Tiger Claws (1991) Reviews

• Pretty decent

  tudorcristian582012-04-02

  Rothrock was the best in this with her fights,acting and outfit alongside with Bolo Yeung , but she wasn't the lead, Merhi was. The problem with that was, Rothrock had all the experience and was better equipped to lead a movie and at the end of the movie it was more than OK if Rothrock had been finished Bolo in a combat fight.If Jean-Claude van Damme or even Richard Norton had been the lead male in this movie then this film had been a classic.Jalal Merhi was very awful in this unfortunately but the movie was enjoyable enough though but would have been a lot better. So i recommend you this film and if you are a Cynthia Rothrock fan you'll not be disappointed.

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• keep on kicking...

  chilla-black2010-04-13

  Tiger Claws is one of the lesser known Rothrock movies and that is no bad thing, it is a pretty decent entry into the old school Martial Arts canon. Cynthia made a few stronger themed movies around 1991/1992 and this is one of them, the inclusion of Bolo is good, who himself featured in a few films also around that period. The storyline is good in that it goes some way to explaining Tiger style Kung Fu - instead of just being a cop after a villain style with Martial Arts thrown in, which was an element of her earlier work. Also some of the fight scenes are pretty decent, with Rothrock herself impressive as always. Well worth a watch, however as of 2010,this title is not yet available on DVD.

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• A dangerous death dealer stalks the city of New York killing off Martial Arts Instructors

  modius1999-05-04

  Bolo Yeung plays a 'death dealer' - a man who can kill with his bare hands or Tiger Claw Style. In the film Bolo kills off New York's best martial arts instructors and use their belts, trophies, swords as an offering to the gods to prove to himself he is the best there is. Throughout the film we see hints of Bolo killing off the martial artists, whilst Cynitha Rothrock and Jahal Merhi (both who play New York Cops) try and track him down very, very slowly. The film, in fact, moves so slowly its hard not to fall asleep. The plot although a strong one, fails to get off the ground - we never actually see Bolo killing off the martial artists giving the impression that the fighting was going to build up into an all out action-packed ending - but it never did - instead we get a mixed film that couldn't decide whether it was a Martial Arts film or an Action film - in the end it turns out to be a lame cop film with a bit of martial arts - most of which comes from Bolo. Jahal, who is on supension seems to forget that he's wearing tight jeans and seems to be able to high kick on demand whilst Cynitha hardly does anything but sit in a car or fight badly. The fighting sequences themselves are extremely poor - however the training sequences were very good. Jahal, who infiltrates the Tiger Claw training camp trains with other Tiger Claw students, and finally meets Bolo in a strip joint. There his cover is blown and he, and Cynitha chase Bolo to a conveniently placed Harbour - where they play hide and seek with Bolo. When the final fight sequences appear, Bolo seems to forget he's a psychotic killer and just stands around and waits to be kicked by Jahal - when Bolo does strike he signals to Jahal to get up instead of finishing him. I felt this film with its strong plot could have been and should have been so much better. The fight chero-gerophy should have complemented Bolo's extenstive martial arts skills and we should have at understood why Jahal (who only trained for ten minutes) could have defeated a psycho-killer in three. Out of ten, I'd give this three for effort.

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• Ok action...

  Alex-3722000-02-16

  This movie, starring Cynthia Rothrock, Jalal Merhi, and especially Bolo Yeung, showcases everything that's wrong with martial arts movies. I still don't know why, but since it's inception, this genre is plagued by production values, acting and direction, which put it only one peg above porn, if that. Jalal Merhi especially talks like Serge the art dealer from Beverly Hills Cop. Cynthia Rothrock's abilities are accomplished, but her acting is limited. Bolo Yeung still doesn't seem to have mastered English, although I always enjoy his performances.

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• The main problem with Tiger Claws - missed opportunities and untapped potential.

  tarbosh220002015-04-26

  A mysterious serial killer known as the Death Dealer is stalking the streets of "New York City" (not Canada. Not Canada), and the only clue the police have to go on is that the dastardly murderer uses an obscure, underground fighting style known as Tiger. Because of this, the police chief assigns officer Linda Masterson (Rothrock) the case - he knows she is a practitioner of Martial Arts. He has another "Kung Fu cop" on the force, a strange foreigner named Tarek Richards (Merhi), so, naturally, he pairs the two up and sends them on their way. Despite Tarek's lack of enthusiasm, he still is a rogue cop who plays by his own rules. Usually garbled, presumably. So Tarek goes undercover at the Tiger training center and meets the mysterious Chong (Bolo). Will our two heroes get to the bottom of the mystery of the Tiger Claw Killer? Find out sometime... So if you were going to paint on your hair, what would you do with your life? Maybe become an insurance salesman? Carny? CEO of a company? Nah, you'd want to be in front of the camera, whether you had any business being there or not. Hence the rise (?) of Painted On Hair Guy, AKA Jalal Merhi. Seriously, this guy doesn't use a comb, he uses a paintbrush! Hey-Oh! But, in all seriousness, if you could paint on any hair in the world, why would you choose that? He also has a thick accent AND deadpan delivery. This "Deadpan Accent" is slowing things down, and he has no screen presence or spark. On the polar opposite end of the spectrum, we have top fan favorite Cynthia Rothrock as his partner. Any interest generated by this movie comes from her. However, the no-energy of Merhi coming up against the genuine energy of Rothrock results in a wash for the viewer and the two forces cancel each other out. So we're left stranded in a Sargasso Sea of slowness in this amateurish, low-budget-junky-feeling exercise. Much of the movie has almost a childish feel - there are silly shootouts and fights that feel like kids playing in the schoolyard. Even the laundry list of clichés - it's an election year, the final warehouse fight, the baddie saying to the hero how they're really both the same, the drug deal gone wrong, among many others - here are not FUN clichés, necessarily, like they many times can be. You get the feeling director Makin was makin' this stuff for the first time ever, not retreading it. Amazingly, the writer, Maunder, came on board as director for Tiger Claws II. The dialogue also feels infantile, with a Detective Henderson stating, and we quote, "Serial killers are hard to find." Additionally, if more people die horribly, it "won't look good." But there is a classic "searching for the Martial Arts school montage", so, there's that. For the deadliest Martial Art ever, the extensive training sequences sure are boring, and pounding your fists in woks of sand repeatedly somehow start to lose their flair. This highlights the main problem with Tiger Claws - missed opportunities and untapped potential. You'd think with Rothrock and Bolo Yeung, if not Merhi, the movie would have been better. But Rothrock does pioneer the maritime Martial Art of "Oarfighting", hinting at what the movie could have been if it had a bit more life and pizazz. Many in the cast have funny voices, and perhaps leading the pack is one Bill Pickells, in the acting stretch of a lifetime as Bill Pickells. Supposedly he's a badass Martial Artist, but the guy looks like Oates and sounds like he's been sucking on a helium balloon for the past several hours. But his credit at the end is almost up there with gems like "Sgt. Slaughter as Sgt. Slaughter" and Mike "Cobra" Cole as "Cobra" Cole. But Pickells would still have been a better choice for the male lead than Merhi, who is very stiff, and, if we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times, he was separated at birth with Bronson Pinchot. We're fairly certain Merhi was actually born on Mypos. Featuring the hair metal song "Break the Walls Down" by Attitude (in the poolhall scene - another sliver of what the movie should have been all along) - Tiger Claws was inexplicably followed by two sequels. We would say it's for Rothrock and Bolo Yeung fans only.

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