John Fujioka Movies

Three reluctant fighters are drafted for an intergalactic martial-arts tournament that will determine the fate of the human race in this special-effects-driven adventure. Inspired by the popular and notoriously bloody video game, Mortal Kombat provides a semblance of a plot as an excuse for rampant mayhem, with the evil alien forces challenging humanity to a kung fu battle to decide the Earth's fate. Following the failure of several previous human defenders, mankind's last chance lies with egotistical action film star Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby), tough but beautiful special agent Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson), and vengeance-minded hero Liu Kang (Robin Shou). Under the guidance of inspirational sorcerer Lord Rayden (Christopher Lambert), this unlikely trio faces off against a series of terrifying alien adversaries. As in the video game, the martial arts battles are the true point, with standard fighting combining with magical touches supplied by computer-generated effects. The dramatic content often resembles a Saturday morning cartoon, but Jonathan Scott Carlson's appropriately dank production design and the visually spectacular battle sequences made the film a hit amongst younger fantasy-action fans, spawning a sequel and a TV show. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

In this lively actioner, a samurai warrior adopts an American boy and later gives him the treasured family sword. Unfortunately, this rouses the jealousy of his wicked stepbrother who is involved with yakuzas and illegal sword-fighting contests, and who vows that he will get revenge upon the Yankee brat. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A hard-drinking Vietnam veteran pilot (Lance Henriksen) is hired by a rich Japanese businessman, whose ancestors were samurai warriors, to fly him and his group to Africa. There they are captured by a cultured, Western-educated tribal leader who discusses philosophy with them while his rebel armies rob and massacre the local populace. The pilot manages to escape to the desert and starts to formulate a plan to rescue his employers. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

In this Hitchcockian thriller, a wealthy and naive young sculptor learns that people are not always nice and helpful. His first mistake is to fall for the seductress who runs the gallery that has an exclusive on his work. He then hooks up with an insane art collector who gets jealous of the gallery owner's hold on the artist and commits murder, leaving the sculptor to take the blame. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-television movie, the stability of an extended family is threatened by divorce. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

This futuristic drama offers the classic story of Shane seved up with a few Mad Max moments and some interesting twists. The tale is set in the smouldering, decimated post-World War III town of Meridian, where locals scrabble to keep their meager farms watered in the midst of a desert wasteland. Bad-guys - a powerful landowner and his cronies - try to monopolize the precious local water supplies by bullying, kidnapping and even murdering citizens. To this beleaguered place comes the enigmatic swordsman/ warrior Nomad who has come in search of his mentor's killer. The town takes him on as their "Peacemaker" and he is able to end their problems and get his revenge to boot. The story was filmed on location in the deserts of South Africa. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A trio of rich ex-cops begin to investigate a murder involving baseball and gangsters. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

Congregating at a French restaurant, the A-Team is reunited with Lin Duk Coo (Mako), formerly the cook at the Vietnamese POW camp where they'd been imprisoned during the war. Naturally, Lin is in desperate need of the team's help, thanks to the villainous machinations of the prison camp's sadistic former commandant General Chow (John Fujioka), who, in league with traitorous ex-soldier Tom Anderson (Marjoe Gortner), is currently smuggling heroin into the country. Disguising himself as a golf caddy, Hannibal (George Peppard) is able to figure out that the drugs are being hidden in bread produced at the Angel Bakery--thereby setting up the climax in which a modified bakery truck functions as a tank! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Charles (David Ogden Stiers) is more obnoxious than ever, thanks to an extremely painful toothache. But despite his agony, Charles is terrified at the prospect of seeing a dentist. Elsewhere, the doctors try to find out why the combat-engineer outfit commanded by a certain Major Weems (Tom Atkins) yields an inordinate number of black casualties. Watch for Laurence Fishburne in a key supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Richard Pryor gives a compelling performance in Some Kind of Hero, playing a Vietnam veteran who tries to readjust to civilian life. Pryor plays Eddie Keller, who has just spent five years in a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp. Most of the time there, Eddie was able to hold his own against his captors, but he eventually was forced to sign a statement denouncing United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Eddie decided to sign the document in order to insure that his friend Vinnie (Ray Sharkey) would be given proper medical treatment. Because of this denunciation, when Eddie returns home from the war he is denied his back pay. He also discovers that his wife has left him for another man, his business has fallen apart, and his mother has been sent to an asylum. Eddie falls into a deep depression and hits rock bottom. But he meets a friendly prostitute, Toni (Margot Kidder), who helps him straighten out his life. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Magnum (Tom Selleck) is hired by Mitsu McWilliams (Irene Yah-Ling Sun), the wife of his old Navy buddy Dick McWilliams (Guy Stockwell), to ransom her husband from kidnappers. Mitsu also pleads with Magnum not to inform her father (John Fujioika), a wealthy Japanese businessman, that she is willing to spend $500,000 to free Dick; its seems that her dear old dad has despised her husband ever since he first laid eyes on him. Ultimately, it turns out that there is more to the case than a mere kidnapping--and that Magnum has been set up as a dupe yet once more! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV historical drama chronicles the personal and professional lives of Colonel Tibbets and the airmen who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The story is based on a book by Gordon Thomas and Max Gordon Witts and also looks at the ways in which the aftermath of the bombing affected their lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Karate champ Chuck Norris returns for another chop-socky vigilante flick in The Octagon, one of a handful of undistinguished Ninja pictures released during the early '80s. Norris appropriately plays a retired karate champ hired as a bodyguard for a wealthy woman (Karen Carlson) plagued by a gang of vicious ninjas. Reluctant at first to take the job, he reconsiders when he learns the gang is headed by his longtime arch rival Tadashi Yamashita (Lee Van Cleef). The script -- as is the case in nearly every Ninja film -- has holes bigger than Okinawa, and the acting is downright atrocious, particularly that of Norris, who, thankfully, improved with time. However, the production values are fair, as is the direction, and the action sequences are often exciting and comparatively realistic. Recommended for genre fans only. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide