Jaguar Lives!

This release is something of a departure for Arrow Video whose previous DVDs and BDs have all been in the horror category with directors such as Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and George A. Romero gracing their covers. The first release from Arrow that isn't an 18 certificate is an action film with former karate world champion Joe Lewis as the titular secret agent (real name Jonathan Cross) who was betrayed by his partner, Cougar, and shot in the back when they were sent to disarm a bomb.

Having been nursed back to health and, with the help of his sensei, sharpened his kung-fu skills back to their former glory, Jaguar is ready for action once again as he is asked to take on a fairly formidable task: bring down a global drug ring that may be responsible for his former partner's disappearance. Cue multiple flights and plenty of jetsetting as Jaguar travels around the world in search of the mysterious Esteban taking on two former Bond villains and a Bond girl who play, in order, an egotistical and maniacal South American dictator (Donald Pleasance), a Crime Lord with a private army of highly trained ninjas and a businesswoman with no morals or scruples and who will quite happily kill anyone who gets in her way using her connections.

The basic idea of Jaguar Lives! is a James Bond/Bruce Lee film hybrid with a hard-as-nails martial artist as the supreme spy who works for the mysterious G-6 global organisation which tries to maintain peace, cut down crime and then the drugs trade. It's a film to be taken about as seriously as an average episode of Tom and Jerry but, if you want ridiculously clichéd characters, a kung fu master who will demonstrate every one of his moves on bad guys who frequently outnumber him and attack with weapons, exotic scenery, car chases and explosions, then this is the sort of film that will do just perfectly for 90 minutes in front of the TV with a couple of beers.

In his film debut, Joe Lewis proves to be an extremely accomplished martial artist who can transfer his karate skills to the film set and is a much better actor than I ever expected. He's no Laurence Olivier, Marlon Brando or Robert De Niro but, as far as action movies go, his thespian talents are pretty much par for the course and I've seen much more would performances from Stephen Seagal!


The big selling point of Jaguar Lives! is the supporting cast which boasts Scaramanga, Blofeld, Dr. No and Major Anya Amasova (from The Spy Who Loved Me) all together in the same film in some sort of bizarre amalgamation of the James Bond movies and 1970s kung fu movies featuring the likes of Sonny Chiba, Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris. Amazingly, amongst the particularly impressive cast, there is also an appearance by the two-time Oscar winner and great American director and actor John Huston and a moustachioed Woody Strode as Jaguar's sensei!

Jaguar Lives will never be considered amongst the great kung-fu movies of the Bruce Lee/Jackie Chan variety or the great James Bond spy thrillers but, as a combination of the two, it works surprisingly well and it's the sort of thing that you can quite easily put on when you don't want to watch anything too mentally involving/challenging and just want 80-odd minutes of entertainment with a great cast who are enjoying every minute in front of the camera. It is abundantly clear that Donald Pleasence is having a whale of a time playing a crazy Latin American general has such great lines as 'I made my brother colonel... before I had him killed' and there will be many parts of this film that would just have you grinning as if you were eight years old.

The Disc

Extra Features
The interview with Joe Lewis wanted a fairly healthy 22 minutes and shows what a shy and retiring bloke he isn't! Lewis clearly has no problem with self aggrandising and is really one for namedropping and generally saying what a great martial artist and actor he is/was. If you can look through the bluster, it is quite a fun and interesting interview with his opinions on filming in Italy and why great martial artists don't necessarily make good actors.

On the disc, there is also a series of galleries and the theatrical trailer but the case includes a reversible cover and especially commissioned booklet on Joe Lewis and Jaguar Lives! written by Andrew state and (Lewis' co-star) Anthony DeLongis.


The Picture
Although the original aspect ratio is apparently 1.85:1, this release is in the full frame 1.33:1 ratio but I really didn't see any problems with this as such a discrepancy would tend to illustrate that the sides had been chopped off but there aren't any problems with the framing or actors disappearing when they shouldn't. If indeed it should be shown in widescreen then I'm not quite sure what would be on the ages of the frames that was missing from this full frame version.

The quality is reasonably good although there is surface grain throughout and the occasional slight scratch but nothing to worry too much about as the location shooting and sets are all extremely good and add much to the globe hopping nature of the film.

The Sound
A perfectly adequate Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack which takes a great deal of sound effects from the always useful kung-fu tape with the typical sounds of people being punched, kicked and smashed over the head with furniture! The dialogue is clear enough for you to understand what's going on but, be honest, you're not really watching this for great thespian talents despite Christopher Lee and Donald Pleasance on view.


Final Thoughts
Jaguar Lives! is a perfect example of what happens when you take two popular types of film, combine them and then throw everything at the movie so there is barely a minute that goes by without something eventful happening, plenty of bad guys for Jaguar to beat up/kill/humiliate before the final showdown with the head of the global drug cartel (no prizes for guessing who it is!).