Powerful

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Excellent but underrated film

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

This is a perfect little action flick starring Jeff Speakman as a young delinquent Jeff Sanders, who was enrolled in a kenpo school. Years later, Jeff would put his kenpo moves into good use as he takes on a mafia gang to avenge his mentor's death. Caught in the mix is his detective brother, played by Touched by an Angel actor John Dye.This is a fast-paced movie with a simple, but compelling revenge plot, with plenty of martial arts and gun-totting action. The acting was actually not too bad and the choreography was cleverly done. I particularly enjoyed seeing John Dye in an out-of-character role as the no-nonsense, gun-totting detective, versus his more tender and heavenly role in Touched by an Angel and fatherly roles in later made-for-TV movies.Overall, it is not a bad action flick. You'll have a pretty good time watching it.Grade B

Jeff Sanders (Speakman) has been training in Kenpo since he was a young boy. At first, it was because his father wanted to direct all his unruly, youthful energy. Now he's a Kenpo master who abides by his own tagline, "no gun, no knife, no equal" (though technically he does use Arnis sticks). When his friend, a shop owner named Kim (Mako) comes under fire from the Korean mob, Sanders snaps into action. But will he snap some necks along the way? Along his quest, he must utilize the help of his brother, a cop named Adam Sandler...er...Sanders, and a young punk kid named Jimmy (Fist of the North Star (1995) and Blood and Bone (2009)'s Basco) but it's going to take all of Jeff's Kenpo skills to fight off Yung (Hong), Kai (Tagawa) and the intimidating Tanaka (played, unsurprisingly, by Professor Toru Tanaka). Is Jeff Sanders the PERFECT WEAPON? Find out today...The Perfect Weapon is the best Jeff Speakman movie we've seen to date...and why wouldn't it be: it was his first starring role, as well as being a major studio release tailor-made to showcase his Kenpo talents to the world. As might be expected, the fight scenes are the highlight of the production. Speakman clearly has "got game", as it were, enough to compete with all his competitors at the time. The whole thing is well-shot and you can see all the moves. Refreshingly, this was before quick cuts, green screens and nu-metal corroded the action genre. Sure, it slows down before the climax, but that's a common action movie malady we've seen countless times before. There's the time honored warehouse showdown, but this time employees still work there and it's not abandoned. So there's a slight difference there.Gumming up the works is the introduction of Jimmy, the classic young punk kid. He gives his scenes with Speakman an unpleasant American Ninja 5 (1993) vibe. He even un-ironically whines "are we there yet?" at one point. Now, let's not forget Mariska Hargitay, TV's Olivia Benson, is technically in this movie as well. Despite being top-billed, she has literally zero spoken dialogue and appears only in brief flashes. It would have been so much cooler if Speakman teamed up with her to bust some heads in Koreatown. But no, there has to be an annoying kid, and the movie goes slower with Jimmy.At least the movie is well-made, and, plotwise, it's actually about Kenpo, which gives the whole thing consistency. Yes, the whole thing looks like it was shot on a backlot (there are some pretty obvious sets), but some of them are cool - look at "Club Croc-Pit". Notably, the film starts out with Speakman sweatily working out, shirtlessly, in sweatpants, to Snap's "The Power". You just know he intentionally put that song on because he believes it was written about him. You can't get more 1991 than that. When I was eleven years old, I remember seeing a commercial on TV for this movie, and even then, thinking, "another one?" - meaning, I already knew about Arnie, Sly, Seagal, Van Damme, and perhaps others involved in the late 80's/early 90's action boom, and I was surprised "they" (meaning studio higher-ups) were rolling out a new guy. How could I, or anyone, have known that the U.S. action boom was about to go bust. We should really treasure what we have.Director DiSalle has had an interesting career - he's only directed this and Kickboxer (1989), but he produced Speakman's Street Knight (1993), as well as Bloodsport (1988) and Death Warrant (1990). He wrote the story for Kickboxer 2 (1989), acted in all five of the aforementioned movies, and that's about it for him. Apparently he only works with Speakman or Van Damme. Seems like a good way to go through life. Anyway, The Perfect Weapon, despite a few flaws, would prove to be the last theater-released movie from the action boom of the day. That alone makes it worth seeing.

When his mentor(Mako) is killed, Jeff(Jeff Speakman) plots revenge only to find Korean mobsters and hoodlums. Training at the hands of an instructor-master who trained him on lethal martial art skills and the combat in Kempo Karate . He must exact his own form of justice turning into the ¨perfect weapon¨. He's a new hero in Los Angeles , an avenger who woos to revenge against the murderers.Jeff naturally takes on multiple opponents , cleaning up nasties Koreans and he beats, punch, knocks, kicks and defies the gravity with bounds and leaps.The film packs lots of violence,action-filled,thrills, and fierce combats with spectacular fighting.The story leave no cliché untouched, and the struggles are well staged.The movie is starred by Jeff Speakman, he's 6th degree blackbelt in American Kenpo Karate . He's director of American Kenpo , an International Kenpo Karate organization with more than 50 schools.This is his greatest hit but his career failed in ¨C grade¨ movies(Hot Boyz, Deadly outbreak,Memorial day), becoming himself a failed star.Secondary cast is formed by habitual oriental good guys: Mako,Clyde Kusatsu and bad guys played by ominous villainous with offensive racial stereotypes, such as Cary Hiroyuky Tagawa, James Hong and Professor Tanaka. The Professor was a wrestler who possessed incredible strength and was arguably the successor to Harold Sakata(the Chinese baddie in James Bond vs. Goldfinger) as the archetypal Asian Henchman. The motion picture is professionally directed by Mark DiSalle who tried repeat similar success to 'Kickboxer-Jean Claude Van Damme', but he didn't achieve. The movie is dedicated to Ed Parker and the spirit of Kenpo Karate. The result is a strong entry for action buffs and martial art enthusiastic.

First, if anyone knows _when_ this is going to be released on DVD legitimately, please post on here or email me.Second. This movie is great! The first time in a long time that anyone brings some good, well choreographed fight scenes to the movies.We need more Kenpo experts to bring some more original movies to Hollywood. As any viewer of this movie can see, there are no duplicate scenes, like any of the VanDead movies, where they show the same damn kick from 12 different angles... I mean c'mon enough with the helicopter kick LOL.I think this movie really illustrates the deep content of the Kenpo system and removes it from the watered down "martial arts" of "Take My Do" that gives everybody and their sister a worthless black belt.This movie develops the plot well, has the necessary elements of a good story; captivates both males and females...Great movie! Last, "Jeff where are you and/or your students? We need some more good Kenpo representatives out there!"