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Released by: New Concorde
Released on: May 30, 2000.
Director: Oley Sassone
Cast: Don 'The Dragon' Wilson, Richard Roundtree, Gregory McKinney, Rick Dean, Richard Paul
Year: 1992
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The Movie:
Directed by Oley Sassone, who would go on to direct the doomed Fantastic Four movie for producer Roger Corman a couple of years later, Bloodfist III: Forced To Fight begins with a dramatic scene inside a prison where an inmate named Jimmy Boland (Don 'The Dragon' Wilson) walks in on some dudes raping a young inmate. Not one to let a good rape go unpunished, Jimmy kickboxes the shit out of the rapist in chief who dies in the altercation.
This lands Jimmy in some hot water. Not only is the warden pissed off but so is the dead rapist's pal, an angry black power lovin' dude named Blue (Gregory McKinney) who used to get free drugs from the dead guy. We know Blue loves black power because he's got not one but two posters of the African continent on his wall alongside a Public Enemy poster, a picture of Jesse Jackson and a Malcolm X poster - oh and another poster that says WE WANT BLACK POWER. At any rate, Blue is pissed off at Jimmy and wants revenge. Jimmy, on the other hand, has been thrown into the predominantly black cell block at the warden's behest, figuring it won't be long before someone takes him out. As Jimmy acclimates to his new surroundings he is slowly but surely befriended by his new cell mate, Stark (Richard Roundtree) and a well intentioned child molester known only as Diddler (John Cardone).
Meanwhile, the white power guys in jail like what Jimmy did and are willing to look past the fact that he's 'some kind of half breed' but Jimmy is having none of that, he is his own man. Stark respects this and lets him help out in the prison garden where he and his pals, Tony D. (Tony DiBenedetto) and a really fat black dude hang out and eat pasta and drink wine. It's a pretty sweet setup and it sure beats hanging out with the white power douche bags who have awesome names like Weird Willy, Wheelhead (Rick Dean) and whatnot. As the warden, hoping to get into state politics, gives a guided tour of the prison to the media to show what a great job he's done, it all starts to unravel as the white power dudes and big bad Blue have basically teamed up to take out Jimmy and his pals - leaving Jimmy, are you ready for it? - FORCED TO FIGHT!
If someone asked you what a pretty awesome way to spend an hour and a half would be, if you were smart you might not immediately say “watching Don 'The Dragon Wilson' team up with Shaft and a child molester to take out black power dudes and white power dudes in a prison.†After watching Bloodfirst III, however, maybe you would. You know why? Because it's awesome. Richard Roundtree is pretty cool here as the sage former lawyer who does what he can to help keep the peace. He tells Don 'The Dragon' Wilson that knowledge is power, at which point Don 'The Dragon' Wilson clenches his fist and shakes it and says 'THIS IS MY POWER!' and you know it's on. Rick Dean is pretty good as the greasy haired white supremacist (keep an eye on the scene where we see him surrounded by nudie pin ups in his cell and see if you can spot anyone you know!) and the late Gregory McKinney (he passed away in 1998 at only forty-one years old but not before he starred in Mortal Kombat and Beverly Hills Cop III among others!) is also solid here.
We get some pretty cool fights - more than once Don 'The Dragon' Wilson grabs a big rake and starts swinging but mostly he kicks people in the face a lot, as is his way. He doesn't emote much but he furrows his brow often enough that you'll have no trouble knowing when he's about to choke a bitch. The movie doesn't have a damn thing to do with the two Bloodfist movies that came before it but that doesn't make it any less entertaining. It might be predictable and fairly goofy at times but you generally know what you're getting into with a Don 'The Dragon' Wilson movie (or at least you should, if you're a regular reader of this site) so that's to be expected. Overall though, this one loads up the action, throws in a fun tribute to TNT Jackson (just to include some requisite female nudity - there is no Don 'The Dragon' Wilson love scene here, which is rare in his filmography) and features a pretty cool cast busting heads. Entertainment value is put front and center and on that level Bloodfist III delivers.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The video presentation on this DVD is fullscreen, which is fine because it looks like the film was composed that way as there doesn't appear to be any picture information missing on the sides. Picture quality is decent overall; it's clear and colors are represented well with minimal spotting and grain on the print. It's not amazingly sharp or mind blowing in its depiction of fine detail but for an older DVD release of a low budget movie, it's alright.
The Dolby Digital stereo was fine, dialogue was easy to understand, and overall it was adequate. Not remarkable, but adequate in that the levels are properly balanced and there are no problems with hiss or distortion even if it's occasionally a bit flat.
New Concorde has supplied trailers for a few other properties, interactive menus, and scene selection.
The Final Word:
Quite possibly the best of the eight entries in the Bloodfist franchise to star Don 'The Dragon' Wilson, Bloodfist III: Forced To Fight gets a serviceable if fairly unremarkable DVD release from New Concorde.
