This is Gary Daniels' best action flick since "White Tiger". He plays Ken O'Hara, a former police detective/profiler who is called back into action to partner with another detective and investigate a string of murders of world fighting champions. The villain challenges the victims to a seemingly fair fight then kills each one during the battle. There's a subplot involving O'Hara and his ex-wife that slows the movie a little.
Daniels is in fine form here, as usual. His acting still sucks but he's still got the moves. His final fight scene in the warehouse is quite a workout. Chuck Jeffreys is an excellent foil as the hotshot detective who reluctantly teams with Daniels at the police chief's request. His martial arts skills are just as impressive and he shows more emotion. Jeffrey's does a lot of film choreography on other movies ("Blade") and stunt work most likely for Eddie Murphy who he resembles a lot. Villain Darren Shavi is no slouch either. He's fighting legitimate ass-kickers, so he'd better know his stuff.
The fight scenes are some of the best I've seen in a straight-to-video release with American stars. The choreography in each scene is elaborate and well staged, especially the scene with O'Hara's old martial arts teacher, fighting Kendo style. The punches don't look as fake as in some of Daniels' other movies ("Black Friday" yechhh!!!!). The wire work is better though sometimes a bit annoying. Look for WWE wrestler Rob Van Dam as one of the battle victims.
