Martial Law

So much wasted potential. What’s the point of having a magnificent cast of leads (Cynthia Rothrock) and bit parts (Benny Urquidez, Tony Longo) and even relatively decent choreography when the direction, cinematography and editing fuck it all up. Most of the shots in the action scenes are too close-up, so the choreography and the actors’ physical abilities don’t have a chance to stand out, and sometimes the camera is even poorly positioned, so you can see that the punches don’t land on the body. Similarly, certain storylines in the screenplay could have been tightened up a bit and the result would have given a proper dramatic charge and the storyline with Cynthia Rothrock’s character would have been properly highlighted. The paradox of Rothrock, a former martial arts champion and leading American actress in the action genre, is that her fame and the longevity of her film career came from the kind of hopeless and shoddy straight-to-video American trash flicks that most western viewers associate her with. Those movies represented a drastic decline in quality in comparison with the phenomenal action flicks that she appeared in during the 1980s in Hong Kong, particularly the choreographically breathtaking Corey Yuen-directed Yes, Madam and Above the Law, as well as the action-packed The Blonde Fury. Though Martial Law doesn’t rank among the biggest piles of shit in her American filmography, due to its half-baked nature, mushiness and forgettability, it ultimately comes across as being even worse than legendary dreck like Undefeatable. (2021-03-14)