Chinese arms dealer James Stanton is shot in the head whilst trying to escape an NSA interrogation room & sent to the hospital. He wakes up a few days later with no memory. When the NSA Division Chief discovers this, he decides to use Stanton as bait for his former employer by making him think that he works for the NSA, even roping in one of his fellow agents as a guide. But when the NSA outpost they are based in is attacked by terrorists, Stanton & the female agent go on the run.The Bloodfist series was one of the 1990s' most prolific & enduring B-grade action franchises. Which is somewhat surprising since the series started with a cheap knock-off of Van Damme's early works, only with real martial artists cast in the film, then changed to prison flick (the underrated BLOODFIST III: FORCED TO FIGHT, which was the best entry in the series) to generic action. Bloodfist V: Human Target is the second film in the series to be made under the 'generic action' genre banner.To put it in simple terms, this sequel is better than the previous entry Bloodfist IV: Die Trying despite still having to contend with a weak plot. Although this time, the film's director Jeff Yonis manages to adapt the script to a reasonable degree of success. As with Die Trying, the focus is on terrorists wanting nuclear weapons, this time trying to obtain a container of plutonium that a rogue government employee is selling on the black market & only the amnesiac arms buyer hero can stop them. What makes this one different from the previous entry is that the plot twists, when they do come, are reasonably effective, although anyone with a sharp eye will notice the inconsistencies in the cover stories the agents use on Wilson's hero. Also of particular note is that Wilson is actually playing a bad guy for once in the series, although a bad guy that turns good soon enough.The action scenes are filled with martial arts & gunplay but are not as brutal as previous films had it. The terrorist attack on the NSA junkyard outpost is probably the closest the film comes to approximating the violent cheese of the previous films but it is not too effective in the long run. As the hero, Don "The Dragon" Wilson does his usual thing but is still hamstrung by his annoyed demeanor. The late Steve James adds some class as the NSA agent in charge of the covert operation & Denice Duff does more than being simply eye-candy.

Jim Stanton (The Dragon) is a thug working for a crime syndicate...or is he? After a gunshot wound to the head, Stanton loses his memory. While trying to put back the pieces of his life, he runs into Candy (Duff), a streetwise young woman who seems to share Stanton's concerns about what his past life may have been. Soon they go on the run, trying to figure out why people like Marcus (James) and Agent Blake (Stark) are inserting themselves in, and disrupting, their lives. After many twists and turns, Stanton gets to the truth...but will it be too late? We love Don "The Dragon" Wilson and Steve James, so naturally we were excited to see this movie. Unfortunately, in our opinion, it's one of the weakest in the Bloodfist series. The plot is so disjointed, it's impossible to have any investment in the characters and their plight. It just adds layer upon layer of dumb, unwarranted plot twists, like some nonsense about plutonium once we're already deep into the movie. It falls into the same traps many movies fall into, with an annoying kid/woman, this time the Denice Duff character. From a visual perspective, it's way too dark and pseudo-stylish. We're glad you were trying to dazzle us with your style, but we can't SEE anything, so what's the point? The low budget is plainly obvious in threadbare set design of just blank walls with no decoration.We're truly sorry to be so harsh, that's not normally "us", but we're disappointed. There are some positives, however: Joe Son yelling and shooting a machine gun, the Steve James/Don The Dragon fight which was nice to see, the musical theme which sounds exactly like the MASH theme song "Suicide is Painless", and the fact that this is an ideal role for Don - because of his amnesiac status, he can look as confused, stunned and out-of-it as he wants, and it actually works towards the plot. But sadly, there's no escaping the fact that this movie is a waste of Steve James' talent (and heartbreakingly, his last movie role before his untimely death) - and even Don's awesome long hair doesn't last and he gets a haircut.Although Don forgets everything, thankfully he doesn't forget how to do Martial Arts. That part of his brain remained intact. And while Joe Son is credited as "Beefy", no one ever calls him that on screen. So many wasted opportunities. Well, except for the time-honored opportunity Don takes to get unnecessarily shirtless, an opportunity he seems to take as often as he can. But either because this movie has a conscience, or because it was Corman policy, the movie doesn't go on too long, it's around 80 minutes. So there's some mercy there.Bloodfist V: Human Target sadly goes in the "disappointment" column. We recommend spending your time elsewhere.For more action insanity, drop by: www.comeuppancereviews.com

Out of the first four Bloodfist movies, Part V is my favorite of them all. This one has plenty of twists and turns and the storyline gets very intense all the time. Don "The Dragon" Wilson plays an amnesiac fighter who seems to have a hard time trusting people. Someone he can trust, or someone to avoid. It hard to decide when your brain is like dice. He meets a young woman(Denice Duff) who helps him find out who not to trust and who he can trust. She has dual names, Candy and Michelle. And her character does get her into trouble when she was caught and tortured with some acupuncture needles. One to the cheek is minor, but the one under the left eye was too far! Jim(Wilson) rushes her to the hospital very frantic, and I liked the part where the doctor applied the pain-killer drops, and I know she'll be all right. Also this was one of the last films to actor Steve James(American Ninja 1,2,& 3). It was a shame that he played a heavy. Oh well, he did his part well. This movie has lots of action, twists and turns, and nothing was lost in the movie. Rating 4 out of 5 stars.

The fifth "Bloodfist" entry, and the second one I've watched so far (after part "IV"). Playing an amnesiac is something of an "acting stretch" for Don "The Dragon" Wilson, but he admittedly does a pretty solid job in the role. He also receives good support from Steve James, Denice Duff and Michael Yama. The plot is interesting, it never stops moving and has lots of twists and turns, and the fight scenes are good, filmed in the same close-quarters, hard-hitting style of the previous "Bloodfist" entry, a style that is refreshing to see every once in a while. Of course, you shouldn't get your hopes up too high: this is only a very low-budget martial arts film, after all. But within its field, it's certainly better than you'd expect. (**)