Street Knight

Plot synopsis:
Jake Barrett (Jeff Speakman) is a former cop who retired from the LAPD following an incident where he failed to save a young hostage from a disturbed criminal. This incident has haunted him for the past several years, and he now works repairing cars at a garage once owned by his father.
The city, which has been the battleground for a conflict between street gangs the Latin Lords and Blades, is currently under a tenuous truce negotiated by the heads of the two gangs. A group of Latin Lords members drive to a meeting supposedly arranged by Blades leader "8-Ball," where they are ambushed by criminals led by James Franklin (Christopher Neame). All of them are killed by Franklin except for their driver, Carlos Sanchez (Richard Coca), who flees. Franklin stages the scene of the crime to look like the Blades carried out the killings.
Barrett learns from a friend of a woman who needs his help. He meets with her and learns that she is Carlos's sister Rebecca (Jennifer Gatti). She tells him that Carlos has been missing for the two days since the shooting and asks for his help, but he initially refuses, telling her that he no longer does police work. Meanwhile, several more killings are carried out by Franklin's group as they search for Carlos. Each of the victims is a member of one of the two gangs, and their murders are carefully staged to implicate the opposing gang in each case. As a result, tension between the gangs begins rising.
Barrett meets with Latin Lords leader Cisco (Ramón Franco) and later 8-Ball (Richard Allen) and asks both gangs for time to investigate the case, having become suspicious after reviewing evidence from the first shootings. He then meets with Rebecca and agrees to help her, before visiting his friend Raymond (Bernie Allen), a forensics expert, and asking for help. However, Franklin learns of Barrett's involvement in the case and sends two men to kill him. Barrett successfully kills the two before delivering their bodies to Raymond for identification.
As a result of the staged killings, the Blades and Latin Lords are about to go to war. Barrett asks for a meeting with 8-Ball, but before they can meet, one of Franklin's men disguised as Barrett guns him down at a strip club. Raymond is also killed after Franklin learns of him through a wiretap on Barrett's phone, but before he dies, he passes a disk containing the results of his analysis to Barrett. Now a wanted man, Barrett acts on information from Rebecca and finds Carlos at an observatory, taking him into protective custody. However, Franklin learns of Rebecca and abducts her, then sends information to Barrett demanding he trade Carlos for her. Barrett discovers that the criminals are corrupt cops led by Franklin, who is an ex-Special Forces soldier. He drops Carlos off at a safehouse before going to the abandoned rail yard described in the demand, but Carlos secretly follows.
With the police sufficiently distracted, Franklin and his men enact their plan to rob a jewelry store of precious diamonds. After stealing the diamonds they frame the heist as the deed of the Latin Lords before heading to the rail yard. Barrett informs the investigating officer, Lt. Bill Crowe (Lewis Van Bergen) of the rail yard before going there himself. He battles Franklin's gang, but is unaware that the Latin Lords and Blades are present and giving him aid. He confronts Franklin, who has Rebecca as a hostage, duplicating the situation from years ago that caused Barrett to quit the force. When Barrett puts down his gun, Franklin releases Rebecca and opens fire, but Barrett uses a hidden gun to shoot back. After they fight with hand to hand combat, Rebecca returns Barrett's gun to him, allowing him to open fire and kill Franklin.
In the aftermath, Barrett's name is cleared. The Blades and Latin Lords, who were informed of the truth by Carlos, lay down their grudges against each other. Carlos and Rebecca are reunited, and they leave together with Barrett, who has become Rebecca's love interest. Before leaving, Barrett is told by Crowe that the department is willing to reinstate him, to which Barrett says "I'll think about it."

Tags: neo noir, murder, violence, flashback, tragedy, revenge, sadist

Review:
A great movie....
I have watched this movie well over 100 times.
It is a great action movie, if you like this sort of thing.
Jeff Speakman rises above the script with his natural ability and his incredibly fast hands, although the rest of the cast is ordinary (especially the girl lead...how boring!).
I have sure seen worse action movies from the same era, and a TON of them since ("The Bourne Identity" and it's rotten sequel, for instance).
Sure, it's not meant to be high art, but for an action movie with an at-the-time unknown star, it is pretty darn good.
I am rather disappointed in Jeff Speakman for leaving a promising career in martial arts movies, but understand he is doing well teaching them instead.
Good for him..
Generic but competent martial arts actioner.
