18 Fingers of Death is a mockumentary-style film about a once famous action star, Buford Lee (Lew), who is trying to make him new film, 18 Fingers of Death, and fan and first time director Ronald Mack (Maurice Patton) is documenting it. Unfortunately the funding is pulled, so now Lee and Mack join forces to make the film on whatever limited resources they can get. As they're making the film, we get interviews with other action luminaries, like Steven Seefood, Chuck Snorris, Jackie Chong (Robin Shou), and Antonio Bandana (Lorenzo Lamas, who in the role performs "Guantanamera"!); plus behind the scenes footage of some of Lee's past films. As they're casting for the new film, local TV host Sushi Cue (Lisa Arturo) auditions for the leading lady role, but could she be Lee's real life leading lady?
This was a ton of fun, especially for us action fans. Lew lines up all the best clichés and standards, and pokes fun at them in a way that only someone who's spent decades in the industry can. The thing is though, while he's doing all these goofy send-ups, he manages to also have some great fight scenes, and gives us a main character in Buford Lee that we want to root for and see succeed. Then you have the massive guest roster, which includes Pat Morita as Lee's father; the aforementioned Lamas and Shou; Bokeem Woodbine as "Billy Buff," a Billy Blanks parody; Ho Sung Pak as a young Buford Lee; George Cheung as a doctor; June Kyoto Lu as Lee's mother (in a much smaller part than Morita as the father); and then cameo of all cameos, Don "the Dragon" Wilson plays himself, helping out at Buford Lee's acting class! Everyone got the assignment and added to the proceedings, which made it all that much more enjoyable. Some of the humor was a bit goofy and maybe a bit gross depending on your sensibilities, but it all worked for me. If you're an action fan, especially of the names I mentioned above, I think you'll enjoy this.
Maybe the biggest travesty is that this movie isn't more well-known. I'd heard of it, but wasn't sure what it was, and only seriously considered it for a review when I was looking for something for Lew's induction post, and saw this as one of his directing credits. Some of it could be the bad reviews, especially on IMDb, where in true IMDb user review style, someone gave this a 3 because the Seagal parody was named "Steven Seefood" instead of "Steven Seagull." As the kids would say, that's peak IMDb user review behavior. That may explain some of it, but I also think Lew was a little too on point with showing how the sausage is made, and that may have ruffled a few feathers. This is all a part of Lew that we never really got as he was often a henchman or bodyguard in an action movie, which didn't leave a lot of room for anything beyond beating people up or taking a beating, and while it would've been nice to have more of that off-beat side, the fact that this exists and we get to enjoy this side of him is something we're fortunate to have. 90s action wouldn't have been 90s action without him, he truly will be missed, and his Hall of Fame induction was long overdue, but at least he's in now.
Two big names were in this as smaller parts, 40 Club member Don "the Dragon" Wilson, who's now at 46 films, two behind Cynthia Rothrock for third all-time among actors on the site; and Lorenzo Lamas, who's now at 38, two away from becoming the fifth actor in the DTVC 40 Club. We'll start with Lamas because he has the bigger part as "Antonio Bandana." First he's interviewed about Buford Lee, while singing "Guantanamera," which is something I never thought I'd get, but now that we're getting it I feel so lucky. Later he's in a scene that I'll talk about in the seventh paragraph which is all about farting, and he carries that off too. I think it says a lot about Lamas and his relationship with Lew that he's in this playing one of the parody characters, because considering the size of the career he's had, Lew could've had someone play a parody version of him instead, and didn't, which I think is cool to see, and again highlights their relationship. Wilson's part is smaller, as he plays himself helping Buford Lee's acting class. While he's playing himself and not a parody character they way Lamas was, the fact that he's in this as himself, as opposed to someone playing a parody version of him, also highlights his relationship with Lew.
We also had two big names that were parodied, and parodied in a way that was a little ahead of what is now the popular perception of them. First there was Steven Seefood, where Buford Lee dons a ponytail and plays Seefood's stunt double, which is fitting, because Seagal's longtime stunt double, Dian Hristov, is also getting into the Hall of Fame in 2026; but also it was a crack about how little Seagal was actually acting in his films, something we were starting to notice at that time too. The other part of the Seagal parody was him eating Chinese food while being interviewed by the documentarian, and in that interview he tells these tall tales about fighting off groups of Asian or black attackers in New York City. These ridiculous stories were starting to get called out more, and overall he was looking like more of a clown in the action world, but this was still only 2004, even before Outlaw Vern's Seagalogy, so Seagal was still revered in a lot of circles, and would continue to pump out a ton of DTV films for the next fifteen years, but the cracks in the image were definitely starting. The other name I wanted to mention was Chuck Norris, who gets skewered as "Chuck Snorris," depicted as an old man trying to hawk his as seen on TV workout equipment. The cracks in Norris's reputation started to show more in the late 2000s/early 2010s when he came out as a Birther and actively worked against marriage equality, among other hateful things he championed. It was such that when he passed away earlier this year, I think there were more tributes to Lew than there were Norris, which I wouldn't have expected in the mid-2000s when this was made, but it made sense in 2026. Again, it's interesting seeing these things now when so much more is known, but trying to bring my brain back to 2006--or 2004 when this was actually made--and trying to understand these depictions at that time, I think they were ahead of their time then.
Finally, while I am 47 years old, and by all accounts in our society am considered an adult, a good portion of me is still a ten-year-old, as evidenced by how much I was laughing at the farting action sequence. The idea is, Buford Lee is making a film that takes place in Mexico, and the film's caterer, Sammy Delassandro (Joey Diaz), decided to make a Mexican-themed spread for the cast and crew. The result was everyone had a lot of gas while shooting one of the big action sequences, and so we're treated to constant fart noises. It reminded me of when my friends and I would make fart noises while watching movies, and by the end of it I was laughing like a ten-year-old. It was a thing of beauty, and just another area where this movie works, at least for a man child like me. As an aside, one of the best places to get a cheesesteak here in Philly is Dalessandro's, and I don't know if Joey Diaz's character name is an homage to that. People often think about Cheesesteak Corner, where Pat's and Geno's are, but in Roxoborough you have Dalessandro's, which is better than either of them, and then across the street there's Chubby's, which is like a diner where they play hair metal, which is a nice deal too.
Anyway, I could go on about cheesesteaks all day, so why don't we wrap this up. You can rent this on Amazon for $1.99, or buy it for $3.99--which as we know isn't actually buying, but rather having a license to watch it until Amazon decides you can't anymore. If you haven't seen it before, it is worth a rental, especially if you're a fan of action movies, and in particular 90s low-budget actioners. This was the perfect James Lew Hall of Fame induction post, so I'm glad we did it. One of the greatest to do it, he will truly be missed.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397853/
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