Outside the Law

Even at the age of 45, Cynthia Rothrock is a superb martial artist, but "Outside The Law" / "Never Say Die" is a mediocre vehicle for her. The plot is completely uninteresting, and the scattered fight scenes don't compensate for that, because a) they are mostly shot in too-tight close-ups, b) the editing is choppy, c) the villains don't offer much of a challenge to Cynthia. Only James Lew is introduced as a worthy opponent, but even their fight scene at the end of the movie is not as long as it should have been. There is an amusing nod to Rothrock's Hong Kong film past ("You can read Chinese?", her friend asks her - "Enough to order from a menu", she responds). Sidenote: when an action film starts with a couple discussing how many kids (and pets) they will have when they get married, you know one of them is not going to be around for long. (**)