Freaktana A Major Disappointment

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Wizard-8 "A Dangerous Place" is one of several movies the teenaged martial arts trained Ted Jan Roberts made for the PM Entertainment film company. None of these movies were particularly good, and this one may the worst of the bunch. It's not really Roberts' fault that the movie is tough to sit through - the director and the screenwriter have to shoulder the blame. The biggest problem with the movie is how slow and dull it is almost throughout. It takes about half of the movie before the Roberts' character starts on the road of revenge, and even when he does start down that path, the energy level of the movie is still extremely low. I guess the movie has one positive subtle message, that being that revenge can put you in danger and hurt the people around you. There is also a faint pulse of life whenever veteran movie actor Mako is on the screen. And I will admit that there are a few unintended laughs, most of them being Corey Feldman's inability to be convincing as a trained martial artist who is a really bad dude. Aside from those things, there is nothing to make this worth a look, unless you are a relative of Ted Jan Roberts.

darksorcerer I picked up this movie as part of a 10 pack action DVD pack. Now all the title in this pack consisted of movies that i had never seen before, i thought id give it a go.The movie plot/story wasn't too original but what teen karate movies are original i instantly thought of movies such as karate kid, no retreat no surrender amongst many others.The fight scenes were done fairly well with the main character doing most of his own fighting scenes, the movie reminded me of old 80's movies, thought it was made in 95.PLot 6 sound 7 (some good songs) FIghting/action 7 Overall not a bad effort

Crap_Connoisseur Why has this film been so completely neglected? A Dangerous Place is without a doubt one of the most competent and entertaining B-grade teen action films to be released in the 1990s. This film plays like a more violent version of "The Karate Kid", only with cool car chases and without the endless training montages.A Dangerous Place reinterprets a classic martial arts storyline. One brother is killed in a fight (usually during a tournament), forcing the other brother to brush up his fighting skills before facing his brother's murderer in the ring. A Dangerous Place loosely uses this framework but makes a number of interesting adjustments. In this case, Greg is killed in a fight with Taylor (Corey Feldman), the leader of the Scorpions Karate club. Greg's younger brother, Ethan (T.J. Roberts), suspects foul play and joins the club to learn the truth. This leads to the classic match showdown between the Scorpions and Ethan's club, the Lions. This film manages to breathe new life into the well worn formula by transferring the action to a high school and by making the Scorpions a criminal outfit, which carries out robberies orchestrated by their teacher and sensei. The great Pat Morita would most definitely not approve!A Dangerous Place is directed by Jerry P. Jacobs, who made a string of great low budget action films in the 1990s. This man knows how to entertain viewers with a steady stream of robberies, car chases and karate battles. This film never lets up, from the opening scene, (in which the gang carry out a robbery after being dropped off by one of the boys' mothers!) to the dazzling finale. The fight sequences are particularly well done, with clever editing and interesting camera work. There is not much blood but the action is relatively realistic for a film aimed at a teen audience. Oh, and keep an eye out for Greg's ghost, which I thought was a highly amusing creative touch.In addition to great action sequences, the film offers a fine cast of cult actors. The always impressive Mako plays the good sensei, while Marshall R. Teague has a great time playing yet another evil character, the crime lord sensei/English teacher. Corey Feldman has possibly his best role of the 90s as Taylor. As unlikely as it sounds, he is actually quite believable as an evil karate villain and does not look completely ridiculous in the fight scenes. The same can be said for T.J. Roberts, who does well in the fight scenes despite looking half the size of his opponents.A Dangerous Place is worth hunting down. Contrary to a couple of reviews here, I don't think it is as good as "The Karate Kid" but I do think it is considerably better than most of the crap passing for mindless entertainment these days.

Jake-149 Really well made for a low budget action film. Great fights. Suspenseful scenes. Good acting. Well paced and directed.