Prey of the Jaguar (1996 Video) User Reviews

Grisly killings and revenge by one army man named the Jaguar

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 6 November 2007]

The picture focuses to Derek(Maxwell Caufield) is a former government Ops agent named SOC living with his family.When the starring's wife(Fiona Hutchinson) and son are cruelly killed , Derek plots revenge only to find the fugitive killer(Trevor Goddard)and hoodlums(Vincent Klyn) are well hidden and he must exact his own form of justice. Later training by a martial arts instructor(John Fujioka), he assumes the identity of The Jaguar, taken from his son's drawings .He's a new hero in town , an avenger who woos to revenge against the murderer who previously put behind bars. He asks another undercover agent as toymaker(Paul Bartel) weapons , delivering him crossbow and explosive arms.

This is a low budget movie with action packed, suspense, grisly violence, noisy shooting and spectacular fighting . The best film is the training on lethal struggle skills at the hands of a martial arts master with certain similarly to ¨Karate Kid¨ style.The motion picture displays a plethora of known faces and famed secondary actors, Stacy Keach(Long riders), Linda Blair(immortal in the Exorcist), Paul Bartel (famous cult director), Vincent Klyn( usual baddie in Albert Pyun films:Cyborg), Trevor Goddard (Jag) and the protagonist, Maxwell Caufield(Dragon storm, Submerged). The motion picture is professionally directed by David DeCocteau, a B series director ,he has gone on to produce(Trancers) and direct more than sixty movies over the past twenty years, such as : Doctor Alien, Puppet master,Skeletons(his best movie) Brotherhood series, among others. This one is entertaining though with very short budget

Afternoon fanfare - nothing more

[dee.reid · 4/10 · 11 September 2012]

Don't let the really cool-looking cover art for David DeCoteau's "Prey of the Jaguar" fool you - it's really not about a man who transforms into a giant humanoid cat and begins killing people. Although that concept would have been kind of cool (even better when combined with its real plot), unfortunately that's just not what we get here.

No.

It's simply about a retired government agent named Derek Leigh (Maxwell Caulfield) who becomes a high-kicking superhero - known only as "The Jaguar" - versed in the martial arts after his pregnant wife and young son are killed by a ruthless Los Angeles drug dealer named Damien Bandera (the late Trevor Goddard); the overall concept of "The Jaguar" is based largely upon a fantasy created by his murdered son. And while the police are not particularly supportive of Derek Leigh/The Jaguar's vigilante actions, he does find one unlikely ally in homicide detective Cody Johnson ("The Exorcist" Linda Blair), who investigated the original murders of Leigh's family.

This is a fairly typical superhero-action movie romp from the mid-1990s (1996, to be exact). The movie is particularly noteworthy for its formidable cast of "B"-movie regulars, the most appealing, of course, being a post-"The Exorcist" Linda Blair - even though she's not on the screen that much and only appears in a few scenes. I guess the one really good thing to be said about this picture is that it moves through its by-the-numbers motions pretty quickly and it does appear that Maxwell Caulfield is doing the majority of his own martial arts fight sequences (which is about the most authentic thing about them in the first place).

It's a really good way to kill an hour-and-a-half of an otherwise really boring weekday (or weekend) afternoon.

4/10

"We both saw the danger signs and ignored them"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 4/10 · 17 May 2021]

Derek Leigh becomes the superheroic 'Jaguar' after his wife and son are killed by drug lord Damien Bandera, recently broken out of prison, whom he had testified against years before then proceeding to take Banderas down by beating up lots of people before some others. Leigh is assisted by his old sensei and his old commander. Not that exciting with a plot by numbers and a bland leading man in Maxwell Caulfield. Trevor Goddard as Bandera isn't a great actor but does have villainous presence. Stacy Keach is wasted and Linda Blair's head doesn't even revolve on her body. A below average revenge movie.

The funniest moment was Leigh revealing his 'Jaguar' costume. Even his sensei Master Yee laughed at it. It did look a bit silly.

