Motel Blue (1997)

This is one Jon Cross from the PM Entertainment Podcast and After Movie Diner and I covered on a Sam Firstenberg Erotic Thriller double feature in episode 225 of the podcast, back in August of 2025. Between the fact that Firstenberg is a Hall of Famer and needs more movies reviewed, and that this has a bunch of other names, I had to get it on here as well.

Motel Blue has Soleil Moon Frye as a Dept. of Defense investigator tasked with making sure people should still have high-level security clearances, which is something she does by breaking and entering into a lot of people's houses. Anyway, she's assigned Sean Young, but the investigation takes her into a seedy underworld of people answering coded personal ads in adult magazines for hook-ups. As a young lady, Moon Frye takes a shine to Young, but will this idolization help or hurt her in her job? And as she digs deeper into who Young is, is she going to like what she finds? And how do all these other names play into this?

This isn't horrible, but it does require some leaps of faith. At the end, loose ends are flying together everywhere, and by the time you get your safety goggles on, Soleil Moon Frye is driving a convertible down the highway with a dog in the back seat, and then the credits roll. We also have two interesting performances, with Moon Frye doing the classic "Erotic Thriller role to get me out of that child actor reputation," where she's playing it completely earnestly; and then Young, as opposed to elevating the material, feels like she's exposing it to us in the way she's playing it, like a Michael Caine or Malcolm McDowell slumming it in one of these DTV Erotic Thrillers, which is fascinating to watch. Firstenberg for his part seems to be using Moon Frye as his muse, as we get a lot of close-ups on her, and as the star who needs this to get her out of that child actor mold, he can lean on her performance to get this thing over the goal line--and I'd say he'd have pulled it off if it wasn't for that crazy loose ends flying together finish, and a love scene where Moon Frye hooks up with this older psychiatrist character, which, with how young she looked and how old he looked, just didn't sit right. The other selling point was the names. We had Robert Vaughn as Moon Frye's boss; Tropical Heat aka Sweating Bullets's Rob Stewart as Moon Frye's colleague; Ski School's Spencer Rochfort as one of Young's hook-ups; and then Seymour Cassel and Lou Rawls as ministers. For a 90s Erotic Thriller with these names and Firstenberg at the helm, it's worth checking out, even with some shortcomings.

As always, we start with our film's Hall of Famer, Sam Firstenberg. We last saw him in Electric Boogaloo, the Cannon documentary, in 2024, and then as a director in 2021 with The Alternate when we inducted him into the Hall of Fame. He's now at 13 directed movies on the site, which ties him with Keoni Waxman for sixth-most all time, after Albert Pyun (40+), Fred Olen Ray (17), Joseph Merhi (15), Isaac Florentine (14/15 depending on how you count Max Havoc), and Jesse V. Johnson (14). The thing is, I don't see many more for him, so he may sit around 14 or 15, but that's okay, because he's given us so many classics, like American Ninja 2 and Riverbend. This may not be a classic of that level, but like some of those other directors I listed above, when Firstenberg takes on a movie like this, he gives it a level of polish that takes it beyond the usual DTV Erotic Thriller fare. His decision to make Moon Frye his muse I think also helped, as Young didn't appear to be doing him any favors. If you're a fan of his work, like I am, then this is worth adding to your watch list.

For people my age, Punky Brewster was on quite a bit, and I can think of some iconic moments from the show, like when Cherie locked herself in an abandoned old refrigerator in the backyard while playing hide and seek, or guest star Mark-Paul Gosselaar saying he was "crazy mad nuts about Margaux," or perhaps my favorite, when an El-less DeBarge performed for Punky, "you're a big boy, now..." I had lost her career after that, and had no idea that, before she was cast on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (which, as far as I can tell, never had an episode with Josie and the Pussycats guest starring, a missed opportunity), she had a brief spell in the DTV world. I don't know how much we'll explore those films, but it's something to consider, because she was good here. I don't think it achieved what she would've wanted, to get out of the child actor rut, but a few years later it didn't matter if she's getting cast on a network TV show. I was trying to think if that ever worked, making an Erotic Thriller to get yourself out of the child actor pigeon hole. Alyssa Milano maybe? And it was that double standard, that someone like a Monique Parent couldn't go make a network TV show if they started in Erotic Thrillers--making Motel Blue didn't preclude Soleil Moon Frye from getting on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Even with the double standard, it is fun to see former child actors like Moon Frye in one of these Erotic Thrillers.

