Blackbelt

Straight-to-video hero Don "The Dragon" Wilson was never going to be one of the big time martial arts stars, but he does well enough with BLACKBELT, a film which may be the best of his career. BLACKBELT is a non-stop assault on the senses of extreme violence, bone-breaking brutality and bloodshed, with a wafer-thin plot that doesn't get in the way of a fight scene every five minutes or so. This is definitely one of the most violent fight flicks I've seen in a long time, and despite heavy cutting on release (both in the UK and the US) it still remains a gruesome exercise in stage blood and bone-breaking sound effects.

The plot is nothing special: imagine a hard-assed version of THE BODYGUARD with Wilson replacing Costner and you'll be halfway there. The female leads are non-actresses but attractive enough in their roles, and although Wilson is typically wooden as the hero he packs a wallop in the fight scenes and kicks ass more times than I can count. Matthias Hues (DARK ANGEL) is surprisingly good as the psychopathic killer and I love the flashback scenes which explain his mental disorder. It's a shame the shaggy-haired hardman hasn't appeared in more flicks and has been typecast as the villain; I for one would like to watch him as the hero for a change.

BLACKBELT offers one adrenaline-charged fight scene after another during its running time, all battles excellently choreographed by Wilson himself. The budget is low and executive producer Roger Cormaan seems to have played a part in assembling an American-looking Filipino cast to fill out the smaller roles, up to his old tricks again by the look of it. The wealth of action that BLACKBELT offers is impossible to dismiss and this film hits the mark where many others fail. The finale is a class act and his final one-on-one unmissable entertainment.

This movie is amazing. Don the dragon Wilson is like the edward norton of martial arts, he can play any part you give him in a kun-fu movie. And his fast paced action style of fighting is reminiscent of the great chuck norris. God chuck why did you have to go to tv? Don't you know we miss you, please come back. Well at least you have brought the martial arts genre to tv. The best way to describe this movie is enter the dragon meets the matrix meets pulp fiction meets gone with the wind or something because there is a little romance brewing in the air. The first scene of the movie already has martial, arts murder, and brief(and classy) nudity. The movie only gets better from there as it goes on till the end. The end is sooooo good, I won't tell you what happens I will just say that it is like all this fighting and you aren't sure who's going to win and then it ends and you're like whoa no way, did you see that? But you did.

Matthias is the ultimate "bad guy" in this one...and you just love him! He's about the only actor I can think of that you just love to hate. Maybe it's the hypnotic blue eyes, maybe the dimples or maybe its the muscles. Maybe its a combination of all, but he lights up the screen in a way that keeps you coming back for more. Don "the Dragon" Wilson is the "star" of the movie, but Matthias is really the STAR of the movie.

Watch it once, you'll watch it twice...watch it twice, you'll watch it trice...and so on and so on. It's a movie you won't get tired of watching. So when you don't know what you want to watch, watch Black Belt. You'll be glad you did!

I have seen the 1992 martial arts action movie "Blackbelt" once before, when I had it on VHS tape back in the day. However, I must admit that I have entirely and wholeheartedly forgotten about the storyline. And thus, when I happened to stumble upon the movie by random luck here in 2023, of course I opted to sit down and revisit it.

The storyline in "Blackbelt" is pretty straightforward. It was an adequate script and storyline for a martial arts action movie of this sort. So writers Robert Easter, Neva Friedenn, Paul Maslak and Charles Philip Moore actually put together a fair enough movie here.

There wasn't a whole lot of familiar faces on the cast list, aside from Don Wilson and Alan Blumenfeld. Actor Matthias Hues was a wonderful villain, playing John Sweet, especially with that hair of his.

Why is it that guys wearing leather jackets have to be shirtless beneath the jacket? It just makes people look like douches, yet both Don Wilson and Matthias Hues opted to go that way in "Blackbelt".

Watchable for what it is, "Blackbelt" is a stereotypical early 1990s martial arts action movie.

My rating of "Blackbelt", from directors Charles Philip Moore and Rick Jacobson, lands on a five out of ten stars.

Another movie on my Plex watchlist is a spinning back kick to the head from the martial arts pro in the 90's Don The Dragon Wilson.

I actually thought this was a movie with a Karate turnement in it however it felt like a B grade version of The Bodyguard.

Don's character is hired to protect an up and coming rock singer as their is a mad killer on the loose to kill her and make things right for him however with Don on the case its Dpn Its Good. Shes in safe hands and we see a lot of martial arts action.

However this is not something for any kids its a direct adult oriented film as it has nude scenes and sex scenes.

I have to agree with other reviewers here and say yes its one of Don The Dragon Wilson's best films but overall I have seen better martial arts films but you have to think of the time being "92 this ain that bad and has aged ok considering you can tell the coreagreaphed fight scenes.

You can watch this on Plex and Tubi for free.