User Reviews

High-flying Latino martial arts?

*Spoilers!*

That was the tagline on the DVD case, and boy were my friends and I deeply disappointed. First off, jumping armbars are not high flying, and they did this move like 5 times in the movie, boring, I won't dispute Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a very effective martial art, but I am judging this on its entertainment as a movie. Second, I'm not sure Brazilians fall under the category of being labeled 'latinos'? Well, everything about this movie was bad, from low-budget camcorder, cheesy effects, terrible dialogue, atrocious acting, lame story. We literally had to forward to the action scenes, which were somewhat interesting but mostly all played out the same way. One funny thing, was this recurring decrepit old man, who always came outta nowhere and attacked the machado brothers and always got it in the worst way, The really ridiculous thing was in the end, they shot him in the back while he was running away? what the heck...I wouldn't be surprised if they filmed this in under a week.

A southwest dirt farmer is killed for his valuable piece of dirt property. Back in Brazil his five head busting nephews, portrayed by the Machado brothers, discuss a course of action and decide, since it's a small town, to just send three of their number to deal with the evil dirt stealing dirt-bags responsible for their uncle's death and to set things straight.

Even for a micro budget B film, Brazilian Brawl is on the silly side, where does one begin? Maybe with the appearance of Bruce Lee's premier student Dan Insanto dying in a house explosion (did I say house, it's actually a miniature made from toothpicks and old cereal box) after 2 minutes of screen time. Or maybe with the unexpected appearance of Clint Eastwood's old pal and co-star Geoffrey Lewis as the main villain, who is sort of like Orville from Every Which Way But Loose, but instead of being confused and innocent, he's confused and evil. The actors who portray the female lead and deputy sheriff do an admirable job with what they're given. Which leads us to the Machado brothers, acting wise these gentleman do about as well as most other fighters turned first time actors. Well, maybe almost as well. And they of course have good physical presence. As for the fight scenes, they (the fights) show potential, but could've used more polish. As they stand they are executed at times smoothly, more often crudely, with just a few flashes of quality choreography. Needless to say, these guys can obviously fight, but staging a movie fight and capturing it properly on camera is another matter.

Some working on the film appeared to have made an earnest effort, but others perhaps used the opportunity to goof with what they saw as a none too serious project. For example, a lawyer character visits the Machados 3 times, and 3 times a low fart sound is heard as he departs. Not a problem if the scenes were played with humor, instead it's just...well weird. Geoffry Lewis' scenes all take place in a cramped office, and each time a cat is heard meowing. Again, not a problem if a cat appeared on camera, or if Geoffry said "Hey I own a cat". Instead it's just a strange cat noise. Now, you might say, "dude, maybe it was YOUR cat", well yes I own a cat, but the thing was next to me the whole time dead asleep. I don't know, maybe it was the Foley's cat.

I suspect much of the blame for the quality of Brazilian Brawl can be placed on writer and director Leo Fong who, when it comes to filmmaking, is kind of like the poor man's Fred Williamson (hard to imagine I know). For example, Brazilian Brawl looks like it was shot on partially exposed 8mm film stock found in Buster Keaton's storm cellar. Though the movie's budget did allow for one of it's more important elements, a wacky theme song for the Machado brothers titled "Bad Boys from Brazil".

It must be noted that Leo Fong (who makes a cameo appearance in Brazilain Brawl, you'll recognize him, he's the Asian guy) is responsible for a pair of truly entertaining, hilarious, and highly recommended B action films, Killpoint and Low Blow. Now, I readily admit to being a fan of financially challenged and poorly made action films, as long as they entertain. Brazilian Brawl would narrowly fit into that category. I give it one star, while I myself enjoyed the film's complete lack of craftsmanship, I recognize any person with even minimal discernment would find the film less than stellar.