REVIEW: The Expert (1995)

Jeff Speakman is the MAN.  Don’t mess with him.  He’ll spin around with his arms out and smack you in the face.  He won’t act your socks off, but he’ll kick them off.  That’s all you really need to know when watching THE EXPERT.  Or is it?

Well, in fact, there’s so much more to THE EXPERT than mere Speakmanism – it’s actually really good anyway.  The film – which surrounds Speakman’s John Lomax wanting revenge against his sister’s killer – actually encompasses a wealth of different genres within its kenpo-trained arms.  You’ve got your revenge narrative, your prison narrative, a bit of romance too, a smattering of martial arts, and finally your solo-seige-stealth climax – and although it shouldn’t, it all fits together quite succintly.

The revenge plot is handled deftly, with a surprisingly shocking act of violence at the start – setting up the central antagonist as a complete nutcase that deserves everything Speakman has in store for him.  Which brings me to Michael Shaner (you might recognise him from BLOODFIST), who steals the show as the despicable Martin Kagan – his subtle ticks and ominous humming do quite well towards making him a pretty spooky psycho.

Next up we’ve got our prison mid-section (minus Speakman), which handles itself quite nicely – it reminded me of BLOODFIST 3: FORCED TO FIGHT for some reason – and actually throws in a bunch of extra characters who rather than providing disposable fist-fodder, actually add to the story and devopment of the main players.  It’s also engaging enough to hold the interest even though Speakman is off-screen during most of these sequences.

Then we have the romantic sub-plot.  Actually, we’ll ignore this, because to be honest not much happens, and the introduction of the female love interest is pretty much just so that Jeff can walk off at the end holding a woman’s hand.  Also, there’s no sex – so it really is pointless.

Martial arts-wise, we’ve got Speakman showing off his own brand of American kenpo in around four fight sequences.  They’re over pretty quick, but they’re done well – especially considering this is an American martial arts film – and they do their job of showing us that John Lomax is a man not to be teased about his silly haircut.  Speakman himself has a worthy screen prescense, even if he’s not exactly an ‘expert’ actor, he instead plays up his obvious charisma to make up for it.  He’s also quite good at punching people.

Once we get to the final, everything’s gone METAL GEAR SOLID and Lomax is kitted up to the nines, complete with tranquiliser darts, guns, bullet proof vests and other high-tech equipment (half of which it seems he doesn’t even use).  It takes place at night (obviously) in a thunderstorm (obviously) during a prison breakout (obv – ok, that was a bit of a surprise) and as a suitable climax it’s, well, suitable.  It’s exciting, there’s a bit of gunplay, there’s some tension, there’s Kagan running about like a headcase and there’s Speakman knocking seven shades of shandy out of the bad guys – all required ingredients for a thrilling conclusion, I think you’ll agree.

Overall, this film is up there with the best American martial arts films, and it’s marked out from the rest by virtue of its surprisingly dark storyline, coupled with a few sequences of visceral violence.  In that sense it duly caters for those looking for gung-ho martial arts mayhem, but it also offers a more adult outlook than most of the all-action/no-plot entries in this sub-genre.  It’s well worth a watch.  If you can ignore the terribly obvious CAPE FEAR soundtrack rip-off, that is.