"The King of the Kickboxers," anyone?

[Guest Alvin George]

Lucas Lo directed that movie. Loren Avedon and Billy Blanks are in it.

[Guest tigerstyles]

tis great movie with english speaking bad actors

[Guest D1 Ma]

" It's like a Bruce Lee movie, only without Bruce"

Very bad flick. Although there are many good screen fighters in this film, fights are pretty bad, with very bland choreography.The only scene worth watching is a very short fight where Keith Cooke fights multiple opponents. The rest is just forgettable.

Avedon is the worst actor I've ever seen, but he can move.Unfortunately, in this flick he's basically wasted.

I'd recommend Karate Tiger 2 instead

[Guest morgoth]

Good thing you told me that. I was gonna get this movie cause that Keith Cooke fight was so sweet.

[Guest kung fu 750]

WHAT

I have this movie and I thought it was an American martial arts clasic. Ya there is bad acting, but what do you expect. It reflects 80's low budget movie making. Keith Cooke is by faar the best thing about this move but Blanks is not bad eather.

Every body is diffrent but i liked it.

[Guest Chinatown Kid]

Avedon has some good TKD skills, I liked him better in the two No Retreat/No Surrender sequels Raging Thunder and Blood Brothers than in this flick.

[Guest tigerstyles]

get it

[Guest morgoth]

Does Keith Cooke have any other good fights?

[Guest Chinatown Kid]

Not in that film he doesn't. Seems like he got to show some of his skills off playing a sidekick to Cynthia Rothrock in those China O'Brien films. Why he wasn't given a chance to do more in films is puzzeling considering the screenfighting talent he had.

[Guest WalkOn]

I enjoyed this movie. Great fighters in decent fights. I agree that Keith "Cooke" Hirabayashi does have the single best fight scene, but I still enjoyed this movie overall. No ground breaking acting/fighting but still fun.

Billy Blanks and Loren Avedon both got to shine. The choreography was nothing to brag about but it still showcased some decent stuff. Great cameos with Jerry "Golden boy" Trimble, Michael DePasquale, Jr, and ofcourse Keith.

Although, No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder aka Karate Tiger 2, had much better choreography and a cameo by Wang Jang Lee fighting Cynthia Rothrock, I still enjoyed King of the Kickboxers a bit more.

No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers aka Karate Tiger 3, I found quite enjoyable with good fighs also.

[Iron_Jinon]

solid stuff..would not want to meet billy blanks.

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[AlbertV]

One of my all-time favorite martial arts films. Tony Leung Siu-Hung choreographed the action. Loren Avedon originally didn't want to yell in his scene when he sees Blanks on the video. He wanted to throw the video in the fire, but director Lo insists he do the Stallone scream.

Keith Cooke Hirabayashi (That's his full name) is one of the premiere superkickers. His fight in the film was one of the best fights in the movie. He was the lead role as the last human kickboxer in a B-movie called Heatseeker with Gary Daniels as the bad cybernoid kickboxer he must fight in the end. The end to that movie sucked big time!!!

Last movie I saw Hirabayashi in was National Security with Martin Lawrence as Eric Roberts' right hand man.

The Avedon-Blanks finale is one of my favorite end fights to an American-HK MA film.

You gotta love that line though: "LET THE GIRL GOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

[gorhama]

I will agree this was a great American martial arts movie. The fights were great.

It's a shame that Keith Cooke didn't get more of chance to show his stuff in movies.

[AlbertV]

Well, Keith did some excellent work in the China O'Brien films. Robert Clouse, who directed the movies said that Keith was fast with his feet like Bruce Lee was with his hands. That's why in all of his fight scenes, Keith used mostly his feet plus his character, Dakota, had a broken hand. In Part 2, he faces a thug with his hands tied behind his back and uses his kicks to take the guy out. Plus in Part 2, it may be short, but there is a sweet fight between Keith and Billy Blanks.

He was pretty wasted IMO in the Mortal Kombat films (first as Reptile, then in Annhiliation as Sub-Zero). Since then, he was pretty wasted, like in Beverly Hills Ninja and National Security.

If you like cheesy sci-fi MA movies, Heatseeker was all good until the end. Keith vs. Gary Daniels, probably a kicker's dream come true, starts out exciting but let's just say it gets ruined at the end. For spoiler purposes, I will not tell you what happens, but it makes the fight overall a disappointment.

[Guest Markgway]

Terrible movie, but the action is decent.

The UK DVD is uncut.

[kingofkungfu2002]

Yep, KOTK is a guilty pleasure of mine too (as you can tell from my avatar). Cheesy as hell, but entertaining

I agree that Keith Cooke should have done a lot more movies...what a waste. I have footage of him in competition from 1985, performing a couple of WuShu demos and the guy can flip and fly with the best of them

I remember Cynthia saying that he did actually break his hand a few weeks prior to filming 'China O' Brien', that's why they wrote it into the movie.

