Search - Jaguar Lives on DVD

Really bad, stupid, low-budget, martial arts crime thriller

Thomas M. Sipos | Santa Monica, CA | 07/18/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"JAGUAR LIVES! is a 1978 James Bond wannabe film.

This drug lord (a young white guy who knows karate) unites drug lords from around the world (who look like aging United Nations types) to form a cartel. What follows is a highly disjointed non-story in which the hero (a martial arts guy named "Jaguar") goes from the Mideast, to Latin America, to Hong Kong, to Spain, to Macao, to Paris, to Africa, to Spain.

But don't be fooled by that itinerary. Everything in JAGUAR LIVES! is ultra low-budget and second rate. The sexpot sirens are not so sexy, the cars not so slick, the villains not so menacing. Much of the film appears to be shot outside Los Angeles, with stock footage of various foreign locals before each scene.

And don't be fooled by the all-star cast (Christopher Lee, Donald Pleasance, Barbara Bach, John Huston). Pleasance and Lee seemed to have shot their scenes in one day. Bach and Huston over two days.

NONE of this A-List cast interacts with Jaguar as an equal. Bach is a spy boss who admires Jaguar and gives him his instructions, but he doesn't get to sleep with Bach, only with the no-name actresses. Lee is a villain who menaces Jaguar, but mainly by sending others to do dirty work. Jaguar doesn't get to fight or destroy Lee, he only kills the no-name actor playing the drug lord.

This is a very 1970s film. One evil rich guy dresses in a brown polyester suit with wide lapels and tie. Jaguar dresses in "cool" polyester windbreaker with turtleneck. And despite his jet-setting, he never shows signs of jet lag. His blow-dried, blond-dyed tresses are always fully puffed.

And in stereotypical 1970s fashion, we know Jaguar is a good guy because he has a Black Friend who is attacked for no reason by racist rednecks, and Jaguar helps his Black Friend beat them up in a karate fight. (I guess this film was also trying to rip off BILLY JACK in addition to the James Bond and martial arts films of the day.)

In the end a police raid easily nabs all the drug cartel bosses (where are their bodyguards?) at a deserted Spanish castle. Meanwhile, the top drug lord has a karate fight with Jaguar. The outcome will determine whether all the young people in the world will do drugs. Pretty high stakes, no? Good thing Jaguar wins the karate fight.

Bach is easy on the eyes, although Leonard Maltin was right when he said of one of her films, "Bach does her usual walk through."

This film is only for Bach, Lee, or Pleasance completists, or for fans of crappy low-budget karate/thriller movies from the 1970s."

Easy going 70s fun

Mr. W. Smith | UK | 09/26/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Lets set things into perspective, Jaguar Lives is not going to win any oscars or awards for acting. Its not designed for that, its a film designed for Joe Lewis to show off his fighting credentials. Sadly it was filmed at wrong time, during the early 70s around time of Enter the Dragon this film would been a hit. It is what it is good old 70s fun and you be an idiot to get this film if your looking for plot and great acting. Stick to Godfather no this is for martial arts fans and people who like bit of old fisticuffs and old school action from 70s. Its same with Professionals you like it for what it is. I enjoyed this movie and Joe Lewis is similar in style to Mr Bruce Lee just he came at a time when interest in that type movie had wavered a little until the rise of arnie,stallone,chuck,van damme,snipes etc."

Jaguar May Have Nine Lives, But Only One Movie

K.H. | 10/11/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This movie boasts an all-star cast, very silly script and at times even hilarious dialogue. A movie that was released in the theaters back in 1979 probably should have been a TV movie of the week. The movie did not do very well at the box office and Joe Lewis, former Karate and Kickboxing champ, would be given one more chance to break into the movie stardom business in "Force: Five," which was essentially an "Enter the Dragon" rip-off.

The fight scene set-ups are predictable, even for the time and at times are laughable (like when Lewis fights armed security personnel at the palace of a dictator and he escapes in a helicopter). Yet, I must admit, I enjoyed the fight sequences themselves most of the time, then and now. The climatic battle is actually fairly good and I enjoy seeing a real fighter like Lewis.

The movie is a James Bond knock-off, with many exotic locations, and political intrigue - ok, the intrigue is EXTREMELY predictable; but, this is a guilty pleasure with a young Barbara Bach doing very little but looking good and Christopher Lee doing one of his many bit parts that kept him a main-stay in movies throughout 70s and early 80s.

The DVD actually, well, sucks! I don't know how to say it better than that. The film was not re-touched to repair the damages of time and the extras, well, what extras. Even the menu screen is low-budget laughable - and this is a pricey DVD.

A one star rating for the DVD package, but three stars for the movie. No, it is not very good (a lower rating is entirely realistic), yet, it is a great guilty pleasure and Joe Lewis does an admirable job his first time out.
"