Tagged: ted jan roberts
William Zabka’s Forgotten 90’s PM Magic-Infused Karate Flick: THE POWER WITHIN!
Ever wonder what William Zabka was doing after ‘The Karate Kid’ franchise wrapped up his character Johnny Lawrence’s story? Well here’s a little glimpse into the action career “post Johnny”. A weird little PM Entertainment flick from 1995 called ‘The Power Within’. This one comes right off the heels of another sweet PM movie with a strong “Karate Kid” connection called ‘A Dangerous Place‘ that I reviewed here that feature the same teen lead. This sweet little magical martial arts adventure film hits all the sweet spots, Zabka being one of the highlights as well as some of the wild action set pieces you might have come to expect from ‘PM Entertainment’ films from the era.
Ted Jan Roberts return for his second PM stint as a teenage martial artist with major problems that escalate from being afraid to ask out the girl of his dreams, to high school bullies and eventually going one on one with William Zabka in a fight for some magical rings given to him by a strange stalker.
Throw in some explosions, some cool martial arts fights, glowing rings full of neon energy and wild prom scene with a low rent grunge band with a saxophone player and you’re really beginning to check off some BIG-time boxes! Better yet much of the movie take’s place in early 90’s Universal Studios where the teens work weekends, giving this whole affair a heavy dose of high powered nostalgia. In someways it feels like a 1990’s Universal Studios commercial in the best ways possible.
It also features kid actor Keith Coogan (Adventures in Babysitting, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead, Toy Soldiers) as the wise ass side kick of teenage “PM heart-throb” Roberts. There’s plenty of great teen drama & comedy and lots of familiar b-movie faces to move things along at a steady pace too. Zabka commands the cheez factor here with his “pony tail bowl cut” and red shades as the big baddie who’s determined to acquire a magic ring to obviously do some evil shit.
Roberts however gets it first from an old mysterious karate master and from there things keep getting more ridiculous with each passing moment. There’s a good amount of action here and Zabka gets to flash his moves once again while Ted Jan Roberts does feel a bit more subdued 7 restrained than he was in the more frenetic ‘A Dangerous Place’. This I think had a PG-13 rating, (A Dangerous Place was R-rated) and it’s more timid in it’s themes and situations-but still packs a powerful punch.
My only slight gripe would be the film’s finale, which don’t get me wrong, is still pretty fun, but the final showdown with Zabka and Roberts should’ve been a total banger of a battle. Seeing Roberts in ‘A Dangerous Game’ flaunt his skills was a bit of an un expected treat and I was hoping his showdown with “Johnny Lawrence” would really up the ante further. Instead it’s a bit of a quick brawl that’s a bit light on magical ring action. Still I can’t help but relish in seeing a movie this fun as a GIANT fan of The Karate Kid franchise sooo many damn years later.
It’s a real treat to find forgotten gems like this and I’m honestly a bit surprised someone hasn’t jumped on this one since the success of Cobra Kai and the full on renewed interest in The Karate Kid franchise. This is a film ripe for the pickin’ and I can’t help but wonder why some of these really insanely fun PM entertainment releases haven’t see the light of day on blu ray! If you dig The Karate Kid most definitely check this out as well as ‘A Dangerous Place’-it most definitely hits the Cobra Kai sweet tooth!
VHS Verdict: Corey Feldman Joins Cobra Kai in ‘A DANGEROUS PLACE’?!
As a HUGE fan of the Karate Kid I was perplexed on just how this PM Entertainment film from 1994 had evaded me for ALL these years? I only found out about ‘A Dangerous Place’ when Corey Feldman posted an article on Twitter claiming this was one of his best acting roles. So obviously I needed to check this out ASAP! I was not disappointed and if you’re also a fan of The Karate Kid and love the rip-off movies this one will deliver the god-damn goods!
Essentially what we have going on here is a much darker version of The Karate Kid, Cory Feldman plays a wildly over the top vicious “Johnny Lawrence type” teenager who heads ‘The Scorpions’. They are as you can probably guess, a “Cobra Kai” like martial arts gang who’re headed by a Sensei very similar to John Kreese. He’s a full on whack job and so are his students…
This however, isn’t beat by beat clone of The Karate Kid, though clearly inspired it’s far darker and toxally action packed in that classic “PM” vibe. Filled with murder, crime sprees, car chases and even a very slight “supernatural” element, ‘A Dangerous Place’ goes the distance and even has a few twists and turns along the way. But this guy here is real star, a teen truly ready for some damn vengeance!
It’s got some great ass kickin’ martial arts segments as well as a hefty dose of heart and teen drama that really keeps the story pumpin’ along. The film’s main star Ted Jan Roberts has really got all the right moves too, obviously fully proficient in the martial arts, the 14 year old upon first sight, seems like he might be a human punching bag at school.
Quite the contrary, he and his older brother take karate classes together, whose good spirited sensei played by Mako who you might immediately recognize as’ The Wizard’ in Conan the Barbarian. There’s a couple other familiar faces but one of the the real treats happens to be Corey Feldman’s totally over the top character ‘Taylor’ who’s like Johnny Lawrence if he was even more of a teen degenerate.
Taylor robs steals VCRs & motorcycles, often getting into high speed chases on the regular with the cops. He heads a group of teenage criminals who spend their time fighting in high stakes bare knuckle one on one beach fights. Corey’s perfect as the big baddie here and still of course showcases his traditional “Michael Jackson” fashion style, but here more so in “The Way You Make Me Feel” era of the king of pop.
This was a real treat to see for the first time just now, I was expecting a much more “by the books” Karate Kid retelling which would have been just fine, but ‘A Dangerous Place’ really is a much darker movie with real life threatening stakes. Some of it really caught me off guard and it definitely earns it’s R-Rating.
There are explosions, guns and yeah even a small karate exhibition match that shares some similarities to the classic movie. But if there’s anything that resembles the 1984 classic then those elements go way more over the top. Corey’s character Taylor for instance carries a gun, beats up elderly people after he breaks into their homes and SPOILER might even murder people. Corey shines too in the role, an even bigger more dangerous threat to everyone become in contact with. Luckily Ted Jan Roberts, though barely a teenager, more than rises to the occasion somehow to take on people twice his size. I’m quite curious about that actor now, especially his 1995 film ‘The Power Within’ with William Zabka?! Sign me up!
‘A Dangerous Place’ is a wild R-Rated teen adventure with Corey yet AGAIN playing a high school kid (hey he’s still younger here than Ralph Macchio was in the original Karate Kid), it’s one of my favorite forgotten gems and new discoveries-I hope someone gives this a sweet blu ray ASAP and catapults it to cult status-it need more love!
For the time being the dvd and VHS version of this movie fetch a pretty penny online…
Universal Dork 