Entry 122: The Perfect Weapon (1991)

The Perfect Weapon (1991)

Dir: Mark DiSalle

"No gun.  No knife.  No equal."

 

Real-life karate champ Jeff Speakman (Street Knight, Escape from Atlantis) stars in this minor action flick as...um...Jeff, a former JD kid who learns discipline through studying the martial art kenpo and grows up to become a kenpo-fighting construction worker (yes, really).  He returns to his old L.A. neighborhood when his old mentor (Mako, Midway, Conan the Barbarian) is murdered by Korean gangsters led by James Hong (Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China) and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Showdown in Little Tokyo, Mortal Kombat).  In a vaguely Yojimbo-inspired plot, he pits two families of gangsters against one another and teams up with his cop younger brother (John Dye, Best of the Best, TV's Tour of Duty) and a foul-mouthed street kid (Dante Basco, Hook, Fist of the North Star).  Professor Tanaka (Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, The Running Man) plays Hong's unstoppable, superhuman henchman, who speaking defeats by lighting on fire and exploding(!).  It all ends in a relatively exciting nighttime showdown at the docks.

The Perfect Weapon is a perfectly acceptable low-budget 80's-type action flick, released in the waning years of the genre's popularity.  Speakman (who looks and sounds A LOT like a buff Perry King) is likeable and, while not a fantastic actor, has enough charisma to carry this type of role.  An accomplished martial artist, his action sequences are fairly impressive and well-coordinated (though Kickboxer director DiSalle tends to overindulge in slow-motion shots).  The barely 80 minute movie does suffer from some pacing issues and wastes A LOT of time on flashbacks showcasing Speakman's troubled youth.  Mariska Hargitay (TV's Law and Order: SVU) appears in two scenes as a kimbo student.  Acceptable Saturday afternoon action fare.