Excellent but underrated film

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful: Pray your fast forward button doesn't jam!, November 24, 2008 I like B movies, superhero movies and revenge movies, so when I find a B movie superhero revenge flick, well that's some of the sweetest cream of all. Unfortunately though, this cinematic cream is close to turning bad. It's not curdled yet, but it's starting to chunkify. It's more like cinematic Half and Half, half good movie and half not so good. It breaks down like this; Derek Leigh is an undercover agent for the SOC, an agency so Top Secret that we never clearly learn what the acronym SOC means. He puts away the son of a huge drug lord, Bandera, and then drops into the Witness Relocation Program so that the drug lord can't get revenge on him. The movie starts 8 years later. Bandera is locked up in a Federal pen, which is remarkably short of both federal employees and prisoners. I knew something was up with this movie when Bandera steps out of his cot wearing leopard skin print underwear. I know there is a prison in the Southwest where the warden makes the prisoners wear bright pink skivvies in order to make their stay less pleasant and them, therefore, less likely to return. But I don't know what kind of prison issues leopard skin underwear and I'm not sure I want to know. Anyhow, Bandera's cartel breaks him out while the prison is transferring him to another facility. The cartel is well funded and organized and they manage to pull off the break out easily, although not without employing some inept martial arts. It was the same style martial art practiced by Gil Gerard and William Shatner and other middle-aged action heroes, a style with a name like Creaky Mantis or Winded Monkey. Luckily they were so inept they were funny. Of course Bandera ices our hero's family and although that bit of violence happens off camera, we are there when he discovers their bodies and let me tell you he emits a "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" that would put Darth Vader to shame. Bandera tries to ice Derek at his job site (He's a roofer! Thanks a lot Witness Protection Program!!!) But the metal wine flask he carries in his pocket saves Derek. "Whatever the vintage" says the cop who finds his unconscious body, this wine saved his life". That cop is played by none other than Linda Blair. I have to warn you though that this is not the sultry, pouty, "I don't care if she's possessed because I would pork the devil out of her" Linda Blair from the woman in prison movies. This is the late 90's Edie McClurg in training Linda Blair. She and her partner, a detective who looks like a statue of Dennis Franz sculpted from cottage cheese, end up trying to track Derek down once he becomes Jaguar. Now this is an interesting little angle. Derek's kid loved superheroes and he created his own little comic books. His favorite creation was Jaguar, a man who made his body and mind strong so he could fight crime. Derek patterns his crime fighting costume very closely after the costume his kid had designed, in order to honor his son. Wow, that's different, and probably the most interesting angle in the entire movie. Unfortunately the design of the costume doesn't work very well on film as Jaguar looks like one of the Village People of the Future come back through a wormhole in time. I won't spoil the rest of the movie for you except to say Jaguar's revenge involves the liberal use of explosive tipped crossbow bolts. This movie wanted to be Batman meets Out for Justice but didn't achieve that awesome synthesis because, in a word, it was half-ased. The writing, directing, acting and design were all done to a half measure. That's too bad because it had the potential to become a nice little low budget gem. Instead it's more of a zirconium. It's one of those movies that truly deserve a good remake.

Really bad. So bad in fact i think i might throw up on myself. The only reason i chose to give this movie one star is because there is no lower rating. i would rather crap in my hand and eat it than watch this film again. The only slight little tiny bit of credibility that this film carries is that it contains the terrible acting abilities of 'Warchild' from point break. Didn't have enough money for good sets, good script, good lighting, good acting, didn't even have enough money to get Pat Morita to play the Sensei instead of the bald old 'poor man's' Mr. Miyagi. And as for the constant tilting camera...what the hell were these guys thinking? i have motion sickness and not to mention the nightmares i am going to have when i think of the most useless piece of cinematic trash that was ever pushed out of the sloppy rectal cavity of the crappiest production team to ever to walk the earth. WORST FILM EVER (capitals means I'm yelling)

The picture focuses to Derek(Maxwell Caufield) is a former government Ops agent named SOC living with his family.When the starring's wife(Fiona Hutchinson) and son are cruelly killed , Derek plots revenge only to find the fugitive killer(Trevor Goddard)and hoodlums(Vincent Klyn) are well hidden and he must exact his own form of justice. Later training by a martial arts instructor(John Fujioka), he assumes the identity of The Jaguar, taken from his son's drawings .He's a new hero in town , an avenger who woos to revenge against the murderer who previously put behind bars. He asks another undercover agent as toymaker(Paul Bartel) weapons , delivering him crossbow and explosive arms.This is a low budget movie with action packed, suspense, grisly violence, noisy shooting and spectacular fighting . The best film is the training on lethal struggle skills at the hands of a martial arts master with certain similarly to ¨Karate Kid¨ style.The motion picture displays a plethora of known faces and famed secondary actors, Stacy Keach(Long riders), Linda Blair(immortal in the Exorcist), Paul Bartel (famous cult director), Vincent Klyn( usual baddie in Albert Pyun films:Cyborg), Trevor Goddard (Jag) and the protagonist, Maxwell Caufield(Dragon storm, Submerged). The motion picture is professionally directed by David DeCocteau, a B series director ,he has gone on to produce(Trancers) and direct more than sixty movies over the past twenty years, such as : Doctor Alien, Puppet master,Skeletons(his best movie) Brotherhood series, among others. This one is entertaining though with very short budget

Move over Superman and Batman, take a vacation. Maxwell Caulfield seemed to be in a slump after the lame No Escape, No Return, so he made a good decision. Dave DeCoteau does his finest with an action film filled with crazy camera angles, good dialogue, and uh, did I mention action? Plenty of it, too. I especially love those exploding-arrows. God this movie's so good I'm gonna stop writing this review to go watch it again.