The Blu Ray running commentary...

First off let me say that the Blu Ray release by Kino Lorber is very good and well worth the upgrade from DVD (though I'm definitely keeping my MGM DVD in order to have an open matte print with more picture as well). The intro by director Sam Firstenberg is cool, but the running commentary is another story altogether.

Firstenberg's comments, when he's actually allowed to speak and can get in a few words in a row before being interrupted, is for the most part informative and entertaining, but the same cannot be said for his counterpart, the film's stunt coordinator and stuntman Steven Lambert. Let me preface this by saying that I have nothing but respect and admiration for stuntmen and stuntwomen who have long been the unsung heroes of action films, often putting their lives on the line to put together and execute exciting and dangerous stunts. They rarely get the praise they deserve. Unfortunately, Lambert takes it upon himself to give himself praise for stuff he didn't do. Before watching the commentary I'd read a few reviews that said he was annoyingly pointing out ad nausea every time he was doing something on screen in a 'look at me, look at me' way, but I didn't expect that he'd be claiming stuff that simply isn't true.

Listening to him you'd think he was the real star and real director of the film. It was so over the top that it was often laughable. But that wasn't the part that was the most bothersome, it was his false claims about being the sole "Masked Ninja" double in the film. I fully expected him to point out who the real "Masked Ninja" double was fighting Sho Kosugi in the finale, which was Sho's real-life student, a black belt named Eddie Tse. Not only do the film's credits state this fact but Sho himself said so back in 1983 in a number of interviews he did to promote the film. In what seems to be a Brian Williams style embellishment, Lambert is now claiming that not only did he do stunts like jumping off the building, but he was the one fighting Sho throughout the whole scene. Amazingly Firstenberg and Lambert mention Alan Amiel when they see his name in the credits, but fail to say anything about the fact that the credit right below that says Masked Ninja Double...Eddie Tse! After taking the credit himself, I suppose it's not that surprising that Lambert didn't mention it, but come on.

Anyway, suffice it to say that I suggest taking everything that Lambert says during the commentary with a grain of salt. Personally, I'm taking it with a big tablespoon of salt. Watching the film with Lambert's non-stop self-congratulatory comments it was obvious that he was full of himself. Unfortunately, by the time it was over, it was clear that he was full of something else too.