Where to watch Return of the Kickfighter
2 Stars
The plot concerns a unit of US marines operating in the Vietnam war during 1970, with the movie opening on a raid in a village. After massacring the villagers, the marines steal the villages gold, much to the objection of their Vietnamese translator and guide, (Bruce Le). Skip forward past the credits sequence; it’s now 15 years later, and members of the unit are getting murdered one by one. This leads to the former head of the group, now a high ranking military officer, announcing that the only person who is up to the job of finding out the identity of the killer is an Aussie, Major Brad Cooper (Richard Norton).
My initial exposure to the martial arts genre was the early work of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal. These action classics just piqued my interest, which led me to explore the seminal work of Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee, and a slew of B-movie action icons. For a decade, from the late 1980s to the day The Matrix premiered, the Martial Arts Movie Star was a reliable and consistent moneymaker for the major studios. Having been raised on a steady diet of American studio-produced action films that all have a professional sheen, I realize now that I was spoiled and cheating myself of the pleasures of Richard Norton.
After viewing a handful of Norton’s output, mostly focused on his 1980’s work shot in the Philippines, I’ve become an unabashed fan of the kicker from Down Under. In Return of the Kickfighter, aka Mission Terminate, it’s Richard Norton who struts through the movie, delivering his dialogue and ass-kickings with equal impactfulness. This exploitation picture is more shoot em’ up than chop socky, and with the perpetually tanned and karate man as its star, that’s a bit of a disappointment. There is a siege on the terrorist camp at the film’s climax, and you’d expect Norton to handle the action, which he does, but the real spectacular stuff is executed by Dick Wei. Return of the Kickfighter is equal parts Braddock: Missing in Action and American Ninja, but the low bar of Cannon films is still a step or two above the production values found here.
Directed by: Anthony Maharaj
Written by: Joe Mari Avellana
Starring: Richard Norton, Dick Wei, Franco Guerrero