Before people like John Woo and Jackie Chan spearheaded the Hong Kong-to-US movement of the 1990's, producer Ng See-Yuen paved the way with films such as this. The results here, like many low-budget productions of the time, are a bit of a mixed bag, but the action present should satisfy most action fans.

The story revolves around Jake (Loren Avendon), a hot-headed NYC cop who is tapped by Interpol to travel to Thailand to investigate the source behind a series of snuff films that use gweilo fighters as the "stars". Things become more interesting when Jake finds out that one of the main men behind the video nasties is Khan (Billy Blanks), a vicious combatant who killed Jake's brother ten years earlier.

So, yeah, the plot isn't going to win any awards, but it's at least better than the "plucky rookie goes after the champ" stuff these types of movies normally use. Things are helped along (surprisingly) by the acting, especially Keith Cooke as Prang, who plays the "crazy sifu" role here. However, there's still quite a bit of cheese in this department, most notably David Sterling (who seems to be channeling French Stewart in his part as the "fixer" of the snuff films) and that hurts the movie as a whole.

But things are saved nicely by the fight scenes, which were helmed by the under-rated action director Tony Leung Siu-Hung (along with a bit of uncredited help from Corey Yuen). Sure, it's not Drunken Master II, but for something that at first glance seems like just another cheap US straight-to-video release, The King of the Kickboxers is very solid stuff that comes recommended, especially if you've armed yourself with a couple of beverages beforehand.

RATING: 7.5