Have you ever seen a movie that was so bad that it was good again? "Kickboxing Academy" is such a case. It's a really cheap flick with bad acting, bad plot etc. But at least the crew somewhat tried to make the film entertaining and if you watch the acting of one of the youths for example, you have to laugh inevitably because it's so bad, so it's funny after all, even if not meant that way. The storyline is of the "good school vs. bad school" type which we know already, but was presented in a better way, e.g. in "Sidekicks". Unlike the title suggests, this movie doesn't feature any kickboxing, but only some basic karate moves (not that I have any clue about martial arts myself, but so many imdb reviewers can't be wrong).

The martial arts school "Fatal Combat" is led by a crazy guy who presents himself as a Vietnam vet, a real killer type. The kickboxing school "Kickboxing Academy" is led by pretty and blond Cindy. The lease for her school is running out and the owner of the facility is asking for a tournament between the schools. If "Fatal Combat" wins, the crazy want-to-be war hero can take over the place, otherwise "Kickboxing Academy" can extend the lease. Guess who wins?
The actors for the school masters aren't too bad; there's even a "star" in the film, Steven Bauer, who played a leading role in "Scarface". Not much can be said about Connor Reilly though since he plays only a minor role but becomes a "hero" at the end (see gallery). His part is Jason, one of the students of the "Kickboxing Academy", fighting in the Junior competition at the tournament.
One of the best things about this movie are the ending credits, featuring a pretty good song which was written by the director Richard Gabai himself.

One thing about the DVD shouldn't be left unmentioned: it is made with much more love than you would expect from such a low cost production. The menus are animated, even the thumbnails in the chapter list, we have background music and as extras beneath the usual trailers some biographies and a trivia game. How much some of the big companies like Fox, Universal, Columbia or Paramount could learn from that, whose DVDs often miss even a little background music.
Oh, there's another thing you should know. Once again, we have a misleading cover: the Japanese boy (see above) doesn't exist in the film!