FIST OF THE WARRIOR is a cheapo martial arts vehicle for Pak Ho-Sung, a Korean-American fighter whose best known role is still as the top henchman in Jackie Chan's excellent DRUNKEN MASTER II (he's the guy who goes lording it around in a black suit). Sadly, to mention FIST OF THE WARRIOR in the same paragraph as the Jackie movie is to do the latter a disservice, as this independent production is completely forgettable and nowhere near in the same league.It's a film with a simple revenge storyline that feels dragged out no end with long dialogue scenes between extraneous characters who aren't even important to the story. The whole thing is dark and cheap-looking and the various fight scenes suffer from lacklustre choreography that doesn't allow the viewer to enjoy any of the strikes or special moves, not that there are many.Ho-Sung makes for a wooden hero although I did enjoy the presence of the familiar faces in the supporting cast. Sherilyn Fenn was once the star of BOXING HELENA while Peter Greene has long been propping up B-movies as a slimy villain; I still remember him as the guy who gets his neck snapped by Seagal in UNDER SIEGE 2: DARK TERRITORY. STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION actors Marina Sirtis and Michael Dorn enjoy a mini reunion of sorts, Antonio Fargas cameos as a priest, and hulking body builder Brian Thompson is completely wasted in a nondescript henchman role. Yeah, FIST OF THE WARRIOR isn't much cop, even for action lovers.

I am sort of perplexed about the title of the movie. The DVD I purchased from Amazon is titled "Fist of the Warrior", but when I read the print on the back of the movie it says "Blood Money", and yet here on IMDb the movie is titled "Lesser of Three Evils". Hmmm, well there are three titles (three evils?), and lesser of, well perhaps that is a reference to the lack of a proper storyline in the movie?Anyway, the storyline (or lack there of) in the movie is about Lee Choe (played by Ho-Sung Pak) who is a retired hit-man, who ends up chasing after his former employee, John Lowe (played by Peter Greene), as he kills Lee's girlfriend. And that is basically it, then it is all about Lee going from point A to point B and fighting every single bad guy that stands in his way. Oh, wait, then director Wayne Kennedy cleverly tried to incorporate a side story about a corrupt cop (played Roger Guenveur Smith) and his drunken wife (played by Sherilyn Fenn)... But it just didn't add up to a greater interwoven storyline. No, it turned out to be a rather meaningless and pointless storyline that was something taken right out of a 1990's beat 'em up arcade game.The storyline was basically as thin and non-existent as it could get, and the attempts to mingle in a tale of revenge with a tale of a corrupt police officer, just didn't really work out well. Especially because both tales were told with such a lack of detail and luster that you just simply didn't really care about any of the characters in the movie.And speaking of the characters, well they were fairly one-sided, two-dimensional and stereotypical. And it didn't much help the movie that most performances put on here by the cast was just half-hearted.The DVD cover has Ho-Sung Pak on it with a massive on his arm and back, but wait, it isn't even there in the movie. All he has is a single Asian letter on the arm. It was such a ridiculous DVD cover, but hey, it worked well to lure in people. I was suckered in by it.If you enjoy action movies, then I would strongly suggest that you find your fix elsewhere, because "Fist of the Warrior", "Lesser of Three Evils", "Blood Money", or whatever this movie is properly titled just doesn't deliver anything noteworthy on any front. The movie cover brandishes "starring martial arts master Ho-Sung Pak", well that might very well be so, but the martial arts in the movie was few and far apart and the acting, well that was just abysmal.On a closing note, I will point out that the DVD also brandished "he is the ultimate weapon". Well, indeed, but I had a weapon that managed to defeat him and will do so any given day; the eject button on the remote control.

Are martial arts film makers so desperate that they will use any schlock storyline, a studio of unbelievable actors and horrible cinematography to put something together that actually passes as a movie? The only thing I can find amazing about this film is how did they every get the financing to pull it off? It's awful! The writing is bad, the acting is worse and the story (?)is even worse. There's nothing redeeming about this wretched attempt at a martial arts good-guy bad-guy face-off. The only believable performance was the by the female hired assassin who ends the film and she wasn't that good, proving again the old adage that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

The 30 second trailer for this film contains all the action that you will see in this movie. I felt as if I was tricked into watching a soap opera while watching "Fist of the Warrior". Ho-Sung Pak is adept in the fight scenes.... all three of them, but doesn't really offer anything spectacular. The problem is there is not nearly enough action in this movie and there is nothing else to hold the viewer's interest for the remaining 85 minutes of this 88 minute movie. Just a bunch of nonsense about mobsters, a crooked cop and his drunk wife, a strip club, and flashbacks of the hero and his girlfriend who have no chemistry whatsoever. If you are looking for a martial arts movie about a guy who gets revenge after his girlfriend's death, this is isn't your movie. If you want a soap opera about said events, this still isn't your movie because it sucks.