Tiger Claws (1991)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Disappointing. This movie is sub-par for a B-movie action flick. I was excited to see Tiger Claws since I love Bolo and Rothrock, but man this movie just flat out sucked my enthusiasm for the genre right out of me. It was so bad that I may never watch another Jalal Mehri film ever again. This is the second Mehri movie that I watched and both were pretty sad. The first was TC 2000 which was saved by Billy Blanks, Bolo and the unbelievably beautiful Bobbie Philips.In Tiger Claws the acting is weak across the board. When Cynthia Rothrock is the best thespian in the cast you know you are in for a rough ride. Mehri of course is deadpan with no personality or charisma. Bolo is great as the villain but really just lurks around until the fight scene finale.As far as the plot goes, it is similar to Blood Moon where some greatly skilled martial artist is killing all the big time celebrity and champion martial artists around town. Mid-way through the movie you learn that it is Bolo. Rothrock and Mehri are the detectives who find out that the killer practices Tiger Claw Kung Fu and track down his dojo.All is well and good but you know what blows about the story line? You never find out why Bolo is killing everyone. They never give a motive. Where's the pay-off? Even on Scooby Doo you find out the antagonist's motives. At least with Blood Moon you find out that the killer was DQ'ed from an MMA tournament and wanted to kill all the participants (though you never find out why he has two prosthetic fingers).Finally, the opening scene will throw you. Rothrock working vice dressed as prostitute with a black wig and sunglasses also sporting huge implants. During the scene I was wondering who the hot chick was, she looked fine. Then she walked down an alley where the rapist followed and she opened up her karate on him. After the fight was over she took off her glasses and wig and what do you know it was Cynthia Rothrock. I had no idea, this is the first movie that I had seen of hers where she is augmented. Nice.As far as the overall movie though, it does stink. I love the No Retreat No Surrenders and the Hong Kong stuff that Rothrock has done but this Jalal Mehri took a decent premise and some good character actors and basically crapped the bed. Even the fight scenes are weak. Watch this movie only if you're a die hard Bolo or Rothrock fan. The middle 30 minutes slow and boring, so much that I found myself checking email and playing Dragon City on my Nexus... not a good sign.

Cynthia Rothrock and Jalal Merhi are New York city undercover cops. There are mysterious killing of martial artist in the city. Jalal correctly identifies the style as Tiger Claws who only three martial artists in the country are capable of using. Rothrock, and Jalal gets on the trail of the culprit who turns out to be none other than bad guy played by Bolo Yuen.This is one of the best American made Cynthia Rothrock movie. It was good move on the producer's part to hire Bolo Yuen as the bad guy. He brought menacing personality that's usually lacking in movies of this type.Cynthia Rothrock is not known for her range of acting, and it's hard to make an interesting story around her character. In this movie Jalal and Bolo creates enough contrast to be of passable quality.Out of all the American made Cynthia Rothrock movies, this one is my favorite. It doesn't have much in the way of contents, but the action is pretty good. Choice of locations shot were better than usual, but I wished the producers put in more class into the movie as it were in Rothrock's Hong Kong made movies.

This movie, starring Cynthia Rothrock, Jalal Merhi, and especially Bolo Yeung, showcases everything that's wrong with martial arts movies.I still don't know why, but since it's inception, this genre is plagued by production values, acting and direction, which put it only one peg above porn, if that.Jalal Merhi especially talks like Serge the art dealer from Beverly Hills Cop. Cynthia Rothrock's abilities are accomplished, but her acting is limited. Bolo Yeung still doesn't seem to have mastered English, although I always enjoy his performances.

Bolo Yeung plays a 'death dealer' - a man who can kill with his bare hands or Tiger Claw Style. In the film Bolo kills off New York's best martial arts instructors and use their belts, trophies, swords as an offering to the gods to prove to himself he is the best there is.Throughout the film we see hints of Bolo killing off the martial artists, whilst Cynitha Rothrock and Jahal Merhi (both who play New York Cops) try and track him down very, very slowly. The film, in fact, moves so slowly its hard not to fall asleep. The plot although a strong one, fails to get off the ground - we never actually see Bolo killing off the martial artists giving the impression that the fighting was going to build up into an all out action-packed ending - but it never did - instead we get a mixed film that couldn't decide whether it was a Martial Arts film or an Action film - in the end it turns out to be a lame cop film with a bit of martial arts - most of which comes from Bolo.Jahal, who is on supension seems to forget that he's wearing tight jeans and seems to be able to high kick on demand whilst Cynitha hardly does anything but sit in a car or fight badly.The fighting sequences themselves are extremely poor - however the training sequences were very good.Jahal, who infiltrates the Tiger Claw training camp trains with other Tiger Claw students, and finally meets Bolo in a strip joint. There his cover is blown and he, and Cynitha chase Bolo to a conveniently placed Harbour - where they play hide and seek with Bolo.When the final fight sequences appear, Bolo seems to forget he's a psychotic killer and just stands around and waits to be kicked by Jahal - when Bolo does strike he signals to Jahal to get up instead of finishing him.I felt this film with its strong plot could have been and should have been so much better. The fight chero-gerophy should have complemented Bolo's extenstive martial arts skills and we should have at understood why Jahal (who only trained for ten minutes) could have defeated a psycho-killer in three.Out of ten, I'd give this three for effort.