Product Description

Ex-Special Forces soldier Louis Stevens (Mark Dacascos) returns to Miami to find his former high school overrun by drugs and violence. A master of the Brazilian martial art, capoeira, Stevens pledges to straighten out a dozen of the school's worst students by teaching them this demanding and highly-disciplined fighting style. Slowly, his program begins to work, giving the students new hope and purpose. But the local drug lord, himself a martial arts expert, vows to stop Stevens' positive influence. Now Stevens must fight to save his own life, as well as the lives of his rebellious young students.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8722 in DVD
• Brand: Twentieth Century Fox
• Released on: 2003-12-16
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 95 minutes

Customer Reviews

Axe camaradas!
This is a charming movie with a stupid storyline like those seen in most martial arts movies. But hey, the point is to see the hero beat the bad guys with some sweet moves, right? And this movie delivers just that. So why bother analysing it any deeper?

Mark Dacascos plays a young capoeirista (a guy who practises capoeira) who gets some misfit students onto the right side of the law by teaching them capoeira. Of course this leads to some showdowns between him and various criminal elements. And that's it, really. But capoeira is a beautiful sport to watch, and the movie is a good teaser for the real thing.

But Dacascos isn't really a capoeirista, and the movie misinterprets some of the basic elements of the sport. If you become interested in learning more after watching the movie, look up the nearest capoeira club in the phonebook and try it for yourself. I guarantee it will be an experience well worth your while! I speak from personal experience.

Better watch this in slow motion!
This movie was by far one of the best martial arts films ever. Even in the first few minutes of the movie I could feel the urge to go out and try these moves for myself. The music is awesom! You may need to slow your VCR down so you can take in all the action in the fighting sequences. This movie introduced me to Capoeira and I am now a student under Mestre Almira. Axe!

On DVD?
The movie is excellent. The fight scenes have incredible fluidity, and the movie in general has a lot of color, light and motion. Some of the scenes in Brazil are just very beautiful to look at in addition to the scenes where people play capoeira. The absolutely best part of the movie besides the visual sequences of capoeira is the music. Once you hear this music you just spontaneously feel like dancing capoeira. The story might be cliche but this is raw action at its best. Does anybody know if it will be published on DVD? If it is I am sure it would be awesome.