No cliché left untouched

[saugoof · 1/10 · 5 September 2008]

Wow this was bad! This really felt like a McBain movie from the Simpsons. The basic plot premise in a few words, a special operations cop working for some shadowy government organisation puts a bad-ass drug dealer behind bars, and in the process killing his son and dad. The drug dealer, who for reasons unknown has an English accent despite having a Spanish name, breaks out of prison 8 years later and goes after our hero who has since retired. He's also been in witness relocation and managed to get himself a family that is too perfect for words. Bad guy drug dealer finds him, kills his wife and kid, then kills him, only our hero doesn't die and is out for revenge.

This is a cheaply made, entirely predictable, badly directed movie that features some of the worst acting ever put straight to video. The scenes where Maxwell Caulfield laments his killed family are so bad they end up being hilarious. There is no revenge movie cliché that is left out here. Let's see : - bad guy kills hero's family - check - hero's wife is pregnant when she's killed - check - hero is retired and just wants to be left alone, until they come after him - check - hero is killed, only he doesn't die - check - shadowy government organisation - check - the bad guy sports an accent - check - lots of easily disposable henchmen - check - ancient Chinese martial arts teacher - check

I feel sorry for Linda Blair for ending up in trash like this. Here she plays a cop who, unlike the rest of the police, is supportive of our vigilante hero. The entire film feels like it's a set up for a series of movies with Linda Blair playing Commissioner Gordon to Maxwell Caulfield's Batman. Pray that they failed!

Worst film i have seen since Robot Jox

[angfud · 1/10 · 28 February 2008]

Really bad. So bad in fact i think i might throw up on myself. The only reason i chose to give this movie one star is because there is no lower rating. i would rather crap in my hand and eat it than watch this film again. The only slight little tiny bit of credibility that this film carries is that it contains the terrible acting abilities of 'Warchild' from point break. Didn't have enough money for good sets, good script, good lighting, good acting, didn't even have enough money to get Pat Morita to play the Sensei instead of the bald old 'poor man's' Mr. Miyagi. And as for the constant tilting camera...what the hell were these guys thinking? i have motion sickness and not to mention the nightmares i am going to have when i think of the most useless piece of cinematic trash that was ever pushed out of the sloppy rectal cavity of the crappiest production team to ever to walk the earth. WORST FILM EVER (capitals means I'm yelling)

This movie was filmed just for me

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 12 June 2019]

Sometimes, I think that I've only dreamt some of the movies that I watch in the middle of the night. Like Prey of the Jaguar, which stars Maxwell Caulfield - yes, Rex Manning from Empire Records - as a former Special Ops agent whose family gets killed ala The Punisher and who gets trained by a hard ass old man martial arts master just like Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins to combat the drug lords who took out his wife and kid. Also, Linda Blair shows up as a cop, Paul Bartel plays his Q and Stacy Keach plays his M.

Somehow, this movie is 100% true. It exists. The unofficial trailer below shows every reason why you need to watch this movie (except for Linda Blair):

Would it surprise you even further that this was directed by David DeCoteau, who went from making cornball cheesecake like Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama to making beefcake like Bigfoot vs. D.B. Cooper and The Brotherhood series, which is a male for the male gaze version of The Craft?

Derek Leigh (Caulfield) just wanted to retire, but the son of a drug lord he put away - Damien Bander (Trevor Goddard, Kano from Mortal Kombat) - has other plans, killing his pregnant wife and son. Derek remembers a superhero that his son drew in crayon and becomes him, thanks to training from his original master, Master Yee (John Fujioka, American Ninja) and weapons from his old teammate the Toymaker (Paul Bartel! I screamed loudly in the middle of the night when he showed up!).

Meanwhile, homicide detective Cody Johnson (Blair), who was in charge of the Leigh family murder investigation, figures out that the Jaguar and Derek are one and the same. Vic Trevino - Ricardo from Pee-Wee's Playhouse - is also in this.