Sean Young's case is different, and in the post-Me Too world we live in now, we can see how her career changed after she accused Warren Beatty of axing her from Dick Tracy after she refused his advances. Back then if you're a Sean Young and you accuse Beatty of something like that, you get labeled "difficult," and some of her other clashes with James Woods and Woody Allen sound about right for who those guys are, but at that time it was used to further cement her reputation as "difficult." What that means for us in the DTV world is she does more of these kinds of clunkers, and she knows she's doing them because she pissed off Warren Beatty, so she lets us know with every scene she's in, the way John Malkovich is mentally installing a new kitchen island with every line of substandard dialog in a modern DTV flick. To me, that kind of thing makes these movies more fun, and I appreciated that Young was bringing that kind of energy. She's another one who has more DTV stuff out there, so we'll see if we get to some of it.

Finally, during the episode Jon did a rendition of ELO's "Midnight Blue," replacing "midnight" with "motel." For me, it's Lou Gramm's "Midnight Blue" that I keep getting in my head once I see the title for this film. This is not to be confused with Icehouse's "Electric Blue," which is not only a different song, but sounds like it could be a Lou Gramm song too, making it all the more confusing. One thing I didn't realize until I played "Midnight Blue" and another Gramm solo song, "Just Between You and Me," is that they were on different solo albums, two years apart. I guess that makes sense that I wouldn't have known that, because I would've taped them off the radio, and if the DJ played "Midnight Blue" again because "Just Between You and Me" was a hit, all the better for me. Nowadays, post-Clinton's Telecommunications Act and the subsequent consolidation of radio stations, DJs can't just play older Lou Gramm songs on a whim, a program director who manages 150 stations is telling that DJ to shelve the Gramm and play Nickelback and Train twice an hour. It's a shame, as I listen to Gramm belt out "you're getting reckless, girl," and while it's nice that I can listen to them on YouTube, and only have to put up with the obnoxious "who's listening in 2026?" comment--seriously, what is the matter with you people who do that! We're all fucking here listening to the song! Do you need cheap heat engagement that badly? I guess so--but anyway, it's nice that a remnant from that time is me getting that song in my head whenever I see the title for this. Here's to you Mr. Gramm, you're one of the best to ever do it, there's no need to say you won't.

And with that, let's wrap this up. I honestly don't know how you can find this. It's expensive in the used VHS and DVD market. If you can find it cheap, give it a look, it's worth checking out. And for more discussion, check out episode 225 in the archives, "Cross Cross" and "Motel Blue."

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133981

And check out my newest novel, Mark in Sales, on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)

This is one that I had been meaning to do on here for a while, and when I mentioned on the podcast that it was available, Sean Malloy from I Must Break This Podcast asked if he could guest on the pod to discuss it, which I thought was a great idea. It was a great conversation, and you can catch that in our archives, episode 166. In addition to us, our friend Mitch at the Video Vacuum has covered this as well.

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films is a documentary by Mark Hartley, he of the great Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! and Machete Maidens Unleashed! He attacks this topic with the same love and attention, giving us the origins of Cannon through their famed production duo Golan and Globus, their rise in the market with actioners led by Charles Bronson and Chuck Norris, and then their downfall. We also get great interviews from names involved, like Albert Pyun, Dolph, Dudikoff, and Sam Firstenberg, who give us interesting insight into how these rebel producers flew too close to the sun, and ultimately fell into the sea.

