To me there’s something a bit special about the movies that Cynthia Rothrock and Richard Norton made together. As well as a couple of memorable Hong Kong films – the fun Millionaire’s Express and the flawed but action-packed Magic Crystal, the Fred and Ginger of kung fu have appeared together in China O’Brien 1 and 2, Redemption, the rather odious Lady Dragon and this movie, Rage And Honor and its sequel. Whatever the relative merits of these movies, the pair - who are obviously friends - normally manage to generate some decent chemistry, and on the occasions where they are playing enemies, some cracking fight action – check out their incredible duels in Magic Crystal to see what I mean.

This movie was put out by IRS Media, part of Miles Copeland’s now-defunct IRS Records empire. The company put out a number of films before it folded, including Tom & Viv, One False Move, the infamous Venus Rising and the two Circuitry Man movies – read a couple of superlative reviews of the latter by Bergerjacques of the B-Movie Message Board here and here. I don’t know much about the history of either the company or the production, but it’s clear from the outset that more money has been spent on it than your typical Rothrock or Norton flick.

Going into a Rothrock movie, you pretty much know from the get-go that Cynthia will be playing a hot blonde karate expert looking to get even with somebody about something or other, and this is no different. She plays Kris Fairfield, an inner city high school teacher who we first meet as she’s followed around by one of her students, Paris (Patrick Malone). The young black kid with the Gallic name has the irritating habit of filming everything he sees with a camcorder, so that one day he can be a famous director or sell them to America’s Funniest Home Videos or some shit.

Meanwhile Australian cop Preston Michaels (Richard Norton) is on loan as an observer with the LAPD. But he’s being treated so badly by his colleagues that he’s taken to moonlighting as a security guard for rock bands – a play on Norton’s own former career providing security for the likes of Rod Stewart, Abba, The Stones, Linda Ronstadt and Fleetwood Mac. One thing that constantly irks is the attitude of the American cops in this movie: Preston’s boss Captain Murdock (Catherine Bach, The Dukes Of Hazzard) even tells him if he doesn’t like it, he should get lost back to “Kangaroo land!”

Anyhow, while on a gig Preston sees a woman being roughed up by a couple of hoods, ‘Dave the Thug’ (Roger Yuan, later Jackie Chan’s nemesis in Shanghai Noon) and the even less acknowledged ‘Alley Thug’ (kickboxing ace Peter ‘Sugarfoot’ Cunningham). Preston can’t let this go without laying some Antipodean smackdown, even managing to slip in Norton’s signature catchphrase of asking his opponent “Painful?” after a particularly vicious blow. What, I didn’t say it was a good catchphrase... This all coincides nicely with some baseball bat-wielding hoods trying to rip off Cynthia Rothrock’s purse at an ATM, with predictable consequences for the hoods.

Preston’s two whupassees are apparently working for local crime lord Conrad Drago (go-to B-movie heavy Brian Thompson), and are awfully pally with film’s inevitable pair of asshole cops (these movies ALWAYS have a pair of asshole cops), Talbot (Jon Van Ness) and Rascoe (Matt O'Toole). Preston suspects they’re dirty but the captain doesn’t want to know, telling him he’s just an observer (this is the conversation that prompts the kangaroo land comment). But Preston, as is the way with good-hearted loners in cowboy boots, can’t let it go and follows the pair to a martial arts demonstration being hosted by Kris. After a bit of sexual tension building sparring between Kris and Preston, he leaves to follow Talbot and Rascoe, with Paris (who has never seen a real live Australian before) tagging along.

Meanwhile we meet the villain, Drago, who is demonstrating what a stone badass he is by holding his hand in a candle flame. Personally I’d find him more intimidating if he held somebody else’s hand in a candle flame, and scarier still if he wasn’t the owner of the worst blonde mullet in cinema history. Drago’s girlfriend is Rita Carrion (Terri Treas), owner of the amusingly named Carrion Pharmaceuticals. The company is of course a front for illegal drug manufacturing, revealed when Carrion shows up for a back-alley deal being perpetrated by Talbot and Rascoe. Preston tries to bust them but ends up being captured, prompting one of the dirty cops (I have no idea which one is which, sorry) to exclaim that the jig is up. This annoys Rita to the point where she shoots Talbot (or maybe Rascoe) in the head.

