American Streetfighter (1992) User Reviews

This is a B class movie.

[jgreenhood · 4/10 · 27 February 2006]

The story is OK and so is the acting but your first clue that it's not that great is the fact it's only a $1 and in a cardboard sleeve.

It really is just another Martial arts movie not much to be said. It's from the early 90's and it shows. Not the amount of violence we love to see in todays movies a decade later. Honestly it's not to bad and I'd probably watch it again. Gary Daniels is honestly not a bad actor and is a pretty decent fighter.

So when you judge this movie please realize it's not up to today's standards. It doesn't have big name actors and was probably a low budget film.

You Piece of Low-Life!

[Gladius77-1 · 3/10 · 7 December 2009]

The DVD box displayed such phrases as "There are some streets you don't double-cross" and "When war comes home, and home is the streets, you turn to... American STREETFIGHTER". Say that in the movie-trailer voice, and it will sound awesome. I was hoping that this would an overblown action movie, not good, but entertaining enough that I could laugh at how stupid it was. No luck.

The movie is... mediocre. The story is mediocre, the fight scenes are mediocre, the acting is mediocre. Okay, it picks up a little during a fight at the dojo, which is enjoyably stupid- featuring a motorcycle driving through a door that is quite obviously made of styrofoam, and the one guy in the movie with a gun choosing to pistol-whip people instead of, I dunno, shooting bullets at them. Still, the whole experience is mediocre- It's not bad enough to laugh at, and it's not good enough to enjoy. The whole thing is just boring. Two years later, Street Fighter, starring Van Damme and Raul Julia came out. At least that one you can laugh at.

And for a movie about street-fighting, there sure is a lot of time spent in the countryside...

Stay away from this total piece of (any negative word fits here)

[sveknu · 3/10 · 5 February 2006]

After the total disaster whose name was "Capital Punishment", every person with a tiny bit of sense in his/her mind should think that Gary Daniels would actually try to make a better movie this time. But no! This is nearly as bad. The only thing that's better here is the story. Although it was really bad, it still was progress from the total lack of plot in "Capital Punishment". Here, you could at least understand what was going on. Anyway, when a martial arts movie has a bad story (as they usually do), you focus on the fight scenes. There are lots and lots of them, but unfortunately they all just stink. It had been better if they had come up with ONE decent fight instead of about 15-20 extremely bad ones, but I guess the people behind this movie thought that quantity was the key.

Well....it wasn't!!

Forgettable

[Wizard-8 · 23 March 2011]

Gary Daniels has made a number of B-grade martial arts movies that I have enjoyed. Unfortunately, this early effort with him is not among his gems. I am sure he himself is embarrassed by this movie for a number of reasons. Here, he has a haircut (or rather, lack of a haircut) that is unintentionally funny, and he (as well as many of the other actors) have looped their dialogue in the recording studio with voices that often don't match with the mouth movements and body movements of what's on screen. Movie is hastily shot, with very little on screen that you would identify with "American". As for the fights, they are nothing exciting at all. You can safely skip this one.

The Fighter...

[fmarkland32 · 1/10 · 3 July 2010]

Gary Daniels stars in this atrocious martial arts flick as a martial artist who battles bad guys who set up death matches that lead to harvesting of organs and in which Daniels must protect his lunkheaded martial artist brother (Ian Jacklin of Kickboxer 3 fame) from competing in such a fight. People seem to hate Kickboxer 3 a lot, with tons of people saying it's the worst of such a series (I say 5 is worse and that it's about on par with 2.) Still while I always found that film to be sort of a guilty pleasure, Ian Jacklin who was the bad guy in that one was easily the weakest link, and in this film he is even worse as a good guy. Jacklin always comes off as a dumb jock and here you'll be rooting for him to buy it quickly. Gary Daniels meanwhile is in his salad bowl days and he clearly would go on to far better things. This is a very bad martial arts movie that has terrible fight sequences and even worse acting. It really is as abysmal as they come with nothing of any worth. Gary Daniels is a wooden actor but it wouldn't be fair for me to say that he is the reason this film is so horrid. Indeed Daniels was effective in Spoiler and he made some enjoyable trash with PM. American Streetfighter is definitely one of those films Gary Daniels wishes he could forget, and one that I would like to forget as well.

