I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The scene opens with Linda (Linda Megier) and Jason Blade (Edward John Stazak) being initiated into the ancient and secret Order of the Panthers, a crime fighting martial arts thing. Blonde Linda does undercover surveillance in Hong Kong...then off to Australia. On of the two don't make it past 20 minutes (the one that has a stunt double which looks like a man in a blonde wig) and Jason has to avenge her death. We know who kill Linda...at least we think we do as we see a guy throw a knife in her general direction. Guns are rarely used...hey! It's a martial arts film. Jason works carrying suitcases filled with flour and blank paper for the guy who tossed the knife. Bad guys get to wear cool Halloween masks. No sense letting someone you are trying to kill, see your face.It was pretty boring stuff. I watched it on a 50 film unit and it could have used restoration. Cliché, formula, and poorly acted.Guide: Brief sex. No swearing or nudity.

For me, this film is a terrible excuse to show a number of no-so-great martial arts moves. I personally found it insulting to any good martial arts film and to the art itself.It's not even a half-way decent story to keep me interested. The movie tries to pull in elements of horror with the "evil guys" wearing some fairly cool looking masks. The masks are the only thing in the film I pretty neat and interesting.I enjoy a good martial arts movie but this one I had to turn off mid-way though the film. This is NOT my style of martial arts movie. Others may enjoy this flick but it's a far cry from my type of entertainment.1/10

"Day of the Panther" is a kind of movie you don't see every day - a martial arts movie from Australia. Though watching it will probably reveal why there haven't been that many more martial arts movies coming from that country. In fairness to the movie, there are some positive features. The martial art sequences, while not as fancy as those from Hong Kong movies, do manage to generate some excitement, and at the same time come across as more believable than usual. And while the actors in the movie aren't that great actors, the actors playing the protagonists do come across as likable all the same. However, the movie does all the same have some serious problems. The movie obviously had a low budget, with the general look of movie looking somewhat tacky. The screenplay has assorted plot turns that you will have seen in dozens of other movies before, and has the various characters coming across the same way as well. And the middle of the movie is a long dull stretch. However, I will say this movie all the same is far from the worst martial arts movies I have managed to see.

Without doubt one of the best movies ever made ! Set in beautiful Perth Western Austraila it rightly holds the title of the best movie ever made in that fair, if remote, city. Starring that well known son of Boroloola Kadeem Hardison, who is one of the few remaining exponents of the ancient northern Australian martial art of Beltemtokumbukta, it snarls its way through a part of the 1980's where yacht salesmen are important people in town. Oh it's all too too real, frightenly so. I'm utterly serious when I say that this movie is so faithful to the Australia of the time I almost thought it was a documentary, really. I was back there. Stunning is the only word to even come close to describing this cinema gem. Enjoy it in the spirit of filmic perfection it so richly deserves. Note this movie was nominated in 1988 for the prestigous Palm 'd Bunge at the eclectic Missabotti film festival. Anyone who pretends to know film must see this movie. Really.Austria, Austria .... it's in Europe, unlike Australia.