The King of the Kickboxers (1991)

"this is fo my brotha"

This is one of those "so bad they are good" movies. Not quite as good as the classic "No Retreat No Surrender" (although the style of the movie is very similar), its still good enough to be enjoyed.

Loren Avedon I must say is very unique in all his martial arts films. I can never decide if I really enjoy his presence or despise it. His acting is rather lousy, but to the point its almost fun. He tries to be funny, and it sometimes ends up being so just for trying. As for fighitng, he actually is very athletic in his earlier films, and this is no exception. Loren Avedon plays a cop named Jake, who is assigned to Thailand to investigate the murders involved with film making. When he is put off the case, he insists on going when he learns the man who may be resposible for the deaths is the same guy who killed his older brother many years ago after a tournament in Thailand. The killer is named Khan, played by Billy Blanks.

As bad as Billy can be in some of his films, I'd say he does a better job as a villain. He's actually pretty scary in this film, and looks bigger than ever. In hopes to defeat him, Jake trains with a famous warrior, the only one who has come close to beating Khan. The training scenes are fun and entertaining. It seems that at least every martial arts film comes up with some original training ideas, and King of the Kickboxers follows the tradition well.

I was pleased to see there was plenty of fighting in the film. I am not sure who the choreographer is, but it seems to be set in the style of Corey Yuen. The fights remind me a lot of those in Bloodmoon, Superfights, and No Retreat No Surrender series. The final fight with Loren Avedon & Billy Blanks is somehwat original, set in an outdoor dome used as a movie set. The fight is fast and furious and fun to watch, lasting a good several minutes.

While there are a lot of positive things about this film, its all set in a setting of extreme cheesiness. If you like the idea of so bad its good, then you can enjoy this. Average film overall that pleases up to a point.
August 8, 2007

I love this movie

First I'll say that I've seen this movie at least 40 times. Me and my friends used to make a point to watch it at least once a week, to get a few laughs. It is possibly the worst martial arts film I've ever seen, but while it lacks still, it makes up for it with the worst dialouge ever caught on film. Not to mention I have a little history with Mr. Loren Avedon. Me and my friends e-mailed him on his personal brag site just to let him know that his crappy movie cheers me up whenever I'm in a bad mood and makes me laugh so hard that I usually have to leave the room. He was naturally really offened by all the insults we threw at him, and he responded by telling us that he was going to come to our place and beat the crap out of us. So we sent him another message giving him our full names and our real address, in hopes that he would actually come so we could laugh at him in person. We went back and forth with the insult e-mails at least 4 or 5 times. Needless to say he never showed and I was crushed. Anyway, buy this movie and you'll see what I mean, and if you feel so inclined to write Loren Avedon and tell him how much he sucks tell him the guys from Plattsburgh State University sent you. Maybe he'll remember October 6, 2006

Great movie..!!!!

Esta es una de las películas que los amantes del KickBoxer y Full-Contact no se la deben perder, Loren Avedon es un excelente luchador lo mismo que el mundialmente conocido Billy Blanks, la última pelea es genial como la misma película. Lástima que no haya salido todavía en DVD, estoy esperando el lanzamiento. November 25, 2003

But It

This is one of the best martial art movies out there! March 31, 2003

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