The Perfect Weapon

R 6
1991 1 hr 23 min Drama , Action , Crime

Jeff, a young delinquent, is enrolled by his father in a kenpo school, in the hopes of teaching the boy some self-discipline. Years later, Jeff's mentor, Kim, is being threatened by one of the Korean mafia families. Jeff tries to help his old friend, but is too late to prevent Kim's death at the hands of an unknown hitman. Vowing revenge, Jeff takes on all of the families, using his martial arts skills to find the man who killed his friend.

  • Cast:
    Jeff Speakman , John Dye , Mako , James Hong , Mariska Hargitay , Dante Basco , Beau Starr

Reviews

BootDigest
1991/03/15

Such a frustrating disappointment

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Moustroll
1991/03/16

Good movie but grossly overrated

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Contentar
1991/03/17

Best movie of this year hands down!

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Baseshment
1991/03/18

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

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ivo-cobra8
1991/03/19

The Perfect Weapon is my all time favorite martial arts 90's movie and it is the best off Jeff Speakman he ever did. This is the only movie I like the rest of the films Jeff Speakman did were just pure garbage. It is my favorite martial arts karate action movie. It is a style of one man army with no guns but with his bare hands using Kenpo karate martial arts skills to fight the evil on the streets. I love this film to death and I have watch it as a teen. I rented this movie on VHS in 2003 and I watched this movie with my mom. It is a bit underrated martial arts action film and my opinion and it is a good film. The movie was directed by Mark DiSalle who also directed Kickboxer (1989) Jean-Claude Van Damme film and the music score and composer is Gary Chang who made music scores for other action movies and that really good such as: Dead Bang, Death Warrant (another Jean-Claude Van Damme movie), Under Siege, Sniper, Double Team and other movies. "Full contact. No protection. No problem."So the story tell about a young 11 year old boy Jeff (Micah Roberts) who loses his mom and he becomes a troublemaker. His father a police officer Capt. Carl Sanders (Beau Starr) want's to sent him to military school, so that Jeff will learn a hard discipline. Kim (Mako) friend of the family sends Jeff in to Kempo Karate school instead so that Jeff will learn the discipline on the hard way and control his anger and energy with a hard work. 6 years later a teen Jeff (Tom Hermann) becomes one of the best students and a martial arts expert in six degree black belt. But in the school in the football field Jeff get's in to an argument with one of the football players but when the football player punches his younger brother Adam (Justin Webb), Jeff uses his martial arts skills on the football player and kicks the living sh** out of him. Which he lands in the hospital. After that incident his father kick's him out of the house and throw's him out off his and his younger brother life away forever. Jeff goes on his own way but stay's in touch with Kim (Mako) as his father figure. Many years later Jeff is a now young man (Jeff Speakman) who practices his karate moves every day. When he hears his best friend Kim is in trouble he rushes back home to safe his friend from Korean mafia but he is too late, his best friend is killed. Now he goes on his own brand of justice for the killer with his martial arts skills without any back up or weapons he's "The Perfect Weapon." This movie has everything it has a heart it has martial arts likable one man army martial arts expert Jeff Speakman. You mourn with the hero when he is kicked out of his home from his dad. It has full contact it has memorial bad guys James Hong and Professor Tanaka great fighting skills, great soundtrack and you can easily root for the good guy hero. The movie has a great action, great dialogues, great cast of actors, the acting from everyone is excellent. I love the setting of this movie, I love the final fights in the factory and it is filled with great action.All tough to movie tagline say's: "No gun. No knife. No equal." Jeff uses a different kind of weapons by the end of the movie two oak stickers (Bo) and he does uses two knives on the end of the movie.Great performance from Jeff Speakman I heard he had a throat cancer but he recover it. Wonderful performance from Mako and excellent performance from James Hong and Professor Tanaka. There is no wire, no fake, all real actions. The fight scenes are unbelievable, the story is good as well. In here they are real fights real practical effect no shaky cam no CGI everything is made for real. Watch the final fight with Jeff and Professor Tanaka on the end of the movie one of the best fighting scenes in the intier movie ever!!!This movie is one of the reasons that I have signed in the Karate school training karate for 2 years and I have earn orange belt In the Shotokan karate. The only problem I have is with the director to actress Mariska Hargitay who play's Jeniffer (Jeff's childhood friend) she has nothing to do in this movie she doesn't have even any lines. She keeps appearing and disappearing I don't know why director put her in the screen and he didn't gave her nothing to do she is a great actress. R.I.P. Mako, John Dye,Seth Sakai, Professor Toru Tanaka and my mom Jelka Jamar when she died in 2007 thank you my mom for paying all the karate lessons for me I love you and I miss you. This review is dedicated to my mom. The Perfect Weapon get's by me a score B 7/10 a good underrated martial arts action movie. The Perfect Weapon is a 1991 martial arts action film directed by Mark DiSalle and starring Jeff Speakman, Mako Iwamatsu, James Hong, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.7/10 Grade: B Studio: Paramount Pictures Starring: Jeff Speakman, John Dye, Mako, James Hong, Mariska Hargitay, Dante Basco, Professor Tanaka Director: Mark DiSalle Producers: Pierre David, Mark DiSalle Writter: David C. Wilson Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 23 Mins. Budget: $10.000.000 Box Office: $14,061,361

