Rapid Fire

Brandon Lee emerges from the shadow of his famed father, Bruce Lee, in the 1992 martial arts action movie/popcorn crime drama/buddy flick "Rapid Fire." It's an aptly-titled film, littered with adrenalized fight sequences; bullets fly thick and fast, as do kicks and karate chops, as a 20-something art student named Jake (Lee) stumbles into the middle of a deadly gangland rivalry between two criminal heavies, Serrano (Nick Mancuso) and Tau (Tzi Ma) and then muscles his way out of trouble, goon by goon.

Jake isn't really a bellicose sort; he'd rather walk away from the whole mess and get back to his own business, which includes a grab-bag of daddy issues thanks to the way his father was killed during the Tiananmen Square protests that took place in 1989. Unlike his activist father, Jake would rather focus on aesthetics and leave the grime and tumult of politics and social justice to others. But witnessing a gangland murder (as he does early in the film) tends to derail one's plans; luckily, despite being framed as a cop killer by Serrano, Jake has a couple of friends among the police, namely Mace (Powers Boothe) and his partner Karla (Kate Hodge). The good guys/bad guys dynamic is completed by the resulting triangle in which sexual tension grows between Jake and Karla, even as Jake and Mace almost unwittingly enter a fractious mentor/mentee relationship.

The film's scripting is tight, even if its story beats and style are pretty standard '80s fare. (Think "Beverly Hills Cop" or the "Lethal Weapon" movies.) Still, you don't often see such a briskly clean mix of choreography and editing every day, and contemporary films that present action sequences as a muddle could take a lesson from this film.

The extras on this Twilight Time release include an audio commentary with the company's in-house film historian Nick Redman and film composer Christopher Young (Redman laments that they don't actually talk about the film all that much, but hearing Young's tales of his early days and listening in as they reminisce about friends and colleagues is such an easygoing treat you probably won't mind). There's also an isolated music track so you can appreciate Young's score all on its own.

Two brief featurettes are also included. These rehash a fair amount of the same material and focus on the film and its star - who, as Julie Kirgo notes in her booklet essay, could have had a stellar career as an action star had he not been killed on the set of "The Crow" the following year.

Then there's Kirgo's essay, which - as always - is an effervescent blend of information, keen insight, and smart humor.

"The Crow" might have been Lee's breakout role, but "Rapid Fire" is an early glimpse of things that might have been.

"Rapid Fire"
Blu-ray
$29.95
https://www.twilighttimemovies.com/rapid-fire-blu-ray/