Pound Of Flesh - general discussion topic

My old review! :-)

"Pound of Flesh" 8/10

This time I waited the Italian dvd release of the film. Received it and watched it 2 times ( dubbed in Italian) with my family. I am the "big fan" but at the end of the film mamma and brother liked the film more than me, my mamma gave it 9/10 (she wasn't drunk :-) she just loved the story, especially the ending) The film has a good story, that's Ernie trademark, the best part in Ernie films is always the story. There is a logical reason for the violence, illegal organ trafficking is a serious problem in this world, Jc wants his kidney back for a specific reason, everything is believable and the action is well executed.

The cast was very good, beside JC there were 4 other important roles, Aki Aleong, John Ralston, Charlotte Peters, and Darren Shahlavi, I preferred John Ralston which played JC's brother, never seen him before but his role was 20% of the film, Darren Shahlavi's villain role could have been bigger in my opinion, he just has 2 short fights at the beginning and at the ending, and a "gun discussion with JC" stop.

JC was in good shape and motivated, I was so happy to see that the "action split scene" was well made by JC himself, something memorable for us fans. The sad ending was the best part of the film and JC acted perfectly, realistic, sad and with moral issues but the "mission of Deacon" is sadly accomplished at the end. Good job JC!

Ernie Barbarash did a good job, but I thought that the film was a bit too dark in many scenes, anyway the directing was good as usual, good acting and action. He always gave 100% with the little budget he has. POF is not better or worse than "Assassination Games" and "Six Bullets", they are all on the same level to me (8/10) a good trilogy. The big problem is always fight scenes in every Ernie film with JC.


Fight scenes chapter -
After "Special ID" I was expecting the same problems with"Pound of Flesh" and unfortunately I was right. A lot of "real world" moves but without "the love" for martial arts, very few "fancy charismatic moves" just a cold executor of effective hits.

The first famous black and white fight scene between JC and Darren was terrible, slow and short fight and the only part where JC was slightly doubled. Their final fight at the end of the movie was way better, a lot of ground grappling but acceptable, overall JC vs Darren has been a waste of time, nothing special.

They used another grappling technique in a short fight scene with JC. The night club fight scene was decent, a good slo-motion kick by JC but the rest was too dark and not impressive. I save just one fight scene, the JC split fight scene, it was really cool, strong, fun and memorable.

I don't understand why John Salvitti changed his view of cinematic martial arts, the fights in "Flashpoint" were perfect, long and impressive. In "Special ID" and "Pound of Flesh" the fights were just "the way to knock the guy out" 0% fun.

With impressive fight scenes, this film would have been a 8.5/10 like US3 and US4. I remember that I say this after "Assassination Games" and "Six Bullets" too. I love the story of Ernie's films but I always ended up complaining about fight scenes.

I'm satisfied of Ernie's trilogy with JC but next time (Hopefully in Kickboxer vengeance) I hope to see a film where the main focus are fight scenes or at least a film with 5 minutes consecutive JC fight scene, just stop short fights, they are mostly a waste of time.

Easily one of my top 5 JCVD films... granted, I've only seen about 40 of the 58 or so