What does it mean to say that the acting in "Honor and Glory" is really, really bad? Well, it's bad not in a "Manos: Hands Of Fate" or "Wild,Wild World of Batwoman" way, and not in an "Ed Wood movie" way...but in a "not even as good as one of the better Chuck Norris movies" way.
No one screws up their lines, there is no real incompetence on display in the camera-work or the costuming, and the cast is attractive and photogenic...but the screenplay seems to be written on the level of a Power Rangers movie. And the acting goes there too, which would be OK if they were playing it for laughs...but the movie plays things straight, so the humor is unintentional.
For instance, in the introductory scene that introduces the "reporter" half of the team, a Senator's daughter - SENATOR'S DAUGHTER, mind you - PULLS A KNIFE on the reporter in the presence of her camera crew, and the reporter kick-boxes her into submission. And then the reporter and her crew waltz off, leaving a woman who has been knocked unconscious lying on the sidewalk with a possible concussion, probably in need of medical treatment, vulnerable to depredations from any passerby. And no one remarks on this incident for the rest of the movie - no filed charges with the police, no scandal, nothing.
That's the kind of movie this is. Lacking any real heft or humanity or consequence, it fills 90 plus minutes with kick-boxing and witless dialog and silly plot devices until things wind up. The end.
On the plus side: It's cheerful, things keep moving, and Rothrock has just a little bit of something that translates well to the camera - which is probably why someone thought they could have her carry a movie. They were wrong, but not disastrously so.
It's also seems to be a Godfrey Ho/Hall vehicle, but without the part where he shoe horns completely related ninja footage into a 3rd rate action movie and them tries to pretend the ninja stuff relates to the rest of the movie via awkward linking dialog scenes. So that's a relief.
You can give this one a miss, but it won't hurt you to watch it the way some of Ho's stuff hurts you.
No one screws up their lines, there is no real incompetence on display in the camera-work or the costuming, and the cast is attractive and photogenic...but the screenplay seems to be written on the level of a Power Rangers movie. And the acting goes there too, which would be OK if they were playing it for laughs...but the movie plays things straight, so the humor is unintentional.
For instance, in the introductory scene that introduces the "reporter" half of the team, a Senator's daughter - SENATOR'S DAUGHTER, mind you - PULLS A KNIFE on the reporter in the presence of her camera crew, and the reporter kick-boxes her into submission. And then the reporter and her crew waltz off, leaving a woman who has been knocked unconscious lying on the sidewalk with a possible concussion, probably in need of medical treatment, vulnerable to depredations from any passerby. And no one remarks on this incident for the rest of the movie - no filed charges with the police, no scandal, nothing.
That's the kind of movie this is. Lacking any real heft or humanity or consequence, it fills 90 plus minutes with kick-boxing and witless dialog and silly plot devices until things wind up. The end.
On the plus side: It's cheerful, things keep moving, and Rothrock has just a little bit of something that translates well to the camera - which is probably why someone thought they could have her carry a movie. They were wrong, but not disastrously so.
It's also seems to be a Godfrey Ho/Hall vehicle, but without the part where he shoe horns completely related ninja footage into a 3rd rate action movie and them tries to pretend the ninja stuff relates to the rest of the movie via awkward linking dialog scenes. So that's a relief.
You can give this one a miss, but it won't hurt you to watch it the way some of Ho's stuff hurts you.