Review of Rapid Fire

Brandon Lee plays a university student who finds himself caught up between rival drug kingpins and a group of undercover cops, led by the great Powers Boothe, who are trying to take them down. Lee originally wanted John Woo ("The Killer" "Hard Boiled" "A Better Tomorrow") to direct this film, but this was prior to Woo making his Hollywood debut as director with "Hard Target," "Mission Impossible 2" and "Face-Off." A John Woo directed action film staring the son of Bruce Lee might have been an action film classic, but what you do end up with is Hollywood's best approximation of a Hong Kong style action film up to that point in time. Woo would make his US debut the following year and that's when Hong Kong directors would bring their style of action mayhem to American films with the likes of John Woo's "Broken Arrow," Ringo Lam's "Maximum Risk," or Ronny Yu's "Freddy vs. Jason" which brought a level on insanity to action films that had not ever been seen before in American films. That style of action is now standard, but at the time it was revolutionary and that's what this film could have been. Still, director Dwight H. Little's action does a pretty solid approximation of Hong Kong style of action mayhem. Brandon Lee also exudes charism and charm in his first major US film (I'm not sure "Laser Mission" or "Showdown in Little Tokyo" count.) Outside of "The Crow" this is his only other film of any note, but it's well worth watching for fans of martial arts action films.