This is fantastic, Sean and I were in agreement on that. The only complaint we had was we could've used more--like maybe three parts that are each the length this one was. It's one of those rare films where I don't check the slider bar to see how much is left, and when we get to the end, I'm disappointed and want more. It's great seeing and hearing from the big names, like the ones I mentioned above, but then you have people who worked for Cannon at the time, like David Del Valle--who has a great Instagram account, delvallearchives, with a lot of old Hollywood genre content and things from his collection--who gives us insight into things like how Cannon chose films when he was a script reader for them--"I had one pile for Bronson films, and one Norris films." We also get these great stories, like when Golan and Globus worked with Jean-Luc Godard for his King Lear, which is a movie I enjoyed, but hearing the issues behind it made it even better. If you love the movies we love here on the site, this documentary is for you.

This is now the 73rd tag for Dolph, his 72nd film, and his second appearance in a documentary, the other being Power of Grayskull: The Definitive History of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which we reviewed a few years back. It would've been nice to have more of him here, but it kind of makes sense that we don't, because he only did one film for Cannon--which was a big one for sure, but still only one. There was a sense in hearing him discuss it, that he was disappointed with how it turned out, and wasn't comfortable with the production as it was happening. He was riding high from Rocky IV, this was as big as he was going to get, and this felt like the next role to take; but it came out after the toys had fallen out of favor, and while it looked nice for a Cannon film, it was still a Cannon film made on the cheap, and ultimately it was a bust that didn't make its budget back. It starts Dolph down a path that leads to DTV-dom, which was our gain, but unfortunate for him--though he's bounced back somewhat now, getting his redemption while riding a seahorse in Aquaman.

We last saw Michael Dudikoff in 2022 with Fury of the Fist and the Golden Fleece, so it's been a bit, and probably will be a bit before we see him again. At one time he actually had more tags than Dolph, and he was one of the first that we had the complete DTV filmography of on the site, but he hasn't done much since 2002 so we don't see him as often anymore. Unlike Dolph, who only did the one Cannon film, Dudikoff has a bunch, including the American Ninja series, one of the greatest DTV action franchises ever, and that means he's in this much more. Also unlike Dolph, whose career started downward after his stint with Cannon, for Dudikoff it opened up the world of DTV action that we know him from now. And what a career it was, especially between the first American Ninja and 2002's Stranded, for me it's a top ten DTV action career, and I don't know with the state of DTV action today if anyone will bump him out of the top ten, even if he doesn't do more films. What we get here is the down-to-earth guy we thought he was, which was fun to see, and fun to hear him give us his experience. Truly one of the greats to ever do it.

Albert Pyun was great as well, talking about Cannon and Golan-Globus in general, but also some specific films he worked on with them like Cyborg and Journey to the Center of the Earth--neither great experiences for him. It was a bit melancholy knowing he's no longer with us, but also a reminder that his insights on film were fantastic and always worth hearing--and he was so generous with them in giving us backstory on some of the films we reviewed. This brings us back to the possibility of getting him into the 50 Club, as this is one more in that direction so he's now at 46 films--47 tags because he asked us to review Mean Guns a second time. There are two more films available that he's directed, Cool Air, which I can rent, and The Interrogation of Cheryl Cooper, which I've had trouble finding. Those two would get us to 48, and then he was credited as a producer on Final Examination, making 49. So close. There's also Interstellar Civil War: Shadows of the Empire, which doesn't seem to be available. If it ever were, that would do it.

Finally, with a film like this, there's a question of who to tag and who not to tag. After reviewing Randall Scandal, I made the decision that file footage of an actor in a documentary isn't enough, but if they give an interview filmed specially for the documentary, that counts. The other thing is, are they the subject of the documentary? That's why Golan-Globus are tagged, despite not being interviewed. But that's also why Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson aren't tagged. Had one of the clips of the films had a McDonald's in it, would I have tagged "McDonald's?" I don't know, but I doubt it. For genres like "Ninjas," even though this had clips from ninja films, it wasn't a ninja film per se, so it didn't get that tag. Had someone done an interview in full ninja gear, would I have tagged this "ninjas," or had someone interviewed a shark would I have tagged this "sharks?" Maybe, but I'd have to see it happen first before I could say either way.