[Joseph_Kuby]

Corey Yuen choreographed the fight involving Keith and those guys.

[edher_M.A.]

I like the entire Seasonal Films Corp. american made movies. From No Reteat No Surrender to Bloodmoon. Keith Strandberg who wrote most of these movies, said that he'd rather work with a real martial artist than with a trained actor, that's why these movie mainly used martial arts champions or real life black belts, reason why the acting is soooooo bad.lol

Look at all the martial arts stars that had roles in those movies: Jean Claude Van Damme, Kurt Mckinney, Loren Avedon, Billy Blanks, Keith Cooke, Keith Vitali, Reese Madigan, Cynthia Rothrock, Wang Jang Lee, Peter Cunningham, Tai Chung Kim, Michael Depasquale Jr., Brandon Gaines, Chuck Jeffreys and many others. These people either had there first role ever, HK crossovers or better chance to showcase there skills.

That's why i feel this series of movies are very important for the american martial arts cinema, no matter how bad they actually are, lol

[jiujitsu77]

billy blanks came to NWI/chicagoland area for a tae-bo seminar. all the girls from my schools jiujitsu/female kickboxing class went and i tagged along. billy blanks is the coolest dude on the planet! talked to him briefly about the films and such. got an autograph. love that guy. class act all the way

[Jingangchan]

WHAT

I have this movie and I thought it was an American martial arts clasic. Ya there is bad acting, but what do you expect. It reflects 80's low budget movie making. Keith Cooke is by faar the best thing about this move but Blanks is not bad eather.

Every body is diffrent but i liked it.

Yeah, you're right. Kieth Hirabayashi Cooke is great...I think this is an Ng Se Yuen movie...and this cast was together for at least a couple of other movies. It's an American classic that everyone should have in their collection.

[Jingangchan]

Not in that film he doesn't. Seems like he got to show some of his skills off playing a sidekick to Cynthia Rothrock in those China O'Brien films. Why he wasn't given a chance to do more in films is puzzeling considering the screenfighting talent he had.

I sometimes call Kieth Cooke the "poor man's Donnie Yen."

[Jingangchan]

I like the entire Seasonal Films Corp. american made movies. From No Reteat No Surrender to Bloodmoon. Keith Strandberg who wrote most of these movies, said that he'd rather work with a real martial artist than with a trained actor, that's why these movie mainly used martial arts champions or real life black belts, reason why the acting is soooooo bad.lol

Look at all the martial arts stars that had roles in those movies: Jean Claude Van Damme, Kurt Mckinney, Loren Avedon, Billy Blanks, Keith Cooke, Keith Vitali, Reese Madigan, Cynthia Rothrock, Wang Jang Lee, Peter Cunningham, Tai Chung Kim, Michael Depasquale Jr., Brandon Gaines, Chuck Jeffreys and many others. These people either had there first role ever, HK crossovers or better chance to showcase there skills.

That's why i feel this series of movies are very important for the american martial arts cinema, no matter how bad they actually are, lol

Yeah, this is what I was trying to tell a couple of guys in the "Worst Martial Artist" thread. So many of the "actors/actresses" in martial arts movies are real martial artists that it's not funny. Just because you are making movies doesn't mean you are not the real McCoy. Kieth Cooke may have been one of the examples I gave.

[AlbertV]

Well, the film also had cameos from Jerry Trimble (former kickboxing champion who is perhaps best known as Jet Li's villain in THE MASTER) as a drug dealer Avedon busts in his opening scene and Trimble's henchmen were played by OPERATION CONDOR lead bad guy Vincent Lyn and TRINITY GOES EAST's Steve Tartalia. Bruce Fontaine from OPERATION CONDOR plays a stunt actor who gets killed by Khan in a brutal fashion.

[Jingangchan]

Well, the film also had cameos from Jerry Trimble (former kickboxing champion who is perhaps best known as Jet Li's villain in THE MASTER) as a drug dealer Avedon busts in his opening scene and Trimble's henchmen were played by OPERATION CONDOR lead bad guy Vincent Lyn and TRINITY GOES EAST's Steve Tartalia. Bruce Fontaine from OPERATION CONDOR plays a stunt actor who gets killed by Khan in a brutal fashion.

Yeah...it's a good movie overall-especially in terms of the action. One thing I like about it is that it's pre Tae Bo...

[Blood Sword]

It was quite(not totally) boring before end fight.And end is actually good,some swift footwork and spiked cage good location to settle issues:bigsmile:

If here anyone who have not seen this I would say:take a look.