Jeff Speakman is an ex cop, trying to prevent war between two rival gangs.
However, a shadowy group are instigating the war, in order to take over the streets.
Why are the actual cops themselves doing nothing to prevent this state of affairs?
Because they aren't martial artists, and Speakman is, that's why.Nobody is going to watch a film called "Street Knight" featuring a martial artist in order to see a heartfelt social commentary on gang violence.
They're gonna watch it to see Speakman kick ass, break heads and then kick more ass.Does he fulfill his ass kicking duties?
Yeah, pretty much, and it's the actual fight scenes (including one wince inducing one with mechanic's tools) which somewhat elevates Street Knight above the usual bargain basement crap.
Speakman is a competent martial artist and the scenes are well choreographed, which makes this one worth a watch, and satisfying (albeit in a purely switch brain off kinda way) for fans of the genre, or action fans.Nothing at all special, but a satisfying enough beer/whatever flick all the same.
6/10, bonus point for decent fight scenes..
For Fans of the Genre Only.
Street Knight is pure excitement.
This is a film to be appreciated by only true fans of the genre-throwaway action movies.
Lots of action characterizes this decent piece of film kicked out by Cannon.
The fight scenes are well-choreographed and the ending is memorable.
The acting isn't the best, but you can't have everything.
Rent this and treat yourself to some top-notch violent entertainment.
You won't be sorry.
Jeff confirms it again..
After "The Perfect Weapon", I just couldn't allow that this movie run away from me.
And I really think that Jeff Speakman nails it again.
With this film, he confirmed his low budget martial arts star status.
Now, this is one of those good old low budget action films from the early 90s.
Just turn off your brain and enjoy it, if you are a martial arts movies fan, you'll really enjoy it, and if you are a Kenpo practitioner, you'll enjoy it even more.
Jeff Speakman is a master in Kenpo and Goju-Ryu karate, but primarily Kenpo, and he is presenting this martial art style in his films, just like Bruce Lee did with Jeet Kune Do, Chuck Norris with Tae Kwon Do, Jet Li with Wushu and Steven Seagal with Aikido.
I think that Jeff deserves his place besides these great martial arts stars.The story is one of those the usual Jeff plays Jake Barrett a former cop, now car mechanic, who quit the force because he filled guilty for the innocent victim's death.
As I said usual type of story, he is a "perfect weapon", "one man army" and "a tough guy" but, he don't want to fight no more, because someone will push him later on you know, that type of story.
Jeff tried to do as much as he can with his acting, don't expect much acting in these kind of films, but besides him, and I think he steal the show Christopher Neame, a good British actor, but in US, he constantly plays imposing villains, the good things is that he does it great.
Neame was OK.
We got a leading lady, Jennifer Gatti, a very lovely young actress, but not great acting.
We also have talents as Bernie Cassey and Ramon Franco.
The action is good, fighting scenes are great, which makes it a good film to watch.
I recommend it..
A COOL 90s LOW-BUDGET URBAN THRILLER!!!.
This is another one of those straight to video Thrillers & it's very good & alot of FUN!!!
Some cool Action scenes & a cool urban setting with gangs everywhere & a good hero to root for in the very cool JEFF SPEAKMAN.
Haven't seen really any of his movies but he is very good here i mean he's no van damme but he is cool in this film & it is a 90s Action Thriller & makes for a nice late night movie.
OK actioner.
Sloppily edited action flick starring Jeff Speakman as a former cop who gets enmeshed in a nefarious plot to escalate gang violence in L.a. by a group of mercenaries who met in prison.
Not nearly enough action, although the big battle at the end helps a bit.
Too often, it's just people standing around spouting clichéd lines.
Speakman is the only reason to see it.
His best film remains "The Perfect Weapon." This one is under-budgeted and not well written.
Final effort by Cannon Films, which also featured Chuck Norris in a number of his action films.
Instead of the usual car chase in this one, we get Speakman riding a horse, pursued by some bad guys in an SUV.
It wasn't much of a chase, but it was different..
The Last Film From Cannon.
It's amazing to believe The Cannon Film Company started away back in 1967 .
When the company was taken over by the Israeli producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus in 1979 the company became very prolific indeed and people of a certain age can remember frequently sticking a videotape in to a VCR to be greeted by the company logo .
The unfortunate thing was that Golan and Globus didn't seem to have a clue as to what a good film was .
