Sci-Fighter (2004)

Sci-Fighter (2004)

 

Starring: Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock, Aki Aleong, Lorenzo Lamas, Daneya Mayid, Christine Rodriguez, Chris Cassamassa, Rebekah Chaney, Gokor Chivichyan, Simon & James Kim, Eric Lee
Director: Art Camacho
Action Director: Art Camacho, Eric Lee, Joe Perez

Sci-Fighter is one of those unfortunate movies where the idea looks good on paper, the cast and crew are capable of enough of doing the premise justice, and yet the film just flops at every single turn. It’s a disparaging sight to watch an idea with potential self-destruct in front of your very eyes, with little visible explanation of how director-choreographer Art Camacho and lead actor Don “The Dragon” Wilson could not notice how spectacularly they were failing.

The film follows the story of kung fu teacher/professional kickboxer Jack Tanaka (Wilson, of Black Belt and Capitol Conspiracy). His dad, James Tanaka (Aki Aleong, of Braddock: Missing in Action 3 and The Quest), is a computer engineer for the government, whose pet project of the moment is a virtual reality system for training agents in combat—cue a glorified cameo by Lorenzo Lamas as one of said agents. Jack Tanaka has his hands full at the moment with his adolescent son, Brad (Daneya Mayid, who showed up in Kickboxer: Vengeance), who’s acting out in the aftermath of his mom’s untimely death. You know, throwing parties without dad’s permission, drinking beer, and *gasp!* kissing girls…in a jacuzzi!

James has a better time communicating with Brad than his dad does, and has come up with a way to try to bridge the gap: for Brad’s birthday grandpa gives him a “home version” of the combat simulator that Brad and Jack can play together and maybe bond a little over beating up virtual video game characters. At first, Jack is about as protective of Brad as Marlin is over Nemo. But then Brad plays the game by himself and gets trapped in it, so Jack has to go inside and beat all the levels in order to rescue his son.

There’s not a whole lot of plot: Jack and Brad have to get in numerous fights with different “digital” fighters (played by real-life martial artists) while James and his assistant, Sally (Cynthia Rothrock), try to fix the game and help from the outside. There is some talk about a computer virus infecting the game, which is why the main boss of the film is different from the main boss of the game…but it really doesn’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of the story. The acting is as questionable as any other Don Wilson movie, with the standout being Aki Aleong (as expected—not that he does great work, but he’s the most talented actor of the bunch).

The problem with this film—and we’re talking a movie that currently holds a 2.7 out of 10 on the IMDB—is that Art Camacho’s action direction is completely all over the place, while Don “the Dragon” Wilson fails to make a decent showing for himself. Besides the father-son reconciliation story, the movie sort of purports to be about how kung fu is a way of life. That’s fine and, considering that Don Wilson studied Pai Lum Kung Fu under his brother, it would be a nice change of pace for him to integrate some classical forms into his screen fighting. Except that never happens. Don Wilson does the same old (slow) punches and kicks that he does in all of his film, with no sense of speed for performing in front of the camera. His fights have the same punch-stop-block-stop-kick rhythm of his 1990s films, even though this is 2004 and imported Hong Kong talent had already rendered that sort of thing obsolete. If you’re going to make a movie in which the character wants to glorify kung fu, then a) have him perform kung fu and b) have him look good doing it. The bizarre thing is that his son, played by a then-newcomer Daneya Mayid (a kenpo stylist), does all the complex and lightning-fast handwork that we’d expect from a kenpo stylist (see any Jeff Speakman film) and looks 100x better than the main star. How can we accept his dad as the main star and the “best” fighter in the film when he gets outshone by his son in every. Single. Fight?

Much like 1992’s Black Belt, there is a huge supporting cast of champion martial artists, whose accomplishments are placed beneath their names in the opening credits. Thankfully, unlike that movie, each of them gets his (or her) own fight to show off their skills. The showstopper is the legendary Eric Lee, an actor and action director from the old school days and choy li fut master. Choy Li Fut is known for its extensive weapons curriculum, of which Eric Lee has built his reputation in martial arts sequels. So when he shows up here, he performs a dizzyingly-fast demonstration of the saber-and-chain-whip combo, which is awesome. What is not awesome, however, is watching him get taken down by Wilson, who defeats him with slow and simplistic bo staff techniques. It’s almost insulting to the man’s talent.

There are other hiccups in the action direction, too. Many of the game’s levels are filled with random ninjas (a lá Bad Dudes) that show up and challenge our hero (or Brad) before the boss is confronted. Although some of those fights are adequate for a low-budget American film, sometimes they are hampered by nonsensical video game logic. Like how he beats Chris Cassamassa (Scorpion in Mortal Kombat) in a fight, advances to the next level, and is soon surrounded by ninjas who circle him and take cheap shots at his knees. He claims that he’s not able to fight back until his dad shows up as a hologram to up his level. There’s an attempt to explain this within the logic of the game, but it’s really stupid and just a waste of time and martial talent.

Speaking of which, do not expect much from Cynthia Rothrock in this film: she appears in a non-fighting role as Dr. Tanaka’s assistant and has a role in the video game as a goddess figure. As the latter, she has a brief wire-fu segment against the Computer Virus Fighter, which tries to look like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but looks slow and silly instead. Very awkward moment in the film. Even more awkward is the 1990s-series “Ghost Writer” level of CGI on display throughout the film.

After this movie, Don “The Dragon” Wilson would make two movies in 2006 and 2007, and then not headline another project until 2015’s The Martial Arts Kid. That placed Don in a supporting mentor role. Similarly, Cynthia Rothrock had a supporting role in the obscure 2007 film The Lost Bullet, followed by 2012’s Santa’s Summer House, and then 2013’s Badass Showdown, which also saw her in a mentor role. Although both Wilson and Rothrock continue to be busy on the film scene until the present, their days as the King and Queen of the twin Iron Thrones of DTV Martial Arts Cinema have long since ended. In many ways, we may see Sci-Fighter as their joint swan song to their reign atop the skeleton-covered hill that was the American B-movie scene. It is a great shame, then, that this film is so mediocre that showed neither Rothrock nor Wilson (nor Lamas, for that matter) at the top of their game.