SWORD OF HONOR is a straight to video action thriller from Australia. It was put out by PM Entertainment, who were making plenty of mildly enjoyable action-filled movies during these years, and SWORD OF HONOR follows that trend. The hackneyed plot involves a retiring cop being killed by an evil gangster and his partner swearing revenge. The story features plenty of melodrama and overacting (particularly on the part of the main villain). What's interesting is that the fight scenes are pretty good on the limited funds available and seem to have been inspired by Hong Kong choreography. To hit the similarities home further, martial artist Sophia Crawford (star of the infamous ESCAPE FROM BROTHEL) co-stars and gets to fight a little too.
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Leofwine_draca16 September 2017
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Cops/buddies Johnny (Leigh) and Alan (Pruitt) are Martial Arts experts who teach children their craft at a dojo run by Alan and his sister Vicky (Crawford) when they're not out chasing the baddies. Alan decides to concentrate on the dojo full time and thus has "one day left until retirement". The last assignment involves the most sinister Sotheby's auction ever - a badass sword, known, naturally, as the "Sword of Honor" because of its long history of slicing people to bits. When baddies - mainly mobsters - make an attempt to gain control of the mystical sword, bad things start to happen. Alan and Vicky now must team up to get revenge, fight the evildoers, and, if there's time, fall in love. Who will make the final chop? Find out today! We really like Steven Vincent Leigh. He's an underrated talent, and Sword of Honor is a good vehicle for him. We've seen most of his cinematic output, and he's a quality Martial Artist with a nice personality and good screen presence. He's perfect for these PM outings (such as Deadly Bet, also with director Tiffe), and teaming him up with Sophia Crawford was a great idea. Crawford is mainly known for her Hong Kong movies and stunt work, and her background pays off here. It would be convenient for fans like us if she did more Western action movies that are more easily accessible, but such is life. Crawford is like a cross between two Comeuppance fan favorites, Cynthia Rothrock and Gary Daniels (perhaps only in the accent and Martial Arts ability but you get the idea). Nevertheless, the pairing of the two makes the movie worthwhile.
It's classic 90's video-store action all the way with plenty of stunts and fights every few minutes, as it should be. Some of the pretexts for fight scenes are hilariously dumb - at a gym, a meathead asks Johnny if he's done using a particular piece of equipment. Johnny tells him he has some more reps to go. This enrages the meathead and a knock-down, drag-out fight ensues. Elsewhere, two of our favorite items are combined: the disco nightclub scene and punchfighting. One minute, revelers are tearin' it up on the dancefloor, the next minute, that same dancefloor becomes a punchfighting arena and those very same dancers are now yelling angrily and cheering like a true punchfighting audience. How quickly their mood changes. Talk about your one-stop shopping.
The aggressor in the nightclub punch-up is a grade-A meathead, and we did seem to notice that there are a lot of weird-looking people in this movie. It has the normal PM professional look to it, but the incidental characters, such as mobsters, bartenders, patrons, and other background artists are just strange to behold. And the weird hair quotient is pretty far up the chart too, as you might expect. The main baddie could have been a bit more menacing, he seemed a lot like Mandy Patinkin. Patinkin has never really appeared in any movies of this kind, he's a bit too classy. And some scenes suffer from being underlit, which is a malady that would really plague DTV productions in the coming years after this. And the actual sword disappears for long stretches and you kind of forget about it. Those are really the worst things you can say about Sword of Honor (unless you're going to beat it up for its clichés, which we won't). It's really a good time had by all.
Sword of Honor is enjoyable 90's video-store action featuring likable leads and plenty of fighting. PM rarely disappoints, and, despite a few minor flaws, this can surely count as yet another feather in their cap. -
gridoon15 December 2007Zero points for originality or creativity here: within the first 10 minutes, two cops have stopped a convenience store robbery-in-progress, and a little later one of them, who is about to retire from the force, goes on "one last job"; no prizes for guessing what happens to him. "Sword of Honor" was obviously designed as a starring vehicle for Steven Vincent Leigh; he has some cool moves and his acting is OK, but most of the fight scenes are nothing special, despite the clear Hong Kong influences (people don't just fall down when they take a hit; they fly several feet away). There is barely enough story for 30 minutes, but the movie goes on for 90+, which makes it quite dull. Sophia Crawford has two exceptional fight scenes (her best trick: pulling a guy's jacket halfway down so that he can't move his arms and he becomes defenseless against her attacks), and shows her amazing body in lingerie, but she is wasted in the second half: she gets shot and falls into a coma. The most amusing scene is a nod to her Hong Kong film past, when she is shown understanding and even speaking Chinese. (*1/2)
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bkoganbing30 June 2018Taking a good look at Sword Of Honor I wondered why everyone sounded so strange in a film set in Las Vegas. Answer, this was an Australian film set in America's sin capital and all you see of Vegas are establishing shots.
