The Power Within
(1995)
Director: Art Camacho
Cast: Ted Jan Roberts, Karen Valentine, Keith Coogan
I think that
it goes without saying that even though my writings on this web site
might get a little immature and childish at times, I am indeed an
adult, and have been one for quite some time. (But not a long long
time!) Outside of this web site and into my private life, I certainly
like to do adult things. Even doing my taxes every year I enjoy doing
because it tells me I am doing a responsible thing - though my ease at
doing taxes may be because I just hand my tax slips and other forms to
H & R Block. Anyway, while I have been doing adult things as an
adult for some years now, I recently realized that it's been some time
since I've thought like a child and done things as a child. Realizing
that, I decided to test myself by trying to recall how I was as a
child. It wasn't easy. Maybe it's because of all the years have passed,
or maybe it's because I've blocked out many childhood memories because
I would be embarrassed recalling many of them. So I decided to allow
myself clues from more recent observations of children around me, and
adjusted the question to a more general one: What do kids like? Well,
after thinking about this new question with the new source of clues, I
came up with a few answers. Certainly, kids love candy. At the store
where I used to work, I came across many kids crying to their parents
for
some of the candy we sold. And kids also like toys. At the store where
I worked, I came across many kids crying to their parents for some of
the toys we sold. From both these observations, I have come up with a
third conclusion: Kids like to cry.
Drifting away from the obvious, I decided to next think
about what kids like when it comes to other kinds of entertainment,
namely movies and television shows. Thinking about those specific
subjects, I came up with some interesting observations. First, kids
like repetition. With kids begging their parents to read the same
bedtime stories over and over, it should come as no surprise that they
like seeing the exact same movies and television episodes over and over
as well. Another thing that they like seeing in movies and television
shows are people their age or a little older in positions of power. For
example, kids for a large part really loved seeing Home Alone
(and still do) because it had a child protagonist who faced a number of
dangerous situations and managed to come out on top at the very end.
With this knowledge that kids like to see people their age in positions
of power, one may conclude that there is a certain kind of family movie
that kids would be demanding, being the martial art family movie.
However, one will quickly see that although some such movies have been
made over the years, there haven't been a great deal made. Why is this?
I decided to think about this for a while, and I came up with a few
possible theories. One theory is that while adults versed in martial
arts can perform safely in front of the camera and maybe withstand a
little pain if something goes wrong, it is more dangerous for kids.
Filmmakers may be reluctant to have kids risk getting hurt. Another
reason may be that the idea of selling a kiddie martial arts movie to
parents - who buy movie tickets for their kids - may be a tougher sell;
parents may not relish the thought of kids getting the idea that the
way to conquer a problem is to beat the living daylights out of an
opponent.
A third reason may be with casting. Only a small
percentage of kids train in the martial arts, and finding a kid who is
not only well skilled in martial arts but can also act may be a
challenge. But there is a fourth reason why I think not many kiddie
martial arts movies have been made: They are almost always terrible
movies. I've seen over the years a good deal of the few kiddie martial
arts movies, and I have generally found them to be of very low quality.
Read my old review of Little Ninjas
for an example. Having stated my opinion of kiddie martial arts movies,
you have probably concluded that The Power Within
is another such movie, and you are probably questioning why I would
then review it. Well, there was a glimmer of hope with this movie,
since it was made by the B movie studio PM Entertainment, which made a
number of high quality direct to video movies around the time this
particular effort was made. It's about the adventures of a teenager
named Stan (Roberts, Masked Rider),
who lives with his single mother Clyda (Valentine, Room 222).
Stan is a youth with no self esteem or confidence, which among other
things gets him bullied and makes him balk from approaching a girl he
likes (Tracy Melchior, The Bold And
The Beautiful). One day, Stan stumbles across an old man (Gerald
Okamura, Big
Trouble In Little China)
who is being attacked by a mysterious man. After Stan somehow finds the
courage to save the old man, the old man soon after dies, but not
before handing
Stan a ring. It turns out that the ring is far from ordinary - when
Stan puts it on his finger, he finds that he not only has great martial
arts
powers, but the confidence that he was seeking for so long.
Naturally, Stan starts using his new powers and confidence to improve
his life, and soon things start looking great for him. But Stan doesn't
know that the mysterious attacker, a man by the name of Raymond Vonn
(William Zabka, The
Karate Kid),
has been looking for the same ring. Vonn happens to have the twin of
the ring in his possession, so he has
a lot of confidence and martial art skills, and he won't hesitate to
use his powers to get that second ring from Stan.
