Prey of the Jaguar (1996)

A cop trains in martial arts to become a superhero to go after the killers of his wife and son.

Director:

David DeCoteau

Writers:

Rory Johnston (story), Rory Johnston

Stars:

Maxwell Caulfield, Stacy Keach, Linda Blair

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Maxwell Caulfield	...	Derek Leigh
Stacy Keach	...	The Commander
Linda Blair	...	Cody Johnson
Trevor Goddard	...	Damien Bandera
Paul Regina	...	Randall Bentley
Paul Bartel	...	Toymaker
Tom Badal	...	Roger Reed
Fiona Hutchison	...	Karen Leigh (as Fiona Hutchinson)
Steven Vincent Leigh	...	Kenichi Tanaka
John Fujioka	...	Master Yee
Vincent Klyn	...	Sonny DePazos
Devon Michael	...	Jeremy Leigh
Benjamin Gates Jr.	...	Will Jackson
Mike McSween	...	Tommy Chilton
Vic Trevino	...	Gino

Storyline

When his wife and son are brutally murdered by a fugitive drug lord that he helped put behind bars, former Special Ops agent Derek Leigh vows to avenge their deaths. After mastering lethal fighting skills at the hands of a martial arts instructor, he assumes the identity of The Jaguar - a vigilante superhero from his son's drawings - and with nothing more to lose, sets out on a fierce, one-man blood hunt to bring the criminals to final justice.

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Plot Keywords:

superhero | martial arts | vigilante | neck breaking | revenge | 

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Taglines:

Nothing Has Prepared Them for His Kind of Justice

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Genres:

Action | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and brief language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

February 1997 (Germany)

Also Known As:

A Perseguição do Jaguar

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hit Entertainment, Jfw Productions Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The text of the (real) Bandera file on the computer screen reads: "DEMIAN, BANDERA E You would think that a huge file like this would tell you something. Not so. I just open up my paint program and let my brain dribble out on the monitor. Bandera doesn't eve(n) exist, you know. He is just a character in a movie! I can't believe that I'm trying to write bio on a man who doesn't even exist. Now I have to write a second collumn. Oh, the tedium... This paragraph won't even have the benefit of my sense of humor. I'm so over having to write this blurb that I can't think of anything to say. This is a real bummer. PRESS ENTER FOR UPDATE"

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Goofs

Derek Leigh and his family live in a modest, 1950s ranch-style home. Later, we are shown an aerial view of the neighborhood and see nothing but huge, expensive new homes with tile roofs.

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Connections

References Sesame Street (1969)

User Reviews

Afternoon fanfare - nothing more

Don't let the really cool-looking cover art for David DeCoteau's "Prey of the Jaguar" fool you - it's really not about a man who transforms into a giant humanoid cat and begins killing people. Although that concept would have been kind of cool (even better when combined with its real plot), unfortunately that's just not what we get here.

No.

It's simply about a retired government agent named Derek Leigh (Maxwell Caulfield) who becomes a high-kicking superhero - known only as "The Jaguar" - versed in the martial arts after his pregnant wife and young son are killed by a ruthless Los Angeles drug dealer named Damien Bandera (the late Trevor Goddard); the overall concept of "The Jaguar" is based largely upon a fantasy created by his murdered son. And while the police are not particularly supportive of Derek Leigh/The Jaguar's vigilante actions, he does find one unlikely ally in homicide detective Cody Johnson ("The Exorcist" Linda Blair), who investigated the original murders of Leigh's family.

This is a fairly typical superhero-action movie romp from the mid-1990s (1996, to be exact). The movie is particularly noteworthy for its formidable cast of "B"-movie regulars, the most appealing, of course, being a post-"The Exorcist" Linda Blair - even though she's not on the screen that much and only appears in a few scenes. I guess the one really good thing to be said about this picture is that it moves through its by-the-numbers motions pretty quickly and it does appear that Maxwell Caulfield is doing the majority of his own martial arts fight sequences (which is about the most authentic thing about them in the first place).

It's a really good way to kill an hour-and-a-half of an otherwise really boring weekday (or weekend) afternoon.

4/10