This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Ironheart | |
---|---|
Directed by | Robert Clouse |
Written by | Larry Riggins |
Produced by | Britton K. Lee Greg Long |
Starring | Bolo Yeung Richard Norton Britton K. Lee |
Cinematography | Kent L. Wakeford |
Edited by | Peter Appleton Alain Jakubowicz |
Music by | U-Krew Tom Gunn |
Distributed by | Morning Star Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 92 mins |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Ironheart is a 1992 martial arts film starring Bolo Yeung, created as a showcase vehicle for Britton K. Lee. It is considered a cult classic by many Bolo Yeung fans.
Ironheart opens at a Portland nightclub (Upfront FX), where Milverstead, who is considered the most powerful and ruthless man in town, and his group of thugs are looking at the female clientele with an approving eye. Milverstead is shipping illegal arms out of the Portland docks, and to sweeten the deals with his trading partners, he kidnaps local lonely dancers, strings them out on heroin, and sends them along in the deal. He notices Cindy Kane (Meagan Hughes) dancing furiously to U-Krew's hit "If You Were Mine" and decides to kidnap her. To lure her into his trap, he instructs his young lieutenant Richard (Michael Lowry) to flirt with her and get her to go with him. Cindy is ostensibly with her loser boyfriend Stevo (Rob Buckmaster) at the club, but wants to get him jealous and so leaves with Richard. Milverstead and his gang leave shortly thereafter.
However, they are being tailed from the club by a new policeman on the Portland force from LA named Douglas (David Mountain), Douglas has been tipped to Milverstead's shady dealings and follows everyone to the docks, where most of the gang is now dragging Cindy onto a boat, locking her in a cage and shooting her full of heroin. At this point, Milverstead's second in command, Ice (Bolo Yeung) takes some of the gang and lays a trap for Douglas. They beat Douglas senseless, at which point Ice shoots Douglas in cold blood on a pile of old tires, and also blows up his car with gunfire.
Back in LA, Douglas's old partner John Keem (Britton K. Lee) is made aware of his partner's untimely death and strangely ordered to Portland to assist the local police in the investigation. While driving to Portland in a red convertible Porsche, he stops for a sandwich when he notices some men on the beach smoking marijuana and, subsequently, attempting to rape a female jogger. He goes to investigate when he is charged by a drugged out rapist named Spike, and promptly beats him and the rest of the potential rapists up, saving the jogger's life. When he goes to check on the woman, she has fled in terror from the bizarre encounter.
Upon reaching Portland, he immediately goes to meet with Captain Kronious (Joe Ivy), who offers assistance and mentions that a woman also disappeared the same night Douglas was killed, a Cindy Kane. John goes to talk to Stevo and see if there is perhaps a connection between Cindy's disappearance and Douglas's fateful death. Milverstead arranges to have Cindy sent overseas with his next shipment, and brags to Ice how pleased he is things are going so smoothly, as he HATES chaos.
John Keem meets up Stevo, who tells him Cindy left with a strange guy from the club, so they go to investigate that night. Milverstead is there along with his gang, so John Keem stirs things up a bit by starting a fight to get Milverstead's attention when he sees a friend of Cindy named Kristy (Karman Kruschke) being harassed by a couple young punks. Puzzled that Ice has never heard of this new heavy hitter, he sets about to find out who exactly John Keem is.
Kristy runs a dance studio, so John Keem decides to pay her a visit the next day and question her about Cindy. Cindy, unfortunately, became a "tragic dancer's story", where she was talented, but got lazy and started simply dancing at the clubs trying to land a rich guy, leading Stevo on the whole time that he had an actual chance with her. They go to lunch, where they are interrupted by Stevo (whom Kristy calls "Cherub") who tells John Keem to check out an address given to him by the Captain. John races off to follow the tip, leaving Stevo to awkwardly hit on Kristy just one day after his girlfriend goes missing.
John finds the address, but when he gets closer to the house to investigate, he sees a bomb planted just inside the window by Milverstead's henchman Simmons (Pat Patterson) and runs away just as it explodes. Simmons and his accomplices try to corner John, and they then engage in a wild gun battle where two of the gang are killed and Simmons wings John Keem in the shoulder. At this moment, Kristy arrives out of nowhere in an old Volkswagen Beetle and just drives through the middle of the battle, allowing Simmons to escape. Kristy jumps out of her car and gets in a shouting match with John, who calms her down and blows up her car so it can't be traced. They drive off together to continue the hunt.
