Ring of Fire 3: Lion Strike

Even though his  Bloodfist  movies may very well constitute the longest-running American martial arts film series, the  Ring of Fire  collection is, in fact, the only example of kickboxer-turned-actor Don "the Dragon" Wilson playing the same character more than twice. The third installment here is also the only movie which Wilson helped write; I hoped that a film he puts such extra effort into would be noteworthy. I suppose it is, being one of the few of Wilson's features which I don't downright dislike, but it's still far from great. Trading in both faults and strengths in a tit-for-tat manner with its two prequels, it's a standard outdoor action feature: competent in its presentation and sober in its writing, but far from fun enough for my tastes.The story: widowed doctor and martial artist Johnny Wu (Wilson) takes his young son for vacation to a mountainous California cabin - unaware that a Mafia coalition is tracking them, believing them to be in possession of the key to an illegal nuclear weapons shipment.While the first two films were flawed in their own ways, one thing they had going for them was a fantastic cast of martial arts performers. Here, that's not the case: we've got Bobbie Phillips ( Chameleon  series) and that's about it, since Michael Jai White ( Black Dynamite ) only has a bit part and doesn't even fight. Nevertheless, the hand-to-hand action is decent, if you keep it in context: the fact that these nine encounters are choreographed by longtime Wilson cohort Art Camacho doesn't stand in their favor, but they're generally decent and feature significantly less slow motion and post-production cutting than most of his movies. The second fight is actually surprisingly innovative for Don, as he kicks his opponents into wheelchairs and sweeps another guy's feet out from under him so he lands on a stretcher. Bobbie Phillips' moves are good, too, and at times smoother than Wilson's. Of the thirteen of Don's pictures I've seen, this one's fight content cumulatively ranks among the best...but that's not saying much.Drama-wise, the film is balanced: mob boss Rob Costanzo ( Undisputed III: Redemption ) is fun to watch in just about everything he does, but Wilson hits a dramatic low when it seems that his son has been killed, and he sells it more like he just lost his winning lottery ticket than his baby boy. The overall story disappoints me: both of the two previous ones were more out there, with the second film's being particularly crazy in a fun way, thereby making the conventional nature of "Lion Strike" seem boring by comparison. Production is generally strong, with the aesthetics aided by the natural beauty of the outdoor setting.Indeed, "Lion Strike" looks pretty good, but if you changed Johnny Wu's name and left out a returning Michael Delano ( Commando ) for his couple of scenes, it really could've been its own movie. This doesn't feel like it belongs to the "Ring of Fire" series anymore, which is plenty disappointing since the original was probably my favorite of the Dragon's movies. Check it out if you will, but don't expect anything familiar based on the series' name.

I began studying martial arts in 1986. I remember watching Don’s videos back in the day. In 2014, I had the good fortune of actually meeting Don when I interviewed him for my TV show.

The 3rd and last installment still remains true to the first 2 films, with Don Wilson once again returning as the good doctor and expert in martial arts "Johhnny Wu". Unfortunately, the impressive cast of American martial art actors (including Ron Yuan, Eric Lee, Dale Jacoby, Vince Murdocco) do not return. In fact, neither does Maria Ford, who's character has been killed in a car accident years ago, but did give a son to Johnny. While the story is a little more organized in this film, the cheesy villains and lack of fun excitment that the first 2 films held keep this from making any overall imporovements in the series.The beginning of ROF3 was a bit confusing, with a few scenes of action conflict that actually held no ties to the main story. It gave me this impression that it was just time fillers and to once again show us that DR. Wu can still kick. Once things are set into motion, Johnny and his son take a short vacation in the northern mountains, but the global mafia tracks him down when they discover he accidently picked up an important disc of theirs. While in the mountains, Johnny finds a love interest in the ranger, played by Bobbie Phillips (TC-2000). I hate to admit, but their forming relationship was kind of fun to watch, filled with awkward moments and cheesiness that any new couple could face. Then the mafia appears and hunts down Johnny and the ranger in the forest throughout the rest of the film.The action was ok, but I had been spoiled from the great cast of martial artists in the previous 2 Ring of Fires. Don WIlson is pretty much a one man army in the forest, taking out goons one by one. His only threat is a former KGB, who's large charcater can be kind of villainous at times and fun, then, rather cheesy and bland at other times. Either way, this guy does not like to be called Boris. The final fight takes place between these two in a factory/warehouse lasting 2-1/2 minutes in length. Not a sharp fight, as it is obvious this guy fighting Wilson is not one of the better fighters seen in these films. Still, it is fun though and Wilson takes some hard hits before making his defeating comeback.Average film overall. It's fun in some areas, and really really stupid in others. Loses the feel of the first two Ring of Fire's, but the good doctor is still kicking hard.

Lots of poorly and simultaneously stupidly choreographed fight scenes. Idiotic, predictable, oh so predictable plot. Bad acting. Did I mention predictable plot? Did I mention bad fight scenes? Did I mention .... this review starts to hint at the painful redundancy and total meaninglessness of this movie. Save yourself some time and pain, shoot your knee cap with a pneumatic nail gun and move on.

the movie was good not one of his best but good alot of action and it is good tends to become hard to fallow at time.

the whole movie is a joke.

Will b buying it soon