Plot: Eric Hawke a British Marine, attends the funeral of his policeman brother who he discovers has been attempting to investigate the mysterious kidnappings and murders of a local Asian street gang. The clues seem to point to a rival Nazi white supremacist gang as the culprits, but Lizzie (Hawke’s brother’s partner in the police force) is not so sure: she suspects a larger conspiracy which involves one of the city’s most powerful crime bosses, a man by the name of Garr. As the body count rises, Eric, Lizzie and young Asian gang member Lipo Chung race to uncover the truth behind the murders, before more missing gang members wash up on the beach with missing organs.
Hawk’s Vengeance is one of my favourite Gary Daniels movies as it doesn’t take itself too seriously with some entertaining buddy banter between Hawk (Daniels) and Lipo (George Chiang).
It’s a straightforward enough revenge tale for the most part with Hawk seeking revenge on the people responsible for murdering his step brother. When he reaches his brother’s old apartment he finds Lipo there and the two agree two team up to find some answers. Not only was Hawk’s brother killed, but Lipo has friends who have been disappearing leading to an organ trafficking business.
The main villain is Garr (Cass Magda) who only comes face to face with Hawk for the final battle, but I would have liked it if they actually met before then to create more tension. Garr spends most of the movie training with his own men and I love how one of his henchmen is talking to him about the business while he is causally beating up his other henchmen. Like I said, despite the rather dark subject of organ trafficking the tone is quite light here with some funny one-liners, so we never take things too seriously.
At 90 minutes long Hawk’s Vengeance is well paced with regular fight scenes and Daniels really gets to show off his impressive martial arts skills; the final showdown between he and Garr is quite awesome climaxing in a fantastic bad guy death involving a fan…
As I always say, there is something about these 90’s straight to video action movies that feels like a warm hug or reuniting with old friends. You have a good idea what to expect in terms of action and this movie delivers exactly that.
One thing I didn’t know until recently is that Hawk’s Vengeance is apparently the fourth entry in the Snake Eater series; a sequel to this movie was also discussed with David Hemblen set to play the villain, but sadly it never happened.
Overall, Hawk’s Vengeance is a hugely entertaining Gary Daniels movie with plenty of fight scenes, a fast pace and some nice touches of humour to make this an easy watch.