The best part of the film - besides Caulfield's overacting when he learns his family is dead - is the fact that when they look up the file on Bander, this text appears for long enough that you can discover that someone was having no fun making this movie: ""DEMIAN, BANDERA E You would think that a huge file like this would tell you something. Not so. I just open up my paint program and let my brain dribble out on the monitor. Bandera doesn't eve(n) exist, you know. He is just a character in a movie! I can't believe that I'm trying to write bio on a man who doesn't even exist. Now I have to write a second column. Oh, the tedium... This paragraph won't even have the benefit of my sense of humor. I'm so over having to write this blurb that I can't think of anything to say. This is a real bummer. PRESS ENTER FOR UPDATE."

What you're really coming for is Caulfield on a Kawasaki Ninja, carrying a crossbow, ready for battle with throwing starts that he has dipped, one point at a time, into sleeping serum. There are numerous moments that made me so overjoyed to be alive in this movie that I just kept rewinding them and then jumping up and down in abject glee. There aren't enough stars in the world for this movie, but I'll give it at least two.

Hardly great, but mildly amusing

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 31 October 2018]

I'll admit from the outset that PREY OF THE JAGUAR isn't a great movie; as a straight-to-video superhero flick from David DeCoteau, it was never going to be. However, I'll also admit that I enjoyed it to an extent, although I was chuckling at it rather than taking it all seriously. The story sees GREASE 2's Maxwell Caulfield playing an ordinary family guy whose nemesis busts out of jail and has his pregnant wife and son murdered. Caulfield, through various silly reasons, then dresses up as a crime-fighting superhero and goes after them. This cheap and cheesy movie contains martial arts, lots of explosions and cheesy fight scenes, as well as ham acting from the entire cast. Stacy Keach has a gruff cameo and Linda Blair plays the token cop, while Trevor Goddard is the hard British villain. There's a random Paul Bartel cameo and a fun scene in which John Fujioka lets rip with the nunchucks at one point. Hardly great, but by DeCoteau standards it is.

Superman is a wimp. Jaguar is the new hero in town.

[movieguy-36 · 7/10 · 14 April 1999]

Move over Superman and Batman, take a vacation. Maxwell Caulfield seemed to be in a slump after the lame No Escape, No Return, so he made a good decision. Dave DeCoteau does his finest with an action film filled with crazy camera angles, good dialogue, and uh, did I mention action? Plenty of it, too. I especially love those exploding-arrows. God this movie's so good I'm gonna stop writing this review to go watch it again.

A very enjoyable superhero vigilante flick

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 25 April 2008]

Ex Special Ops government agent Derek Leigh (an excellent performance by Maxwell Caulfield) vows revenge on evil drug lord Damian Bandera (a splendidly nasty Trevor Goddard) after Bandera murders his wife and son. Leigh assumes the identity of the Jaguar, a just and heroic crime fighting superhero who's patterned after drawings by his son. Directed with surprising style and panache by veteran straight-to-video exploitation picture expert David DeCoteau, with slick, kinetic cinematography by Howard Wexler, a constant steady pace, a funky, rousing, syncopated score by Jeff Walton, a cool animated opening credits sequence, and plenty of rousing rough'n'tumble action set pieces, this flick certainly delivers the immensely entertaining B-movie goods in a pleasingly snappy and straightforward manner. Caulfield makes for a strong and likable protagonist; he receives fine support from Linda Blair as perky, sympathetic detective Cody Johnson, Tom Badal as Cody's ramrod partner Roger Reed, Paul Bartel as helpful weapons master Toymaker, John Fujioka as tough martial arts instructor Tanaka, Stacy Keach as Derek's gruff former superior the Commander, Paul Regina as uncooperative government agent Randall Bentley, Vincent Klyn as scumbag dope pusher Sonny De Pazos, and Fiona Hutchison as Derek's loving wife Karen. A fun little romp.