“Home Alone” begat “3 Ninjas,” which begat cheap, kiddie, straight to video, action fare like “Double Blast.” Mixing the appeal of the adventure movie with kids fighting crime, both of which were oddly prevalent in the decade, “Double Blast” is the epitome of the poorly constructed cash ins that littered video stores. The movie is so bad that often times you can see the pair of heroes burst in to laughter as they engage in martial arts with the film’s comedic henchmen. Jimmy and Lisa are an adventurous brother and sister who love to get in to adventures involving ninjas and martial arts. When their dad, a professional kick boxer and widower named Greg goes out for the day to compete in a tournament, rather than take them along, the pair of kids ultimately gets in to big trouble back in town.
Tag Archives: Fantasy
Ben 10: Race Against Time (2007)
I loved “Ben 10” when it premiered back in the early aughts. I watched it for a long time, and even followed a few of the unnecessary reboots. While the more modern iterations have stunk, I still love the mythos, and how the producers took a failed attempt at “Dial H for Hero” and transformed it in to a unique science fiction series. Cartoon Network and Alex Winter go to great pains to keep this an accurate film for the audience. Ben looks just like Ben, Gwen looks as if she lifted off the one dimensional series, and Max is pretty close. Not quite, but I accepted Lee Majors in the role, since his gravitas compensates for the inherent lack of faithfulness to the character mold.
The Pumaman (1980)
Notorious for being mercilessly spoofed by MST3K in one of their best episodes, Alberto De Martino’s “The Pumaman” is an atrocious and pretty awful movie even without the riffing. It’s a movie that increases in quality, however minimal, thanks to the benefit of the trio from the Satellite of Love. It’s an arbitrarily titled Italian fantasy superhero movie about a man given a funky belt that allows him the qualities and powers of a puma. This involves leaping in the air to attack like a puma, slowing down his heart like a puma, uh—flying like a puma, teleporting… like a… puma…? And he even goes so far as donning a cheap excuse for a superhero costume that’s very un-puma like. If funky bellbottoms and a costume color scheme that looks like it was taken from the back of a cab is what you’d envision for a puma-esque (pumatic?) superhero, then this is up your alley.
Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997)
Around 1996 and in to 1997, the “Power Rangers” pop culture phenomenon had just about died down and Saban entertainment were looking to re-invent the series for a new wave of toy buying tween boys. I was a big “Power Rangers” fan for many years and, like most people my age, I checked out once “Turbo” was introduced. It just felt so tired once they devolved from mystical giant dinosaur robots to… cool cars! Forget a giant dragon that can smash buildings, you have a red car that goes vroom! Of course, I opted out of seeing “Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie” for a very long time, and for good reason. “Turbo” is a movie apparently made on half of the budget of the 1995 movie, and with none of the ambition. You can say whatever you want about the “Mighty Morphin” movie, but it was at least ambitious and tried to take the series in to a bigger scope.
Power Rangers: S.P.D.: The Complete Series (DVD)
Like many other power rangers fans I have my ranking of my favorite iterations of the “Power Rangers” mythology. While “Mighty Morphin” is my favorite, a very close second is “Power Rangers SPD.” It’s a part of the “Power Rangers” continuation of legacy that has nothing to do with the original five team mates, but that never hobbles its premise or concept, thankfully. “SPD” is a great iteration that lasted a very hefty thirty eight episodes and re-imagines the Power Rangers as an intergalactic police force. What’s more is that while the series does offer a new concept with the police theme, it also has a pretty good premise, an engaging storyline, and even packs in a lot of solid performances from its entire cast.
Dig Two Graves (2014)
Following her brother’s accidental death, a girl gets involved with the local black sheep and learns a thing or two about her family, the past, and revenge.
Written by Hunter Adams and Jeremy Phillips and directed by the former, Dig Two Graves is an ok drama with a few horror elements that goes at a decent pace. The film has decent characters, decent dialogue; it’s all decent, but it’s all a bit bland. The film has some interesting aspects, especially the family that lives in the woods, but it’s not quite enough to make it a stellar film or even a really interesting one, which is too bad as everyone involved is seemingly talented and capable of more.
Beauty And The Beast (2014) [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital]
Christophe Gans offers up a richly realized and absolutely beautiful vision of “Beauty and the Beast” that embraces the dark side and fantasy of the original story. While yes, Belle begins to fall In love with the Beast, and is even enticed by him, it’s also thanks his aggression and insistence on influencing her Stockholm syndrome. Belle does eventually find the beauty of living with the beast, in that she’s able to roam his massive castle and is capable of finding secrets and fun corners within it. She even plays hide and seek with dog like creatures that find a fascination with Belle. Gans’ direction is superb and absolutely mesmerizing, I can not stress that enough. Many of his wide shots, and pans are magnificent and he knows how to make the beast both enigmatic and terrifying. There’s even a marvelous moment where the Beast is looking out on to an invading army from his perch, resembling Lon Chaney from “Phantom of the Opera.”