Don (The Dragon) Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock, Sam J. Jones, Richard Norton, Chris Penn and James Russo are ultimately wasted in this failed cop drama which finds Wilson as a disgraced cop who ends up switching alliances to a mobster (Played well by Penn) after Wilson is out of work due to a mission that went awry and cost the life of one of his teammates. Redemption proves that Don Wilson is no longer the fierce martial artist that ruled the low budget martial arts scene in the Bloodfist movies, in fact Wilson has softened his approach and has tried to use his typically wooden presence to make the stretch as a corrupt cop. Wilson is somewhat effective in his performance although he ends up being too sympathetic and the movie needs an actor who isn't so goody-goody. Chris Penn and James Russo bring credibility to their performances and come off rather likable. The problem is that Penn and Russo have such little screen time that the movie has no impact outside of their sequences. Richard Norton, Cynthia Rothrock and Sam J. Jones are completely wasted in roles that could have been populated with wallpaper for all the affect they have. Plus there is hardly any martial arts fireworks one would expect from such an ensemble. Indeed one questions the approach taken with Redemption, since it aims for a police drama like Cop Land but ends up more like a hack version of clichés that repeat over and over again. The action sequences which would normally bail out the movie, are unexciting and stilted. Also the movie has a deadly dull subplot involving Wilson and a high class call girl which just consistently slows the movie down, movies like Redemption need first of all fleshed out characters and lots of screen time for the important characters to the plot, however because the movie treats the main story like an afterthought the movie fails on its own ambitions and satisfies no one in the process.
*1/2 out of 4-(Poor)
*1/2 out of 4-(Poor)