Strike of the Panther (1988)

"Go away woman, I'm in the middle of a fight." - William

aka: Fists of Blood
Jason is back to kick more criminal butt!
Starring: Edward John Stazak, James Richards, Paris Jefferson, Rowena Wallace

Link to IMDB

Apparently, the Australians needed more Jason Blade asap, because the sequel to Day of the Panther was made the very same year!

After taking down the bad guys in the first movie, Jason now works with the police to help them combat crime. Not only does he train their task force with karate skills, he also acts as an undercover agent when the cops need a tough fighter to handle sensitive cases.
Jason's also balancing his relationship with Gemma. They're getting pretty serious but Jason's having a hard time committing, for fear that he'll only place his girlfriend in danger if she gets too close to him.

Guess what happens? If you guessed that Jason's old nemesis, Baxter, has escaped from prison and the first thing he does is kidnap Gemma, you'd be correct!
William, Jason's longtime mentor, was injured trying to protect Gemma, and he spends most of the movie hospitalized. More on him later.



Baxter has planned his revenge very carefully. He holds Gemma in an old factory warehouse that's built like a fortress, and he has the whole place rigged with explosives. Jason and the police can't risk a direct attack, but they need to do something soon because Baxter is demanding that Jason come fight him face to face. They call in Sgt. Lucy Andrews, a specialist in hostage situations.

Gemma                                          Sgt. Andrews                                             Baxter

Much of the movie becomes the police trying to negotiate with Baxter, which gives Jason time to search the city for Baxter's friends and beat information out of them. There's still the occasional action scene but they save all the really good stuff for when Jason and Sgt. Andrews finally make their move into the factory, because they'll have to fight through an army of ninjas protecting Baxter!

"He died from a sudden attack of Jason Blade." - Lambert

There's less direct humour than the first movie, although the general plot is just as ridiculous so it retains the same tone of off-beat nonsense. One really odd thing is that while William is stuck in the hospital he begins to have psychic premonitions and can telepathically help Jason fight bad guys with his mind! It's totally random and has no connection to anything else in the movie.
I loved it!

If you go in expecting 80's low-budget action, you'll mostly be satisfied, but compared to the first movie this is more of a typical action mess instead of a goofy action mess.


Be sure not to miss:
- Chicken Man.
- The epic opening credits return!
- Gemma gets another aerobic seduction dance scene.

Internet review:
"10 out of 10, what can I say, I gave Titanic a 1." - ComradCorner

Should I watch it?
Only if you really enjoyed the first one. (I know I did.)

Where can I find it?
The download link here actually leads to a streaming video.

Strike of the Panther gets...