Bryant befriends a troubled teen and introduces him to martial arts. As Bryant’s mysterious and dangerous past catches up to him, he is forced into a life and death struggle to clear his name, save the boy and get back all he left behind.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_Good_as_Dead_(2022_film)

“My brother inspired me to write this,” said White. “He had a great love for the Latino community. He drove his motorcycle from Florida into Mexico, and then fell in love with Playa del Carmen, a beautiful area there, and he then started a family. So when I moved to Los Angeles and got very connected with Mexico and the Latino community, I just always had a love for the family values that they’ve had, and the fact that they’re just the hardest working people I’ve ever seen. So it was in my soul to kind of tell this movie, and I wanted to bring this martial arts action genre, like in a very Karate Kid type of way, but with a Latino child, and with this is kind of fusing of genres together. I wanted to tell this story about people, and how sometimes our heroes are wrapped in different packaging.”

https://movieweb.com/michael-jai-white-good-as-dead-interview/

  • Sergio@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
    2·
    8 days ago

    So the movie starts off as a typical “karate kid / guy who gets taught martial arts” but halfway through they forget about all that and it turns into a typical Michael Jai White movie where he’s a nice guy who’s OP and gotten into some kinda trouble and needs to fight his way out of it…

    It’s kind of a goofy movie like I feelz bad for the kid whose story just got dropped… his brother character was pretty cool tho he had a nice character arc… and there was this woman who hangs out at the gym and she just gets taken along for some reason… And Tom Berenger needed the money so he’s in it tho I’d guess all his scenes were shot in a single day. It’s got a couple funny moments tho like there’s one scene where a buncha guys with machetes are chasing Michael Jai White and he just runs up a mountain and they’re all puffing along but he’s in shape so when he gets to the top he just turns around and kicks their asses…

    It’s only about one third of a martial art movie, really, the other third is gunfighting and the final third is explicitly like Rambo. But there’s a funny scene where Michael Jai White and this gangster type are driving along and start arguing about martial arts movies, so they know where they’re coming from… Anyway if you can see it for free it’s not bad. Oh yeah it’s also got this goofy stance which looks really cool but seems like you’re just asking for a takedown.