Honor and Glory (1993)

HONOUR AND GLORY is a feather in the cap of Hong Kong director Godfrey Ho, the man best known for his cut and paste ninja movies of the 1980s. Before and after those films, however, he had quite a career making low budget action features, and those of the early '90s have aged quite well. These are classic examples of so-bad-it's-good cinema, with elaborately staged fight scenes and plenty of jaw-dropping overacting.This film's no exception. Ho shot the film in America with an American cast and the plot is simplistic stuff about various characters teaming up to fight back against a crime overlord. Headlining the cast is Cynthia Rothrock, who doesn't get too much screen time but is more than adequate when she does show up. The little-known Donna Jason plays Rothrock's sister, a roving reporter who also knows a thing or two about martial arts.The best thing about this film is the human he-man John Miller as the villain of the piece. He goes way over the top in the acting stakes and is completely hilarious as a result. You may or may not remember him as Rothrock's cop partner in the even funnier UNDEFEATABLE. Miller is surrounded by bodyguards and spends the whole film beating on people. The fights are slow and quite awkward but like the cinema of Amir Shervan, HONOUR AND GLORY is too much of a treat for bad film lovers to dislike.

Kung fu black belt TV reporter Joyce Pride (Donna Jason) and her equally tough FBI agent sister Tracy (Cynthia Rothrock) attempt to bring corrupt businessman Jason Slade (John Miller) to justice with help from his former bodyguard Jake Armstrong (Chuck Jeffreys), Hong Kong cop Dragon Lee (Robin Shou) and martial arts student Mickey (Yip Yim Hing).Honour and Glory features an awesome line-up of bona fide martial arts stars (Rothrock, Shou, Miller, Jeffreys) but very little in the way of genuine acting talent; normally, this doesn't bother me too much, just so long as the action comes thick and fast, but with less than impressive fight scenes (largely thanks to the typically lousy direction from king of crap ninja flicks Godfrey Ho) and a plot that is all over the place (another Ho trademark), the film proves very disappointing indeed.Admittedly, a certain degree of fun can be gleaned from the sheer naffness of the whole affair—OTT villain Slade and his henchman Hideo (Richard Yuen) are hard to take seriously, and further giggles can be had from Jake Armstrong's hideous fashion sense—but for the most part this is forgettable nonsense and an unforgivable waste of its stars' formidable fighting skills.

When a Bulgarian General steals a nuclear trigger and it goes on the black market, everyone's after it, from the U.S. Government to the lowliest street criminal. But the guy who wants it the most is the unbelievably evil banking financier Jason Slade (Miller, in truly a star turn). Hot on his trail is the Pride family: FBI agent Tracey (Rothrock), her sister, a TV news reporter, Joyce (Jason), and their father, a CIA agent (Rocca). Also helping them out is Dragon Lee (Shou), Tracy's old associate from Hong Kong. But Slade's got more bad news coming his way: his former bodyguard Jake Armstrong (Jeffreys) has defected to the good guys, and they're all coming for him and his evil empire! This movie is pure genius. It really is. Godfrey Ho (here working as Godfrey Hall) manages another winner for his hit-or-miss repertoire. Featuring a lot of the cast and spirit as Undefeatable (1993), if you liked that, you'll love this. It seems his shot-in-America stuff (in this case Maryland) that isn't cobbled together from a myriad of sources is his best material. From the first minute, when we see it is produced by Action Star pictures, and we see a boardroom of politicians who are the weirdest-looking gaggle of dudes maybe ever, you know you're in for something great.A lot of what makes Honor and Glory shine are the line readings from the actors. It's kind of hard to explain, but the way the actors talk, and their deliveries, are simultaneously hilarious and mesmerizing. Add to all this the winning presence of Cynthia Rothrock, well-supported by Robin Shou, and Chuck Jeffreys, and you have a fun time had by all. As far as the relationship between the two Martial Arts-trained sisters is concerned, Tracey says to Joyce, "I chase honor, you chase glory". But their last name is Pride, so it's surprising this movie wasn't called "Pride and Glory". The thing about Chuck Jeffreys is, not only is he like Eddie Murphy, he's BETTER than Eddie Murphy! Jeffreys deserves all the fame and fortune Murphy has. It's just not fair. But top "honor" s go to John Miller as Jason Slade. The man is truly a national treasure if there ever was one. You thought you'd seen a movie villain before. You were wrong.Aside from being the best movie baddie we've seen in quite some time, it would be awesome if Jason Blade fought Jason Slade. Alas, only in our dreams. But Honor and Glory is great as it is, so we have no complaints. Even the fast motion, and other things that happen plot-wise that we're normally against, don't seem to matter in this insane world. From the opening boardroom scene to the inevitable abandoned warehouse-set climax, Honor and Glory delivers the goods, with plenty of rewindable moments to boot.We have the VHS released by Best Film & Video Corp/Imperial, and even though it's in EP speed, the tape is surprisingly high-quality. And to quote the back of the box, "The action is non-stop and the challenge is ultimate". Need we say more? For more action insanity, drop by: www.comeuppancereviews.com

i can't believe it was a movie on the market with my favorite actress:Cynthia rothrock and yukari oshima in it and i din't knew about it until yesterday.i've saw this movie a few hours ago and what can i tell you is that this movie has a great cast(beside Cynthia and yukari also plays robin shou,waise lee,Pauline Chan,Donna Jason and others),it has week script,average and short fights but many (from start to finish - non stop fights)but what can i say is that you will not be bored watching this movie ,everytime is something happen,is not like 'police assassins' or 'righting wrongs' but it deserve to be watched.this movie enter in that category of 'so bad it's good'