Blood Warriors (1993)

That was an excellent one.

A Masterpiece!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

David Bradley stars as an ex military tough guy who finds out his old war buddy is up to no good and falls for his buddy's sister, as friction between two war buddies starts over Bradley not wanting to join Zagarino's army of mercenaries, the film like a lot of these grade Z duds fails to develop any dramatic momentum and the lack of any action make this truly one of the most boring movies ever made. David Bradley wasn't as awful as his American Ninja 3 debut would indicate, but despite being a passable presence in other movies (Cyborg Cop, Lower Level, Hard Justice and Total Reality) Blood Warriors features Bradley in comatose mode as he sleepwalks through his part as he rescues the damsel in distress and fights Zagarino. Frank Zagarino fares slightly better as he at least has a marginally interesting look, but the movie gives him no real character and the film in general offers no support for our two action leads. The movie is also poorly made and dreary to look at. The first 15 minutes you find yourself looking for something-anything, to hold your interest and then you merely start thinking about something else to take your mind off it. 90s B.movies by and large are not as fun as their 80s counterparts and movies like this are a prime example as to why. There isn't even much to laugh at, except for when Bradley busts out a guitar and sings. It's all around a pretty dire film, and surprisingly so, considering that it came from the director of such cheeseball classics as American Ninja 1-2, Avenging Force and Revenge Of The Ninja.1/2* Out of 4-(Awful)

The action genre in the 1980s/1990s introduced a number of real life martial artists turned actors, and most of them, let's face it, weren't good at acting. David Bradley was one of the worst, and "Blood Warriors" is one example of why he was uncharismatic and lacking adequate thespian skills. As it turns out, with this movie he carries more of the blame for the movie's failure, since he is also credited with co-writing the script. This may explain why he gets a sex scene with an attractive blonde as well as one scene where he picks up a guitar and sings (!) Strangely, Bradley and his co-writer wrote a story where he gets almost no opportunity to show off his martial arts skills until the end of the movie. And there are a lot of long and dull stretches where there is no action at all - for example, the first real action scene does not occur until more than twenty-five minutes has passed since the start of the movie. But as it turns out, none of the action is worth the wait. I found it hard to believe that the director was Sam Firstenberg, who had earlier directed solid action movies like the first two "American Ninja" movies as well as "Avenging Force". Firstenberg may have been hampered by the very low budget, though there are also signs that the production had a few problems (the abrupt ending is one of the big indicators of this.) The only things that prevent the movie from total decay are the nice Indonesian locations as well as a few unintended laughs.

Blood Warriors is the last David Bradley film I acquired and watched and what can I say, another huge disappointment. What a real pity because both the film cover and its trailer which can be found on Youtube make it look like some fast and furious martial arts-action movie. Boy what a huge disappointment. This dude entered a sort of double phase in his B-movie career which began in the late 80s and came to an end in 2001 with his final movie, the atrocious "Expect to Die". Half this phase is a considerable extension of pretty enjoyable martial arts action movies (as far as B-films and martial arts fans go) which included "American Samurai" the third, fourth and fifth installments of "American Ninja", two hilarious action Z-movie sequels called "Cyborg Cop" and the pretty good "Hard Justice" (great combination of action, fighting sequences and decent B-actors). However the other phase is probably, in my mind, comprised of quite possible the 3 or 4 worst movies I have EVER had to sit through on video. Even worse than a Spanish 3.30 Saturday movie (if you live in Spain, you'll know what I'm talking about). I seriously don't know how "Crisis", "Expect to Die" and "Total Reality" can be labelled as movies; I'm pretty sure David needed the money and the director needed a good laugh. My last only hope was "Blood Warriors" which I hadn't seen. Purchased it on eBay, watched it and nearly died of boredom before the final credits rolled. What a waste of another movie that could've made for a decent action and fighting flick. Frankly, this guy's best assett was his physical fighting due to several years training in Karate, Kung Fu and swordsmanship. But I repeat once again, if you have to sit thru 90 minutes of B-movie crap with no fights and a stupid, boring story, you may as well just turn the video off. Bradley plays another ex-soldier whose brother has gone all nuts, building a military base on some small island which is just a cover for performing nasty deeds. Bradly has to go, try and convince him to quit that lifestyle and then rescue his girlfriend before things start to heat up. What follows is the hilarious action sequences commented on previous reviews such as Bradley's 100 ft-jump, riding on a motorcycle without a single bullet hitting him, and performing weird flying kicks (what the heck happened to the guy's Karate knowledgement??). As a real fan of David Bradley (I really liked the guy in his first movies) I just think it is such a pity for the fella to have ended his career like that... real shame. One thing I'd really love to know is what heart condition did he exactly suffer from, and what he's doing nowadays. As for this particular movie, don't even bother with it, I mean if as a true Bradley fan (and that's saying a lot!).

This is one hell of a b-movie.... its one of those that are so bad it makes your laugh hurt.... i was in tears at the 40ft jump and roll. David Bradley is a legend... i have now ordered more of his movies in the vain attempt to laugh a bit more. The evil guy, Keith is amazing, he is so evil, he wants to screw his sister, and make a load of money with drugs in jakarta.... what i don't understand is that he goes to a lot of bother to annoy his old best mate when he was doing fine without him, he had plenty of money, but wanted West to join him. Its one of those really tough hard to bear movies, poor acting, poor dialogue, great entertainment. i rate this movie an awful lot... its a definite no brainer... but boy is the action funny, every henchman dying is funnier than the next!