Archive for the ‘Action’ Category
Monday, April 1st, 2019
RIDING THE EDGE is an ’80s teen adventure I’de never heard of before stumbling across a VHS tape. From the box it sounded like IRON EAGLE with dirt bikes instead of fighter jets. I also noticed it had Catherine 
Mary Stewart, who I really liked in NIGHT OF THE COMET, and was directed by James Fargo, Clint Eastwood’s former a.d. who directed THE ENFORCER, EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE, and FORCED VENGEANCE. And VOYAGE OF THE ROCK ALIENS.
It begins in The Middle East, where an American scientist beloved by his staff and respected for his advancements in computer chip technology is kidnapped by a team of guerrillas led by a German mercenary (the original Simon Gruber). They rappel in and grab him to force his company to give them some of his chips. Because he has a photo of his son Matt (Raphael Sbarge, CARNOSAUR, THE HIDDEN II, the voice on the phone in MIRACLE MILE) at a dirt bike race in his wallet they demand that he be the courier. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Brooke Bundy, Catherine Mary Stewart, James Fargo, motorcycle, Raphael Sbarge
Posted in Action, Reviews | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, March 27th, 2019
FIST OF THE NORTH STAR is a straight-to-video live action manga adaptation post-apocalyptic white people martial arts b-movie that I’ve been meaning to watch for about 20 years even though everybody said it was garbage. And I’m sure if I knew the comics or the anime version I would hold it to different standards, but coming to it fresh I gotta tell you this one checks off alot of boxes of the type of shit I enjoy in a movie. I am here to tell you it has merit.
The villain is the head of the Southern Cross martial arts school, who rebuilds a city after World War III and becomes its dictator, and the hero is the last heir of the rival North Star school, whose powerful fighting style is the only thing that can defeat Southern Cross. And even though their names are Shin and Kenshiro they are played by two white dudes, Costas Mandylor (VIRTUOSITY) and Gary Daniels (COLD HARVEST).
Today this would be frowned upon as whitewashing, and fair enough. But I guess I’ve grown up fascinated with white adoptees of martial arts from the ’70s and ’80s kung fu, karate and ninja booms, and to me there’s something sort of awesomely stupid (in a good way) about these muscular dudes with mullets and leather vests without shirts being the last great martial arts warriors of the future. And I have no right to impose this policy on the outside world, but in my mind there’s a statute of limitations that says since he’s not pretending to be Asian in any way Gary Daniels is grandfathered in to be allowed to be named Kenshiro as he practices moves on the bones of western and/or eastern civilization.
One complaint: why no headbands? I have rarely seen two dudes more worthy of cool headbands. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Chris Penn, Clint Howard, Costas Mandylor, Dante Basco, Downtown Julie Brown, Gary Daniels, Jacques Haitkin, live action manga, Malcolm McDowell, Melvin Van Peebles, Nils Allen Stewart, Peter Atkins, Tony Randel, Tracey Walter, Vader
Posted in Action, Comic strips/Super heroes, Martial Arts, Reviews | 17 Comments »
Tuesday, March 19th, 2019
TRIPLE FRONTIER is last week’s straight-to-Netflix-no-theaters release from director J.C. Chandor (MARGIN CALL, ALL IS LOST, A MOST VIOLENT YEAR). This one is higher profile than most such releases because it floated around various big name directors and studios before Netflix bought it with the bottomless money supply their CEO famously received by catching a magic fish, and it stars Oscar Isaac (SUCKER PUNCH), Ben Affleck (ELEKTRA, director’s cut only), Charlie Hunnam (KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD), Garrett Hedlund (TRON LEGACY) Pedro Pascal (THE GREAT WALL) and Adria Arjona (PACIFIC RIM UPRISING). It’s such a big deal for the company that they made the uncharacteristic choice of promoting its existence!
Isaac plays Santiago “Pope” Garcia, an American advising the Colombian military in violent raids on drug gangs. His informant/sometime-girlfriend Yovanna (Arjona) claims to know the location of a jungle fortress where cartel boss Lorea (Reynaldo Gallegos, MONKEY TROUBLE) hides out with all his money. So Pope goes back to the states to recruit some of his old retired spec ops buddies as a team to go in and do reconnaissance and pocket a percentage of the money the police ultimately seize.
