Honor And Glory (1992) - A Review

 

Classic cover to a not so classic movie.

Honor And Glory is a martial arts action movie released in the United States in 1992 and stars Cynthia Rothrock, Donna Jason, Chuck Jeffreys, Robin Shou, John Miller, Yip Kim Hing, Richard Yuen, Gerald Klein, and Tai Yim. It was directed by Godfrey Ho (credited in this movie as Godfrey Hall), with fight choreography by Tai Yim.

Cynthia Rothrock (left, as Tracey Pride) and Donna Jason (right, as Joyce Pride) play sisters who kick butt!

In Honor And Glory, Cynthia Rothrock plays Tracey Pride, an FBI agent on the trail of a stolen nuclear warhead detonator with her partner Dragon Lee (played by Robin Shou). Her mission brings her back to America, where she meets up with her sister Joyce Pride (played by Donna Jason). Joyce is a TV news reporter investigating the illegal dealings of the super wealthy banker and businessman, Jason Slade (played by John Miller). Since Jason is being hounded by Joyce and assassins, he has a security group protecting him, lead by Jake Armstrong (played by Chuck Jeffreys), the top bodyguard in the game.

Joyce shows her news report to Tracey, and Jason Slade gets on Tracey's radar. Though Tracey and Joyce get along, Joyce does not get along with her father, CIA agent John Pride (played by Leo Rocca). Jason Slade ends up with the nuclear warhead detonator, and wants to sell it to the highest bidder. Joyce's fellow kung fu school classmate Mickey (played by Yip Yim Hing) investigates strange goings on at a warehouse and gets video evidence of Jason Slade's illegal activities. Jake Armstrong starts questioning whether Jason Slade is a criminal or not and begins to help Joyce in her investigation. Things boil to a head when Jason Slade kidnaps the Pride sisters' father, and Tracey, Joyce, Dragon, and Jake team up to finally stop him...

John Miller, as Jason Slade, plays one of the biggest jerks you've ever seen in a movie!

Honor And Glory is one of those movies I watched only once on TV (cable channel TNT) late at night in the 90s, and never saw it again after that. I thought this movie was amazing back then! I had been searching for it for years (though my local video rental place had it; I didn't realize it was the same movie until after it closed down). I finally found it again on the free streaming sites Tubi and Pluto TV, and I finally watched it again recently! Was this movie as great as I remembered it?

Unfortunately, it is not! With Cynthia Rothrock, Chuck Jeffreys, Robin Shou, Donna Jason, and John Miller starring, you expect this to be filled with awesome fight scenes. The fight scenes are not that great or plentiful. Most of the focus is on the Pride sisters' and their pursuit of Jason Slade, and on their relationship. Basically, this is a very American martial arts movie. At least the fight scenes are Hong Kong style, but as said before, there aren't that many fights and they're short.   

The acting is not good. The best actors are Donna Jason and Chuck Jeffreys, and they really have good chemistry in their scenes. Cynthia Rothrock is okay in her scenes, but the things she says are so unnatural (as in, no real person would say what she says). Though this movie is billed as a Cynthia Rothrock movie, she is actually not in it that much. It is more of an ensemble movie (and Donna Jason's Joyce Pride seems to be the main character). John Miller as Jason Slade is one evil bastard! He is way over the top, and it makes you wonder why anybody would work for him with how terribly he treats his employees/co-workers.

Honor And Glory has some decent fight scenes.

What you're most probably interested in is, is how are the fight scenes in Honor And Glory? They are...okay. Though this movie was made in America in the early 90s, the fight scenes were choreographed in the Hong Kong style. Unfortunately, there are not that many fight scenes; and the fight scenes there are, are slow and short. Every character gets to show off their skill in a fight scene, including the main bad guy. Donna Jason is an excellent fighter as well, it's too bad she wasn't in more martial arts movies back then. We get all this build up to the final showdown, and it ends so disappointingly. Every character is in a fight at the same time, but instead of focusing on one fight at a time, the movie cuts between every fight every few minutes. We at least get to see Cynthia Rothrock do her patented scorpion kick. We see Robin Shou and Chuck Jeffreys do some cool stuff as well. The way Jason Slade is defeated is quite the disappointment. It could've been awesome, but they went with a totally American movie type of way to "defeat" him. Every martial artist is capable in this movie, but the choreography and editing let them down.

So, should you watch Honor And Glory? I would have to say no. If you want to watch a "cheesy" American action movie from the 90s, or need to watch every Cynthia Rothrock movie, then go ahead; you may like it! The director of this movie, Godfrey Ho, is infamous for making terrible movies (usually involving ninjas or kickboxers), so I shouldn't be surprised at its mediocrity. If you can believe it, Honor And Glory is considered one of his better movies. Cynthia Rothrock deserved so much better in America.

Reviewed by David Williams