Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor (1994)

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

When his old enemy Tong Po kidnaps his wife, David Sloan has to travel to his stronghold in Mexico to take part in a violent kickboxing competition.After the departure into more straight-ahead action-thriller territory with the third instalment in this series, Kickboxer 4 returns the story to the main threads of the first two parts. This includes bringing back the character of Tong Po. Although, they didn't manage to get the actor who played him and instead use a different guy and simply apply bizarre facial make-up to make him look similar. He just looks weird. Anyway, this instalment is actually pretty entertaining. Sasha Mitchell once more has a certain charm in the lead role, while there is some pretty good fight choreography, particularly in the competition scenes. It's also pretty violent, it was even banned in the UK on original release (admittedly, it's nowhere near violent enough to justify that decision!). It also has some utterly gratuitous nudity thrown in for no reason whatsoever and you can't argue with that. All-in-all, this is another entertaining entry in a series that I have to admit to liking.

At the start of this installment of the Kickboxer franchise, we learn that the dastardly Tong Po (Krifa) has framed David Sloan (Mitchell) and sent him to prison for a crime he didn't commit. As if that wasn't enough, Po kidnapped Sloan's wife. The DEA then approaches Sloan with an opportunity to get Tong Po: enter his underground Martial Arts tournament under an assumed name and take him down from the inside. Sloan agrees, mainly so he can find and rescue his wife. So he goes to Mexico where the tournament is being held, and he ends up meeting a spunky female fighter, Megan (Krasnoo), but also has to contend with Tong Po's ruthless bodyguard, Bill (Matthews). Will Sloan finally defeat Tong Po and bring his wife to safety? Find out today! Kickboxer 4 shows us a more serious, more adult David Sloan. Gone are the carefree chuckles and bright, multi-colored Zoobas. Now he wears toned-down plaid shirts and never cracks a smile. Albert Pyun, as he always does, creates a black hole of happiness where no fun can escape. But that being said, this is one of the strongest Pyun movies we've seen to date. It has a nice pace and maintains the viewers' interest with a variety of different methods.The movie opens with some clips from the previous three Kickboxer installments. There are even a few spoilers, so watch out. But now, Tong Po has gone through a hilariously absurd evolution: in the first movie he was simply a Thai kickboxer, but now he's "the most powerful drug lord in Mexico". How you make a job transition like that, we can't figure out (nor do we want to). And let's not forget that this movie came out in 1994, at the height of Mortal Kombat-mania. The tournament set up by Tong Po bears many similarities to the classic game, and in case any of these were lost on you, Po even says at one point, "finish him". But perhaps the most stunning aspect to Tong Po's reinvention is that he's now...wait for it...a record producer! Imagine him in the control room with your band! We wish this angle was expounded upon more, and not just mentioned in a throwaway line.As far as the DEA giving David Sloan a secret identity, the name they chose for him, "Jack Jones", isn't going to win them any prizes for originality. Unless they're trying to confuse Tong Po, making him think the British pop singer from the 60's is now a Punchfighter. Sloan spends a lot of the running time of the movie sneaking around the compound looking for his wife. He even dresses up as a ninja to do so. But if he really wanted to blend in, he'd wear a wildly-colored button-down shirt. Whoever chose the shirts for the goons in the movie is to be applauded. They're one retina-singing eyesore after the next, and they look like if Jackson Pollock designed a line of Cosby sweaters. But Tong Po's "shirt patrol" literally are one of the most colorful aspects of this movie. Like how tennis matches have ballboys, Po's death fights have colorful blobs drag the beaten, bruised and dead bodies off the court.Interestingly, one of the fighters has a Dacascos shirt, and he was to take up the mantle from Sasha Mitchell in the next and (to date) final installment, Kickboxer 5 (1995). Could that have been foreshadowing? But as for the movie as a whole, clearly Pyun learned something about fighting movies after the horrendously awful Bloodmatch. Sure, a lot of the fight scenes could have used some music, and Pyun does seem to have some sort of allegiance to Thom Matthews, but on the whole, Kickboxer 4 is a crowd-pleaser. Seemingly against all odds, Pyun pulled off a decent movie this time. We've got to give credit where credit is due.So if you're ready to see Cody, er...I mean David Sloan back in action one more time, you just might find that Kickboxer 4 is a pleasant surprise.

I guess there could be a spoiler here as if you could spoil this movie anymore. Pathetic and thats just the movie. I like the series but come on pay some more bread and get the last villain back in. I mean his head was REALLY bad can you say rubber shower cap with hair? Hit him in the head and the whole back of the latex wiggled wth were they thinking? Who did the makeup? I don't want to know. Guess they didn't have much CGI or CAG back in 94.I didn't mind the fight scenes, some of the fighters being the BEST of the BEST were slower then snail snot. The women fighters were not all that believable. I cant see them taking out a few of those guys but its a movie after all. Its really hard to come up with positive stuff for 10 lines for this movie. They didn't bring back the trainer except for one or two past movie shots where they showed what went on before.

Personally I though this movie was rather cheesy by the fact that it was Jean Claude Van Dammewho played Tong Po in some rather very bad make-up effects. This movies only saving grace is it was graced with the adorable Michele "The Mouse" Krasnoo. Michele "The Mouse" Krasnoo entered her first tournament at age ten and received her black belt at the age of thirteen. Since then, she has become one of the most popular competitors in tournament history, her size (5 feet) and high pitched kiai inspiring the nickname "Mouse". She is recognized by the National Black Belt League as a world champion, Winner of well over 300 first place trophies in major competitions, Michele "Mouse" Krasnoo reigns as one of the top tournament competitors of all time, and is also a rising Martial Arts action film star.I give movie a thumbs up for Michele "The Mouse" Kasnoo. Thumbs down for the movie.