I remember renting this movie when it was on VHS as a kid and I was so amazed by it that I tried to purchase the tape but unfortunately the rental place it came from closed down. I waited years hoping to see it again and then when a friend of mine showed me his copy that he had on DVD, I was saying, "Let's watch that one, let's watch that one!" During our movie club meeting, my friends were asking me all sorts of questions about the flick, the martial arts that Carradine's character Dalton Rhodes knew and so on. Martial Law was definitely a treat for me and you just gotta love the premise of the story: two high-kicking cops use martial arts to take down lowlife scum plaguing the City of Angels.
Sean Thompson is a hard-hitting cop known for his combat prowess and versatility in the martial arts along with his partner and lady-friend Billie Blake. They're both assigned together to work on a case after corpses start turning up in L. A. with each victim being killed by what it appears to be a lethal strike to the body known as 'Dim Mak' (Death touch). As Sean and Billie investigate, the blood trail leads them to the suave, vicious and lethal Dalton Rhodes, a criminal mastermind who runs a cartel for hire business for various underworld figures. Sean and Billie's investigation hits a nasty brick wall though when Sean's trouble-maker brother Michael is found out to be working for Rhodes as a car thief. And when a dangerous rival of Michael's named Faster Brown tries to rat him out to Dalton about his brother being a cop, all bets are certainly off...
The fight scenes were rather B-grade but still enjoyable with stunt man James Lew and full-contact kickboxing champion Benny 'the Jet' Urquidez making guest appearances as two members of the Tong Lin syndicate that start a fight with Sean and Billie in an alley. The plot is short, sweet and simple, the filming locations were incredible and the instrumental music score that was put together by composer Eliot Solomon had a synthesized jazzy flare to it.
I definitely recommend this flick to anyone that loves B-grade action and the lovely Cynthia Rothrock.
Sean Thompson is a hard-hitting cop known for his combat prowess and versatility in the martial arts along with his partner and lady-friend Billie Blake. They're both assigned together to work on a case after corpses start turning up in L. A. with each victim being killed by what it appears to be a lethal strike to the body known as 'Dim Mak' (Death touch). As Sean and Billie investigate, the blood trail leads them to the suave, vicious and lethal Dalton Rhodes, a criminal mastermind who runs a cartel for hire business for various underworld figures. Sean and Billie's investigation hits a nasty brick wall though when Sean's trouble-maker brother Michael is found out to be working for Rhodes as a car thief. And when a dangerous rival of Michael's named Faster Brown tries to rat him out to Dalton about his brother being a cop, all bets are certainly off...
The fight scenes were rather B-grade but still enjoyable with stunt man James Lew and full-contact kickboxing champion Benny 'the Jet' Urquidez making guest appearances as two members of the Tong Lin syndicate that start a fight with Sean and Billie in an alley. The plot is short, sweet and simple, the filming locations were incredible and the instrumental music score that was put together by composer Eliot Solomon had a synthesized jazzy flare to it.
I definitely recommend this flick to anyone that loves B-grade action and the lovely Cynthia Rothrock.