Review: Day of the Panther / Strike of the Panther

Blu-ray: Day of the Panther / Strike of the Panther (1988)

Director Brian Trenchard-Smith (see my review of his awesome movie \’The Man From Hong Kong\’) once again delivers onscreen action mayhem with this \’Panther\’ double bill.

Day of the Panther and its sequel Strike of the Panther, tell the story of martial arts expert, woman magnet, top ripping, crime fighting Jason Blade (Edward John Stazak), a man who is as quick with a witty verbal comeback, as he is with his deadly fists.

Filmed back to back, \’Strike\’ begins with a recap of the highlights of \’Day\’, which is no bad thing as both movies are full of highlights. How can you not like a bad guy fighting while wearing a pig mask? A leotard wearing woman dancing provocatively in front of Jason while he\’s sat in the gym lifting weights (the things you had to do to get attention before Tinder!), or waiting to see the next excuse that Blade will have to rip his top off before a fight…hint…usually it\’s none at all.

Trenchard-Smith delivers hugely enjoyable action movies where the stunts are often as outrageous as the narrative. As well as the aforementioned The Man From Hong Kong (also available from Umbrella Entertainment), Stunt Rock, Turkey Shoot, and even the \’kids\’ movie Frog Dreaming, all have action set-pieces that make you question the sanity of all involved. No CGI here folks, this is seat of your pants action filmmaking, where the seat of the pants often have brown stains I would imagine from all of the close calls that are shown onscreen.

You could buy either of these two movies and enjoy them immensely, but for the full experience, this double  presentation on Blu-ray (remastered for the 1st time in HD) from Umbrella Entertainment is the definitive way to sit back and enjoy Jason Blade kicking ass.

I would now love Umbrella to release more Trenchard-Smith on Blu-ray please, and also the 3rd (and final) movie that Edward John Stazak made: Black Neon.

Forget about the MCU and Black Panther, these are the Panther movies to watch.

Review by Dave from a disc kindly supplied by Umbrella Entertainment.

If you want to buy anything reviewed on our site (or anything at all!), then please use the Amazon link provided and help support us with our website and podcast. Thank you.