Product: Jaguar Lives
Rating: 2.0
JAGUAR LIVES(On Life Support)
During the 1960s and early 70s Joe Lewis was my favorite competitive karate fighter.And so I looked forward to seeing the legendary martial arts champion in his first starring role.What a disappointment.Jaguar Lives is little more than a low-budget James Bond rip-off.Okay let's be fair. Most martial arts movies from this era were low-budget affairs and that includes ENTER THE DRAGON.Being a low-budget movie isn't always a bad thing.Quite often a low-budget affair can be more entertaining than some big-budget Hollywood production.This however wasn't one of those times.This 1979 film has Lewis playing the role of a jet-setting secret agent who goes up against an international drug cartel.The handsome,athletically muscular Lewis shows little onsreen charisma.It just may have been too much to ask to have a neophyte actor carry the picture on his own.The film does feature a few big name stars(Christopher Lee,Donald Pleasance)but they have little to do here.And veteran African-American action movie star,Woody Strode (SPARTACUS,SARGAENT RUTLEDGE,THE PROFESSIONALS,TARZAN'S THREE CHALLENGES)is terribly miscast as Lewis' sensei.Truthfully the only thing to recomend this film are it's fight scenes.It's only when Lewis goes into action that the Jaguar lives.