And with that, let's wrap this up. Currently you can get this on Tubi here in the States. YouTube also has a great version if you don't get Tubi in your area. This does a great job handling a subject that's near and dear to our hearts, and worth checking out. Also worth checking out is the podcast episode we did with Sean from I Must Break This Podcast, number 166 in the archives.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125501

Looking for more action? Check out my short action novel, Bainbridge, and all my other novels, over at my author's page! Click on the image below, go to https://www.matthewpoirierauthor.com/

The Alternate (2000)

We finish the month of October with the last of our 2021 Hall of Fame inductees, Ice-T and Sam Firstenberg. With that in mind, what better film to cover than one that starred Ice-T and was directed by Firstenberg? Well, I guess we'll see how good a film it was before we say. In addition to us, our friends at Comeuppance, Exploding Helicopter, and Cool Target have covered this, so you can go to their sites to see what they thought.

The Alternate has Bryan Genesse as a CIA agent tasked with an interesting job: stage a kidnapping of the president to help boost the prez's poll numbers ahead of the upcoming election. He forms a team, including maverick former CIA guy Eric Roberts, they succeed in taking their target, only to have Genesse decide he'd rather make this a real kidnapping. Now only Eric Roberts can stop him, with his only assistance in the form of a Michael Madsen on a phone on the ground who is really only there to smoke and look cool for the camera.

 

Does it sound Die Hard-y? It does, doesn't it? The thing is though, it's a slimmed-down lite Die Hard. Shorter run time, not as many baddies to manage, smaller location, and fewer explosions. I think this film might have been a fun DTV actioner, the problem is, it fell into the trap a lot of modern DTV flicks do: it only had enough material for an episode of a syndicated TV show. This was especially rough when we get to the end, where it seems like our hero and the baddie are having their final showdown, but the slider bar is telling me there's 17 minutes left. How can this be? False endings of course. Oh, we thought Roberts had killed Genesse? There's still 15 minutes left, time for Genesse to pop back in again. It's like the cinematic equivalent of using a larger font and greater line-spacing to make that high school paper seem longer. By the same token, an episode of a syndicated TV show wouldn't have had the prodigious cast this had. So where does that leave us? Maybe our friend Will at Exploding Helicopter said it best: "What you get here is more Try Hard than Die Hard."

Last year when I had Jon Cross of the After Movie Diner (which just celebrated 10 years!) and Miscellaneous Plumbing Fixtures on to talk Fred Williamson, he mentioned having Ice-T in our Hall of Fame, and when he said it, there was a sense of "yeah, why isn't he in the Hall of Fame?" He's got pretty solid numbers (this is his 16th film on the site), has worked with a lot of the greats--Pyun, Firstenberg, Olen Ray, Williamson, Wynorski, and Camacho--, and it seems like no matter how good or bad the film is, he brings it. In this film, I found out in Marco Siedelmann's Stories from the Trenches that despite Ice-T only being in this for a short time, because his character was a CIA agent, he felt he needed to cut his hair. That kind of commitment takes a film like this, and elevates it simply from his appearance. I can't think of a better reason why he should be in the Hall of Fame.

 

Our other inductee, taking the director spot for 2021, is Sam Firstenberg. We know his rap sheet: Ninjas, American Ninjas, Dancing Ninja, Cyborg Cops, and Delta Forces. He helmed some of the greatest DTV flicks ever. I think with this one, you can see his skills in the way the film was put together, it seems more competent than your usual DTV fare; by the same token, you can see the limitations in both time and budget that prevented him from making this what he really wanted it to be. In Marco's book, he both said he really liked this film, and admitted to those limitations. I get that on both scores too. This feels a little more serious than an American Ninja 2, Cyborg Cop 2, or Breakin' 2... Electric Boogaloo; but, I can't let this film think it's so much better than those other movies, because the terrorists were taking out the CIA agents by blowing laced toothpick through straws because they could get them through security. Watching Eric Roberts and Bryan Genesse blowing through straws and then CIA agents grabbing at their necks and falling over isn't too far away on the silliness scale from Ninja III. Overall, this film is better, not worse, for Firstenberg's direction, and that tends to always be the case with his films, which is why he's being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

