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Rapid Fire
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by 20th Century Fox
Sales Rank: 12385
Price: $9.98
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In this explosive martial arts action adventure, college student Jake Lo is pursued by smugglers, mobsters and crooked federal agents, after he witnesses a murder by a Mafia kingpin (Nick Mancuso). Determined to survive, he single-handedly takes on Chicago's warring drug lords with the assistance of a renegade cop (Powers Boothe) and his beautiful partner (Kate Hodge).
Viewer Reviews
After the consummate disaster that was "Laser Mission", the late Brandon Lee needed a new vehicle to reintroduce himself as a potential solo star to the American action scene, and "Rapid Fire" came at just the right time. However, while there's no denying that Lee's fifth starring picture is a neat action flick, the fact that it remains a tad mediocre in terms of storyline, action, and characters persistently lets on throughout the film, leaving it less noteworthy than fans of Lee might want to admit.
Jake Lo (Lee) is a Chinese-American student and martial artist whose parents died during the events of Tiananmen Square. After witnessing a murder between the American mafia and the Chinese drug cartel, Jake is placed under police protection but flees the cops when internal corruption threatens his life as well. Dodging both gangsters and crooked policemen, he must place his trust in a squad of renegade officers seeking to bring down the faction of the underworld Jake has been witness to.
If anything, "Rapid Fire" hints that had his life not been cut short, Lee would've been on his way to become one of the definitive stars of the action era. While the film is less remarkable, Lee is versatile in effectively switching between the actor and the fighting machine: his kung fu is good, and he's miles ahead of the likes of Jean-Claude Van Damme or Arnold Schwarzenegger when it comes to acting.
The supporting cast does fine as well: the movie allows for a bit more character depth than other action flicks, and co-stars Powers Booth ("Deadwood") and Raymond Berry ("Steel City") in particular use this added freedom well.
However, the most important aspect of the movie - the fight scenes - is a hit-and-miss: to break it down, the scenes in the club and the in the laundromat are good, the one in the hotel is decent, and the first one at the gathering is rather poor. While Lee certainly has the moves, the choreography and camerawork in these parts tend to be a bit lacking, and give the impression that he's not as good as he really is.
In addition, the film is terrifically bland in its story. It literally feels as though the director was going down a checklist of action-movie clichés (the obligatory romance angle, Lee boneheadedly struggling with his dead father's legacy, etc.) and sticking them in the movie wherever they seemed to fit; this is the basic complaint with most action features, and I'm sorry to say that it afflicted this one rather badly.
While it's obvious that "Rapid Fire' isn't about to match "The Crow", it also fails to measure up to many other action-adventures of the time - be it "Under Siege", "Timecop", or "Commando"...but that doesn't mean that it isn't a good movie. Though slightly disappointing, "Rapid Fire" is enough to make you miss Brandon Lee and make you dream of what he might've contributed to film if he had lived longer. For now, this movie will remain in the back of my shelf, but I'm sure it won't be all too long before I dig it out for another watch.
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Rapid Fire
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Last Modified : 1-9-2009
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