Thanks for the memories!

Good concept, poorly executed.

Excellent but underrated film

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The great tragedy of this film is that of Brandon Lee. While obviously this was t his last film, I feel this is the one that really sold everyone on what he could do, with the crow selling on how good he could do it. This movie is not without its faults, I'm not denying that, but Lee is undoubtedly one of the strongest parts. This might sound borderline blasphemous to say and I know I'm probably looking at it from a different outlook, but I think the fight scenes in Rapid Fire are as good as, if not better, than some of his father's. There's a genuine sense of energy and charisma to them and Lee makes it look easy. Every fight is well shot and directed (Dwight Little is a very underrated director and his style fits perfectly with this film), the action and sets allow for many creative outcomes and in a word, it just looks cool.I would be remiss if I didn't mention Powers Boothe in this movie. He's awesome, and always was, be he hero or villain. He plays the grizzled Dirty Harry cop perfectly and looks as comfortable with a shotgun as he does with a doughnut.I highly recommend this movie, if for nothing else than the fight scenes.

Quite often it happens that the purest examples of a particular style only happen after that style has become outdated or it has moved on. Even more often so with movies. Most movie fans will know what you're talking about if you say something is, for example, an 80s action film. Those had a distinct feel and sound that separate them to their own subgenre of action. But not all of them were made in the 80s. One of the earliest pioneers of the subgenre was Escape from New York in 1981, having started its production in the late 70s, whereas this film, released in 1992, was probably one of the last of the era.And it definitely loves what it is. It is distilled and honest 80s from the cheesy synth-soundtrack to the brutal fist cuffs fight scenes to the gratuitously urban settings and colours. And then there's the story, where a young art student Jake Lo (Brandon Lee) witnesses a mob boss committing a murder and is promptly flown to Chicago under police protection to testify against the boss. And naturally everything goes absolutely sideways almost immediately and our hero has to kung fu fight his way out of trouble. Like you do.It's cheesy, it's simple, but it's honest about what it is. It doesn't hide, it doesn't pretend, and it does it all with heart and feeling. And I love it for what it is. Though it definitely helps that the actors are much better than usual, from the rising martial arts action star Brandon Lee to Powers Boothe playing the Chicago cop hunting down the mob boss. If you like action and especially if you love 80s action, give this film a watch. It's worth it.

They just don't make them like this anymore, do they? "Rapid Fire" is an action movie that thrives on how old-fashioned and clichéd it is, it fully embraces all the joys that come with making a B-movie. There's somewhat of a coherent plot, but obviously it's just an excuse to put in gun fights and explosions wherever they have the chance. And boy, do they see chances. This movie is chock full of people that have to die, you even get two lead antagonists for the price of one. There's almost no build-up, which normally is a bad thing but not when build-up is replaced by guys doing kendo. It also helps that Brandon Lee was a pretty good actor (to action movie standards), breathing life into his character and even totally selling the unavoidable love interest subplot. Director Dwight H. Little also does a fine job of making the movie look as dark and sordid as he possibly can, but that shouldn't be a surprise if you remember he made "Out For Justice". "Rapid Fire" is everything the title suggests, which should be enough for fans of the genre.

It was a huge blow when the news of Brandon Lee's death made headlines in the mid 1990s. The fact that the guy never managed to fulfil his opportunities as a successful action movie star and follow in the footsteps of his dad in that particular sense was tragic, considering just how good he was on screen. Showdown In Little Tokyo was a C-list martial arts epic, whilst The Crow- Brandon's very last movie he had starred in, was a horror movie, which whilst his martial arts skills were relatively limited, he still manage to display his acting graft as well as to show that he can act, in addition to kicking arse.Rapid Fire came out in 1992 amidst his previous effort, his collaboration with Dolph Lundgren entitled: 'Showdown in Little Tokyo', which was released the year before. In this movie, Brandon plays art student Jake Lo, who witnesses a murder and afterwards, finds himself on the run from a gang of evil drug lords, as well as a bunch of two-faced, backstabbing cops, of whom are enlisted and supposed to protect Jake but who turn out to be doing the dirty work for the bad guys. Thankfully, he has a good cop on his side and together, the pair, despite their dislike for one another, work together to bring them to justice.American martial arts films tend to be rather forgettable, run-of-the mill type of movies compared to the Hong Kong, Kung Fu-based flicks, but Rapid Fire in contrast is one of the much better efforts. It is action-packed, explosive and Brandon is not that bad of a fighter. He is exceedingly good and manages to combine his late father's trademark moves and aggression with Jackie Chan's athleticism, and his fast and frenetic movements. Another leaf he has taken out of his text book is when he takes an object and smashes it on his opponents head, for example.This is a good martial arts movie; alas, it is a glimpse of how great Brandon was and how great could have been and how far his career might have gone- had he still been alive today