I already have the something for the seventh paragraph, so it's actually this sixth one I wasn't sure about. One idea was extolling the virtues of the one set Michael Madsen role. Maybe he's mailing it in, but it was a lot of fun watching him do it. The sunglasses, cigarettes, and gravelly voice always work. Another was the fact that this was supposed to be called The Replacement, but Ty from Comeuppance surmised--I think correctly--that the big screen Keanu Reeves film The Replacements came out the same year, so perhaps that's why they changed the name--though they didn't change Eric Roberts at the end saying "call me the replacement..." Or maybe it was the fact that Bryan Genesse wrote this, which is a fun fact, and I don't think it was a horrible effort, but it also makes me wonder if he or anyone else work-shopped the laced toothpicks shot out of straws idea. 

 

Finally, the president in this film is played by John Beck. I've lost track of how many times we've done a film that featured someone playing the president, but I believe this is the first mustachioed one. It made me wonder: when was the last time we had a mustachioed president here in the US? My guess was Teddy Roosevelt, and I was close--it was Taft right after him. In fact, we haven't had many 'Stache Prezes in US history. Most opted for no facial hair--I think Lincoln was the first with his non-'stache beard. Chester A. Arthur had a 'stache prior to becoming president, but as far as I can tell, in office he only had that mustache that connected to his sideburns, which in my mind is still a form of beard and doesn't count. That would make Grover Cleveland the first, and Harrison after him had a beard, so that makes Cleveland the second as well. From there we just have Roosevelt and Taft, and that's it--and not only that, Taft was the last prez to sport any facial hair. What that tells me is the entire premise of this film is off: why would the first mustachioed president since Taft be losing in the polls? That's less believable than the straw-toothpick darts. Just the slogan "Four More Years of the 'Stache" would win it, there'd be no need for all this Genesse tomfoolery to make him look better.

And with that, let's wrap this up. Here in the States you can currently get this on Tubi. While I say 90 minutes on Tubi is a good deal, this one feels like closer to 100, so keep that in mind. On the other hand, you have a great cast directed by Firstenberg, so that mitigates those issues somewhat. Congratulations again to Ice-T and Sam Firstenberg for being the last two of our 2021 Hall of Fame inductees. We'll see who gets inducted next year at this time!

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203835

And if you haven't yet, check out my new novel, A Girl and a Gun, at Amazon in paperback or Kindle!

 

Riverbend (1989)

With what would have been Steve James's 68th birthday this past week, I wanted to get another one of his films on the site.  As we've discussed before, unfortunately he doesn't have as many with him in the lead as he should, but this was one of those movies. This one was also reviewed by our friend Kenner at Movies in the Attic, so you should run over to his site to see what he thought of it too.

Riverbend takes place in a small town in Georgia in the late 1960s. The town is plagued by an extremely racist sheriff who terrorizes the African American community there, killing whom he wants and raping the women. At the same time Vietnam Vet Steve James and two of his soldiers are being transported through the area for an upcoming court martial after they failed to carry out an unjust order. They escape and run to the town, where they hide out at the house of a widow whose husband was killed by the sheriff as he tried to tell a judge about atrocities the sheriff had been committing. Once James learns of the tyranny in the town, he offers to give all the African American men military training, then lead them to take over the town, which they do, holding the white townspeople hostage while waiting for their demands to be met. Will they succeed?

