JohnHowardReid I am amazed that this spicy, action-full movie, received such bad reviews. I loved it so much that when the excellent MGM DVD wound up, I watched it again.The plot engages our interest right from the start. The movie is chock full of action. The director makes great use of his real locations. All the players, especially Tiana Alexandra and Rod Steiger, deliver excellent, hard-hitting performances.Best of all, the movie was lensed on a top budget, making great use of all the fascinating, real-life settings.In fact, all the action at the climax must have cost a fortune to film. The many stunts we see are just incredible!The script holds the attention all the way from the tense opening scenes to the rousing climax.I thought that Tiana Alexandra was a real find. No angel could be more super-beautiful or more skilled in both attack and defense in the movie's many fight scenes.

Comeuppance Reviews Checkers Goldberg (Alexandra), who apparently is the original Whoopi Goldberg, is a San Francisco-based federal agent. Her beauty and charm have led her into dangerous undercover work, such as dealing with drug-dealing scumbags like Danny Boy (Thompson). But she gets her biggest undercover job to date when she and partner Waldo Tarr (Dukes, who apparently is the original David Duke) must go to Argentina to stop big-time drug lord/talent scout Jason Hannibal (Steiger) and his army of goons such as Dozu (Tanaka). Evidently crucial to this crimefighting process is Goldberg's transformation into Cinderella Pu, a stereotype-Chinese character with a thick accent. Will Waldo and Checkers be able to bring down their criminal empire...and fall in love in the process? Yes...WALDO and CHECKERS.This movie is very, very dumb, not to mention stupid. It's directed by Joel Silberg, the director of the first Breakin' (1984). All we can say is...stick with Breakin'. Like Breakin', this movie does feature some noteworthy music on the soundtrack (such as theme song "Captive in the Heat"... not Catch the, but Captive in, for those keeping score at home) and cool 80's fashions. But the Martial Arts is pretty watered down and the humor is lame. This is surprising considering the movie was written by famous, lauded writer Stirling Silliphant.Alexandra is nice to look at, but she's no female Sho Kosugi, as this movie seems to be grooming her to be. Her line readings are so bad they're funny, but maybe it's supposed to be that way. Rod Steiger is on hand for some reason as the main baddie. It's a total paycheck role for this normally fine actor. They don't make him do anything too strenuous for fear that his wig might fly off.While this movie isn't totally without its merits, and has a nice cast, including fan-favorite Brian Thompson in a small role - yes, Yahoots Magoondi himself - and the always-lovable Professor Toru Tanaka - Catch the Heat (whatever that means) shouldn't exactly be a priority for your collection.For more action insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

Zeegrade Tiana Alexandra plays kung-fu copper Checkers Goldberg. Yes, this is not a typo. Checkers freaking Goldberg. Despite being 100% Vietnamese she is given this goofy name (What, Shamus O'Reilly was too unbelievable?) and even goofier starring role as any hint of real talent is basically her knack for slow karate moves and looking good in a wet t-shirt (apparently bras are optional at this police department). Checkers and her partner Waldo, (David Dukes who tries really hard, no really he does!) are sent to investigate heroin dealers in Buenos Aires that have been shipping the smack back to Los Angeles. Turns out it's Rod Steiger with a toupee so bad it trumps any international crime the drug dealing might incur. Steiger's Jason Hannibal is also a talent scout and that's where Checkers becomes acquainted with him as.......Cinderella Poo! What is it with these names? Turns out Hannibal is smuggling the drugs into the U.S. by stuffing it into breast implants. Why they would send in a woman with sizable knockers in the first place is a mystery to me. With all the attention, rightly so, on boobs, you'd think you would get to see a pair every once in a while. You'd be wrong. This is like a Fred Olen Ray movie if Mr. Ray had become a Mormon. Not fun. Eventually Checkers kicks and chops her way through men three times her size all the while enduring every sexually charged innuendo by Waldo who was not aware of what a litigious society the work place would become in the nineties. A sideplot concerning Waldo's feelings for Checkers is clumsily heaped in to add another layer onto their partnership. The "heat" ain't coming from the sexual chemistry from these two that's for sure. A movie by boobs about boobs that show no boobs except for the boobs who watched this. Catch a nap instead.

gridoon This is, on almost all accounts, a routine mid-to-low-budget 80's action film, mostly set in Argentina, with its weakest point probably being Rod Steiger's totally boring, sleepwalking villain. So let's talk about the female star, Tiana Alexandra: She is VERY good-looking She has a charming smile She fills out a wet T-shirt and a tight sweater beautifully She can act (going from a foul-mouthed, no-nonsense cop to her undercover role as a naive young girl) She can dance She can fight (her ingenuity in dealing with the brick wall of a man "Professor" Tanaka inside a small room is certainly memorable)She can pose BEFORE the fight and take the mental advantage over her opponent.Basically, she's the only reason for someone to see this movie, and it's a shame she wasn't given a second break. If this one flopped, she should be the last person to blame. (**)