From Joseph Mehri and Richard Pepin, prolific producers of direct-to-video action filler, comes DEADLY TARGET, karate cop stuff so generic that one forgets the title even before its excessively long 99 minutes are up.
Hong Kong hood Wu Chang (Byron Mann), who wants to pour drugs into LA's Chinatown, sets about subduing uncooperative local triads by killing everyone everywhere, with the help of his four or five henchmen. Chasing Chang is Hong Kong inspector Charles Prince (Gary Daniels), on a vendetta because
the villain murdered his brother. A grumpy LAPD captain (Max Gail, of the TV police sitcom "Barney Miller") orders Prince off the case, but the kickboxing lawman vows to get his man, though he also finds time to shack up with pretty Chinese-American Valley Girl Diana Tang (Susan Byun). Joined by
Det. Jim Jensen (Ken McLeod) in a nondescript kickboxing buddy-cop sidekick role, Prince attacks a shipboard hideout where the bad guy holds Diana hostage. Chang's defeat is lamely predictable, just like everything else. Even Jensen's convenient discovery of a loaded antiaircraft cannon, which he
uses to zap an enemy helicopter, seems a weak afterthought.
Humorous touches, with emphasis on the cultural contrast between Los Angeles and Hong Kong, are largely futile because the casting of blond British actor/athlete Daniels makes "Charles Prince" seem about as Asian as Prince Charles. Byun goes from helpless damsel to martial-arts hellcat when the
plot calls for it, just as the villains' guns always run out of bullets when the heroes need an advantage. In the only truly outre touch, puffs of talcum powder halo the stuntpeople when they're kickboxed in the head--possibly smoke, brain cells, or dust from the cliches. (Violence, substance
abuse, profanity.) leave a comment