Steven Vincent Leigh and Jeff Pruitt are a pair of martial art skilled detectives who catch a case involving an Oriental artifact. It's a sword from the Ming period enabling the Mings to overthrow the Mongols who ran things in China for a few hundred years. It is endowed so the legend says with mystical powers kind of like Excalibur and always is with a winner.
Anyway it's stolen by some Las Vegas crooks and Leigh and Pruitt are assigned to the theft. But they run into some folks who have guns and Pruitt forgets to put on his bullet proof vest. Guess he didn't see Madigan and what happened to Richard Widmark.
Joined for a bit by the equally martial arts skilled Sophia Crawford for a bit, Leigh has his mission and even has to fight crooked cops to accomplish it. Along the way we see lots of martial arts action, almost like a Chuck Norris film.
Martial arts fans will love it, others, don't really bother. -
cainam-118 October 2006Acting, plot, directing, editing, there is simply no beginning to this movie's good points. This hack takes all of the over-done, ridiculous cliché's that a comedy would be making fun of, and tries to make you think that they were serious when they filmed it. The only twists worse than the ones in the plot were the ones that were put in my bowels when I watched it. The fight scenes used what was probably supposed to be dramatic back lighting in otherwise dark areas, so the fact that the punches and kicks were pulled by what amounts to BUS lengths was completely obvious. What wasn't obvious to the hairdresser is the fact that the mullet was only popular for about 5 minutes, and that was years before production. The Russian Boss Hogg character has to be seen to be believed, but if you don't need to believe it, PLEASE don't bother seeing it. You could have a better time with a can of play-doh rather than watching this thing, and feel better about yourself as a person after the experience.
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refinedsugar17 February 2024Watching 'Bikini Summer II' yielded trailers to other PM Entertainment Group titles that looked equally cheap & cheesy, but I was most excited for 'Sword of Honor'. A standard 90's martial arts quest for revenge tale with likable dtv faces that thankfully delivered where it counts.
Cops Johnny Lee (Steven Vincent Leigh) and Alan (Jeff Pruitt) are the best of friends, butt kicking partners but the latter is killed just as he's set to retire. The bad guys work for Rudy (Jerry Tiffe) who wants the valuable sword they stole to sell. Leaving Johnny to go up against this criminal element, dodge crooked cops and get a hand from Alan's martial arts sister Vicky (Sophia Crawford).
Leigh (Deadly Bet, Ring of Fire) does the hero with ease and is no stranger to movies of the fisticuffs variety. Ditto Pruitt (Martial Law, Mission of Justice) and Crawford who cut her teeth on Hong Kong action flicks. I gotta give her credit for decent acting, fighting while being the obvious love interest. There's also a vanity element going on here. Director Robert Tiffe has a part and so do quite a few family members. Even writer Clay Ayers plays a featured cop.
'Sword of Honor' has a story that is predictable to the max, but doesn't mess around. Plenty of spots for people to get conveniently beat up / smacked down / shot. There's also bits of humor that work and always fun female nudity on display. Some typical low budget stops include a stripclub, casino and a bar here. -
vegas_kiwi14 March 2008The thing that makes this movie worth seeing is a chance to see Charlie Vespia play the body builder wise guy. All of the other actors in the movie pale in comparison to the performance done here by one of the greatest up and comers in the film industry tragically cut short before his time. The scene in which Charlie is in the gym is the most memorable. He is fantastic and his martial arts never looked better. I am a big fan of his from days gone by and would like to also add that he was/is and always will be my idol. R.I.P. Charlie..I love you. I always knew that you would be a star someday and here you are immortalized forever online. I miss you big brother. Everyone see this movie so my brothers memory will not be forgotten. He truly was great and one of a kind. The next star in heaven. Charlie Vespia.