Back on Milverstead's boat, he is relaxing with a drink Ice just made when Simmons arrives. He quizzes Simmons about whether or not John Kim was dead, and makes him feel guilty about botching the operation so badly. Simmons sputters out some nonsense about knowing that he shot John Keem, but refuses to answer whether or not he terminated the target. Disgusted, Milverstead tells Simmons the dead men's blood scream for his, so he has Ice strangle Simmons with his own tie and toss him overboard.
Kristy attends to John Keem's wounds back at her place, when she starts to get emotional. Unmoved, John Keem listens and then they promptly sleep together with no apparent pre-text other than they were both there. Stevo is frantically trying to reach John Keem, so he calls Kronious to let him know that Richard, the guy Cindy went home with, works for Milverstead. He then goes off to complete his route for Hot Flash Pizza. However, Captain Kronious calls Milverstead with this information, and not John Keem. Milverstead gets off the phone and asks Ice, who has been bouncing a pencil while awaiting his next order, if he'd like a little "exercise". Ice throws down the pencil and goes off to find and kill Stevo.
After their sexual encounter, John Keem goes off to finish the investigation while Kristy goes to collect her 8 year old daughter she left at the club with the reception several hours earlier. John Keem learns that Stevo has been killed, and makes the connection that Milverstead is involved. He takes the fight to Milverstead by impersonating a homeless man and banging on the door to Milverstead Shipping in downtown Portland to alert the night watchman. They let him in, and he promptly kills or maims the entire security team and finds evidence to finish Milverstead once and for all.
Milverstead is waiting for him at the club, and offers a bonus to any of his henchman who kills John Keem. Kristy leaves her daughter at home alone again to try and lure Milverstead out into the open by dancing up a storm at the dance club. Milverstead knows she is working with John Kim, but decides to kidnap her and send her overseas anyway to punish her for working with him. Unfortunatetly, John Keem dispatches his henchman with a single punch and quickly follows Milverstead and Ice to the docks. There he also finds the double-crossing Captain Kronious, and gets him to tell him where Milverstead is before he shoots and kills him.
He then kills off the remaining henchman (besides Ice) and corners a helpless Milverstead. Wielding a samurai sword he took off one of the henchman, he chops a sobbing Milverstead's head off and turns to face Ice. He quickly beats (but does not kill) Ice, avenging his friend's death. He goes back to LA with Kristy and her daughter to start a new chapter of his life.
The film was set and shot in Portland, Oregon. [1]
Breathing Fire is a 1991 American martial arts film directed by Lou Kennedy in his directorial debut, and co-directed by Brandon De-Wilde. The film stars Ke Huy Quan, with a supporting cast of Eddie Saavedra, Ed Neil and Jerry Trimble. The film was released on direct-to-VHS in the United States on July 15, 1992.
Liam Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Sonny Bottomley for two months in 1998 and 1999, twins Jack and Tom Godolphin from 1999, Gavin and Mitchell Vaughan in 2002, and Nathaniel Gleed from 2002 to 2004. Upon his reintroduction in 2008, the character was portrayed by James Forde. Liam is the son of Bianca Jackson and Ricky Butcher and his stories have mostly revolved around his family. The character took a six-month break in 2012 for story purposes. Following his return, producers used Liam in a story about gangs, working with the charity Comic Relief. Forde was written out permanently in 2015 and Liam departs in the episode first broadcast on 17 August 2015. Liam was reintroduced for a short stint in 2021, with the role recast to Alfie Deegan.
Ebola Syndrome (伊波拉病毒) is a 1996 Hong Kong Category III exploitation film directed by Herman Yau and starring Anthony Wong.
Legacy of Rage is a 1986 Hong Kong action film directed by Ronny Yu. The film stars Brandon Lee, Michael Wong, Regina Kent and a special appearance by Bolo Yeung, who appeared alongside Lee’s father Bruce Lee in his posthumous 1973 film Enter the Dragon. It was Lee's first leading film role and the only Hong Kong production he worked on.
