Raven Hawk (1996)

Well, I think just about everyone agrees Rachel McLish had a much better bodybuilding career than an acting one. In this Class B action film, she's the female equivalent of Arnold in his first action movie, "Conan The Barbarian." Of course, Arnold made an incredible career out of his acting and has gone on to bigger and better things. This was it for Rachel, acting- wise. Oh, well, at least she was a two-time Ms. Olympia winner.To McLish's credit, she looked good in the film which was made when she was about 40 years of age. How many 40-year-olds do you know are in the shape this woman was here? And, in her defense, the person who wrote the dialog for this film didn't help her out much. The screenplay is really lame. Not many actresses would look good with dialog this dumb.Basically, what we have here is another simple revenge tale, and not one that is well done. Not recommended.

: If one intends to compare this movie to an Oscar winner, you are missing any appeal that there may be in this production. Without continued B-movies or Oaters (B-Westerns), something had to fill the gap, and this might be considered an appropriate replacement. Action--it's there; plot--obvious! And, Rachel McLeish is not at all unattractive as the main protagonist. If you want something for entertainment sake and profundity is not your objective, you may very well enjoy Raven Hawk. Too often one may seek mastery in every video they view, but sometimes it's alright just be after a little fun and escape. This was a Saturday afternoon treat for me.

American Indian Shadowfeather (bodybuilding queen Rachel McLish) stops desecration of holy ground by industrial corporation and avenges her family. Similar to Steven Seagal's `On Deadly Ground', `Ravenhawk' is a tough action movie pretending to say something about ecological matters and the rights of minorities. You needn't buy that, but it's tremendous entertainment anyway. Director Pyun always had great landscapes in his movies, I wish I could watch this at the cinema instead of playing a videotape. There are some beautiful shots you won't forget, for example Shadowfeather climbing on the cliff (a tiny human lost on a giant rock), or riding on her horse across the industrial estate (when nature meets technology in stark contrast). Shadowfeather has to face an impressive opponent: William Atherton (`Die Hard 2') plays the bad guy, you'll easily notice that because he wears black and listens to Italian operas instead of country'n'western – now that's what I call suspicious behaviour (just kidding). If you like Norris and Seagal movies, check out Rachel here. She worked hard for it.

Spoiler within:This movie happened to be playing on Fox at approximately 3:30 AM. I work third shift, so my sleep schedule is a little messed up. Seeing as how it was on so late/early I didn't expect a gem of a movie. I watched the first 30 minutes and realized, this is NO gem. Here comes the spoiler. After her parents were murdered, they actually convict Rhyia, a 12 year old girl, of committing these murders. Was there no crime scene investigation? I mean, clearly, the father was stabbed by someone completely different! Certainly some fingerprints could have been taken, or perhaps a shred of DNA evidence would have been left behind. Did they even question Rhyia about the crimes? Anyway, besides the first 30 minutes, the rest wasn't any better. It was typical revenge-type cheesiness. If you like horrid one-liners, you're gonna love this!!!-Castle_Rock