Stars: Brandon Lee, Powers Boothe, Nick Mancuso, Raymond Barry

Director: Dwight Little

Summary: A student trained in martial arts, witnesses the Tienanmen Square massacre and the death of his father. Pursued by the Mafia he has only one form of protection...

After witnessing a killing by a mafia kingpin, college student Jake Lo (Brandon Lee, son of Bruce) is pursued by smugglers, mobsters and crooked feds. Only when he takes the law into his hands, with the help of a renegade government agent, does he have a chance for survival.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

Rapid Firewas the penultimate film starring Brandon Lee before his untimely death on the set of The Crow. It's a standard martial arts thriller in which Lee plays Jake Lo, a young arts student who witnesses a gangland execution and is unwittingly drawn into a pitched standoff between the mafia, a Chinese drug syndicate and Ryan, a downbeat but resolute Chicago cop (Powers Boothe) determined to nail his prey. With a plot that careens through every genre cliché, Lee's smouldering looks and showy fighting skills carry the film. The martial arts sequences (which Lee co-choreographed) are nicely staged, but given the unusual settings--the penultimate fight takes place in a Chinese laundry--could have been even more inventive. The workmanlike direction by Dwight H Little (Marked for Death, Free Willy 2) fails to inject much into the material. In particular, traumatised by seeing his Special Agent father die in the Tiananmen Square massacre, Jake Lo's attraction to both a corrupt FBI agent and Ryan as surrogate father figures could have been given more resonance given the loss of Brandon Lee's own father at an early age. With hundreds of bloodless deaths, cringe-worthy dialogue and a dated power rock soundtrack, Rapid Firelooks and feels like a TV film. And on that level, at least, it's entertaining.

On the DVD: The main feature is presented in letterboxed widescreen. Sound and picture quality are very good. Subtitles are provided for ten languages (Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norweigian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish) and in English for the hard of hearing. Extra features are limited to chapter selection and a theatrical trailer. --Chris Campion

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Wide Screen, 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Original Theatrical Trailer
Subtitles:	Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish
Year:	1992
Release Date:	June 30, 2003
Runtime:	91 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	01978 D V D
Keywords:	Action, Martial, Fire, General, Wide, Screen, Adventure, Rapid, Arts
Genre:	Martial Arts