‘No Retreat, No Surrender 3′ Review

Here’s another rental fave from my younger days…the second unrelated sequel to the 80’s cheese fest that was ‘No Retreat, No Surrender’.

The story this time centers around two brothers Will (Avedon) and Casey (Vitali) Alexander, as the trailer says “they’re like oil and water”…Casey is following in his father footsteps and making his way up the ranks of the CIA, whilst Will is a rebel, disagreeing with the CIA’s methods and making his own way in the world by running a karate dojo. When their father (the Jimmy Stewart-esque Campanella) is killed the brothers go their separate ways to track down the killer…Uber terrorist bastard Franco (Hunter).

Will manages to infiltrate Franco’s posse whilst Casey…well Casey just fannies around with Wanda Acuna’s character until he finally meets back up with Will and they go and spank some arse.

The film is a great big slice of martial arts cheese and cheese equals entertainment to me. To be honest if it wasn’t for the well-executed fight scenes it could very well be inducted into the ‘so bad it’s good’ hall of fame. As you would expect from such low budget b-movie fare, the acting for the most part is pretty wooden and flat…In fact when I saw this again after years, I was shocked at how bad Keith Vitali’s performance really was…It’s great when you’re a kid and you can’t really spot shite acting.

Avedon is quite decent as always, with the exception of the scene where he initially discovers his dead father, he’s good at “pissed off” just not very good at “upset”. Whereas Vitali seems to have difficulty with almost everything bless him…and god forbid he has to give the audience some exposition, a difficult feat for any actor never mind a pretty bad one; the scene where he looks through Franco’s file on a computer and gives us his history is cringe inducing…and that is why it is myself and Padz’ favourite scene.

The scene is not helped by a close up of the computer screen that shows the file he is looking at has been named “Top Secret.doc”…Lovley. Also note worthy in this scene is Casey’s mate Franklin, quite possibly the most annoying “tech guy” in a movie ever.

“She loves it when I talk dirty to her” – He says of his computer. What a tool.

I really hate to talk badly of Vitali because in interviews he always seems like a really nice down to earth guy, so I feel a bit guilty about slating his performance. But I’m sure he would even admit that acting (at least in this portion of his movie career) is not his strong point. But when it comes to his on screen talents as a fighter, well he’s top notch of course, speedy and powerful; we even get a bit of old school Kung Fu stylings during the finale between him and Franco…It’s a shame he never really got to do all that much in ‘Wheels On Meals’, I would’ve much preferred a full on hand to hand duel between him and Biao, rather than the comedy tinted chase fight that’s in the movie.

But even though I’ve just rambled about the performances, if you go into a movie like this expecting Oscar winning performances then you’re a bit of a fool. Each person in the cast pretty much has something that they can bring to an action picture…Avedon and Vitali are there to kick everyone’s arse, Wanda Acuna is there to give all the male viewers an erection and Rion Hunter (who may be familiar to some as the Indian in the desert in ‘The Doors’) is there because quite frankly he’s a scary albino bastard with an excellent bad guy look to him. I do enjoy Rion’s performance, always gets me grinning…And I always find it funny that he has his white hair and eyebrows, is a wanted man by the CIA…Yet he never bothers to conceal his distinctive look, even when he’s going out into the public to carry out a dastardly mission of his, not even a hat or anything. Bit of “Just For Men” might have helped him blend in a bit.

So anyway, action…Well it’s good stuff as you would expect from a Hong Kong production of this era. It holds up well next to some of the (for the lack of a better term) “real” Hong Kong flicks of this era. Of course there’s the odd bit of doubling which is a tad obvious, but 5ft Chinese stunt guys doubling for 6ft Americans is always gonna be tough to pull off…Also Rions stunt guy is a hoot, jumping around with a white wig on his bonce that’s about 2 sizes too big. There’s a nice little homage to a stunt in Jackie Chans ‘Dragon Lord’ during the finale too. Apart from the martial arts, there’s a bit of gunplay now and then, with some John Woo-esque diving in slo-mo (always a bonus)…And with this being a late 80’s/early 90’s flick, everyones running around with Uzi’s or Mac 10’s…Bad guys sure did love their Uzi’s back then.

It’s a shame Seasonal didn’t churn out more of these hybrid American/Hong Kong pictures during this era because they’re a hell of a lot of fun. Especially looking back on them now…They have that really great trashy feel to them with lots of unintentionally funny moments, but are peppered with some great action…Best of both worlds really.

To sum up, hard hitting Hong Kong style action, Wanda Acuna in a bikini, an attempted assassination of a president by way of a rocket launcher, and Top Secret.doc…a film that always leaves me in a good mood.

Stars: Loren Avedon, Keith Vitali, Rion Hunter, Joseph Campanella, David Micheal Sterling and Wanda Acuna.
Directed By: Lucas Lo
Running Time: 98 Minutes

~ by Chris on November 29, 2006.