In 1973, Robert Clouse directed one of the greatest martial arts film of all time "Enter the Dragon". In 1981 he tried to remake it...and failed.
Force Five tells the story of a team of 5 martial arts experts who are given the mission of raiding a cult colony to rescue a senator's daughter who has joined them. Amongst the cast is Richard Norton who was king of straight-to-video films in the 80s and 90s, and Benny "The Jet" Urquidez who rocked with Jackie Chan in Meals on Wheels before doing a lot of stunt double work.
Despite the quality in skill of the protagonists, the film suffers from having them face baddies who line up and attack one at a time and in most cases have no martial arts of their own. Special mention needs to be made of the woman in the team who seems to have no real skills in martial arts, in fact she can barely raise her leg above her waist.
Favourite scene for me was one where one of the team is pursued by a bull for absolutely no reason (perhaps there was a bull passing the set one day and they decided to fit it in). The fact bull is eluded by blowing it up gives it a unique scene that I can't recall seeing ever before.
It's bad, but to some that's good. In Kill Bill the bride makes mention to being in a team called Fox Force Five. I wonder if Tarantino was inspired by this?
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