Sci-Fighter (2004)

Director:

Art Camacho

Writer:

Thomas Callicoat (writer)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

They thought it was just a video game... Now they're fighting for their lives.

Plot:

A well-meaning genius creates a virtual reality game that leaves his grandson trapped within when a virus invades...

Cast

Don 'The Dragon' Wilson	...	Jack Tanaka
Cynthia Rothrock	...	Sally Kirk / The White Dragon
Lorenzo Lamas	...	Andrew Dean
Aki Aleong	...	Dr. James Tanaka
Christine Rodriguez	...	The Virus (as Christine Bannon-Rodriques)
Daneya Mayid	...	Brad Tanaka (as Dan Mayid)
Chris Casamassa	...	The Karate Master
Rebecca Chaney	...	The Scorpion
Gokor Chivichyan	...	The Grappler
Simon Kim	...	Double Threat
James Kim	...	Double Threat
Eric Lee	...	Weapons expert
Michael Matsuda	...	Monkey Man (as Michael Gonzalez-Matsuda)
Maurice Smith	...	The Street Fighter
Brad Verret	...	King of the Cage

Also Known As:

Virtual Fighter (USA) (working title)
X-Treme Fighter (USA)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for martial arts violence and brief sensuality.

Runtime:

USA:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13

Company:

Gorilla Pictures

Movie Connections:

Features Jet Set Radio Future (2002) (VG)

Die-Fighers...

Don "The Dragon" Wilson stars as Jack Tanaka a father of a teenager who goes inside a video game to save his son from a virus which controls his mind. Along the way Wilson is helped by fellow fallen action stars Cynthia Rothrock and Lorenzo Lamas. You would think a movie with so many trained martial artists, in a video game plot which would be nothing but wall to wall fights would be at least mildly diverting campy fun, and if made ten years ago you would be right. X-Treme Fighter is the pits. A movie so bad that it makes one pine for the days of Expect No Mercy, Arcade and Virtual Combat. Indeed those three movies I often sited as the worst examples of said genre where "Guy ends up playing video game in real life when game comes alive." but next to the really lame X-Treme Fighter, these come off as the work of Tron or Dreamscape. It's a really awful picture. Starting with the fight sequences, the video game itself has nothing that would indicate that it takes place in a video game world, outside of the phony costumes. The fight sequences are all very badly staged, for a movie featuring so many martial artists, all of them past their expiration date, don't put out any effort to indicate that anyone choreographed these fights without anything but the least amount of effort. The plot element ripped off from hundreds of movies is derivative and ridiculous. However that's not what bothered me. What bothered me was the complete lack of effort in giving us enjoyable villains, a charismatic hero and indeed intense fight sequences. In a film where the fighting is the main point such must be done well. It isn't here. Lorenzo Lamas has hardly any screen time, Cynthia Rothrock doesn't fight and basically this is a replay of Virtual Combat. A replay that is much, much worse.

1/2* Out of 4-(Awful)