Paris is of course filming the whole thing, but in an all-too-predictable runaway skateboard giveaway is spotted by the bad guys. Paris runs off and slips the camcorder tape to someone off-camera called ‘Baby’, before Rascoe (or Talbot) catches up with him and beats him within an inch of his life. Preston saves Paris and takes the comatose kid to hospital, while nasty Rascoe/Talbot puts it about that it was the Australian who killed, um, the other one. Preston is forced to go on the run, for some reason (it’s in the script, I guess) hiding out at Kris’s dojo/loft apartment. She agrees to help him find the tape, ostensibly to get evidence against the cops who beat up Paris but also because of her secret desire to bring down Drago – more on this later.

Meanwhile Drago also wants to get his hands on the tape that incriminates Rita for murder. To this end he enlists the help of Hannah the Hun (Alex Datcher, Wesley Snipes’ squeeze from Passenger 57). Hannah is the leader of a gang of kickboxing hookers who live in some sort of underground parking structure. Hannah also has an awfully tight bustier, some very big hair and the irritating habit of referring to herself in the third person. Hannah sends out a gang of her girls (including 5-time world champion Kickboxer Kathy Long) to find the tape before Preston and Kris do.

Meanwhile the good guys have managed to track down Baby (Stephen Davies), a bankrupt stockbroker now homeless and the movie’s nominated odious komic relief. Baby has already traded the tape for car parts to Fast Eddie (Tim De Zarn) a chop-shop kingpin who owns a club downtown. After a short interlude to fight Hannah’s girls, Preston, Kris and Baby make it to Eddie’s club. There’s an intermittently amusing bit where they try to bluff their way in (Norton’s naïve shitkickin’ Aussie tourist shtick is better than Rothrock’s airhead valley girl routine) before just punching out the bouncer. Fast Eddie has given the tape to good old ‘Alley Thug’ from earlier, who tries to make a run for it as Preston and Kris arrive. They give chase but it’s a set-up; ‘Alley’ leads them to Hannah’s where they are captured.

Remember Rascoe/Talbot, the surviving dirty cop? He wants out, and demands his share of the ill-gotten drug loot from Drago. The inevitable scene where Drago kills him for his treachery takes place about now – come on, you knew it was coming. Oh, by now it’s been revealed that Drago is Kris’s estranged brother. They were orphans raised by a karate master, but Drago wanted to use his skills for Ee-vil and ended up killing the kindly old man. Kris now wants to take Drago down, and sees the tape as a means to an end.

Back with the good guys, Hannah is forcing Preston and Kris to fight for her amusement – though only Preston is forced to remove his shirt first, boo hiss. They do the ‘make it look real’ routine long enough to grab the tape, a gun and Hannah, before hightailing it out of there. Unfortunately Drago has kidnapped Paris from the hospital, and will kill him unless he gets two things; the tape, and a final showdown with Kris...

Writer/Director Terence Winkless has helmed a bunch of low-budget movie and TV projects. His other work in the martial arts vein is Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson’s breakthrough movie Bloodfist, plus a bunch of Power Rangers episodes. Given how bad Bloodfist is I’m even more surprised Rage And Honor is as good as it is. Sure, it’s an altogether predictable action movie plot, with every cliché in the book (and a few from the book’s Cliff notes) thrown in. But for all that, it’s an enjoyable slice of chopsockey hokum.

Some of the credit for this goes to Cynthia and Richard Norton, both of whom turn in decent B-movie performances. I’m kind of bored by writing things like “while Nicole Kidman probably isn’t worried...” because frankly I’d rather watch Cynthia kicking Hell out of some stunt guys than whatever load of pretentious Oscar-bait twaddle Kidman is in this week. Suffice to say, the two leads seem more natural and relaxed than in most of their other work, and it comes across onscreen. Norton in particular is a pleasure to watch, with his famous affability evident in the character. Like his pal Chuck Norris, he seems to be the sort of guy who would be fun to kick back with while drinkin’ beer and listenin’ to Skynyrd – though Jimmy Barnes or Men At Work might be more appropriate musical choices.

So the acting is better than you’d get from a contemporary Jean-Claude Van Damme film, and so is the action. The only downside is that the plethora of talented fighters in the cast – Roger Yuan, Sugarfoot Cunningham and Kathy Long – don’t get enough of a chance to strut their stuff. Also Winkless needs to take a bit more care to hide the fact that the fighters aren’t actually hitting each other, and as much as I like Brian Thompson he doesn’t really make that convincing an opponent for either Rothrock or Norton, but none of these factors really spoiled my enjoyment of the film.

Rage And Honor was a pleasant surprise. Like many late-80s/early-90s action films it gets no points for originality, but it won’t hurt you the way that Lady Dragon or Honour And Glory will. And that is no bad thing.

Dave Thomas, 18^th February 2004