liam_donnaz The great tragedy of this film is that of Brandon Lee. While obviously this was t his last film, I feel this is the one that really sold everyone on what he could do, with the crow selling on how good he could do it. This movie is not without its faults, I'm not denying that, but Lee is undoubtedly one of the strongest parts. This might sound borderline blasphemous to say and I know I'm probably looking at it from a different outlook, but I think the fight scenes in Rapid Fire are as good as, if not better, than some of his father's. There's a genuine sense of energy and charisma to them and Lee makes it look easy. Every fight is well shot and directed (Dwight Little is a very underrated director and his style fits perfectly with this film), the action and sets allow for many creative outcomes and in a word, it just looks cool.I would be remiss if I didn't mention Powers Boothe in this movie. He's awesome, and always was, be he hero or villain. He plays the grizzled Dirty Harry cop perfectly and looks as comfortable with a shotgun as he does with a doughnut.I highly recommend this movie, if for nothing else than the fight scenes.

bowmanblue Like many, I only really found out about the late (and very great) Brandon Lee after his tragic role in 'The Crow.' Tracking back through his earlier work, this was undoubtedly his best (other) film. It really does sum up what was great about nineties action films and, sadder still, shows just how good Lee could have been if he had lived after The Crow wrapped.Lee plays a student who witnesses a gangland murder and requires police protection to stay alive. However, the police seem about as good at protecting him as a roomful of toddlers. But, luckily for the hapless boys and girls in blue, Lee is much better at protecting them when the gangsters return! By today's standards 'Rapid Fire' may be considered as a little too cheesy and not dark enough. That could be true. If you only want to watch dark and serious action epics then you're better off with a Bourne film or Daniel Craig's Bond incarnation. I would say that Rapid Fire doesn't take itself seriously, only it does, but only in that way that most eighties/nineties action movies did, i.e. they had a sense of disbelief and light-heartedness that today's movies don't.The police are spectacularly incompetent and the villains are deliciously villainous, therefore it's great fun to watch Brandon Lee punch, kick, flip and generally right all the necessary wrongs for ninety minutes. He may not have quite honed his martial arts skills to those of his father's, but he was definitely getting there and there are – naturally – plenty of fun fight scenes involved.In fact, if I could sum up this film in one word, it would be 'fun.' It's a nice little popcorn action film that doesn't require any major thought to go into appreciating it – just a love of 'pre-serious' action classics.And if you can sit through the weird-montage s*x scene without visible questions marks appearing over your head then you obviously 'get' this film (or whatever the director was trying to say) more than me!

StrayButlerReturns Designed and constructed as nothing more than a kick-'em-up action vehicle for Brandon Lee (son of Bruce Lee), Rapid Fire is satisfying patchwork genre film-making. It's a highly entertaining, albeit painfully generic pastiche of Mafioso politics, crooked FBI machinations, perpetual mayhem and an array of awesome action sequences. No elements are incorporated into Rapid Fire to hoist it above the territory of the strictly ordinary, but it remains fulfilling as a mindless action flick.The plot, naturally, has a clichéd ring to it: in a typically contrived way, Jake Lo (Lee) witnesses a mob execution. Jake agrees to testify against the Big Powerful Bad Guy No-One Has The Guts To Mess With, and the FBI places him in the witness protection program. Since it's an unwritten law in the world of action flicks, this witness protection program proves rife with corruption, and Jake - once framed by the FBI - is forced to take matters into his own hands. On the run from the law and caught in the middle of a battle between two feuding drug lords, the Jake is faced with only one way to clear his name: team up with a renegade cop (Boothe). Nothing new here, folks.Alan McElroy's screenplay (from a plot conceived by himself and Cindy Cirile) seems culled from about 15 television movies concerning witness relocation, unjustly-accused heroes, and cops so devious it's impossible to tell who to root for. The plot twists are all quite predictable, the love interest (in the form of a female cop played by Kate Hodge...is there any other kind?) seems rudimentary, and the villains are comprised of stock B-movie bad guy clichés. Point is, there's no narrative innovation, and characterisations are nothing unprecedented. But why watch such a motion picture on the basis of anything other than action? You shouldn't. Rapid Fire is an action movie; plain and simple. Sure, the world already has enough action movies, but Rapid Fire manages to do something that other action movies failed to achieve: showcase the amazing fighting skills and general agility of Bruce Lee's son. The film never breaks out of the B-movie mould, but Brandon Lee (who helped choreograph the fighting) is given multiple action scenes to work with, ensuring the movie is worth sitting through despite the recycled plot and characters.As for Brandon Lee, he's not as wooden as one might expect. It was to his advantage that his acting didn't suffer from the exasperating eccentricities of his action star peers - such as Steven Seagal's egocentric mumbling or the preening style of Jean-Claude Van Damme. Or, for that matter, he wasn't marred by any of their accents either. Lee could act; he emitted a charming screen presence of good looks and genuine cool. His fisticuffs are fluid and exhilarating, and boast an inventiveness rarely witnessed outside of Hong Kong kung-fu cinema - not only does Lee use his hands and feet as lethal weapons, but he also defends himself by improvising with nearby objects. Lee's sudden death (due to an on-set accident during production of his next movie, The Crow) is a true tragedy - the young lad had a promising career ahead of him. As for the rest of the cast, there's a solid, if routine performance courtesy of Powers Boothe playing the grizzled, single-track cop, in addition to Nick Mancuso who's passable as the villain, and Kate Hodge who's likable but nothing special as the love interest. Al Leong makes a brief appearance to battle Lee at one stage, too. During the '80s, Leong's played background henchmen in several action films (like Die Hard and Action Jackson), and it's terrific to see him here.As far as standard, mindless cookie-cutter action movies (with little redeeming values) go, you could certainly do far worse than Rapid Fire, though that's hardly a ringing endorsement. Those who enjoy balls-to-the-wall action movies will find enough to enjoy within these fast-paced 90 minutes, but others need not apply.

RequiredFields This underrated martial arts vehicle stars Brandon Lee as Jake Lo, a college student who becomes the targets of drug lords after being a witness to a murder.The action scenes are very well handled. The highlight of the movie would have to be the warehouse scene about 20 minutes or so into the movie. However, some of the other fight scenes are also very entertaining to watch.Brandon Lee gives a pretty good performance in this movie, better than most martial arts movies made in this era. Overall, this movie is worth your time, and unfairly overlooked.