Side Street is a 1929 American Pre-Code film featuring the only screen teaming of all three Moore Brothers, each of them major silent film stars. George Raft also makes an uncredited appearance as a professional dancer — which Raft was at the time — dancing to the song "Take a Look at Her Now", sung by June Clyde. Side Street was directed by Malcolm St. Clair with a screenplay by George O'Hara and Jane Murfin, based on a story by St. Clair, which was adapted by John Russell.
Lucky Stars Go Places, also known as The Luckiest Stars, is a 1986 Hong Kong action comedy film directed by Eric Tsang. It is the fourth film in the Lucky Stars series. It was an attempt to combine the original Lucky Stars troupe with the similar action comedy ensemble from the Aces Go Places series. The film stars original Lucky Stars member Sammo Hung along with new Lucky Stars members Andy Lau, Alan Tam, Kent Cheng, Anthony Chan and Billy Lau as well as Aces Go Places stars Karl Maka and Sylvia Chang, while other Lucky Star members Tsang, Richard Ng, Stanley Fung and Michael Miu make cameo appearances.
Sagebrush Trail is a 1933 American Pre-Code Western film with locations filmed at Bronson Canyon starring John Wayne and featuring Lane Chandler and Yakima Canutt. It was the second Lone Star Productions film released by Monogram Pictures. It was shown as An Innocent Man in the UK, and this version was later released in a colorized version on home video.
Dragnet is a 1947 American crime film directed by Leslie Goodwins and starring Henry Wilcoxon, Mary Brian, Douglass Dumbrille, Virginia Dale, Don C. Harvey, and Ralph Dunn. The screenplay was written by Barbara Worth and Harry Essex. The original music score was composed by Irving Gertz.
The Viral Factor is a 2012 Hong Kong-Chinese action film directed by Dante Lam and starring Jay Chou and Nicholas Tse. The supporting cast includes Lin Peng, Michelle Bai, Andy On, Carl Ng, Liu Kai-chi and Elaine Jin, with action choreographed by Dante Lam and Chin Kar-lok. Production for the film started from March 2011 to July 2011, and was theatrically released on January 17, 2012.
A True Mob Story is a 1998 Hong Kong crime drama film produced, written and directed by Wong Jing and starring Andy Lau and Gigi Leung.
Where's Officer Tuba? is a 1986 Hong Kong action comedy film directed by Philip Chan and Ricky Lau. The screenplay was written by Barry Wong, and starring Sammo Hung, who also produced. The film co-stars Jacky Cheung, David Chiang and Joey Wong. The film was later remade as Look Out, Officer! in 1990 starring Stephen Chow.
Rio Grande Patrol is a 1950 Western film directed by Lesley Selander and starring Tim Holt and Tom Tyler.
Casino Raiders II is a 1991 Hong Kong action drama film directed by Johnnie To and starring Andy Lau, Dave Wong, Jacklyn Wu and Monica Chan. Despite the title, the film is the third installment in the Casino Raiders film series, following Casino Raiders (1989) and No Risk, No Gain (1990). The films in the series are unrelated in plot and merely share the same principal actor of Lau.
Sworn Brothers is a 1987 Hong Kong action crime drama film directed by David Lai and starring Andy Lau and Cheung Kwok-keung as step brothers on the opposite sides of the law as a triad and cop respectively.
City Kids 1989 is a 1989 Hong Kong action film directed by Poon Man-kit and starring Andy Lau and Max Mok. The film shares the same Chinese title and a similar plot to the 1969 film, The Orphan, which stars Bruce Lee.
Green Ice is a 1981 British adventure film starring Ryan O'Neal. It was also released under the name Operation Green Ice.
The Marshal of Mesa City is a 1939 American Western film directed by David Howard from a screenplay by Jack Lait Jr..
Earth and Blood is a 2020 French action thriller film directed by Julien Leclercq and starring Sami Bouajila, Eriq Ebouaney and Samy Seghir. The film is about a violent showdown at an isolated sawmill that occurs when a young employee hides eight kilos of a gang's stolen cocaine at the mill. When the heavily armed gang members come to recover their drugs, the sawmill owner stages a last stand to protect his teenage daughter.