Day of the Panther (1988)

DAY OF THE PANTHER (1988)

Directed by: Brian Trenchard Smith

Starring: Edward John Stazak, Michael Carman, John Stanton, Jim Richards

Plot: Edward John Stazak plays as Jason blade, one of the “panthers”, a secret group of martial-arts fighters who also work as Triad mercenaries. After his partner is killed he goes undercover to the drug lord that helped kill her. Yep that plot’s been used a million times before.

Review: God it hurts to watch this movie. The first thing that sticks out as to how bad this movie is the opening credits. It’s set up like a workout video, with its shitty titles and cheesy 80’s music which never ends. Edward John starak, who plays the hero, is one of those dumb beefcakes everyone loves to see in 80’s flicks. He’s susprisely good with his lines and is good with the action. The Villain is played by Michael Carman who looks just like an Australian Nick Cage, he’s one of those cheap bad guy types used in all shitty action movies. As a bad guy he gets the job done, but I’ve seen better extras in chuck Norris movies that can act better compared to him. (Wow that might be too harsh). Jim Richards (yes I know no one’s ever heard of him) plays Baxter the dumb ass bully sidekick who hates Jason blade. Baxter (god I love that name) is the kind of guy who goes from kicking ass and looking cool to pushing chicks into swimming pools. Jason also has love interest but I don’t think I could handle talking about her without getting ticked off big time. The only thing worth bringing up is when she’s does (the way at of date) dance for Jason blade as his working out. Pure cheese.

Most of the movie is just Jason faking working for the bad guys and fighting. Almost every 10 minutes theirs an awesome 80’s style fight scene (with that shitty music). Hell the first 30 minutes of the movie are mostly cheesy action. Including a lot of dudes wearing weird animal masks. The Action scenes do work oddly enough. The only real issue is that they do run too long.

*Spoiler warning*
Now don’t get me wrong. I do like the ending fight. But why in the hell did Jason let Baxter stay alive. What kind of bullshit is that where the f*cking hero can’t kill the damn cornball sidekick.
*spoiler over*

Overall:
Day of the Panther was not a waste of time but it was a little mind numbing.
4/10 worth at least one view.