Kevin White, a DEA agent working in San Francisco, gets the break he needs when he convinces the cousin of a fearsome Russian ex-KGB gangster to become an informant in order to bring down the gangster's new drug empire. Returning home to Los Angeles, Kevin stays over at the home of his brother Jack, who is also a police officer but a patrol cop only. During dinner, Kevin tells Jack about his plan to bust the Russians. But what Kevin doesn't know is that Jack is actually corrupt & has decided to use his brother's information in order to net him an easy payday. Discovering the informant's identity, Jack visits the gangster & kills the informant. He also offers his services for the fee of a million dollars. As Jack's skillful sabotage ruins the DEA case against the gangster, Kevin begins to suspect that the target has some sort of insider in the police department. And when he discovers that his own brother is involved, his blood boils over.
Martial Outlaw is one of a number of cheap B-grade action films made by Canadian producer Pierre David, who is famous for making the Scanners sequels, & stars the likes of Jeff Wincott, a martial artist turned actor who has made a minor living starring in films like this one (he also starred in the likes of UNIVERSAL SOLDIER II: BROTHERS IN ARMS & its sequel as a UniSol).
Martial Outlaw is by all respects an unexceptional action thriller. It has plenty of melee combat & some pretty gnarly fight scenes (Wincott & Hudson take on plenty of Russian gangsters in a restaurant & an athletics club where you discover what a "Russian circle" is). The script is efficient enough to keep the story going along without encountering any plot holes & the twists are telegraphed well in advance.
But while the film is reasonable enough to pass as an action film, it doesn't have any real substance to it. Kurt Anderson keeps the action going to make up for the narrative shortfall & the script, written by at least five people, shows signs of being overproduced (I had a problem with the scene where Hudson's corrupt cop brings in a witness to tell the others about the fake drug deal location – wouldn't the police have instantly discovered that the witness was in fact an actress paid by Hudson to give them the wrong information?). The result is an action B-grader that doesn't make much of an effort to elevate itself above the flood of cheap actioners made during the 1990s.
Martial Outlaw is one of a number of cheap B-grade action films made by Canadian producer Pierre David, who is famous for making the Scanners sequels, & stars the likes of Jeff Wincott, a martial artist turned actor who has made a minor living starring in films like this one (he also starred in the likes of UNIVERSAL SOLDIER II: BROTHERS IN ARMS & its sequel as a UniSol).
Martial Outlaw is by all respects an unexceptional action thriller. It has plenty of melee combat & some pretty gnarly fight scenes (Wincott & Hudson take on plenty of Russian gangsters in a restaurant & an athletics club where you discover what a "Russian circle" is). The script is efficient enough to keep the story going along without encountering any plot holes & the twists are telegraphed well in advance.
But while the film is reasonable enough to pass as an action film, it doesn't have any real substance to it. Kurt Anderson keeps the action going to make up for the narrative shortfall & the script, written by at least five people, shows signs of being overproduced (I had a problem with the scene where Hudson's corrupt cop brings in a witness to tell the others about the fake drug deal location – wouldn't the police have instantly discovered that the witness was in fact an actress paid by Hudson to give them the wrong information?). The result is an action B-grader that doesn't make much of an effort to elevate itself above the flood of cheap actioners made during the 1990s.