Review by Justin Bateman
Stars Joe Lewis, Barbara Bach, Christopher Lee,
Donald Pleasance, Joseph Wiseman | Written by Yabo Yablonksy
UK certification 12 | UK RRP £15.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 88 minutes | Directed by Ernest Pintoff
Back in 1979, the influence of Bruce Lee's martial arts movies were still reverberating around Hollywood. Meanwhile, the glamour of James Bond was, if not at its peak, then certainly quite the money spinner. So what could be better than to combine the two with up and coming martial arts star Joe Lewis as Jonathan Cross aka "The Jag-wah", with an award-winning director, three former Bond villains in Christopher Lee, Donald Pleasance and Joseph Wiseman and a former Bond girl in Barbara Bach?
As it turns out, there's a lot better. The plot, for what it's worth, involves 'the Jaguar' being tempted out of retirement for one last job in the secret agent business to stop a South American dictator from selling drugs or dictating quite so much or both or whatever, Frankly, it could be using his left hand to drink with on odd hours of the clock for all the difference it makes to the film.
Because, as you can tell from Lewis's, shall we say, 'undeveloped' acting prowess, this is all about the action. The Jaguar takes on all-comers, dismissing rivals bearing sticks, on motorbikes or with - what were they thinking?! - bare hands, with a selection of flamboyant roundhouse kicks and killer karate chops. The fight scenes - and there are plenty of them - soon begin to merge together with Lewis given every opportunity to strip off and flash his muscles and bounce around as menacingly as he can.
Jaguar Lives! is competently put together, the big names fulfil their cameos adequately and there is some attractive scenery and the odd spectacular explosion but the dialogue is hackneyed and there's nothing original here whatsoever. Watchable in a laugh-at-how-rubbish-it-is-when-you're-pissed kind of way but otherwise instantly forgettable.
EXTRAS ★★ An interview with Joe Lewis in 2010 who is quite the character/utterly nuts; Trailer; Film stills gallery; Press clippings gallery; and a Joe Lewis & Bruce Lee gallery.