I confess: I didn’t really know who Gary Daniels was. Turns out he’s a British kickboxer who’s been in about 50 movies since the late ’80s. I heard the name before but never watched any of his pictures. A couple people gave me shit about it when I reviewed Seagal’s SUBMERGED and didn’t mention that Daniels was in it. I guess that was a historic meeting of martial arts stars, but I didn’t even notice because I didn’t know who the fuck that was. Sorry, fellas. Like Brakus I am human. I can be defeated. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Isaac Florentine’
Undisputed III: Redemption
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
Ladies and gentlemen, the most anticipated DTV sequel of the year has arrived. Florentine, Adkins, Zaror, kicking. And for me anyway it lived up to expectations. We told you so
Monday, April 19th, 2010
I have a hunch the bigger movie websights are about to catch up with us DTV action scholars re: the films of Isaac Florentine. Over there at Actionfest in North Carolina they gave best picture to MERANTAU (which recently got a rave review on kungfucinema.com) but the much anticipated (by us) UNDISPUTED 3 got best director for Florentine and best choreography for Larnell Stovall (that’s Florentine kicking Stovall in the picture there – no joke). According to this article on twitchfilm.net (thanks GoodBadGroovy for posting that in the comments) U3 wasn’t originally intended to be in competition, but the jury felt so strongly about it that they chose it anyway. That jury included Mr. McWeeny of Hitfix, Devin Feraci of Chud and Todd Brown of Twitch, so maybe those websights will start talking up Florentine the way we’ve all been after seeing UNDISPUTED II, NINJA, THE SHEPHERD: BORDER PATROL, US SEALS 2, BRIDGE OF DRAGONS and SPECIAL FORCES.
Feraci tweetered, “UNDISPUTED III is the future of low budget action – amazing digital photography, crisp and exciting fight choreography and personable leads.” He probly hasn’t seen UNDISPUTED II, BLOOD AND BONE or UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: REGENERATION if he thinks that’s a new development, but I’m glad he’s on board. Now we gotta introduce those guys to John Hyams.
The other big news is that apparently Chuck Norris declined his lifetime achievement award and gave it to his brother. That’s sweet and also kind of hilarious since it was already goofy for Aaron Norris to found a film festival to give an award to his own brother. Now he gave an award to himself!
Anyway, sounds like it went great and will hopefully continue to grow.
Navy SEALS vs. U.S. SEALS II
Friday, March 6th, 2009
Man, Michael Biehn and the other guys on his team in NAVY SEALS really like to party and be outrageous. Especially Charlie Sheen, have you seen how out of control that guy is? On the way to Dennis Haysbert’s wedding he jumps out of a moving Jeep and over the side of a bridge just for laughs. You know how those SEALs boys are. You don’t even have to TELL them to jump off a bridge, they just do it for no reason. And their nice wedding clothes get all fucked up, but they don’t care because they’re Navy SEALs.
That’s what it’s all about.
I think this movie was inspired by TOP GUN. It’s one part action movie, two parts lifestyle magazine. It wants to show that Navy SEALs are elite warriors and heroes, but mostly it wants to show what a fun time they have just hanging out with their bros when they’re stateside. Just some men, going around together, being men. Hoo rah, best buds for life. Dennis Haysbert is the only one in a serious relationship, he’s about to marry S. Epatha Merkerson, but as she’s coming down the aisle their SEAL pagers beep and they all leave. Sorry Toots, maybe next time. (more…)
Special Forces
Monday, December 22nd, 2008SPECIAL FORCES is part of the AMERICAN HEROES series which, as I’m sure you are all very aware, are unrelated Nu-Image action movies each spotlighting the heroism of one branch in the American military. So I hope I’m not unpatriotic for watching it for its Israeli director Isaac Florentine and British co-star Scott Adkins. I’ve written about these guys before – Florentine is the director of such movies as UNDISPUTED II and THE SHEPHERD: BORDER PATROL, while Adkins is the co-star of movies ranging from UNDISPUTED II to THE SHEPHERD: BORDER PATROL. Okay, so they aren’t making classics yet, but they’re some of the only reliable individuals I’ve found in the world of DTV action. They always seem like they’re trying.
A journalist taking pictures of atrocities in the in my opinion fictional former Soviet republic of Muldonia is taken hostage by some sadistic military assholes. One looks like a regular-sized Jaws from James Bond, but with grey hair, the other looks like the comedian Emo Philips wearing a beret. The second one is one of those villains you’re supposed to hate extra for his stupid haircut and hat, and the way he turns his nose up at everything. We should have enough to hate him for just with the atrocities he’s committed but we still find ourselves thinking “I hate him, he’s so stuck up!”
Anyway they send in a special forces team (okay, now I get that title) led by Major Don Harding (Marshall Teague), who actually had his whole platoon killed by these same pricks in Bosnia, but he insists he’s too professional to let it get personal. (more…)
Showdown in Little Tokyo and Bridge of Dragons
Saturday, May 24th, 2008The Dolph Lundgren vs. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa Saga
SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO (1991) and BRIDGE OF DRAGONS (1999)
As I continue to learn about the works of Dolph Lundgren (no, sorry, I’m not writing LUNDGRENICS, I’m just trying to become a more well-rounded individual) it’s refreshing to find that he has many movies where he is a charismatic action hero and not just some grunting oaf. SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO is one people have been recommending to me for years because it has him teamed with Brandon Lee, which is a pretty big deal for somebody whose most notable co-stars are often talk show hosts like Jerry Springer or Montel Williams.
