A typical actioner in the vein of an early Steven Seagal flick, this one marks the debut of stubbly Jeff Speakman, once marketed as the new action hero of the 1990s. The film is cheap but enlivened by plenty of fight sequences, executed with style and speed by the surprisingly impressive Speakman whose chop-socky skills could prove to be a fair match even for Seagal himself in his prime. The main problem the film has is that it's incredibly clichéd: right down from the "avenging the death of mentor" storyline to the street attack by a gang of thugs. Every plot twist is well choreographed in advance, so it's best to just concentrate on the plentiful action the film offers, from a stunt-packed car chase to plenty of one vs. many street battles. Speakman is typical as a martial arts actor, largely wooden but getting by on his skills alone and watching him fight dozens of bad guys dynamically is great stuff.Filling out the one-dimensional roles are plenty of notable faces. As the film takes place in a Korean district and is made in America, all of the staple Asian actors show their faces in various roles: Mako as the Kempo teacher, James Hong as the slimy villain, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as a henchman and my personal favourite, Professor Toru Tanaka. Tanaka has a great role here, stereotyped as a massive bodyguard who proves to be indestructible until the fiery climax, where he dies an impressive death. Perhaps a bigger budget would have resulted in some better locations and effects work, but THE PERFECT WEAPON works well as a perfectly serviceable B-movie full of action but no brain. My only complaint is the running time; clocking in at under eighty minutes I think I must have seen some truncated version.

Jeff Sanders (Speakman) has been training in Kenpo since he was a young boy. At first, it was because his father wanted to direct all his unruly, youthful energy. Now he's a Kenpo master who abides by his own tagline, "no gun, no knife, no equal" (though technically he does use Arnis sticks). When his friend, a shop owner named Kim (Mako) comes under fire from the Korean mob, Sanders snaps into action. But will he snap some necks along the way? Along his quest, he must utilize the help of his brother, a cop named Adam Sandler...er...Sanders, and a young punk kid named Jimmy (Fist of the North Star (1995) and Blood and Bone (2009)'s Basco) but it's going to take all of Jeff's Kenpo skills to fight off Yung (Hong), Kai (Tagawa) and the intimidating Tanaka (played, unsurprisingly, by Professor Toru Tanaka). Is Jeff Sanders the PERFECT WEAPON? Find out today...The Perfect Weapon is the best Jeff Speakman movie we've seen to date...and why wouldn't it be: it was his first starring role, as well as being a major studio release tailor-made to showcase his Kenpo talents to the world. As might be expected, the fight scenes are the highlight of the production. Speakman clearly has "got game", as it were, enough to compete with all his competitors at the time. The whole thing is well-shot and you can see all the moves. Refreshingly, this was before quick cuts, green screens and nu-metal corroded the action genre. Sure, it slows down before the climax, but that's a common action movie malady we've seen countless times before. There's the time honored warehouse showdown, but this time employees still work there and it's not abandoned. So there's a slight difference there.Gumming up the works is the introduction of Jimmy, the classic young punk kid. He gives his scenes with Speakman an unpleasant American Ninja 5 (1993) vibe. He even un-ironically whines "are we there yet?" at one point. Now, let's not forget Mariska Hargitay, TV's Olivia Benson, is technically in this movie as well. Despite being top-billed, she has literally zero spoken dialogue and appears only in brief flashes. It would have been so much cooler if Speakman teamed up with her to bust some heads in Koreatown. But no, there has to be an annoying kid, and the movie goes slower with Jimmy.At least the movie is well-made, and, plotwise, it's actually about Kenpo, which gives the whole thing consistency. Yes, the whole thing looks like it was shot on a backlot (there are some pretty obvious sets), but some of them are cool - look at "Club Croc-Pit". Notably, the film starts out with Speakman sweatily working out, shirtlessly, in sweatpants, to Snap's "The Power". You just know he intentionally put that song on because he believes it was written about him. You can't get more 1991 than that. When I was eleven years old, I remember seeing a commercial on TV for this movie, and even then, thinking, "another one?" - meaning, I already knew about Arnie, Sly, Seagal, Van Damme, and perhaps others involved in the late 80's/early 90's action boom, and I was surprised "they" (meaning studio higher-ups) were rolling out a new guy. How could I, or anyone, have known that the U.S. action boom was about to go bust. We should really treasure what we have.Director DiSalle has had an interesting career - he's only directed this and Kickboxer (1989), but he produced Speakman's Street Knight (1993), as well as Bloodsport (1988) and Death Warrant (1990). He wrote the story for Kickboxer 2 (1989), acted in all five of the aforementioned movies, and that's about it for him. Apparently he only works with Speakman or Van Damme. Seems like a good way to go through life. Anyway, The Perfect Weapon, despite a few flaws, would prove to be the last theater-released movie from the action boom of the day. That alone makes it worth seeing.

after viewing this movie,one thing that really sticks out in my minds is the spectacular fight sequences.and there are a few of them.this guy really lives up to his title.as far as his acting ability goes,it's not half bad.this is after all,his film debut,and there are a lot worse actors out there.he does have some good lines,and his delivery is pretty good.the story is nothing groundbreaking or original,but at least it moves the film forward.the running time is short(only 85 minutes,and could have been lengthened,but at least it's not one of those movies that goes on for far too long.for me,The Perfect Weapon is a 7/10

Jeff Speakman(The master of kempo) made his debut in The Perfect Weapon, in this he plays Jeff Sanders a construction worker/drifter who brings vengeance to the Korean mobsters responsible for his mentor(Mako)'s death, his cop brother Adam(John Dye) keeps trying to tell Jeff that there are proper procedures but Jeff proceeds to hunt and pulverize anybody who gets in his way. There was just something about martial arts movies that I loved, something to this day I can't put my finger on. The Perfect Weapon was made to rival Steven Seagal, as Warner Bros had Seagal under contract, so Paramount introduced us to Jeff Speakman. Speakman should have had a bigger career at least on the basis of this, The Perfect Weapon features everything you would expect from a martial arts action flick but also has a stronger narrative and a sharper pace. That being said there are a couple of slow moments but Speakman is always there to kick life into the movie and on this level The Perfect Weapon works as a great guilty pleasure. Also Professor Toru Tanaka makes for a great villain.* *1/2 out of 4-(Pretty good)