Bloodfist 6: Ground Zero

BLOODFIST 6: GROUND ZERO (1995)

Directed by: Rick Jacobson
Written by: Rob Kerchner & Brendan Broderick
Starring: Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Cat Sassoon, Robin Curtis, Jonathan Fuller & Steve Garvey

The Bloodfist films, Don Wilson's seemingly never ending series of kickboxing flavored action flicks, finally reaches Die Hard territory in Ground Zero. A nuclear missile base in the middle of the desert is taken over by a group of mad, bad terrorists who are going to use the nukes to blow up cities all over the States. However, they didn't bank on military, kung fu expert Don Wilson showing up, who gets down to dispensing roundhouse kicks and vast amounts of ammunition to stop them. Despite a flimsy and overused "plot", cheesy acting a go-go and this being Part 6, Ground Zero is one of the funnest, slickest and action packed of the Bloodfist series.

A cool setting, some cool camerawork, a fast pace, loads of action and a sense of fun make Ground Zero a quality slice of mid 90s low budget, American produced action fluff. Once again produced by low budget uber producer Roger Corman, the flick doesn't give Wilson much time to act but plenty of opportunity to fight, shoot guns and make a general nuisance of himself for the terrorists. The action is fast, full of firepower and lots of bone crunching fights. Wilson does his thing and fight choreographer and bit player, Art Camacho, delivers some nifty if short and sweet fights. The initial capture of the missile compound is well staged and director Rick Jacobson (Night Hunter) keeps everything tight and fast moving and overcomes the small budget to craft a fast and fun action film.

The bad guys are hoot as well. Jonathan Fuller (Suspect Device) is cool as the evil leader who really just wants to blow something up and sexy Cat Sassoon (who was also in Bloodfist 4) vamps it up as an evil bad babe and there are plenty of highly untrained bad dudes for Wilson to kick in the head. Which he does very well. Thankfully the film never takes itself seriously having a little fun here and there (Wilson finding time to help an injured bunny; poor Robin Curtis (Star Trek 3 & 4) battling army sexism) and as mentioned, lots of cool action. There is even a nifty action scene shot in night vision and despite Wilson bizarrely thwarting the bad guys in the finale shirtless (but thankfully, Cat Sassoon also has a topless scene: sweet!) everything is wrapped up quickly, the short run time being an advantage.

Low budget Die Hard knock-offs were a dime-a-dozen in the 1990s and Ground Zero is really no different than any other but is a fun Wilson vehicle and has heaps of kickboxing and bullet riddled action to satisfy the less critical action fan.

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