The idea of B movie studio PM Entertainment making a
change from their usual R-rated action product and making a family
movie shouldn't sound too unusual to long time readers of this web site
- besides Two Bits & Pepper,
there was also, among other efforts I haven't (yet) covered, Earth
Minus Zero. But those
two movies weren't action-oriented, and The Power Within
is. The movie got a PG-13 rating ("For martial arts violence"), which
suggests things aren't too
graphic. But does the action in the movie manage to be satisfying, and
for that matter, does the movie remain safe for family audiences? Well,
I'll start with that second question first. If your child regularly
watches modern day PG-13 major studio movies, then I don't think you'll
object to the level of martial arts violence in The Power Within.
In fact, you might wonder why the movie got a PG-13 rating; the martial
action here comes across as pretty tame stuff compared to what's found
in those major studio movies. And with that statement, you can probably
guess how I found most of the martial arts action in this movie - not
terribly exciting. For one thing, it suffers from the same problem
found in the R-rated PM martial arts movie Guardian Angel,
that problem being that the fights are constructed so that we get one
or two martial arts moves, an immediate edit to another angle, one or
two martial arts moves, an immediate edit to another angle etc. etc. -
which doesn't make the fighters look exceptionally skilled, which
lessens the excitement. In fairness to the fights, I will admit that
the martial art moves and bouts that are displayed do generally come
across as more realistic than with those found in a number of other
martial arts movies. It is possible that some kids in the audience will
observe these believable bouts, and be encouraged to train in martial
arts themselves since these less elaborate moves look easier to train
towards than what's displayed in a typical Hong Kong martial arts movie.
Interestingly, Ted Jan Roberts, the sixteen year-old
lead of the movie, is also listed in the credits as contributing to the
movie's martial arts choreography. Indeed, he seems to know what he's
doing when he's fighting, even doing a few risky stunt sequences
himself. But how is he when he's not fighting? Well, not fabulous, but
also not terrible as well. There are some scenes when he's a little
stiff, such as expressing great emotion. But he does bring to the role
a lot of likeability, so when his character is trying to build up the
nerve to talk to a girl he wants to ask to the prom, or struggles at
school, he manages to get the audience's sympathy. When his character
gets the ring and his life starts to improve considerably, Roberts
manages to find the right balance of expressing happiness while not
acting in a stuck-up manner. As for the adversary his character
inevitably has to deal with, actor William Zabka finds the right note
for his character as well. Initially, I noticed the obvious fact that
Zabka was laying on the ham somewhat with his evil character. But
surprisingly, I soon realized that this was the right note to play this
particular villain for this particular movie. The Power Within
is a family movie that's also a fantasy, and having a real mean and
vicious villain would clash badly with the movie's often whimsical
mood. Younger kids won't be scared or traumatized by this guy, though
they will all the same see him as a villain that needs to be stopped.
Some of the supporting players in the movie also manage to make a mark.
Keith Coogan (Hiding
Out)
manages to deliver a few chuckles as the hero's somewhat goofy friend,
and Tracy Melchior comes across as the kind of girl any shy boy would
have a crush on, being down to earth while being very attractive.
There is also a short cameo appearance by a famous B
movie star (who plays himself) who shows up to give some good
advice to our young hero about what made him a success. This is not the
only message portion of the movie. The theme that keeps coming up in The Power Within
is in the title of the movie itself, that we all have the ability to
succeed if we not only work hard at it, but put in some thinking as
well, and magic rings are not needed. A worthy and commendable message,
but the movie goes a bit too far illustrating this. That's because
viewers young and old will be waiting for the inevitable showdown
between the youthful hero and the villain, but instead of the movie
displaying an epic scrap between the two, the movie instead cops out
after a few blows have been landed and has the hero using his
intelligence to immediately halt the fight. I am sure many viewers will
feel cheated by this lack of spectacle here. But this sequence and the
somewhat lacking other fight sequences are not the only big problems to
be found in The
Power Within.
The biggest problems with the movie are that it feels extremely padded
and drawn out, even though it only runs ninety-seven minutes. For
example, when the hero finally gets the ring that gives him special
powers, over a third of the movie has passed. Before that point (and
for that matter, after that point) there are a lot of scenes that
either run too long or are not the least bit necessary. Viewers,
especially the younger members of the audience, will inevitably be
telling the movie to just get on with it a number of times. But I think
that some viewers - kids, to be exact - may be able to forgive the
movie for its flaws and find it enjoyable. Kids will like the charming
youthful protagonist, so they will stick with him throughout the movie
even during the clunkier parts. Adults, on the other hand, will likely
think otherwise. But if these adults focus on the movie's positive
features and remember the struggles they faced as youths, seeing the
youthful hero overcome his challenges may touch their inner childs and
make the movie go down a lot easier.
(Posted September 26, 2017)
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See also: Earth Minus Zero,
Little Ninjas, Star Kid
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