BlazeLime
Strong and Moving!
Billie Morin
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
Jakoba
True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.
Fleur
Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
lemon_magic
"Low Blow" appears to reunite the director and most of the cast from a previous 80's movie called "Killpoint", only it seems to be made even more cheaply than that enjoyable time waster. As such, it's not the worst martial arts/action movie you will ever watch -I'd watch "Low Blow" 5 more times rather than watch Steven Seagal's "The Foreigner" even once more.The credits say that Leo Fong wrote this movie as well as starring in it (uh-huh).I have to admit the screenplay isn't nearly as bad as it might be, mostly because the movie doesn't seem to take itself (or the hero/leading man) too seriously. Fong plays a likable diamond in the rough, and the movie doesn't ask him to do anything he can't do well.Most of the rest of the cast are community theater rejects, with the exceptions of Cameron Mitchell (who once again has to act from behind a huge pair of blackened sunglasses), Stack Pierce and his trademark grimace, Troy Donaghue as your basic generic rich white guy/senator type, and a startingly charismatic and attractive young black woman who plays Cameron's girl Friday.She steals most of the scenes she is in and almost walks away with the movie.Again,the super low budget is very evident here, and the screen play has no real energy or momentum - it just kind of mooches along from fist fight to shootout to the next fist fight and then some more shooting. And BTW, since when can a bunch of private individuals with guns invade another privately owned compound and kill 90% of the people in it with no repercussions? I mean, supposedly the movie is set in the continental US - Fong's character just drives to the cult headquarters. It's not as if this is taking place in the Phillipines (even though some of it was obviously shot there). At least "Low Blow" is mildly funny and ribald when it means to be, and there's lots of cheesy action - only instead of "The Wild Bunch", it's more like "The Mild Bunch".You should not play actual money to see this DVD - I got as part of a 12 movies-for-$5 compilation, which was fine.
Comeuppance Reviews
Joe Wong (Fong) is a private investigator, and he has a unique way of doing his job. He's behind on all his bills, his office is a pig sty, and all he really wants to do is go to his favorite eatery and have some chicken feet soup. He and his perky partner Diane (Stevenett) are barely staying afloat. One day John Templeton (Donahue), not to be confused with The Protector (1999), (who could surely handle this problem on his own), walks into Wong's office and hires him to find his daughter Karen (Bowling) who has gone missing. Despite Wong's warning that he "is expensive", much like Rod Armstrong, Donahue gives him the money and Wong is on his way.It turns out Karen has been brainwashed by the Universal Enlightenment cult and is spending most days farming at their compound called Unity Village. The leader of this mysterious cult is one Yarakunda (Mitchell) and his "sister-wife" Karma (Busia). Since this secretive organization doesn't take kindly to outsiders, meaning there are plenty of armed guards, Wong hits the local punchfighting (or in this case, pit fighting) circuit to hire some recruits to help him invade the cult and save Karen. Of all the ninjas, women, Chicanos and fat guys that all fight each other, he chooses Fuzzy (Farmer) and some others and then they all go to complete the mission. Using just their martial arts abilities and their wiles, will they succeed? Here the usual gang of troublemakers (Fong, Pierce, Mitchell and director Frank Harris, among others) reunite once more for another round of wacky, dumb fun. Despite the common low-budget pitfalls of bad film quality, choppy editing, and major issues with what must have been a script at one point, Low Blow remains "Low Brow" entertainment. Fong plays the goofy P.I. with some serious car troubles with nothing but flatly delivered catchphrases. The main issue of Low Blow is you can't hear anything. The sound quality is so amazingly bad, the entire movie is unhearable. It doesn't help that Fong never speaks above a whisper, and he has an accent. But what we could hear is funny. And when he's attacking the bad guys' car with a chainsaw, he always remembers his safety goggles.Cameron Mitchell, as the Jonestown-inspired guru, wearing a black hooded cloak and sunglasses, never stands up in the movie and appears drunk. It's a more laid-back Cam performance, especially in comparison to his bad guy role in Killpoint. Also as counterpoint to Killpoint, Stack Pierce here is fairly underused as Corky. Yes, his name is Corky. But we can't forget an early appearance of Billy Blanks as a camp guard that fights Joe Wong. Unfortunately, the climax of the movie takes place at night and the filmmakers forgot to turn on any lights, so we can't see what transpires very well.The introduction of the punch/pit fighting adds a lot of color and flavor to the proceedings, and the addition of Fuzzy to the national consciousness was surely a good thing, though he lacks the joie de vivre of a Jack S. Daniels or a Bear. Also of note is the U.S. Vestron video VHS box art (seen at top of page). While a pretty cool piece of artwork in its own right, this person you see is not in the film. They invented him for the box art. What, was a picture of Leo Fong not good enough? That's shameful. But at least we can now see what it would look like if your fist was basically the size of your head.Yes, the movie is inept on almost every level, and the attempts at humor are...attempts at humor, but Low Blow proves ineptness isn't always a bad thing - it can be pretty entertaining if you are in the right mood. 'Blow isn't as bad as some say it is (although some technical aspects certainly are, but so what).If you need more Fong in your life, a good place to continue your obsession would be Low Blow.
Bill
A pretty good cast here with ... Leo Fong , Cameron Mitchell , Stack Pierce , Akosua Busia , Troy Donaghue , Diane Stevenett and I think that Hope Holliday plays a small part as a Head Mistress of a school.Four of these actors incl Leo Fong are from the other movie Kill Point ! Cameron Mitchell (High Chapparel 1960's TV Western) as Yarakunda is just plain weird. Akosua Busia (Colour Purple) as the sadistic Karma , is weird as well but SO gorgeous it isn't funny. Diane Stevenett as Joe Wong's secretary Diane is really cute and plays her part fairly well. Stack Pierce as Corky , as always is mean looking deadly and certainly comes up well , as well as can be expected. I'm sure though that his part in the movie has a different name , possibly "Duke". Anyway he throws some good punches. He is a first rate actor !I suppose that you can't expect any Oscar award winning from Leo Fong , but never the less I have seen worse actors. Actually Leo Fong isn't too bad as an actor and even though he's never had the coaching I'd bet he's got more ability than Arnie and JCVD. He can be quite funny at times and has his moments and you realize that you get a liking for the guy.I suppose that he's a little mechanical , but you can see the breaks where he lightens up every so often.The movie is a bit better than mediocre and has some good action scenes. Leo Fong is quite a good martial artist and even though you don't see all of the acrobatics and technical trickery etc ... you get some realistic scenes. Fong as you can see is a pretty strong guy and for his age he does well. The best action part is in the building where Fong takes on a couple of guys an does them over. The part on the stair case is good !All in all I quite enjoyed the movie and his part as Joe Wong. And what a rough scruffy PI he is. You sort of get the impression that as soon as he'd make the money from a case he'd spend it on whatever before the bills etc.I own this on DVD now but I saw it a couple of years back and then I recalled seeing it sometime in the late 80's . I thought that the actor was MA Expert and board breaker Pu Gill Gwon , the author of "The New Forms of Tae Kwon Do" Anyway its not Pu Gill Kwoon or Pu Gill Gwon , Its Leo Fong an I'm glad that I have the movie as I'll watch it again.
jstein90
Even for a cheap action film this was bad. Bad acting, bad writing, unrealistic action scenes. There was no plot, no story, and ridiculous dialogue. The action scenes looked laughably bad. This is a film to avoid.