A DANGEROUS PLACE (aka NO SURRENDER) (1995)
Directed by: Jerry P. Jacobs
Screenplay: Sean Dash
Starring: Ted Jan Roberts, Corey Feldman, Marshal Teague & Mako
A Dangerous Place is Karate Kid rip-off number 137. Two karate teams from opposing dojos: one bad, one good. A good kid (Ted Jan Roberts) gets caught in the middle as he tries to find the killer of his brother: obviously the leader of the bad dojo karate team (Corey Feldman). What ensues is lots of bad talk from the bad Sensei (Marshal Teague) and lots of good talk from the good Sensei (Mako) as the good kid tries to do what is right all the while getting revenge for the death of his brother. Despite the low budget and over familiarity and a huge case of predictability, A Dangerous Place is actually a pretty solid Karate Kid clone if you are in the mood for it.
Produced by mini action movie studio PM Entertainment it opens in their predictable fashion with a stunt packed car chase that has little relation to the rest of the film. From there on in it’s fight after fight and lots of lessons to be learned for our hero. Roberts, the pint sized martial arts whiz, made a series of these kinds of films, A Dangerous Place being probably the most violent and action packed. The kid certainly cuts it in the fight scenes all of which aren’t too bad for this kind of flick, if a little routine. Feldman (obviously going through his drug induced 1990s period) is the typical greasy, low life bad kid and not such a whiz in the fight scenes, though it’s always cool to see the great Marshall Teague (Roadhouse) tearing up the screen in typical nasty bad guy fashion.
Yeah this kind of thing has been done a million times but A Dangerous Place is fairly well shot and made and does feature lots and lots of fights, all choreographed by action stalwart Art Camacho (Red Sun Rising). While never spectacular, the fights are crisp, energetic and fitting considering most of them feature high school kids going toe-to-toe. Good, harmless, six pack and a pizza fun from a time when action movies were allowed to be simple and entertaining.
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