Some of their output was entertaining such as LIFEFORCE and DEATH WISH 3 but more often than not a Cannon production usually involved grade B exploitation movies with violence , bad language and poor production values .
Even the aforementioned films despite being entertaining show examples of deranged film making and aren't much more than guilty pleasures It's very appropriate that the last film released by Cannon the 1993 production STREET KNIGHT sums up one of their productions A crime lord tries to make over Los Angles by making it ungovernable .
He does this by murdering members of Latino and black street gangs who are holding a truce and it's down to former cop Jake Barrett to catch the crime lord before the streets explode in to open warfare Barrett is played by Jeff Speakman a martial artist which right away gives the impression that Chuck Norris wasn't available , or perhaps wasn't wanting to star in any more Cannon productions because there's only so many pay cheques that can console a film career .
It's easy to become bored appearing in yet another Cannon release and it's the same with the audience Like so many previous films from the company STREET KNIGHT is a rather nasty film .
Both the story and characters are merely developed to feature as much violence and bad language as possible to the detriment of everything else .
There hardly seems to be a scene where no one is killed or no one is threatened to be killed in the most graphic way and while some people may enjoy 80s exploitation movies the world had moved on in 1993 leaving Cannon behind.
Fairly forgettable.
One of those movies where the hero is a noble white man trapped between two rival gangs on the eve of war.
Here Speakman's been hired to find a kid just as the local African-American and Hispanic gangs are getting ready to kill each other.
In fact, the kid's in hiding ever since he inadvertently discovered that the upcoming gang war is being fomented by evil white guys looking to knock over a jewelry store.
Fifty years ago it would've been a B-Western with Neville Brand, maybe, and Apaches and Homesteaders.Speakman's not a bad actor, although he's not especially charismatic and tends to feel more workmanlike than anything else.
The fight scenes are good and a bit more extended than is common for this era, although I could've stood more fighting more generally.
The plot doesn't make a lick of sense (why foment a gang war?
Why not just rob the jewelry store?) and the lead bad guy's a bit, uh, flamboyant.
Not especially bad, just pretty much forgettable..
Sleepless knights....
Jeff Speakman stars as Jake a former police officer who tries to bring peace among two rival gangs who are about to go to war.
Seems that a weapons dealer(Christopher Neame) is looking to the gang war to make a profit as they are his number one customers.
I really enjoyed The Perfect Weapon and was eager to see what Speakman would follow it up with.
Sadly Street Knight was the answer.
A deadly dull dud that featured not enough action and too much sentimental bull that nobody wanted to see.
The people who play the gang members are woefully unconvincing and it's not surprising that Cannon was behind this.
(Cannon had been on it's last legs since 1989...) Street Knight does have an okay fight sequence at the end but basically it's too dull to justify the effort in watching this.* out of 4-(Bad).
kinda boring.
this second film starring Jeff Speakman does not live up to the first one,The Perfect Weapon,at least in terms of action,or story for that matter.i found it kinda boring.the martial arts sequences aren't as spectacular here.at least they they don't seem to be to me.there are no funny one liners here that i can recall,which The Perfect Weapon had.it's a pretty generic film,if you ask me.really,in my opinion this movie is no better than average for the genre.i wouldn't recommend it unless you really have nothing else to do.just be prepared to twiddle your thumbs.for me,the absolute most i can muster for Street Knight is a 5/10.
Jeff Speakman stars as Jake an ex-cop who is still reeling from the death of a hostage, who he feels responsible for, however he finds a chance for redemption when a group of cops try to provoke a gang war so they can take over the streets in this overall boring actioner.
Jeff Speakman may have some good moves but this and his other clunker (The Perfect Weapon) fail to impress.
Street Knight is an overall loser, well worth avoiding..
No one benefits from war, 8-ball.......
Jeff Speakman returns as the chicken in a basket Van Damme after having a minor success with The Perfect Weapon.Street Knight sees him as an ex-cop who quit the force following a botched hostage situation where he failed to rescue a young girl from the clutches of a token madman.Ultimately, he's convinced to get back into the game when a damsel in distress asks for his help when a gangland attack finds a member of her family killed.It's an atypical plot and narrative, but it's worth watching because it was Cannon films final production, and Speakmans last real chance at a cinematic career.Let's just say that Speakman hasn't really been heard of in a very long time, and it's plain to see with this film, he cannot act for a toffee, and although he's a master of Ken-Po, he fights like a constipated water rat.The Perfect Weapon worked because it had familiar faces from eighties action movies, and had a decent production value.
