Kick'em In The Ghoulies

Starring

Richard Norton

Benny The Jet Urquidez

Erica Van Wagener

Director : Anthony Maharaj

KICKFIGHTER – 1988

aka ''The Fighter''

A classic review for you here , in this film from 1988 (released 1989 ) Richard Norton plays Ryan Travis the wayward son of a ex-vet who along with his wife and daughter have made a life in the far east after the war.

The film starts with a small explanation about the soldiers that stayed behind and made a life.

The film focuses on Ryan Travis and his out of control ways that lands him jail after he accidentally kills someone over a gambling dispute in the streets .

Sentenced to serve five years for his crime ( not bad for I say) his parents and sister wait for the day he gets released so they may return to live in the USA.

But Ryan's father has other problems when local gangsters try and extort him by trying to make him export drugs through his business, this results in the death of his father and mother when of course he refuses.

Luckily his sister Katie is saved by not being at home the night of their killing and only turns up after the event.

With Ryan released it's up to his father s best friend to take care of Ryan and Katie. But Katie has a genital heart disease that she feeds with drugs ,but is desperate for a operation , which can only be performed abroad.

This is where Ryan gets involved in street fighting to make some cash ,thus this leads to bigger bets and a Illegal fight syndicate which takes a interest in placing big bets and fixing fights.

The film is quite a fast paced story with lots of action , some of which is very well shot , the story and production may not be Hollywood style or even up to the high octane films from the former crown colony around that time ,but it delivers in the action stakes primarily down to the fights being arranged by former Kick boxing champion Benny Urquidez and Richard Norton.

Of course the culmination of the film is the end fight between Richard Norton  and The Jet which is full of classic fight action from two of the best Caucasian fighters around at the time.

With some cool stunt work and fast paced fights against some quite zany characters ''The Kick Fighter '' is a blast from the past which will bring a smile to the face of all fans of 80's and 90's action cinema and more so if you loved the many B-movies that where released around that time , many of which where shot in the Philippines,Thailand,Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Of course now trying to find the film which was released on VHS many moons ago may be nigh impossible , along with many of these films the only place to find the films are on auction sites like ebay where people sell old Tapes and DVD's of out of print films.

Kick Fighter won't win any awards ,but it will certainly entertain if your into martial art films from the golden age of action cinema.

Score out of ten = 6

Review Date : June 30th 2014.

Reviewer : Sertes Nake