After defeating his opponent Quino in the Philippines, Anthony Scott (Kim Rossi Stuart) returns to America for college. He makes friends with Luke (Winston Haynes) and tries to remember his promise to Master Kimura (now played by Leon Elalout) to not fight ever again. That doesn’t stop the Tigers — a martial arts gang so bad ass that they have their own mascot wearing a suit — and their leader Dick (Christopher Alan) from living up to his name and making Anthony’s life rough. Well, Anthony always kind of brings these things on himself, as he has his choice of, you know, thousands of girls at college and picks Dick’s ex-girlfriend Patty (Amy Lynn Baxter, who was Penthouse magazine’s Pet of the Month for June 1990 and the woman Ed Begley Jr. left Annette Benning for).

Obviously, Anthony has forgotten his girlfriend in the Philippines, Maria, in days.

Maybe having a gang of toughs ruin your new car and needing to be rescued by a fan boat will do that to you.

Finally, after an entire movie of haranguing, Anthony and Dick battle. This is a fight that’s been brewing for over twenty years, as Anthony’s father stopped Dick’s dad and his friends from assaulting a woman, which got them all expelled. Anthony will only fight in a real match with scoring and officials, so Luke and his friends put on a show and get an entire audience to show up and I wonder, “Are they the good guys?” They certainly are industrious for neighborhood toughs.

Dick nearly beats Anthony when he pays off his corner man and has him spray some kind of chemical into his eyes and blinding him. He didn’t count on the Stroke of the Dragon, which Anthony uses to win the match. He gets the girl, he wins over the crowd and…we have thirty minute left?

Yep. That’s because Dick seeks out the man who started the Tigers, Mark Sanders (Ted Prior, Deadly Prey) and gives him five grand to beat his enemy senseless in front of the high school. For being a ripoff of The Karate Kid, this kind of goes backward, with Johnny finding Kreese in the sequel. It’s kind of a Cannon movie.

Master Kimura comes to town and teaches Anthony some new moves. The same Anthony who, when asked what he wants to eat, says “Hot dogs, hamburgers or rib food.” The bad guys also use a Ben & Jerry’s location as their hangout, which seems to be a strange place for “karate fanatics” to congregate. This movie is in some strange universe where college classes have bells for classes, an idea that I believed was true when I was 12.

It’s hard to be on Anthony’s side. He’s a rich kid who lives on his own yacht and seems to be getting a free ride to college, as well as the gift of a car. The Tiger, while rude and kind of bullies, are also middle to lower class kids who have the gumption to put on a karate show even with no ring and just throw it up on a stage like it’s a class play. I cheered when they beat up Anthony’s friend Luke, because all these dudes do is drink champagne and caviar. The Tigers are lucky to get government cheese and off-brand Mountain Dew.

That said, I love the ending where yet another fighter shows up spoiling for a fight and our hero, his sensei and the girl he stole drive off laughing.

You can watch this on YouTube.