"Fist of the Warrior" is one of the latest DTV action films that have little to show other than a cool cover; the fact that it features a photoshopped picture of Ho-Sung "Superstar" Pak showing off tattoos that are queerly absent in the movie should give you an idea of what quality of film you'd be watching if you buy this. See, judging by the back and cover of the DVD case, you'd think that you're going into a nonstop action movie featuring a tattooed guy with a sword, when in fact you'll be lucky if there is two minutes worth of fighting in the film (with no sword), which turns out to be more of a boring dirty cop/gangster drama than anything else. Don't let the fact that this movie debuted at Cannes sway you - the only reason it got in there is because it was produced on a low budget.

　　 The story: Lee Choe (Ho-Sung Pak, "The Legend of Drunken Master") is a martial artist and hitman trying to go legit for his girlfriend Sarah (Robin Paul, "A Tale of Two Pizzas") when an assassination attempt by his ex-boss/gangster John (Peter Greene, "The Black Donnellys") leaves her dead and Lee filled with rage. He goes on a rampage through the underworld, looking to take out John, who turns to corrupt detective Craig Barnes (Roger Gueneveur Smith, "Mercenary for Justice") to frame him.

　　 Like I said, action fans are lucky if there are two full minutes of martial arts on display. Granted, Pak is legitimately one of the best martial artists in the world and has a very distinctive style of fighting, but he has a total of only four quick scenes to show them off: a quick bar fight, a short montage of him beating up people around the city, a silly encounter with Rosa Blasi ("Strong Medicine"), and the climatic five-on-one battle near the end of the film are generally all pretty cool, but are poorly shot and amateurishly edited. When the fists stop flying, however, we need to fall back on Pak as an actor, which - I'm sorry to say - is not a fun thing to watch at all.

　　 Then again, there's not much good acting on display, and Pak's performance is merely the tip of the iceberg: fellow leading star Peter Greene looks unpleasantly confused right up until his death, and Roger Gueneveur Smith tries desperately to inject dramaticism into each any every single scene he's in via dramatic pauses, a hushed voice, and/or prolonged expressions, even if the scene doesn't call for it. The supporting cast generally steals the show: Golden Globe nominee Sherilyn Fenn ("Twin Peaks") as Barnes' alcoholic wife and Antonio Fargas ("Everybody Hates Chris") as the priest consulted by Lee give the best performances of the bunch. Other notable stars include Michael Dorn ("Star Trek" series), Ed Marinaro ("Sisters"), A. Martinez ("Santa Barbara"), and Brian Thompson ("Cobra"), who do good jobs with their parts but aren't featured enough to leave much of an impression.

　　 The rest of the movie is a mish-mash of whodunit, "General Hospital"-esque ham drama, and endless flashbacks featuring Lee and his girlfriend. In all, way too much is going on that doesn't concern the star of the picture, which is probably the biggest case of false advertising that I've come across in some time. Fans of Pak's "WMAC" tour might want to pick this one up for the short fight scenes (might as well check out his previous film, "Book of Swords"), but besides them, the only audience this film will find are the poor souls who buy it with the wrong expectations. I'll say it again: the cover looks cool, the back looks cool, but this movie is approximately only 1/44th martial no, there are no car chases or shootouts to fall back on, either.