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Comeuppance Reviews
1991/03/20

Jeff Sanders (Speakman) has been training in Kenpo since he was a young boy. At first, it was because his father wanted to direct all his unruly, youthful energy. Now he's a Kenpo master who abides by his own tagline, "no gun, no knife, no equal" (though technically he does use Arnis sticks). When his friend, a shop owner named Kim (Mako) comes under fire from the Korean mob, Sanders snaps into action. But will he snap some necks along the way? Along his quest, he must utilize the help of his brother, a cop named Adam Sandler...er...Sanders, and a young punk kid named Jimmy (Fist of the North Star (1995) and Blood and Bone (2009)'s Basco) but it's going to take all of Jeff's Kenpo skills to fight off Yung (Hong), Kai (Tagawa) and the intimidating Tanaka (played, unsurprisingly, by Professor Toru Tanaka). Is Jeff Sanders the PERFECT WEAPON? Find out today...The Perfect Weapon is the best Jeff Speakman movie we've seen to date...and why wouldn't it be: it was his first starring role, as well as being a major studio release tailor-made to showcase his Kenpo talents to the world. As might be expected, the fight scenes are the highlight of the production. Speakman clearly has "got game", as it were, enough to compete with all his competitors at the time. The whole thing is well-shot and you can see all the moves. Refreshingly, this was before quick cuts, green screens and nu-metal corroded the action genre. Sure, it slows down before the climax, but that's a common action movie malady we've seen countless times before. There's the time honored warehouse showdown, but this time employees still work there and it's not abandoned. So there's a slight difference there.Gumming up the works is the introduction of Jimmy, the classic young punk kid. He gives his scenes with Speakman an unpleasant American Ninja 5 (1993) vibe. He even un-ironically whines "are we there yet?" at one point. Now, let's not forget Mariska Hargitay, TV's Olivia Benson, is technically in this movie as well. Despite being top-billed, she has literally zero spoken dialogue and appears only in brief flashes. It would have been so much cooler if Speakman teamed up with her to bust some heads in Koreatown. But no, there has to be an annoying kid, and the movie goes slower with Jimmy.At least the movie is well-made, and, plotwise, it's actually about Kenpo, which gives the whole thing consistency. Yes, the whole thing looks like it was shot on a backlot (there are some pretty obvious sets), but some of them are cool - look at "Club Croc-Pit". Notably, the film starts out with Speakman sweatily working out, shirtlessly, in sweatpants, to Snap's "The Power". You just know he intentionally put that song on because he believes it was written about him. You can't get more 1991 than that. When I was eleven years old, I remember seeing a commercial on TV for this movie, and even then, thinking, "another one?" - meaning, I already knew about Arnie, Sly, Seagal, Van Damme, and perhaps others involved in the late 80's/early 90's action boom, and I was surprised "they" (meaning studio higher-ups) were rolling out a new guy. How could I, or anyone, have known that the U.S. action boom was about to go bust. We should really treasure what we have.Director DiSalle has had an interesting career - he's only directed this and Kickboxer (1989), but he produced Speakman's Street Knight (1993), as well as Bloodsport (1988) and Death Warrant (1990). He wrote the story for Kickboxer 2 (1989), acted in all five of the aforementioned movies, and that's about it for him. Apparently he only works with Speakman or Van Damme. Seems like a good way to go through life. Anyway, The Perfect Weapon, despite a few flaws, would prove to be the last theater-released movie from the action boom of the day. That alone makes it worth seeing.

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ctomvelu1
1991/03/21

As Steve Segal's career began to decline, Jeff Speakman's was on the rise. Of the various martial arts movies Speakman did,l this is by the far the best, although Lord knows it is no masterpiece. There is very little plot other than revenge, but the fight scenes are well done and plentiful. Many familiar faces (Mako, James Hong, Toru Tanaka) are on hand to support Speakman, who is about as good an actor as Segal, which is to say not particularly good. But he looks great in the fight scenes. A young and delectable Mariska Hargitay, later of L&O: SVU, is along for the ride. Speakman was one of several actors that Hollywood briefly employed to capitalize on Segal's success. None lasted all that long. It took the arrival of Jet Li to spark new interest in martial arts flicks.

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linuxlouis
1991/03/22

First, if anyone knows _when_ this is going to be released on DVD legitimately, please post on here or email me.Second. This movie is great! The first time in a long time that anyone brings some good, well choreographed fight scenes to the movies.We need more Kenpo experts to bring some more original movies to Hollywood. As any viewer of this movie can see, there are no duplicate scenes, like any of the VanDead movies, where they show the same damn kick from 12 different angles... I mean c'mon enough with the helicopter kick LOL.I think this movie really illustrates the deep content of the Kenpo system and removes it from the watered down "martial arts" of "Take My Do" that gives everybody and their sister a worthless black belt.This movie develops the plot well, has the necessary elements of a good story; captivates both males and females...Great movie! Last, "Jeff where are you and/or your students? We need some more good Kenpo representatives out there!"

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