{"id":11751,"date":"2025-04-23T01:00:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T05:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11751"},"modified":"2025-04-23T01:00:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T05:00:30","slug":"bloodfist-viii-hard-way-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/04\/23\/bloodfist-viii-hard-way-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloodfist VIII: Hard Way Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Bloodfist VIII: Hard Way Out <\/strong>(1996)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Horizons\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 84 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Rick Jacobson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Alex Simon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Faulkner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John B. Aronson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 29, 1996 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Don \u201cThe Dragon\u201d Wilson, John Patrick White, Jillian McWhirter, Warren Burton, Donnie Hair, Richard Farrell, John McHugh, Conor Nolan, Brendan Murray, Mike O\u2019Mahoney, Liam Silke, Margaret Mangan, Bebhinn Kelly, Shawn Brewster, Carl Milinac.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0And we have finally reached the end. Bloodfist VIII: Hard Way Out<\/strong>, also known as Trained to Kill, is the final installment of the series in which kickboxing champ Don \u201cThe Dragon\u201d Wilson plays different incarnations of the same basic character. More accurately, it\u2019s the final official<\/em> installment of the series. There is another, a post-apocalyptic piece called Bloodfist 2050, but it doesn\u2019t count in my book because Wilson isn\u2019t in it. I have no plans to watch it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0This time out, Wilson plays Rick Cowan, a high school math teacher with a past. Right now, the biggest challenge in his life is trying to mend his relationship with his son Chris (White, Teaching Mrs. Tingle), a rebellious teen angry over his dad being largely absent from his life until now. He\u2019s all the teen has left after the death of his mother. Father and son frequently clash over the usual things like the boy\u2019s attitude and disregard for house rules (e.g. curfew). The latest thing is Chris\u2019 handling of the bully (Brewster, Criminal Affairs) making his life miserable at school. Possibly taking a cue from Bad Boys (the 1983 one with Sean Penn), Chris rigs his boom box to electrocute the bully when he forces Chris to hand it over. It\u2019s painful but not fatal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0ANYWAY, Rick is about to have bigger problems than a son with sociopathic tendencies. Mid-argument, men with guns show up intent on killing Rick and his son. Rick takes out most of them, but now he\u2019s forced to come clean with Chris about his past. His real name is George MacReady and he used to work for the CIA. He was one of their top operatives until a mission in Italy went horribly wrong. It resulted in the death of a JFK-like politician. Now somebody wants him dead.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Rick\/George (oh, let\u2019s just call him Mac from here on in) goes to see his old boss Powell (Burton, Poison Ivy) at CIA HQ. He expresses concern and promises to get to the bottom of it. He sets Mac and son up at a safe house with his former colleague Danielle (McWhirter, Bloodfist VII) in charge of security. Somebody must have slipped up (?) because it takes only minutes for more armed men to appear and make another attempt on Mac\u2019s life. Again, he escapes with nary a scratch while several baddies lose their lives.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s decided the best course of action is to go to Ireland and visit a former spy known as \u201cThe Major\u201d (Farrell, Spacejacked). It anybody can figure out what the hell\u2019s going on, it\u2019s The Major. Naturally, the killers have followed them to Ireland. They waste no time trying to waste Mac again. The third time is NOT a charm in this case, but Mac does end up (briefly) in police custody. It gives the villains enough time to abduct Chris in order to lure Mac to his death on a boat. Do they really think it\u2019ll be that easy to kill Mac? HA!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Bloodfist VIII: Hard Way Out<\/strong> is the only Bloodfist movie NOT to include Wilson\u2019s kickboxing title under his name in the opening credits. By now, viewers know he is. It\u2019s interesting to see how far he\u2019s come as an actor. That is to say, he now looks comfortable in front of the camera. He\u2019s still fairly wooden though which isn\u2019t necessarily a slight against him. He\u2019s isn\u2019t any better or worse than Chuck Norris, Charles Bronson, Dolph Lundgren or JCVD. He might be a tad better than Howie Long, but even a wooden Indian is capable of outacting the former defensive end for the Raiders. Here, Wilson tries to deliver an actual performance as a dad struggling to reconnect with his estranged son amidst double-crosses and attempts on his life. It\u2019s a valiant effort, but he\u2019s still a better fighter than an actor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Acting has NEVER been a strong suit in the Bloodfist films and number eight is no different. It\u2019s all varying degrees of bad meaning some of it is less bad. The worst performance comes from White as a 15YO boy who looks more like a 25YO man making it all the more cringeworthy watching him pretend to be a teenager, a whiny bitch of one at that. I have to hand it to him in one area though. I love that he\u2019s like a junior MacGyver with how he can make an explosive device out of common household items. He does this near the end when he\u2019s being held hostage by the bad guys.<\/p>\n

\u00a0McWhirter was likely hired for two reasons: (1) her looks and (2) she works for scale. She certainly wasn\u2019t hired for her acting ability which is roughly nil. She\u2019s like a department store mannequin brought to half-life. Also, her character\u2019s true nature is never in doubt. She looks like a sneaky bitch. To be fair, the entirety of Bloodfist VIII: Hard Way Out<\/strong> is predictable. There are literally no surprises. It\u2019s crystal clear who\u2019s really behind the attacks on Mac and son. There has to be somebody in power pulling the strings and it could only be this one character.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In its defense, Bloodfist VIII: Hard Way Out<\/strong> has some decent action scenes. There isn\u2019t a lot in the way of martial arts which is disappointing because that\u2019s what Wilson does. It does have some good chases and shoot-outs, especially the ones in the streets of the Irish town where Mac goes looking for answers only to be intercepted by the Italian hit squad. The climax on the boat is cool too.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the end, Bloodfist VIII: Hard Way Out<\/strong> is a decent DTV action movie. It\u2019s pretty typical of Roger Corman. It looks like it was made on the cheap-and-quick. Personally, I\u2019m good with that. To me, some of these cheapies are much more entertaining than Hollywood movies bearing $100M+ price tags. It\u2019s the purity in form that I admire. All in all, I\u2019d say it\u2019s a nice way to wrap up the series. And yes, I\u2019m calling it a wrap despite the other Bloodfist title I mentioned earlier. I just don\u2019t see the need to include it or even watch it.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloodfist VIII: Hard Way Out (1996)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Horizons\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 84 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Rick Jacobson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Alex Simon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Faulkner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John B. Aronson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 29, 1996 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Don \u201cThe Dragon\u201d Wilson, John Patrick White, Jillian McWhirter, Warren Burton, Donnie Hair, Richard Farrell, John McHugh, Conor Nolan, Brendan Murray, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-kick-ass-actioners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Bloodfist-VIII-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11751"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11778,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11751\/revisions\/11778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}