This was a movie that covered really tough material in a way that pulled very few punches, which I appreciated. We've seen bad white guys in Blaxploitation movies, but Tony Frank's sheriff takes it to another level, and does it in a way that I think American history, at least as far as the most reported narrative is told, is afraid to confront. We then meld that with Steve James as the kind of lead who commands the screen in every scene he's in, and Sam Firstenberg's action directing, for a movie that worked really well overall. It may not have been an action film in the purest sense, but I enjoyed it--as much as I could say I enjoyed the tough subject matter that was covered in this.

James absolutely stands out here. He really does command every scene he's in. The first line of his imdb bio says it all: "Steve James was often cast in action movies as the hero's sidekick, despite usually being a better actor and fighter than the star." Well here, like Street Hunter, we got to see what it would be like if he was the star, and it was as good as we could have expected. He would have been 68 this past week, only a few months older than Steven Seagal, meaning had he lived, we probably would have still been getting movies from him, and hopefully more of those lead roles he deserved all those years. Here's to you Steve James, you were one of the great ones.

This is the eleventh Sam Firstenberg we've done on the DTVC, but this one might have the most depth. To some extent though, he just takes what works in the action genre--heroes you want to root for and baddies you want to see defeated--and just moves that paradigm over to this movie. It's not totally bereft of action though, especially once the troops led by James take over the town, and then when the national guard comes in to try and take them out. We also get a few hand-to-hand fight scenes with James, not quite to the level of American Ninja 2, but good enough considering we're not coming to this movie entirely for that. I think with that in mind, we can say that Firstenberg, while getting out of his comfort zone of ninjas and cyborg cops, does well here to make this movie a solid one. (Note, my friend Jon Cross did an interview with Sam Firstenberg on his Booth Talk podcast, and Sam said he actually started in dramatic films, but was approached by Cannon to do Enter the Ninja, and the rest was history; but that means a movie like this would've actually been in his comfort zone.)

As I mentioned above, the sheriff in this, Tony Frank, was absolutely despicable. I was shocked to discover in looking at his imdb bio that he was only 46 when he made this, as his character looked older. I understand that a movie has to have a character like him in order for it to work, but I don't know that I could do that role, just walking around from scene to scene saying the N word all the time, shooting or threatening to shoot innocent people just because of the color of their skin. I know, the movie needs Tony Frank just as much as it needs Steve James in order to work, but this ain't no Alan Rickman in Die Hard tons of fun to play baddie, this is detestable stuff he's doing, and I feel like that's gotta be hard to pull off for an actor, day after day of shooting.

I don't know if I'd call it a controversial part of the movie, but one aspect that gave people trouble was how all the white people in the town were rounded up and held hostage after James and his militia take it over. There was a sense that they were innocent people, and that can sometimes diminish the altruism we need to root for our hero. I didn't find that to be the case though, because the white people in that town were at best benefiting from the racism and tyranny that plagued the African American community there, and at the very least they had the luxury of being able to look the other way at the tyranny, even if they didn't approve of it. Even the business owner in town who was against the sheriff and sympathetic to the African Americans didn't lift a finger to help them or get the word out about their plight. This was a rare case where the innocent people weren't exactly innocent, and by rounding them up and holding them hostage the way they did, it sent a message to everyone, even some of us watching it.

That's as good a note as any to wrap things up on. This is a definite watch for me. Again, we don't have many movies with Steve James in the lead, and in this one he really takes the reins. In addition, we have Sam Firstenberg's direction, enough action where we need it, plus a strong and compelling story to keep us engaged when there's no action.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100500

Blood Warriors (1993)

It was time to get a little David Bradley up on the DTVC again, and this one also starred Frank Zagarino, so I thought, what the hell. That, and I got this from a friend on VHS, had an open slot here, and figured I'd go for it. I can always go to David Bradley in a pinch.

Blood Warriors has native Texan David Bradley playing a Marine from Texas who finds himself in jail. His ol' Marine buddy Frank Zagarino bails him out, gets his sentence dropped, and covers the mortgage on his dad's farm. The catch: he needs to board a plane to Jakarta and help Zags out on some business there. En route, Zags is killed, so Bradley catches up with his hot sister. When Zags's business competitor finds out his casket is empty, things get crazy. Is Zags still alive? And if he is, can Bradley trust him? And isn't this action hero gig a pretty sweet deal when you get love scenes with the woman who played the model on Seinfeld?



