A Dangerous Place (1994)

You won't be disappointed!

That was an excellent one.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Ethan (Roberts) is a young-looking and precocious high school Freshman. His passion is Martial Arts training with a team called The Lions, led by Sensei (Mako). Just Sensei, no name given. His brother Greg (Cochran) is also into Martial Arts, but is involved with a gang of ne'er-do-wells called The Scorpions, the leader of which is the smug jerk Taylor Dylan (Feldman). During a Scorpions-led home invasion, Greg ends up dead. The Scorpions make it look like a suicide. But Ethan knows better, and he goes undercover and joins The Scorpions to get the truth about his brother. There, he discovers what's really going on at the dojo - and what evil Sensei Gavin Smith (Teague) is up to. With Principal (Van Patten) - just Principal - clearly a lot of time was given to character names here - sympathetic to him, but with pressure mounting from his parents, his Sensei, the cops, and potential love interest Kim (Vessey), Ethan's going to discover that his L.A.-area neighborhood is indeed A DANGEROUS PLACE.A Dangerous Place is yet another PM triumph, an amazingly fast-paced and entertaining film for high schoolers and older viewers alike. To state the obvious, yes, it's clearly modeled on The Karate Kid, but we really enjoy the mid-90's PM vibe of this. Ted Jan Roberts is likable and charismatic as Ethan. He could have had a major Hollywood career, he's certainly talented enough. Thanks to him, really, the movie works because you care about his plight. This was also the era of over-sized clothing, and some of his shirts are gigantic. He looks like a size Small, but seems to be wearing XXXL T-shirts. They're so big, you can see his whole collarbone. There are other inspired fashions in the movie as well - something to look out for.That being said, Corey Feldman was an inspired choice as the baddie (or at least one of them). He seems hilariously scrawny to be a Kung-Fu master, and his belt-and-pants combos are pretty amazing. He adopts a curious Christian Slater-like drawl when he's not wowing us with his Feldman-Fu. Keeping in mind this was the time when 90210 was huge, there are plenty of scenes at an L.A. school, his character's last name is Dylan, he's a 26-year-old high school student, and he has impressive sideburns. His smarmy performance totally works, and he always seems right on the edge of breaking into a Michael Jackson impersonation, and only by sheer force of will is he holding himself back.If only Dick Van Patten was the Principal for 90210. Van Patten has maybe two lines and seems confused. How - and WHY - they got him for this role is indeed pretty confusing. It's a total sit-down role. William James Jones as Eddie - who later was a member of Saved By The Bell spin off/knockoff California Dreams - does some great mugging for the camera with his outrageous facial expressions. But the man who steals the movie is Marshall Teague as the diabolical Sensei. (Sidebar: is it just me, or is there something really funny about the name "Sensei Gavin Smith"? Somehow it doesn't have that ancient Asian feel to it). One of the reasons I personally never took Karate classes is because I was afraid of being just one of a gaggle of teens forced to do the bidding of an amoral, maniacal Sensei. And who's laughing now? Seeing as this is a PM movie, it wouldn't be complete without some car stunts, especially a middle-of-the-street-flip-and-blow-up, and another one on a softball field that viewers of Night Of The Wilding (1990) may find curiously familiar. In all, we give a solid recommendation to this enjoyable movie. Good times.For more action insanity, drop by: www,comeuppancereviews.com

The first time I saw this film I was thirteen years old,though I never saw it complete and I never knew the title I could never forget about it. To many fans of these kind of films consider this one the karate kid of the nineties,in fact this film is another of the many clones that the karate kid saga has, but this one is darker than the Daniel larusso story.The story is about a kid who will try to find the guilty of his older brother's death, a path that he will have to go through alone, because the killers made it look as a suicide.Yesterday I had the chance of watch this film again, is really entertained, with good acting,good story but all about a very realistic and spectacular fight scenes which is the main reason why I haven't forgot about this film

And I still do. This movie is good. At least it is much better than 'Karate Kid'. Of course, somebody could say that it is a ripoff of 'Karate Kid' but there are some very important differences.First and probably the most important thing is that the teenager karate expert was a real teenager. You know, Ralph Macchio was 23 years old when he starred in 'Karate Kid'. It was pretty strange for me to see a man at his age at the role of 16 years old boy.Second, I will tell something about the fights. Although I liked the fights in 'Karate Kid' I could see that Macchio and the rest of the actors do not have real martial arts experience. The fights in 'A Dangerous Place' are much more realistic and much more attractive. Much better, I think.Now I will tell something about the characters and the acting. Well, the acting in 'A Dangerous Place' is not better than the acting in 'Karate Kid' but it is not worse too. But the characters are much better developed. I will try to explain. What was the main character in 'Karate Kid'? A teenager searching for troubles all the time who finally got black belt after two months of training, right? And what was the main character in 'A Dangerous Place'? A teenager who had devoted his life to martial arts and who did not search for troubles until somebody killed his brother. I think Ethan had much better motivation for what he did than Daniel. What do you think? What was the karate teacher of Daniel? A funny old man ho made his student wash his car, right? And what was the karate teacher of Ethan? A funny old man who showed his students real karate. What do you think? Who is more believable? The story... Guess what? I think the story in 'A Dangerous Place' is much better than the story in 'Karate Kid'. Yes, it is not very believable but the story in 'Karate Kid' is not too.And so on. I like this movie.

The premise of the film is simple enough: A young martial artist's older brother is murdered by a group of teenage martial artists from a rival school. This film may sound a little redundant, but believe me, it offers some fantastic fight scenes and envokes a real moral issue that might make some people question just how far should one go for revenge. Though this is tagged as an "R" rated film, I want to assure you that this film lacks the same level of violence and language that some PG-13 films sneak by with. The "R" rating is really for the tone of the film. It also has a few dark sub plots about the rival schools sensei being involved in criminal activity such as prostitution and grand theft. All in all this is a must see film for die hard martial art fanatics