Haywire (2012) [Blu-Ray]

haywire638“You shouldn’t think of her as a woman. That would be a mistake.”

Criticize director Steven Soderbergh all you want for casting someone who isn’t an actual actor to lead a star rich action film, but director Steven Soderbergh accomplishes something studios are often too narrow minded to try. He casts a woman who is brawn, beauty, and brains all in one. While Hollywood and directors have a fetish for casting wafer thin women who look as if they can barely hold a pencil let alone a machine gun (I’m looking at you Milla Jovovich), star Gina Carano is a woman who is built like a fighter in every sense of the word and approaches every single brilliantly staged fight scene with competence and believability, because there’s no doubting a woman of her presence can handle a man two times her size.

Continue reading →

The Crow (1994) [Blu-Ray]

the-crow

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost twenty years since the release of Brandon Lee’s final film, but here we were with a brand new release of his landmark film “The Crow.” In a long overdue treatment it deserves more than most titles out on the Blu-Ray format as we speak “The Crow” hasn’t shown wrinkles at all. “The Crow” is a film that garners a soundtrack with some of the most notable rockers of the nineties, along with some rather of the decade colloquialisms, and still manages to feel completely and utterly timeless. That’s because the world Alex Proyas shapes in his 1994 masterpiece is void of shape and time.

Continue reading →

The Man With the Iron Fists (2012)

Man-With-The-Iron-Fists-Poster-2It’s disheartening to see that deep down, composer and hip hop artist RZA is just another filmmaker who wants to be Quentin Tarantino. It’s not a surprise to fuel the funding for “The Man with the Iron Fists,” he teams up with another popular Tarantino wannabe Eli Roth, to make a film that desperately wants to be “Kill Bill.” Tarantino can often border on obnoxious with his films, so for wannabes to keep popping up delivering relentlessly obnoxious throwbacks feels like a waste of time and resources. I assume RZA and writer Eli Roth imagined this being shown in double bills with the “Kill Bill” series or, at least “Grindhouse.” RZA displays all the hallmarks of a man anxious to be considered in the realm of Quentin Tarantino’s wonderful chop socky tribute “Kill Bill.”

Continue reading →

Black Scorpion (1995)

black-scorpionOnly in a Roger Corman inspired film can you see a super villain who is asthmatic and base their entire gimmick around being asthmatic. But that comes with the territory with this mid-nineties made for Showtime Television movie that I fondly recall re-watching over and over. If only for the brief nudity. But in reality I would have watched anything with superheroes and “Black Scorpion” was right up my alley as a blossoming movie buff showing love for the cult. This Batman-esque trashy crime thriller stars the sexy Joan Severance as Darcy Walker, a cop born and raised who has had enough of the law. Especially when her dad is mysteriously killed by a town politician in cold blood before her eyes.

Continue reading →

Batman: Year One (2011) [Blu-Ray]

B-BoxFrank Miller basically re-thought how we look at Batman today. Everyone from Bruce Timm to Christopher Nolan has taken a cue from the master writer who completely re-worked Batman for the modern era where the camp was no longer present and the grim takes on morality and justice became ever present in what we know as the character so well. “Batman: Year One” attempts to take the original Frank Miller graphic novel and transform it in to a small film that does its job in telling the tale of two forces of good that would walk in to Gotham City almost at the same time and become a true force of nature in changing the law and transforming the seedy underworld in to a haven for cowards and thugs.

Continue reading →

Ninjas vs. Vampires (2010)

ninjas_ae1028d_rgbbDirector-Writer Justin Timpane is back and he’s bringing fanged fucks with him in the sequel to his highly entertaining “Ninjas vs. Zombies.” Except this time he’s armed with a bigger budget and a cast with more acting abilities this go around. The versus titles are a niche in the Straight to DVD market, so Timpane is already ahead of the game with the sequel to his franchise which sees an innocent bystander fall to the clutches of a vampire attack only to be saved at the last minute by the Ninja clan who arrive in time to hunt the vamps, but not prevent our protagonist from becoming a vampire.

Continue reading →

Force of Five (5 huajai hero) (2009)

555When I was a kid I was introduced to a plethora of fighting kids movies, all of which featured children who could very well either kick the crap out of me, or kick the crap out of someone for me. I always marveled at the talent and display seen in films like “3 Ninjas” and it’s nice to know with a certain movie about a karate kid starring Will Smith 2.0 getting all the hype, we can marvel at true talent like the variety displayed in “Power Kids.” The Thai martial arts film from Krissanapong Rachata barely clocks in at seventy minutes and possesses about two fold the raw talent displayed in the previously mentioned stink fest. Kroo Lek and his family of orphans are a proud clan, people who earn their keep and train each other in the fine art of Thai Boxing.

Continue reading →