Basically this one is a cop buddy picture with Dolph as the line-crossing, bushido practicing white cop on the Little Tokyo beat who by the way is out to avenge the deaths of his parents by a samurai, but that’s neither here nor there. We know Dolph is a bad motherfucker right away because he single-handedly busts up an illegal underground fighting circuit by rappelling in from the ceiling in the middle of a match and then taking on those who disagree with his decision. Later he’s in a cafe when he happens to see some of the same Yakuzas bullying the old lady owner for protection money. In the middle of the brawl that ensues he’s introduced to his new partner, Brandon Lee.
I feel like an asshole saying it but I kind of have mixed feelings about Brandon Lee, the O.G. Mark Dacascos. He was a good martial artist, a decent actor, obviously it was such a tragedy what happened to him, and it was cool that Bruce Lee had a legacy in him. But he was maybe too good at playing an uptight nerd like this character. It’s a funny idea that Dolph knows more about Asian culture than he does, so I’m not complaining. I’m just saying for all the hype Brandon Lee gets I’m not sure he had the presence of a superstar. He was more of a foil or a sidekick. You definitely like Dolph better than him in this one. I don’t know, maybe that’s blasphemous to say. I’ll watch some of his other movies and hopefully I’ll be wrong and I’ll repent. (more…)
The Shepherd: Border Patrol
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008I don’t know if Sylvester Stallone forced them to step up their game, or if they all got together and had a meeting and decided to start putting more effort into this shit or what but lately all the old ’80s and ’90s action stars who are in exile on the small screen have started doing a better job. Seagal’s had a couple good ones in a row, Dolph’s have been watchable, Van Damme had that movie where he was a heroin junkie. None of these are yet matching the full potential of DTV, but at least they’re getting there. The latest in the trend is Van Damme’s double-titled THE SHEPHERD: BORDER PATROL.
I will go ahead and give the credit for this one not to Van Damme but to the director Isaac Florentine. I will have to investigate the guy’s works further but if he has anymore as good as this one and UNDISPUTED II then I think he must be one of the top DTV directors. He’s an Israeli martial artist who came to the U.S. and directed POWER RANGERS shows for years and then got into DTV movies like US SEALS II. And as far as the DTV directors go he has a real good style. His movies have hard-hitting martial arts scenes that are well staged, he uses some energetic but not hyperactive editing and camera angles to keep things moving and he has some odd touches here that suggest a sense of humor.
In this one Van Damme plays a New Orleans cop who has just transfered to the New Mexico Border Patrol. He’s introduced driving a car, shaving, and sharing carrots with a rabbit. His name is Jack and that is also the name of his rabbit, who he carries in a cage with him for much of the movie. So he’s got some little quirks that make him different from your standard issue Van Damme character. Also he looks funny in the uniform. The villain also has some eccentricities. He was a soldier in Afghanistan who got disillusioned after watching a suicide bomber explode, and now he leads a gang of ex-special forces soldiers in smuggling drugs over the border. Because of his experiences he uses suicide vests and explosive collars in his work. In one scene there are a bunch of topless babes in a pool and he keeps lighting small sticks of dynamite with his cigar and tossing them into the pool. A fun time. (more…)
Undisputed II: Last Man Standing
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008First of all I gotta note that it’s weird this movie exists at all. Walter Hill’s prison/boxing movie UNDISPUTED is not exactly a title that appears in everyone’s home library. It was not a box office hit, it did not catch on huge on video, it does not hold a nostalgic place in anyone’s heart, it did not inspire other movies or hip hop videos or launch a catch phrase. I think I know one guy besides me who saw it, he liked it, I didn’t. He hasn’t seen part 2. I never saw it until now. There’s your audience.
The original got a brief theatrical release, the sequel was straight-to-video. Maybe they could’ve gotten Wesley Snipes to return, since he’s stuck in straight-to-video lately. Instead it stars Michael Jai White – you know, the guy who was cut out of KILL BILL who everybody on the internet thought should’ve replaced Wesley in BLADE: THE SERIES. So that’s cool. Except Wesley’s character is not mentioned – White is playing Ving Rhames’s villain character George “The Iceman” Chambers.
By the way I should also point out that the subtitle on this one is unneccessary and happens to be the title of another Walter Hill film, which is weird. I hope next they’ll do LAST MAN STANDING II: UNDISPUTED starring Lance Henriksen as Christopher Walken’s character from part 1.
Anyway the premise on this one is that Iceman and his sleazy manager are in Russia filming a vodka commercial, because that’s about all they got left. But some dudes attack Iceman in his hotel room and plant a huge bag of cocaine in his Bible. And another huge bag of cocaine elsewhere in his room. Man, they are willing to go all out on this framing. You would think one small bag of coke would do it, but they didn’t want to take any chances I guess. (more…)