This, is really cheap looking and feels rushed, the editing is pretty shocking in some scenes, and even though this comes from Cannon, the masters of eighties cheese and making Chuck Norris a household name, it's bad, even for them.So the film consists of Speakman waking up with the sweats every other scene following night terrors of his incident, flash forward to a lethargic action scene, and him wafting his perfect mullet every couple of minutes.It's pretty mundane for a Cannon film, there are no over the top elements that make their productions stand out for all the wrong reasons, it just plods along until the predictable finale.It's a must for a Cannon completest, but others should avoid it like the plague..
This review "Is dedicated to the United Kenpo Family and for Gang truce everywhere!".
Renowned Kenpo (not to be confused with "Kickboxer" bad guy "Tong Po") expert Jeff Speakman stars in this cliché-ridden urban actioner.In L.A.
, The gangs The Latin Lords (Mexicans) and The Blades (Blacks) run the streets.
Enter crazed ex-cop baddie Franklin (Christopher Neame) who is trying to incite a war between the two gangs.
Unfortunately for them, Jake (Speakman) lives in their 'hood.Jake was once a top cop on the beat until a hostage situation went sour.
Now all he wants to do is fix cars in his garage, eat food from the local deli and mope around.
However his scars from the past will never heal e.g. he has sad painful memories of that fateful day.
He tries to make peace with the local toughs because he falls in love with a local nurse named Rebecca and agrees to help her and her cousin Carlos who looks like a very young Adam Carolla.
Speakman enlists his old friend Raymond (Casey) who is a forensic pathologist, to do some work "off the books".Will Speakman single-handedly broker a peace between rival factions or die trying?
Will he defeat Franklin?
Will Speakman's mullet do all the work?....spoiler alert....yes.Every stereotype you can think of about gang warfare and the streets is in this movie.
The Mexican gangs actually say "Andale!" The only likable character dies, leaving the audience with too much Speakman and Franklin, who is a dead ringer for Kelsey Grammar.
Rebecca looks like figure skater Nancy Kerrigan but doesn't share her acting prowess.Carlos spends most of his time looking through a telescope at the stars and hiding out in an abandoned shack in the woods to avoid gang life.
Speakman shows up at this shack and promises "No more running".
In the next scene, they are both running for their lives from Franklin and his minions driving a black van.
Inexplicably, they both find a horse and then a van-horse chase ensues.
A van has more horsepower then a horse, which has one power, they manage to elude capture.After the chase, Jake is really teed off and utters "Now it's my turn".
Whose turn was it before?
Now, fired up with rage, Speakman finally does some cool stuff like slide under a closing garage door and hit a baddie with a wrench in the face.
After some gunning and pummeling, he is too tired to think of a catchphrase, so he regurgitates the contemporary classic "Hasta la vista, Baby!" and everyone in the world groans in unison.The movie would've been better if his name was Jake Street or Jake Knight...but it's not.
Why the Latin Lords and the Blades would listen to some honky is not explained.
The director Albert Magnoli also made the classics "Purple Rain" and "American Anthem" starring Mitch Gaylord.This review "Is dedicated to the United Kenpo Family and for Gang truce everywhere!" cue the song from Todd Smallwood!
Comeuppance Review by: Ty & Brett For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com.
A weird meditation on US race relations.
In this hackneyed bargain bin action film, LA is a darkly lit place where a White ex-cop, his Black doctor pal, and a Latina love interest work together to help sort out gang rivalries.
Along the way, we are treated to plenty of fuzzy racial themes we are accustomed to in our "urban" action films, and a vague can-do sense of civic pride.
But the twist here is a new gang in town -- a vaguely European bunch with nefarious and poorly-explained motives -- who are fresh from jail, well trained and equipped to wreck re-treaded special-ops havoc.
Its their professional mettle against the decent, plucky people of LA.
Can you guess who prevails?The audience can be forgiven for not caring what happens to any of these one-dimensional characters.
The script writing is so unoriginal that the main character quotes Arnold Schwarzenegger's famous "hasta la vista" line, a reference so trite that I suspect even in 1993 it must have sent eyes rolling.
If you're into stonewashed jeans and other markers of American "authenticity," and a White guy other than Van Damme or Chuck Norris doing karate kicks, you may be in for the summer action film of your life.