THE REDEMPTION is the last of the KICKBOXER franchise. This fifth part was shot in South Africa and has little to do with the preceding films, given that the hero of those is killed off in the early scenes and Mark Dacascos is the newcomer hero.
There aren't really many tournament scenes and indeed not really much of anything when it comes to the plotting. There's your routine villain responsible for various deaths and the like and the clean-cut hero who's busy trying to track him down and get revenge for various grievances. It's all very cheap-looking and the dull direction from Kristine Peterson doesn't really help much either.
I always like Dacascos as a fighter and to be fair he isn't so bad here in the action stakes. There's still plenty of action and even if none of it particularly wows you, it's still fun to watch. However, THE REDEMPTION is let down by a very poor supporting cast, particularly the villain who isn't imposing in the least, and Geoff Meed is just as wooden as a supposed henchman who becomes something else as the story progresses. If you're a massive fan of '90s-era fight action you might get a kick or two out of this, but it really is barrel scraping stuff.
