Bloodfist VIII

This retread of TARGET and TRUE LIES, directed by Rick Jacobson, was originally the eighth in Concorde/New Horizons' BLOODFIST series, all starring Don "The Dragon" Wilson.  However, it has also been screened, at least on cable television, as HARD WAY OUT without the BLOODFIST title. Again, it's likely it was not originally intended as a BLOODFIST movie. It was called BLOODFIST VIII: TRAINED TO KILL when I saw it.

This time, The Dragon is high school teacher Rick Cowan, a single father of incorrigible 16-year-old Chris (John Patrick White).  When a gang of assassins invades the Cowan home, forcing Rick to dispatch them in high-kicking style, Chris is exposed to the past he never knew his father had.  Turns out Rick is actually George Macready (!), an ex-CIA agent who must reteam with his old partner Danielle (the returning Jillian McWhirter) and boss Michael Powell (Warren Burton) to discover who's trying to kill him.  "Mac" and Chris, with Danielle alongside, travel to Ireland, where they hope to find some answers.

Besides the interesting choice of Ireland as a location, there isn't much to recommend.  None of the performers, including McWhirter, who has done much better work in similar DTV action movies, manages any color, humor, or nuance from Alex Simon's paint-by-numbers screenplay, and the movie really suffers from the lack of a strong villain. 

Would ya believe it if I told you Powell's sidekick is named Emeric Pressburger?