Street Warrior (2008) Reviews

• Beware Of Baldus!

  tarbosh220002010-07-29

  Jack Campbell (Martini) is a soldier who gets a dishonorable discharge for beating up his commanding officer. He goes back to his old stomping grounds and finds out his brother has been severely beaten by a steroid-enhanced punchfighter named Isaiah. So he infiltrates the underground fighting circuit called "The Gauntlet" in order to get answers. So after meeting a bunch of crazy characters, the evil fight promoter Pope (Chinlund) kidnaps Jack's brother's pregnant wife so Jack will keep fighting in the tournaments. Does this plot seem familiar? The meatheads that Jack must fight include: Jersey Devil, Farm Boy, Zeke, Isaiah, and the Nazi Baldus, who, when he wins a fight does the Nazi salute AND the goose-step. The fights in the film are haphazardly edited with a bunch of quick cutting. Chinlund as Pope looks like a cross between Barry Williams, Ray Liotta, David Hasselhoff and Ryan Seacrest. He puts in an over the top performance, screaming all his lines, including the oft-repeated "LET'S SEE... SOME BLOOD!" Max Martini mumbles all his lines and the DVD has no closed-captioning to help you out. In the obligatory bar fight scene, he beats someone up with an 8-ball from a pool table and proclaims "8 ball in the corner pocket". Another understandable line: "I'm okay with trouble". It seems "Street Warrior" was made in the wrong decade. It should have been made in the late 80's/early 90's when direct-to-video punchfighting movies were king. It's good that this one comes so late in the game, but it is unclear whether we are to take it seriously or not. One minute it is serious, and the next, there are some ridiculous moments, characters and one-liners. In old-school punchfighters, you can actually see the punching. Here, there is incomprehensible, ADD-addled editing which hinders the final product. "Street Warrior" is an enjoyable-enough latter-day punchfighter, but, but despite its many flaws, we are happy that they are still cranking out movies of this subgenre. We should be grateful.

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• Weak plot but entertaining nonetheless

  hasanzehn2008-07-29

  OK, OK, I know the plot is the usual rubbish - disgraced ex-Special Forces goes back home after a real loooong time and just gets into more trouble. Dodgy cops, dodgier camera work and some lame characters - is there anything good about it? Well, yeah there is and that's only cos of the lead - Max Martini - and some of the fight scenes. I really think Max has great screen presence it's shame the story is pathetic, lame supporting characters and the budget low. I actually enjoyed it, primarily cos it's mindless fun. Also the main baddie tough guy reminds me of the Rock - if he weighed like 120 pounds more! You'll know what I mean when you see him. Enjoy!

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• "Definitely in need of testicular transplantation"

  The_Phantom_Projectionist2015-11-10

  STREET WARRIOR is one of many TV action films getting buried in the heaps of similar flicks that have sat around movie store shelves before heading towards the bargain bin. With a story that's not very inventive and fight scenes that were mediocre even at the time of its release, this is a watchable but totally overlookable addition to an already cluttered subgenre that will only truly interest fans of particular performers. The story: Discharged war veteran Jack Campbell (Max Martini) returns home to find his brother comatose after being drawn into an underground fight club controlled by a wealthy sadist (Nick Chinlund). Seeking revenge, he finds himself trapped in "the Gauntlet" as well when a family member is taken captive. The movie's biggest asset is its strong cast: though these roles could just as easily have been played by lesser-known performers, the effort put forth by Martini, Chinlund, sidekick Max Pehrlich, love interest Valerie Cruz, and a couple others is noticeable and keeps the movie watchable in lieu of a more compelling story or interesting fights. As tends to be the case with low budget action pictures, the problem with these fights is how they're shot and edited. The camera-work could be worse, but it still stays too close to the performers most of the time, making a lot of the action tough to follow. Further hindering the cohesiveness of the brawls is how clunkily shots are shoved together, oftentimes with considerable gaps in the action. Max Martini does a decent job at playing a fighter, and the martial cast is a decent mix of better- and lesser-known film fighters (including a surprisingly large Sidney Liufau as the champion), but their physical prowess can't save these mostly-bad thirteen matches. Chances are you reached this film's page because you're an action fan to begin with, and if this is the case, let me assure you that you've probably seen this movie many times before with different covers and a slightly tweaked storyline. Unless you're building a collection of underground fight flicks, this one's not worth the prices of purchase. There's just nothing new here.

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• I just want to shoot myself..

  Michael-lg772009-04-19

  First of all, i usually read the comments and check the ratings on IMDb before i even approve of watching a movie (unless it's a new, independent or recommended movie). This however was a gambler because there was a few comments out and all said positive things. The things mentioned in the comments were pretty juvenile described but one thing sticked in my mind, and that was concerning the fight- scenes and i love good fight scenes!, someone mentioned Jet-Li and another entertaining movie so i thought, let's stay open minded. OK folks, here we go: the fight scenes is worse than a Mma fight that runs submissively only = boring. The music during the whole movie made me feel suicidal, some corny rock/heavy metal theme that destroyed even the slightest try of creating an atmosphere. The acting was as poor as the whole plot. Im sorry i don't have anything positive to say except that Valerie Cruz was kinda hot but not as hot as to justify killing the time of watching this mess of a flick. Id give it a 0/10 if i could.

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• Wow, really good.

  Boston_Pride2008-09-26

  I have to be honest, I didn't expect this movie to be all that good. The story has been done plenty of times, and I was expecting not to be entertained, but I was pleasantly surprised. Max Martini (The Unit) does a great job playing Jack Campbell, and is very believable as a tough guy. The fight scenes were really good, but it was mainly Max Martini that made the movie good. So if you're in and you're looking for something to watch, for just $3.99 this movie is a good watch. Very good. 7/10

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