User Reviews

"Death Just Became A Spectator Sport!" Allez: "Ring Of Steel" is classier than average direct to video fair. Just imagine the structure of a classic punchfighting movie (see: pretty much everything we've written) but instead of punchfighting, it is sword-fighting. Well, to be perfectly accurate, it is more like "fence-fighting".

Alex Freyer (Chapin) is on top of the world: He's a champion fencer on his way to Olympic gold, and he keeps his many fencing trophies right on his coffee table in the living room. He just met his new girlfriend at a fencing tourney, and his mullet is lookin' awesome in the cool breeze. His dreams are shattered when his bouton breaks and his riposte goes horribly, horribly wrong, and he accidentally stabs his opponent in the eye, killing him.

Alex is depressed and contemplates throwing out his fencing outfit for good. One day Alex is walking down a dark alley at night (bad idea) and is about to be mugged by some local street toughs. For some reason, Joe Don Baker shows up in his limo and announces "I've been following you.". Why Joe Don didn't show up at Alex's house is unknown. He invites Freyer and his girlfriend, Elena to his underground fence-fighting club. Like Alex's mullet, it is a business in the front and an illegal fence-fighting party in the back.

In true "Lone Tiger" tradition, the big boss man says the hero is "The Best" and then grooms him to the "Best". Isn't he already the best? After Alex does a few exhibition matches, Elena balks and doesn't want him to fight anymore. Naturally the bad guys kidnap her and force Alex to participate in an arbitrary number of matches before they release her.

Can he thrust and parry his way to freedom? The main fencing baddie is a meathead who wears a "shirtless shirt" and who has wide array of, not "Cosby Sweaters" but "Cosby Vests". Baker plays "The Man In Black". That's his name in the movie. Baker is a kinder, gentler sort of baddie and black is quite slimming. His bodyguard looks like a cross between Allen Kalter and Robert Loggia and he makes funny faces.

Other notable characters include an overweight LARP'er who dreams of being a barbarian (imagine a live-action version of "Comic Book Guy" from "The Simpsons"). He stumbles into the wrong salle, and he unfortunately gets slain in real life. Alex makes a friend in the theatrical fencer Brian (Jim Pirri). When Shirtless Shirt kills him, Alex grieves the only way he can: fencing practice.

In all comes to a head when cops get wise to the "Ring Of Steel". The final confrontation is in the same steam factory from "Cobra" (1986).

This is Chapin's first role and he is more a fencer than an actor. When his character is not pretending to be a pirate, he is doing fan favorite yell "Noooooooo!" Shout "En Garde" while you are watching this movie tonight!

Alex Freyer (Robert Chapin, who was born into a family of puppeteers and now does visual effects) is arguably the hero of Ring of Steel, even if you want to hate him throughout the movie. He whines, he cries, he screws up and kills someone in a fencing match, yet he still gets to have a sweaty near-Amityville: It's About Time sex with nice girl Elena Carter (Darlene Vogel, Spike from Back to the Future Part 2 and also the fourth person to play Angel in Angel 4: Undercover).

Alex is out of the Olympics and has no idea what to do with his life when he meets the Man In Black (Joe Don Baker) when he pulls a sword cane on some backstreet toughs. He tells Alex that he's the best and that he wants to bring him together with his trained fighters to be even better.

This movie has everybody in it, and by everybody, I mean people whose name I yelled when they showed up like Carol Alt as the bad guy's girl Tanya, Don Stark (Bob Pinciotti from That 70s Show) as a cop and, as you knew he would show up, Judo Gene LaBelle as, well, Judo Gene LeBelle.

This was written by Chapin too, working with David Frost (not the famous British TV personality), and it's pretty much every martial arts movie except with swords. And pirate shirts. Supposedly, Chapin's original story was way too dark, as Alex would fall into a world of drugs, money, women and bloodsport and not even want to be with Elena anymore. When MCA/Universal picked it up for home video distribution, they lightened it up. And set up a sequel, which I think we could still fund, you know?

The fact that I love this movie more than any that will ever win an Oscar for the rest of time is why I will never be a serious and respected film personality.

Well look at the rating average - below 5. This, in my belief, is very undeserved. Me and a friend used to watch this movie almost every weekend. It's not that it's a brilliant movie, it's not original - the death-match formula has been done WAY many times before - but somehow it doesn't really make this movie any less enjoyable. It's not INCREDIBLY exciting, the choreography in the fights can be a little... uninspired.

Despite this, there's a fantastic soundtrack - from the accidental death at the beginning (I don't consider this a spoiler Cos it's about four minutes in, but very sorry if you do) that starts off the whole plot, to the battles that takes the movie to its final showdown between Jack, the bad-ass samurai type fighter, and Alex, the classic fencer type. In particular, the mock fight between Brian and Alex, where they both fence, has a swashbuckling theme that is absolutely perfect and sets the tone wonderfully :-) The characters are quite varied, ranging from the deadly serious fighters (like Jack) to the clowns (like Brian), with weapons ranging from claymores to rapiers to katanas, to sai, and sabre/shield combos. Each character has his own fashion style to make him more recognisable, and surprisingly there's time to reveal a lot of their personalities.

Every part is played with full commitment. Jack, Brian, Alena, the Man in Black, and especially Jack, who can lay it on thick sometimes, but altogether does a very impressive job.

A little late, but here's the plot. Alex Freyer is the best of the best - or on his way to becoming so. In a fencing tournament, his sabre snaps and he accidentally stabs and kills his opponent. After this his name is blood - fired from his academy, and his name blacklisted from tournaments, he drinks his trouble away. Then one night, while walking home, he gets mugged. A man shows up and scares away his attackers, and hands Alex a card to his club - The Ring of Steel, where the best fight for the title of champion. What Alex doesn't realise is that they also fight for their lives. He gets blackmailed into staying around when his girlfriend is kidnapped and he's forced to fight in order to keep her safe.

Yeah, standard sort of plot, it's been done before like I said, but the chemistry between Alex and Brian will have you chuckling, since Brian's character is an absolute nut bar, even while fighting. Jack is a psycho who will do anything to remain champion. Alex is the victim, a death-match virgin, who is forced to become aggressive and ruthless to fight his way to his girlfriend and his freedom.

Some fights are funny. Some are intense. Some are impressive. Some are boring. There's a lot of variety in here and not all of it good, but if you can pick it up for £10 or less, you won't regret it, I promise :-) I rate this an 8 out of 10. I would give it a 9, but don't wanna sound biased. Enjoy.