Day of the Panther

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Audience Member Our hero Jason Blade (yes ... Jason Blade) is an Aussie trained by the Order of the Panthers (or something like that) in Hong Kong and also happens to be an Interpol agent (or something like that). His partner Linda is killed by an Aussie drug lord, so he travels to Perth posing as a Triad assassin to get revenge. Yeah ... other than the Australian setting, there's very little to distinguish Brian Trenchard-Smith's straight-to-video martial arts action flick from the mass of similar movies. It does have two sequences that make it kind of stand out and make it worth a look for fans of junky martial arts action. The sequence where Linda is killed is a fairly amazingly long chase sequence (reminded me a bit of "BMX Bandits") where thugs in full head masks (one's a pig, another's a skull) pursue Linda through a derelict warehouse set covered in generic "bad guy" graffiti. Later in the film, the exercise instructor who serves as the film's love interest does a seductive, work-out dance while Jason Blade lifts weight and it's the most 1980's sequence ever committed to film. This was followed by a direct-to-video sequel that was shot contiguously. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member This is an easy 5 stars and will be studied for generations. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Audience Member Pretty damn silly but I guess that's part of the charm? Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Audience Member A martial arts expert (innocuously named "Jason Blade") goes undercover in a drug-dealing gang in Perth, Australia. This will likely be the best Australian beefcake kung-fu picture with a Miami Vice soundtrack you've ever seen. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member Who knew a tiny action flick from Down Under could compete with the American-made spectaculars of the mid-to-late-'80s? Apparently Aussie director Brian Trenchard-Smith had some notion, and a great deal of confidence (much more than the money he had, no doubt) in his star, Edward John Stazak. Stazak plays Jason Blade, an occidental ninja recently initiated into the super-secret Panther clan. In the Australian city of Perth (admittedly one that looks pretty docile, no matter how many fights and drug deals Trenchard-Smith sets in various locales), Blade goes undercover to break crime boss Damien Zukor's (Michael Carman, who looks like Nicolas Cage if his skin fell off) stranglehold on the metropolis. This basic setup leads to some great scenes, including Blade's battle in a parking garage against a half-dozen masked thugs using only a broom handle for protection and a fight to the death against bland (though an effective fighter) lead crony Baxter (Jim Baxter) at movie's end. Throughout, Trenchard-Smith even offers some improvements on his Northern Hemisphere colleagues' action filmmaking. For starters, love interest Gemma (Paris Jefferson) has a lot more spunk than many action movie heroines. The movie's lean, under an hour and a half running length is also a nice change to traditional American films, which tend to use more exposition than necessary to get "legitimacy." Admittedly, the latter factor might be a result of budget limitations more than anything else, but it is refreshing to have an action movie be more like a hit to the face than a slow, twisting knife wound. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Jason Blade is tarined in the art of killing as well as correct behaviour. That´s nice. Just because you kill a guy doesn´t meen you have to be rude.great c-movie fromAustralia and stazak is a pretty good action-hero. Bad-ASS Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Day of the Panther

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