Martial Law (1991) Review

“Martial Law” Poster

Director: Steve Cohen
Cast: Cynthia Rothrock, Chad McQueen, David Carradine, Vincent Craig Dupree, Andy McCutcheon, Philip Tan, James Lew, Tony Longo, Patricia Wilson, Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, Professor Toru Tanaka, John Fujioka
Running Time: 89 min.

By Lauren Weiner

Martial Law is a chronically under-loved action flick, one that perfectly embodies the so-bad-it’s-good sub-genre of early ‘90s action movies.

Detectives Sean Thompson (Chad McQueen) and Billie Blake (Cynthia Rothrock) chase leads to bust a local crime ring. It’s not just about catching the bad guy, though; it’s personal. Thompson’s younger brother, Michael (Andy McCutcheon), works for the ring’s boss, Dalton Rhodes (David Carradine). Andy’s situation gets more and more precarious the closer Thompson gets to cracking the case.

The cast is a mixed bag. Chad McQueen, son of Steve McQueen, did not inherit his dad’s acting chops. In all honesty, though, his mediocre acting isn’t entirely his fault. At times, the script is so bad that he clearly can’t channel enough oomph into the lines. At the very least, McQueen’s martial arts skills are entertaining.

On the other hand, Cynthia Rothrock is great. Her acting is fair, arguably even good. The martial arts skills she has are beyond impressive. Rothrock is known for being a phenomenal fighter in both Korean and Chinese martial arts. In Martial Law, she shows offher talents in Taekwondo and Karate. The choreography involves different styles of kicks, splits, and spinny movements with little to no punches, similar to Jean Claude Van Damme’s style.

David Carradine does a fine job, too. He’s rugged yet monotone in his delivery, and he makes his role feel a step above direct-to-video despite the movie being exactly that. His fight scenes aren’t terrible— when it’s actually him fighting. Some scenes use unsubtle stunt doubles. These doubles bear no resemblance to Carradine and are also clearly decades younger than him. Despite that, Carradine seems only mildly inebriated compared to the other schlocky movies that he starred in during this era, which is beyond commendable.

The extras are downright and simply bad. This, of course, is wonderfully hilarious. A side antagonist named ‘Faster Brown’ (played by Vincent Craig Dupree) desperately wants to be crazy and psychotic, but instead comes across as laughable. With a name like Faster Brown, it’s hard to be truly menacing.

One of the best scenes comes after a character’s death. An unshaven, pudgy doctor slouches over a dead body, hand on hip, and says, in all seriousness, “Well, he either got hit by a truck or beaten to death”. In a way, this line makes perfect sense, considering the detectives took the stiffto a practitioner and not a coroner. There are plenty of other little gems like this that make the movie well worth watching.

The music is as ‘80s as it gets, too. Long, dramatic horns blow during sad, emotional scenes. If the moment is action-packed, there are fast, reverbed drums with crazy amounts of guitar shredding. In wannabe-dramatic scenes, there are synths upon synths. Bluntly, the music makes the movie an enjoyable comedy, rather than serious, tense, or emotional. The sound design is pretty bad, but it becomes easy to ignore as the movie progresses. One thing that stands out is the ADR lines, which sound like they’re spoken by completely different actors than the ones on screen.

Martial Law is a movie that doesn’t pride itself on its visual allure either. It’s shot, okay. Sometimes there’s a take that’s fairly nice looking, but most of the time it looks like the low-budget movie it is.

If you’re a fan of Walker, Texas Ranger, or Miami Vice, then Martial Law will be comforting and familiar to you. It’s cheesy, laid back, and wants to be as entertaining as possible. Similar to these made-for-TV shows, Martial Law actually packs a nice twist, which is doubly surprising considering how formulaic the plot is.

Lauren Weiner’s Rating: 7/10