Despite being hailed as the best karate fighter ever, Joe Lewis' on screen career was less epic. After attaining mixed results with the likes of JAGUAR LIVES and FORCE FIVE, he seemed finished with fighting for the camera but returned to pictures after a seven-year hiatus under the direction of B-movie guru Godfrey Ho. Why align himself with the man responsible for such scrap classics as NINJA TERMINATOR? - your guess is as good as mine, but be assured that unless you're up for a full dose of Ho's seat-of-the-pants production techniques and serious underutilization of one of martial arts' top stars, you're in for disappointment.
The story: A truce between the Yakuza and the Triads is broken with the wedding massacre of a godfather's family, with the lone survivor (Alex Man) swearing revenge on his family's killers.
Did you notice that I didn't mention Joe Lewis' character in the plot? Joe plays a fairly prominent supporting role as an assassin hired by someone to take out somebody, but you never get the impression that he's in the same storyline as the other characters because - classic Ho tactic, here - the movie is comprised of scenes from another feature into which Lewis' additionally-shot portions were edited. While Alex Man is running around trying to exact his revenge, Lewis spends most of his time chatting with Chaplin Chang and going on sniping missions. He and Alex never even meet, making it really feel like you're watching two different movies...and neither are very good.
Both 'sides' of the film feature poor picture quality, lackluster editing, and bad voiceovers, but simply because there's more of it, it's the Alex Man adventure that suffers exceedingly. It feels like it's trying to be HARD BOILED, but long instances of boring dialogue thoroughly outweigh its action scenes. Even when a shootout or swordfight does take place, it's usually not very good. Four big gunfights feature about two hundred guys in suits and sunglasses getting shot up, but overuse of slow-motion and the impression that they too were filmed separately from the main stars negate any coolness the encounters may have imparted. Two big swordfights also take place; the second one is surprisingly good but the first is shot in such dim light it's impossible to see what's going on. After wandering around and occasionally shooting people for 69 minutes, Lewis has two hand-to-hand fights, including one against fellow kickboxer Dick Kimber. These aren't awful exchanges but pale in comparison to his better work (see DEATH CAGE) thanks to some weird choreography and inopportune cutting.
The film ends with Lewis giving Chaplin Chang advice on life and a lot of people having died with little to show for it. By now, the movie is feeling assured that it's proved Joe Lewis to be a badass, but nothing could be further from reality. MR. X is so confusing that you don't even bother to catch any character's name, and the only guy you do take notice of looks uninvolved and not at all like the kickboxing legend his portrayer is. Perhaps the movie would've been less disappointing if it hadn't been billed as a vehicle for Lewis, but even when watched in ideal conditions, it's far from satisfying and even less coherent. There are plenty of filmed-in-Taiwan flicks you can watch before resorting to this one.
