Oct 17 2008
RABID FIRE - Minor spoilers.
This is a review for RAPID(Rabid was a joke) FIRE, MINOR spoilers are contained.
Brandon Lee, a legend whose star never really shined. Compared closely to that of James Dean (A star who died suddenly at the height of his career and now Heath Ledger), Brandon Lee was the star on only four American films at the time of his death. Being the son of the legendary Bruce Lee was a big plus to his credits as well, but his real claim to fame is the Alex Proyas heavy-metal action comic book flick THE CROW.
However this review isn’t about Lee’s only good movie, this is a review of one of his really bad ones: RAPID FIRE. In 1992, action movies with macho guys were sure fire money makers, with Brian Bosworth(STONE COLD) , Jean Claude Van-Damme (HARD TARGET), Mel Gibson (LETHAL WEAPON 3 at the time), Steven Segal, Wesley Snipes (PASSANGER 57), Bruce Willis (DIE HARD 2, STRIKING DISTANCE at the time), films with quick plots, cheap budgets, tons of stunt men and squibs and you had an instant cash cow.
So came, RAPID FIRE, Brandon Lee is a college student who witnesses a murder. His family was killed in the classic “Tiananmen Square” incident and I guess from just that background he’s a martial arts master? That’s a major problem it was never established how and why the character that Brandon Lee plays is such an action hero.
In the first fifteen minutes after Lee witnesses the murder Lee beats/shoots up Italian and Asian gangsters a lot with his fists, random guns he “steals” from horrible mullet wearing gangsters and with a motorcycle. When I was in college I don’t recall any gangster beating 101 classes.
Another film that involves another random shootout in a restaurant; the mobsters are trapped by police inside a restaurant and take Brandon Lee hostage. Major gunplay happens between the police outside and the mobsters inside, however their arsenal that the mobsters have is so over kill that it’s laughably bad. The gangsters have a variety of shotguns, to small semi-automatics; to classic Al Capone style Thompson machine guns, to a 50 Caliber military machine gun. Lee, with all this talent and style disarms all the bad guys and saves the day, in classic 90’s style with his black tank top that clashes among the lighting of window blinds (Always in the 90’s it seems there is a scene with a shadow of window blinds somewhere).
Bottom line this film is ridiculous but it is a sad thing, Brandon Lee had the charisma and charm to be a movie star and sadly it was snuffed out before he really could of become the talent he was. I know I spoofed how bad the film is but if you watch the above video the intellect of Brandon Lee comes through very strong. He was very intelligent and charmine and he will be missed.
