The Redemption: Kickboxer 5

Continuing my journey through the Kickboxer universe, I've arrived at Kickboxer 5, the last (so far) numbered sequel. Unfortunately, they saved the worst for last.

From the get go, the cheapness is overwhelmingly obvious. When your opening title sequence looks cheaper than the last iPhone video you took of your cat chasing a flashlight beam, you know you're in trouble.

David Sloan is gone, murdered by a South African kickboxing syndicate for reasons I'm not entirely sure of. Are kickboxers kidnapped, falsely imprisoned, and murdered as much in real life as they are in the Kickboxer movies?

The always-awesome Mark Dacascos plays...I don't remember his character's name. I'll just call him Kickboxer. Kickboxer has to go to South Africa and do something kickboxing related...I think. I just finished watching it and I really don't remember.

One unusual plot point that is never expounded upon is the relationship between Kickboxer and his elderly, sweater-vest wearing, gentleman friend. At first, it seems that the gentleman is Kickboxer's gym manager, but a bit later, it appears they live together. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

MST3K fans will, of course, recognize James Ryan , here playing the head of the evil South Africa kickboxing syndicate, as "MacPhearson" from the classic Space Mutiny episode. Every time he appeared on screen I reflexively started yelling out David Ryder's nicknames.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to moving on to the next entry in the franchise.

this movie represents the slowest and most boring of the franchise(so far)i also found it pointless and even more devoid of any real story than any of the previous entries.there's some action scenes which are not bad and Mark Dacascos has some good fighting mood and i like his fighting style.he seems able to carry a movie all right,but the movie doesn't carry him.i did like the inclusion of James Ryan (from "Kill or be Killed"(1980) and "Kill and Kill Again)(1981)as the villain of the piece.he makes a pretty good villain and also has a very cool fighting style.but the problem with this movie,besides the hackneyed plot,is it is mostly just a bunch of endless foot chase scenes.in my opinion "Kickboxer 5" is a 4/10

This time Mark Dacascos is the headlining kickboxer who destroys the company that killed his friends. Seems like the Negall federation has killed off champions who refuse to join (Including Sasha Mitchell's character David Sloan) of course this leads to a final confrontation between Mark Dacascos and James Ryan. Redemption:Kickboxer 5 is the only film of the series that I had never saw prior to my ordering of the Kickboxer 5 pack. This particular entry for some reason never played on USA or TBS like the others did. After watching the final product it's not hard to see why. First off the David Sloan killed off in this film looks so unlike Sasha Mitchell (Why didn't they use Geoff Meed who bares somewhat of a resemblance?) that I refuse to acknowledge that this indeed has anything to do with Kickboxer 1-4. I must admit that I rated Kickboxer 1-4 higher than I normally would due to my nostalgia at the time, I would get home from my gas station job and plop down on the couch and that would be on TV much to my delight. Redemption:Kickboxer 5 doesn't even have that to fall back on and indeed there is hardly any kickboxing at all to be found in this super lousy sequel. Dacascos has natural screen presence and James Ryan has his moments as a bad guy but I prefer ass kicking in my kickboxing movies and therefore this movie adds up to less than nothing for me.

1/2* out of 4-(Awful)

Not as good as the first Kickboxer movie but better than all the other ones. I recommend this movie if you like the Kickboxers movies because it is a good movie and Mark Dacascos is pretty good in the movie and it is also a good martial arts movie.

This killed the whole Kickboxer series. I can't believe they said that David Sloan died in the beginning of the movie. Tong Po wasn't finished yet, because he ran away in part 4. The real Kickboxer Series Saga didn't end. If they made Kickboxer 5, it should have been about the Sloans again. I was so angry!!!! They shouldn't have called this Kickboxer 5. They just wanted Kickboxer fans too see it. If you are a Kickboxer fan, don't watch this one, it has nothing to do with the other Kickboxers. They should have called this movie something else. Why did they call it "Kickboxer 5". It's probably a good martial arts flick, but it shouldn't have been the sequel to the Sloan Saga.