1/2* out of 4-(Awful)

"I like the sound of breaking bones!"-Jake Tanner

[tarbosh22000 · 6/10 · 22 September 2010]

Jake Tanner (Daniels) is just a guy with silly long hair who runs into tragedy when he and his friend Ito's (Roger Yuan) plan to blow up a jukebox (?????) goes horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Tanner is a high-powered businessman in Hong Kong and has gotten a haircut. He receives word from America that his estranged brother Randy (Jacklin) is now an underground boxfighter (like punchfighting but in a warehouse of boxes...there may also be some boxing involved). This upsets Tanner, who is also a Karate master. He comes home and tells Randy not to sign a fight contract with the evil Ogawa (Okamura). Randy disobeys, but Tanner agrees to fight in underground matches in Randy's place. He takes on the baddies while reconnecting with lost love Rose (Dali) and her ten year old son Billy. Of course his name is Billy. When Tanner is injured when Viper (Dennis Reese) fights dirty, he must recuperate and re-train. With the help of the plucky Billy, who he forges a sweet relationship with, he comes back stronger than ever for the final showdown with Ogawa.

The most important thing to mention about American Streetfighter is that Gary Daniels single-handedly carries the film. Without his charm and fighting skills, this movie would be nothing. I.e., it would be Expert Weapon. It's by the same director and also has Ian Jacklin. It even has the same scene: a motorcycle breaking through a wall and going around in circles. Director Austin must think that is the most awesome stunt ever. The baby-faced Jacklin has zero acting ability, but that makes it all the more fun to watch. Every word he says just sounds wrong somehow. Ian Jacklin makes Asher Brauner look like Andy Bauman. His silly fighting pants have more personality than he does. While this movie does share the cheap, shoddy, low-budget quality of Expert Weapon, thankfully this movie features Daniels, which saves it.

You may be wondering why, if the film stars Gary Daniels, it is called American Streetfighter. There is a good explanation for it, but you have to watch the movie. However, he gets a great quote with "I like the sound of breaking bones!" Billy, the squeaky-voiced ten year old is obsessed with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (which were very popular in 1992, don't forget). He even says to Jake Tanner, "You're no ninja turtle!" The fight announcer looks exactly like Ryan Seacrest. Maybe it is him. He has a lot of jobs.

Okamura is great, but incoherent, as the main bad guy. His bellowing "Noooooo!" is one of the best we've heard.

Sure there is flat acting, dingy film quality, and the punches don't always connect, but the presence of Daniels rises above it all. With just a LITTLE more professionalism, American Streetfighter could have been better, even rising to more prominence in people's minds. As it stands today, it is a film for Daniels fans and has very little else to recommend it.

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Excellent Karate Movie!

[magilvilla · 14 November 1999]

This movie has all the martial arts action Gary Daniels fans expect from the master. But, it also has a good story. It moves at a fast pace and there is a fight about every 5 to 10 minutes. The training scenes are awesome! A must see for Gary Daniels fans. Just don't waste your time on the so called sequel.

Horrible story

[dasa108 · 7/10 · 24 July 2005]

OK. If you like martial arts movies, this is the kind of movies when you only want to see kicks and punches. But sometimes, the story is important. And then, this movie fails. And fails a lot. If you are a rich men living in Hong Kong, with a hard past, and a family living in USsa. All months they receive a check from you. You are manteining them. And your brother is a kind of monkey without intelligence... only fighting with his traumas. You, looking for help, leaves your work and start fight with wild mans, and even you become hurt... Of course, this is only a part of the story. But has problems of continuity, has problems with a lot of points. The fights are fine. Gary Daniels is a bad actor, but better than Van Damme. I hope to see better films from him.

Not a bad film

[kryzstov · 29 March 1999]

Not a bad film considering the budget that they probably had to work with. It appears that all departments had minimal experience given the various mistakes throughout the film. I especially noticed the poor sense of lighting and camerawork displayed in the film. Another very good example of a new director that should have chosen an experienced Cameraman.