At least that’s what he says until they get there, and then it becomes clear that the police don’t know anything about it yet. He wants his buddies to do a heist with him. Ah, shit, Pope. Are you kidding me with this shit? (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Adria Arjona, Ben Affleck, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, heists, J.C. Chandor, Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Netflix, Oscar Isaac, Pedro Pascal
Posted in Action, Crime, Reviews | 23 Comments »
Monday, March 18th, 2019
Recently when I ranked all the ’90s comic book movies for Polygon I rewatched TIMECOP for the first time since that decade. I decided to disqualify it when I read on the production notes extra that it was originally written as a script and then made into a Dark Horse Comics series, but I’m glad I watched it first, because it’s better than I remembered.
Jean-Claude Van Damme (BREAKIN’) plays Max Walker, a regular cop who’s about to be recruited to a new secret government agency that travels back in time to stop other time travelers from changing history. Knowing the future presents ample opportunities for get-rich-quick schemes (for example, in the opening a guy uses a futuristic machine gun to steal gold from the Confederate Army), but the government worries this could butterfly-effect shit up, so they try to control it. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Bruce McGill, Dark Horse Comics, Gloria Reuben, JCVD, Mia Sara, Peter Hyams, Ron Silver, Sam Raimi, time travel
Posted in Action, Reviews, Science Fiction and Space Shit | 57 Comments »
Friday, March 15th, 2019
TRIPLE THREAT is the long-awaited international co-production that teams Tony Jaa (ONG BAK, THE PROTECTOR, KILL ZONE 2), Iko Uwais (THE RAID, HEADSHOT, THE NIGHT COMES FOR US) and Tiger Chen (MAN OF TAI CHI, KUNG FU TRAVELER). That in itself is an event, but wait until I tell you who plays the villains. Directed by Jesse V. Johnson (THE BUTCHER, SAVAGE DOG), it’s not an envelope-pusher like some of the modern classics each of those three have under their belts, but it’s a solid action romp with tons of clearly shot fighting, taking advantage of all the possible match-ups and varying martial arts styles.
Jaa is first billed and shown first, but Uwais is the protagonist and the one with the best hair*. Jaa and Chen play mercenaries duped into a “humanitarian mission” that’s actually an attack on a village in which Uwais’ character’s (very briefly glimpsed) wife and friends are killed. Seeking revenge, he tracks the two to their day jobs as underground fighters… and gets beat up. But they recognize him from the village, explain themselves and become his on again, off again allies as he uses them to try to lure out the criminal syndicate responsible. Meanwhile those two try not to be killed by the gang for knowing too much, as well as to protect a Chinese heiress (Celina Jade, LEGENDARY ASSASSIN, SKIN TRADE, WOLF WARRIOR 2) they discover is being targeted by them. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Iko Uwais, international co-productions, JeeJa Yanin, Jesse V. Johnson, Joey O'Bryan, Michael Bisping, Michael Jai White, Paul Staheli, Scott Adkins, Tiger Hu Chen, Tim Man, Tony Jaa
Posted in Action, Martial Arts, Reviews | 37 Comments »
Monday, March 11th, 2019
THE HARD WAY starring Michael Jai White is not a remake of THE HARD WAY starring Michael J. Fox. It’s a totally different story and he’s co-starring with Luke Goss and Randy Couture in a picture that as far as I can tell has gone straight to Netflix (no disc release). I gotta be honest, I had low expectations, because I first heard of it in an awkwardly worded tweet from co-writer Thomas J. Churchill (LAZARUS: APOCALYPSE), illustrated with key art that looks like the cover for a self-published Christian thriller novel. The director and co-writer is Keoni Waxman, who has churned out more Seagal movies than anyone else (THE KEEPER, A DANGEROUS MAN, MAXIMUM CONVICTION, FORCE OF EXECUTION, A GOOD MAN, ABSOLUTION, END OF A GUN, CARTELS, CONTRACT TO KILL and eight episodes of True Justice). He also did the Stone Cold Steve Austin movie HUNT TO KILL. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Grant Campbell, Keoni Waxman, Luke Goss, Michael Jai White, Randy Couture, Thomas J. Churchill, Tim Man
Posted in Action, Reviews | 27 Comments »
Wednesday, March 6th, 2019
IRON EAGLE ON THE ATTACK is part IV of the IRON EAGLE saga, made at a time when the series had transcended numbers. And theatrical releases. Specifically that time was 1995, so this is a little movie over on the fringes trying to keep the dream of the ’80s alive while DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE, GOLDENEYE, DESPERADO, CRIMSON TIDE, HEAT, BRAVEHEART, UNDER SIEGE 2: DARK TERRITORY, RUMBLE IN THE BRONX, SUDDEN DEATH and yeah, sure, MORTAL KOMBAT were keeping us occupied in theaters. So I guess I didn’t notice it.
