Don “the Dragon” Wilson stars as a lawyer hellbent on revenge in this better-than-expected Death Wish clone. After his wife and kid are killed by drug dealers, Don goes into a kill-crazy fit every time he even LOOKS at drugs. When he literally stumbles upon a drug deal in the middle of the street, he goes Batman on the dealers. Yes, dear reader, I just may have applauded during the bit where Don grabs a brick of cocaine and tears it apart with his bare hands in glorious slow motion.
It’s not all perfect. You have to put up with a lot of flashback/deranged visions/waking nightmare sequences that are intercut with the action. Some of them kind of play out like the final Tommy Gunn fight at the end of Rocky V. They aren’t too intrusive on the action though.
Most of the nightmare/flashbacks are due to the fact that Don has “selective amnesia” and can only remember snippets from the night his family was killed. When he beats up a random bozo who’s high on PCP, he seems to remember a little more. In an effort to further jog his memory, he puts on a purple and black outfit, goes out into the city at night, and beats up on more bad guys! (The press eventually dubs him, “The Karate Man”.)
Don does a respectable job, all things considered. I mean, most of the time he just furrows his brow like he’s got an ice cream headache during his flashback scenes. However, when it comes to kicking ass, he excels. The supporting cast is strong too. We get an early performance by Return of the Living Dead 3’s Melinda Clarke as Don’s dead wife. With her pale, sexy features, she looks positively ghostlike in the dreamy flashbacks which help make them pretty effective. Shari Shattuck is also around to essay the role of the prissy love interest, and Andy Sidaris staple Roberta Vasquez pops up as well playing a cop.
Overall, Out for Blood is kind of dumb, but it’s my kind of dumb. (The twist ending is especially ludicrous.) Even though it’s a bit uneven in spots, I’d still rank it as one of Don’s best. It’s highly enjoyable and lots of fun.
Naturally, Don gets the best line of the movie when he tells his wife: “I feel naked without my beeper!”
AKA: Karate Man.
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