster boss, Eddie (Richard Beymer). What's not cool about her new found fame is some of the attention it's bringing her, particularly when it comes from a giant psychopath named John Sweet (Matthias Hues), who woos her by giving her a box of roses with a severed finger inside.

Shanna figures she needs a bodyguard, so at the behest of the cop handling her case, she looks up his old partner, Jack Dillon (Don 'The Dragon' Wilson), who gave up working for the fuzz to teach martial arts to little kids. Though he's not initially interested in the case, Shanna eventually changes his mind and before you know it, he's guarding her from Sweet, who seems to be getting ever closer to her. This would all be well and good except that Eddie wants to collect on the investment he's made in Shanna over the years, while she has decided, much to Bobby's dismay, that she wants nothing to do with the mobster anymore. As Jack and Shanna start to fall for one another, Eddie moves in… and so does crazy John Sweet.

So basically what we have here is a movie about Don 'The Dragon' Wilson protecting a hot rock star who, of course, he bangs in one of his patented Don 'The Dragon' Wilson love scenes, from the giant evil alien from I Come In Peace. Why does the giant evil alien from I Come In Peace want to kill hottie Shanna? Because his mother was a singer who had a strange incestuous relationship with him and wanted to marry him. OK… at any rate, it has all the requisite items you want in a Don 'The Dragon' Wilson movie: cameos from other kickboxing stars, a hero with a perpetually cocked eyebrow (seriously, take a drink every time Don 'The Dragon' Wilson faces the camera with his eyebrow up, you'll be on the floor in now time), Don 'The Dragon' Wilson taking off his shirt for no reason, a subplot involving cops, lots of people getting kicked in the face, and Don 'The Dragon' Wilson nailing the hot female lead - but the incestuous psychopath angle does seem to be exclusive to this one picture in his filmography.

The acting isn't very good, but you probably figured that out on your own. Don 'The Dragon' Wilson plays the same guy he plays in pretty much every one of his movies. He doesn't have a whole lot of range but he's awesome at kicking people in the face and making sweet Don 'The Dragon' Wilson to lovely ladies. Imershein, as the lovely lady, is goofy if likeable and more than a little slutty. She popped up on a few TV shows in the nineties but also appeared in the awesome Scanner Cop and the equally awesome Skyscraper where she acted opposite action superstar Anna Nicole Smith. Hues isn't very good at emoting here but he's not very good at emoting in any of his movies and when it comes time for him to fight Don 'The Dragon' Wilson, well, all bets are fucking off. The whole movie more or less leads up to this explosive climax, where these two titans of the DTV action movie scene of the nineties go head to head - it's a good fight, honestly. Most of the action that comes before it is in fairly sporadic bursts and this is really the only one on one scrap in the whole picture but they make most of it and it ends the film in a reasonably satisfying note.

Video/Audio/Extras:

The film is presented in its original fullframe aspect ratio and isn't quite as pristine as you might want (it looks like it was taken from an old video master). With that said, like most of the other New Concorde transfers of the time it is perfectly watchable, even if some of the dark scenes are a little too dark and even if detail isn't on par with newer transfers. Colors are a little washed out, but there aren't any serious print damage issues. The picture quality here is nothing to get excited about, but it'll do.

Audio chores are handled by a Dolby Digital 2.0 and the quality here matches the video - unexciting but passable. You won't have any trouble understanding the dialogue and the levels are properly balanced. Things definitely lean towards the flat side, however.

Extras are slim, limited to trailers for the features, trailers for a few other New Concorde releases, cast biographies, static menus and chapter selection. One thing worth noting is that apparently this domestic DVD is cut - it would have been nice to get an uncut version of the movie, given that there's no way what was chopped could possibly be anything seasoned action movie fans haven't seen before in terms of carnage, or to see the deleted clips included as an extra, but no dice.

The Final Word:

Blackbelt is an hour and a half of goofy awesomeness, Don 'The Dragon' Wilson style. The DVD presentation is nothing to write home about but the movie itself is a bizarre mix of martial arts movie clichés, slasher movie genre confines and random oddities but it is nothing if not entertaining.