According to IMDb, ON THE ATTACK went straight to cable in the U.S., but it doesn’t feel like as huge a step down in quality as some of the other TV sequels such as DIRTY DOZEN: NEXT MISSION or FIRESTARTER REKINDLED. It feels legit. Sydney J. Furie returns to the director’s cockpit, this time with a new writer, Michael Stokes (JUNGLEGROUND, NO CONTEST II, Paw Patrol).
The first thing you need to know about ON THE ATTACK: it’s the IRON EAGLE movie that sources its pilot team from a reform school. So it’s got the DREAM WARRIORS teen underdog thing going for it. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Jason Cadieux, Joanne Vannicola, Louis Gossett Jr., made-for-TV-sequels, Michael Stokes, Rachel Blanchard, Sidney J. Furie
Posted in Action, Reviews | 12 Comments »
Tuesday, March 5th, 2019
ACES: IRON EAGLE III is an impressive sequel because it brings back Louis Gossett, Jr. as Colonel Charles “Chappy” Sinclair in yet another humble day job, and then recruits him for yet another off-the-books missile-run into foreign lands, yet it switches the scenario around enough to still feel very new. See, this time he’s not mentoring a young hot shot – if anything, he is the young hotshot. He works at an aviation show with an international squad of surviving WWII pilots who perform simulated combat firing red paint bullets at each other. (Yes, a bad guy later replaces some of the paint bullets with real rounds.)
When the chips are down these grumpy old man space cowboy tough guys come out of retirement for one last job to prove that pilots were better before all these fancy pants doodads and what not. “Agh, flying computers, Captain. In our day it used to be the man, not the machine.”
They convince their boss, (Fred Dalton Thompson, DIE HARD 2) to let them soup up their air show planes even though he says they’re “priceless antiques” – he seems less concerned that the pilots are too – and they fly into action. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Christopher Cazenove, En Vogue, Fred Dalton Thompson, Horst Buchholz, Louis Gossett Jr., Paul Freeman, Rachel McLish, Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, Rob Estes, Sonny Chiba
Posted in Action, Reviews | 5 Comments »
Monday, March 4th, 2019
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any IRON EAGLE sequels, and I always love to see how the franchises unfold, so let’s do it. Part two came two years later, in 1988, with director Sydney J. Furie returning after SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE. The script once again is credited to Furie and Kevin Elders (Albert Pyun’s RAVENHAWK).
I was glad to see Jason Gedrick back as Doug Masters, now graduated from the academy that Chappie got him into at the end of part I. Oddly call-signed “Thumper,” he’s still popping in the rock ‘n roll cassette tapes to inspire his F-16 hotshottery. I was less glad to realize a couple scenes later that it was supposed to be his jet that got blown up in an encounter with Russian MiGs when they accidentally went into Soviet air space while fucking around, and that part II is about his just-introduced best friend Captain Matt “Cobra” Cooper (Mark Humphrey, FAMILY OF COPS II-III). (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Clark Johnson, Cold War, Colm Feore, Jason Gedrick, Kevin Elders, Louis Gossett Jr., Mark Humphrey, Sidney J. Furie, Stuart Margolin
Posted in Action, Reviews | 8 Comments »
Thursday, February 28th, 2019
I always remembered IRON EAGLE as a chintzy ripoff of TOP GUN, but in fact it came out six months earlier. Shame on you, TOP GUN. Did you think we’d never find out the truth? You’ve got alot to answer for.
Both movies involve hot-shot rule-breaking F-16/F-14 pilots who have run-ins with Russian MIGs, but IRON EAGLE is the only one that uses a stencil font at the beginning. That means it’s a legit b-action movie and therefore follows two tried and true traditions:
1) the UNCOMMON VALOR/RAMBO FIRST BLOOD PART II/MISSING IN ACTION off-the-books P.O.W. rescue mission
and
2) the RED DAWN/TOY SOLDIERS teens-take-matters-into-their-own-hands wish fulfillment adventure (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: David Suchet, George Clinton, Jason Gedrick, Jerry Levine, Kevin Elders, Larry B. Scott, Louis Gossett Jr., Michael Bowen, Robbie Rist, Shawnee Smith, Sidney J. Furie, Tim Thomerson
Posted in Action, Reviews | 21 Comments »