This isn't horrible, but it's not exactly great either. The beginning goes a little long before we get any good action, and while the action is decent, it's nothing spectacular. I felt like there were more missed opportunities than great moments, which is never a good thing. For instance, Zags is showing off for Bradley how well his mercs can fight. Bradley just sits there, then is all like "I don't want to be in your gang, Zags." What we needed there was a Jeff Wincott in Mission of Justice scene, you know, the one where he's supposed to walk this gauntlet, acts like he's not going to do it, then quickly turns and flips into the middle of all these dudes, and totally houses them. Bradley needed to kick all their asses, then throw on his cowboy hat, pop his collar, and tell Zags he'll be in his room if he needs him. With an action movie that has guys like Bradley and Zagarino, you can't have them sitting on the sidelines, and unfortunately, that happened too often.

Gotta love the Bradley in a cowboy hat look. Maybe not quite the fanny pack, but it's close. I know Bradley is from Texas, but he's too much of a dandy for Texas good ol' boy to work. He's a thinking man's lead, smooth, cleancut, sharply tailored suits and sleek automobiles. He needs to cruise into town in an expensive convertible and take out gangs of toughs with nice looking roundhouses and jumpkicks, throw on his sunglasses and tell the guys to have a nice day. The fact that Bradley co-wrote the script tells me he wanted to get away from that image some. Come on man, be who you are, and be proud of it.



Zagarino isn't in this much. He's kind of like Orson Welles in The Third Man, only his name is "Stone" instead of "Lime". Keith Stone, actually, not to be confused with the guy from the Keystone beer commercials. As far as I can tell, beer commercials, and in particular light beer commercials, are so bad it's almost criminal, but the Keith Stone ones are one of the few I like. Really, I'm more of a man if I drink your light beer? Or maybe you're more of a moron.

Sam Firstenberg directed this, and as I'm sure you know, he has a pretty solid track record. American Ninja, American Ninja 2, Avenging Force-- though he was also the man who put Bradley in a fanny pack in Cyborg Cop-- though to his credit, he made fun of it in the sequel, Cyborg Cop II. This was a definite step down from any of the others of his we've reviewed, and it makes me wonder if maybe something went wrong in post-production that hurt this thing-- or maybe it's his Jersey Girl.



Seinfeld fans will recognize Jennifer Campbell as the model Jerry meets flying home in first class, and then who sees him scratching his nose at a red light, and erroneously thinks he's picking it. I looked on her resume, and though she did do some action based TV shows, I didn't see another action movie after this, and I can kind of see why. She was pushed and pulled and dragged and carried and sent through the ringer in this bad boy. At one point, Bradley is carrying her over his shoulder, which made very little sense, since she seemed like she could run just fine-- and run faster than Bradley could run carrying her. It probably makes sense why we don't see as many repeat action movie female co-stars, it's a much easier paycheck looking disgusted when you think Jerry Seinfeld picked his nose.

This is not an easy find, out of print, only available on VHS. Maybe for completists, because it is Bradley and Zagarino directed by Firstenberg, but that's a big stretch. If you see it cheap in a bargain bin and don't have much else already in your basket, I guess you could go for it and add it to your bad action collection.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106432/

Quicksand (2002)

This one took a fair amount of work to track down. Scratch that, it was really a matter of me finally taking the plunge and buying it used from Amazon-- for $0.01, $2.99 after shipping-- because Netflix, for some reason or another, doesn't offer it. Kenner at Movies in the Attic has looked at this one too, it's buried under a bunch of other reviews in his Avenging Force post. Also Kenner, I hyperlinked your cover photo for this post. Hopefully you're not upset.

