"Awesome Lotus" is a martial arts spoof in the style of "Airplane!" or, more appropriately, "They Call Me Bruce?". The opening sequence, chronicling the "origin" of the title character, from put-down farmer girl to wise martial arts mistress and secret agent, is rather promising, and so is the title sequence. But the rest of the movie does not live up to that promise. There are some wacky, bizarre ideas (Awesome Lotus even walks on water at one point!), but the gags are too often mistimed or misfired. Also, given the setup, there is a surprising lack of martial arts (there is only one fight sequence in the entire film), which is kind of a shame, because the fighting, while obviously cartoonish, is actually not that bad for a spoof. Mostly harmless, but also mostly unfunny, this film is forgotten today, and not undeservedly. *1/2 out of 4.
7 Reviews
Son in Cast
tbillone4 September 2006
My son, Matt, and my wife were in the original screening edition. He was about 2 and was the baby on the ground who could not do the push ups and was told no TV or video games for a week, and he cried...got the biggest laugh. He is now 24 years old. David O'Malley was our neighbor in Evergreen, Colorado and part of the movie was shot in Morrison, Colorado. The weather was quite nasty and the shoot took about 5 hours, no wonder he was crying. I was also in the movie but I was so bad the scene was cut. How is that, acting bad in a bad movie. It was really a tongue-in-cheek movie that had "David" written all over it. David is a good guy, too bad he was a Tiger's fan.
Should have been taken out the back and shot like a dog.
shanek-227 March 2002
Oh it was. I used to believe that people didn't set out to make bad movies, they were just unable to pull it off, but after having seen Awesome Lotus that has completely changed my mind. I believe these people deliberately set out to make a bad movie and they succeeded. Was it a pilot for a TV show? Who knows. it seems to have been heavily influenced by the British TV show "The Goodies" all they needed was a bicycle built for 3. The film comprises of a series of sight gags, some mildly amusing, and a plot which is so cliched that they'll probably do a big budget remake in Hollywood, and cast Lucy Lawless as Awesome Lotus. The video cover promised gratuitous gore, needless nudity, and vigorous violence. Sorry folks but when these moments occur in the film if they didn't literally label them as they do you would completely miss them. What is the "Evil Dead" connection? Is the director mates with Sam Raimi and his crew? I know the director appeared in "Army of Darkness" but the connection goes back a lot further... And Pat Mahoney also stars in "Strangeland"! If you watch Awesome Lotus" and "Strangeland" as a double as I did it makes "Strangeland " appear good!!! almost.. In conclusion its only redeeming value is it makes bad appear not so bad as it sets a new benchmark in truly awful.
A VERY broad comedy
Leofwine_draca4 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
AWESOME LOTUS is one of those dreadful kung fu comedies that America was making in the early 1980s; at least MY NAME IS BRUCE was fitfully amusing, whereas this film is just diabolically bad. The story is about a femme fatale fighting silly villains, and the presence of character names such as Chuck Tuna tells you all you need to know about it. The comedy is extremely broad and the exaggerated acting combined with the stupid script tell you all you need to know about this one.
Wacky! A cult classic!
and_stuff_065 July 2007
Brilliant! A dead-on send-up of truly bad B-movies. It's an incredibly crazy combination of awkward martial arts movies, James Bond spy knock-offs, and a laundry list of clunky would-be Hollywood epics. (I hear the original title was "Enter the Bassett"... mocking Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon"... and that it was a feature finalist at one of the earliest Sundance Film Fests) Loved the scene of Awesome Lotus floating over the lake like an angel and kicking the guard in the face! And the goofy Herr Bassett playing Wagner on the piano was priceless! It ain't easy sending up "stupid" and "clunky" but these filmmakers know exactly what they're doing and pulled it off. And the blind, deaf, pseudo-bald Tofu Caca sings opera while kicking butt!!! I'm still cracking up! CULT CLASSIC. These guys deserve some kind of award!
2 am flick
ju ju14 June 2001
Wow... Great Movie! It's amazing and very "bizarre": a blind- bold- ninja, a tennis player and a beautiful woman (by the way: Laura Ingalls meets Bruce Lee). The power trio against the silk's killers. Awesome Lotus is perfect to watch at 2 am in old TV.
Horrible movie that you really should watch.
janedoedad8 February 2023
No one in this movie takes themselves seriously. Follow their lead and watch this with zero expectation of anything memorable. Have a drink or whatever before hitting play. Sit back and watch people have some fun making a movie. There are some very funny scenes here and there.
Farmgirl to Kung Fu killer is the plotline. What would you expect to see based on that? This movie is silly and has the production values of an 8th grade play or a Full Moon Features production. There's a fair amount of homage to other B and a few A list films.
Sit back, take another sip or hit, put your mind in neutral and enjoy.
8/10 for achieving its purpose.
Farmgirl to Kung Fu killer is the plotline. What would you expect to see based on that? This movie is silly and has the production values of an 8th grade play or a Full Moon Features production. There's a fair amount of homage to other B and a few A list films.
Sit back, take another sip or hit, put your mind in neutral and enjoy.
8/10 for achieving its purpose.
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