Welcome to the Grindhouse: The Bodyguard and Sister Streetfighter

Welcome to the Grindhouse double feature

The Bodyguard (1976) and Sister Street Fighter

For those that haven’t read my other reviews for these great double feature DVDs (shame on you) these discs not only have a pair of movies on them. But they also include coming attractions and intermission as if you were actually sitting in a theater watching a double feature. So it makes for a good time, as long as the movies don’t suck! Now onto the show.

So the first trailer is for a movie called Ninja Wars. I’ve never seen this one, but it looks like it kicks some ass! Looks like a bloody good time. The next trailer is for a movie called Burnout. It looks to be about a young guy that tries to break into the drag racing business. These sorts of car movies were real popular in the 70s drive in scene, but they never really interested me.

The Bodyguard (1976)

Sonny Chiba stars as Sonny Chiba in this movie about one man’s war against the drug pushers. The movie opens with the assassination of a big mafia type in New York City, which gives an excuse for an extended sequence of stock footage 42nd street. We get a random fight between a couple of American martial arts instructors. Then the movie moves to an airplane where some bad guys show up and threaten to kill everyone unless Sonny Chiba shows up. After showing up and kicking their ass Chiba goes to a press conference where he says he will protect anyone who has knowledge that can bring down the drug dealers. A woman shows up at his house later that evening and while discussing her problem Chiba’s sister gets attacked while retrieving the woman’s evidence from the car. This convinces Chiba to protect the woman. The movie then becomes a series of fights as Chiba kills off all the drug dealers that come after them.

I tried to make my synopsis easy to follow because the movie isn’t. The story jumps around and gets terribly confusing. Also the movie sort of bugged me with all of it’s anti-American attitudes. Honestly you would think that the drug culture existed in Japan solely for the American soldiers stationed there. Seriously when there isn’t fighting onscreen the movie is boring and terrible. Luckily for the audience this doesn’t happen very often.

Fans of the Street Fighter series are going to be really disappointed with this effort. I would of thought that it was impossible to screw up a Sonny Chiba movie. I mean all you have to do is have a basic plot, a few cool villains and let Chiba beat the living hell out of them. But somehow this movie manages to fail. Still there is plenty of violence and mayhem for the movie to be somewhat worthwhile and interesting.

2 out of 4

Intermission time which means more trailers. The first trailer is for a movie called Kill Point, which looks like a really bad action movie. It does have Richard Roundtree (Shaft) in it so maybe it is good. But the trailer doesn’t make me want to see it. The other trailer is for a movie called The Kidnapping of the President. This one only really interests me because it stars William Shatner and Hal Holbrook. Still it looks pretty bad.

Sister Street Fighter (1974)

Let me get one thing out of the way right off the bat. Sonny Chiba is barely in this movie, which is considered part of the Street Fighter series. But that doesn’t mean the movie isn’t good. In fact I love this movie and consider it one of the better martial arts movies I’ve seen. Lee Long is called upon by the police to help track down her brother, who in addition to being a martial arts champion is also an undercover police officer. He disappeared while working on a case involving a heroin trafficker and his gang. It doesn’t take her long to run afoul of the gang and make allies among her brother’s friends. This sets up the ending between the two groups that is nothing more than an extended fight sequence.

This is a great movie. The story is straightforward and simple to the point of being silly. But unlike the first movie of this double feature there isn’t a single boring second as something is always happening on screen, so who cares if the story is hard to believe. The characters move from one fight scene to the next. Hell when a new fighter of a different school is first shown the movie freeze frames and names the school! The performances don’t matter as long as they can convincingly pull off the fights, which they do. This is without a doubt one of the best-choreographed and executed movies of the genre.

I highly recommend checking out Sister Street Fighter as well as the rest of the Street Fighter series. They are all worth watching.

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer