NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

actionfilm-2 Very entertaining martial arts film, starring Lorenzo Lamas as a washed up fighter. The cast includes Kathleen Kinmont (Lamas' wife at the time) as his girlfriend and a very young Michael Worth as Lama's protégé, a skilled fighter heading to Las Vegas for the World Kickboxing championship. The filmmakers waste no time in setting the tone, B film nonsense, by opening the film with bikini clad models covered in oil entertaining bar patrons. This film is notable for the entertaining storyline (seen a hundred times before, but always fun), the nice fight scenes, and the very good performances (as far as B films go). Jeff Langton as the evil kickboxing character Jake is the type of villain that makes these films so much fun.Both Lamas and Worth headed up their own MA films, but there are a few faces in Final Impact that did as well, starring as ring fighters are Gary Daniels and Art Camacho (who would go on to direct many MA films himself). And Mimi Lesseos, who was the lead in several MA films, has a small role as Jake's girlfriend. Joseph Merhi (himself an MA star) co-directs here, with Richard Pepin serving as cinematographer. Both men went on to form the now famous (and defunct) PM Entertainment.

Comeuppance Reviews In the late 80's and early 90's, video store shelves were clogged with Punchfighting,shootfighting,kickfighting,legfighting,armfighting, and ???-fighting movies. These macho meathead fests featured oiled-up men in singlets mindlessly pounding each other. We don't mean to "bash" these flicks, but the fact is they came in the wake of successes like "Bloodsport" and "Kickboxer" (I proudly own all the punch-fighting films up for review on this site.) Despite their knockoff status, they are clearly trying and mostly succeeding in pure entertainment value. Also most of the fighters in the movies are skilled martial artists and it is a pleasure to watch them fight.Sure, everyone knows the big names in the beat-em ups such as Van Damme and Seagal. But without the direct-to-video B market for these films we wouldn't have a new class of action star. Where would we be without: William Zabka, Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Jeff Speakman, Matthias Hues, and Gary Daniels? The answer: NOWHERE! This time around, Lamas plays jaded, tequila-swilling ex-fighter Nick Taylor who now promotes underground kick-fighting matches. When young Turk Danny Davis (Worth) a fresh-faced rookie fighter comes into Taylor's world, Taylor sees his potential as a top-kicker and trains him to be the best and be a kick-fighting champion in Las Vegas. But he has to first he has to defeat the spoiled Johnny Cage-like Hollywood fighter Jake.On his way up to the top he has to fight a young Gary Daniels. Nick has continuous flashbacks to his defeat in the ring years ago at the hands of the dastardly Jake. Now he and Danny have to get even. Also there is the prerequisite street fight in a place called the "Neon Graveyard".One of the funniest parts of the movie is during one of Nick's flashbacks. In the grand tradition of Ian Borger and Fan favorite Ron Marchini, Lamas bellows in slow mention "Nooooooooooo!!!" But Worth as Danny Davis gets the best line of the movie when in an argument with Nick he retorts: "If I'm so predictable, how come I'm the light-heavyweight champ of Ohio?!" Nick feels the burn of this nonsensical zinger.If there was no Lamas, There would be no movie. But the real star of the show are Lorenzo's outfits: He wears a leather vest with no shirt for most of the movie, it's about 40 minutes in until we see our first shirt.Make an "Impact"ful statement by buying this classic tonight!

edwithmj A very good film about a kick boxing champion who takes on a newcomer in a way much like Rocky 5. Lorenzo Lamas is in excellent form as Nick Taylor and Kathleen Kinmont is also great as his wife. Although Nick dies at the end, his young protégé wins in the end. The fight scenes are good but a little bit corny. Also watch out on the back of the DVD case it says Jeff Langton (who played Lamas's rival) was in Rocky 5. He was but for about 3 seconds! The actors although not the best quality put on a good performance. The film can be watched about 2-3 times before becoming totally boring as the plot is just too predictable. Never the less, Lamas fans will love this as it is one of his better movies.

bronsonskull72 Lorenzo Lamas stars as Nick Taylor a washed up kickboxer who trains a kid named Danny (Michael Worth) to fight the fighter (Jeff Langston) who humiliated him in this poor fight flick. Final Impact is a movie with a low degree of style and imagination making this one for only die hard martial arts junkies, however even the fightscenes are surprisingly sub-standard, making this a movie with no real worth.