Robert Clause got a lot of work off Enter the Dragon which was largely Bruce Lee’s showcase. He did Jackie Chan’s first Hollywood vehicle which Chan hated though it’s better than many of his American films. He did vehicles for Cynthia Rothrock, Jim Kelly and Kurt Thomas.
Force: Five is a vehicle for five martial artists and it totally apes the “mission to a compound” plot from Dragon. Joe Lewis, Richard Norton, Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, Sonny Barnes and Pam Huntington are the fighters sent to rescue Cindy Lester (Amanda Wyss) from a cult. Bong Soo Han plays the cult leader. Wyss is so innocent as the impressionable victim you really want to protect her from this cult.
Urquidez is the most cinematically dynamic of the five but they’re all fun to watch. The choreography is pretty basic punches, kicks and flip. It does end with a bull chasing Lewis through the villains’ lair so that’s wild.
The Blu-ray looks amazing. You’d never see a film print this pristine. It actually makes it look like a legitimate movie.
Bonus features include a 50 minute interview with Lewis. It’s VHS quality and it’s raw with banter between Lewis and the interviewer, both annoyed and joking around. Lewis talks about his relationship with Bruce Lee and his own professional training.
Nine minutes of Urquidez’s ads for his online training courses include demonstrations of real movies. A six-minute feature on Urquidez shows him in a real match which is way more vicious than his movie choreography.
A slipcover for MVD’s Rewind Collection is always fun with its pseudo video store stickers. The case inside offers a cleaner rendition of the movie poster.