Quicksand has absolutely nothing to do with the actual classic adventure movie trap. It's a modern Film Noir with Michael Dudikoff as a Marine psychiatrist called to another base to treat a general's (Dan Hedaya, playing Dean Stockwell, playing the general) daughter, Brooke Theiss. Things happen, dad's dead, and she's accused, but Dudkoff thinks there's more going on here than meets the eye.



I was okay with this one. It had all the elements for a good Film Noir-- the handsome lead, the sexy, sultry female dealing with issues from her past, the more than meets the eye mystery-- hell, they even had the suspenseful phone call with only the bottom half of a man's face talking in cryptic threats. I think where it fails is that it sounds great on the surface, and the actors all handled their roles well, but I'm not so sure there was 90 minutes worth of material here. It seemed like it sounded better on paper, if that makes sense. Plus, there were some blah moments, like a silly chase scene that devolved into Dudikoff and his pursuers just doing doughnuts around each other. Still, to completely kill this thing doesn't exactly do it justice, because it wasn't horrible. The truth is, had this been made in 1940, instead of 2002, with Bogie and Bacall instead of Dudikoff and Theiss, I would've loved it, but it wasn't, so I didn't. Take that for what it is.

I think seeing the names Michael Dudikoff and director Sam Firstenberg, one would envision some awesome action, considering the two collaborated on American Ninja and American Ninja 2, plus, Firstenberg has a rich history of great to not-so-great action, including American Samurai, Cyborg Cop, and Cyborg Cop II. That's not what you're getting here, but Dudikoff still acquits himself very nicely in this Film Noir realm. Because Dudikoff is most famous for the American Ninjas, and because those films and his reputation in them are what has gotten him the DTV action work we're used to seeing him in, people have the erroneous idea that he's not an accomplished actor. This movie proves otherwise.



Richard Kind was in this as the military detective-- that classic Film Noir detective role where we don't know if he'll help our hero our hinder him. He's easily one of the best comedic character actors working today, and his presence here provided a level of levity that was very unique and welcomed for the kind of role this was. It's always interesting to see an actor like this, who would go on to be much bigger, bringing his or her talents to a lesser DTV flick.

Brooke Theiss is known more for her TV work-- and TV work that has very little overlap with the kinds of films we cover here-- but like Dudikoff, she does really well, and I think it was harder for her, because her character was written all over the place-- and that's with the fact that she was supposed to be mentally unstable being taken into account. One interesting fact about Theiss: her husband is DTVC favorite Bryan Genesse.



There are a lot things in a movie that tip off the fact that it wasn't filmed in the US, but I'm not sure I've seen one as blatant as the trapezoid lane on the basketball court here. Nothing spells international basketball like that-- it's like boysenberry syrup letting us know that we're at the International House of Pancakes, not some domestic one. The film was shot in India, but took place in Arizona, and before the trapezoid lane cinched it that this wasn't no Arizona, I think the palm trees tipped me off. Nice try on the cacti, though.

I can't recommend this, even on the $3 it cost me to buy it from Amazon. Unless you're a total Dudikoff completist, the novelty of him in a Film Noir wears off as the movie tries to flesh out what was barely 90 minutes worth of material. Great performances by Dudikoff and the rest of the cast, though, so kudos to that.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0282883/

Cyborg Cop II aka Cyborg Soldier (1994)

I imagine, if you read my review of Cyborg Cop, that you know where I'm about to go with this one, so let's not delay and cut right to the chase.

In Cyborg Cop II, our man in the black fanny pack is back. That's right, David Bradley, not even on vacation now, is rocking a fanny pack while on the job as a DEA agent. After a dude that killed his partner and was sentenced to death is broken out of prison, Bradley is suspicious. So he loads up his fanny pack with snacks and ammunition, and seeks out the truth. What he finds is his boy is now a cyborg, aptly named Spartacus, because he leads his fellow enslaved cyborgs in a revolt. Does Bradley have enough tricks in his fanny pack to defeat them?



The fanny pack thing had to be a joke, right? I mean, before he gets off his motorcycle in his first scene, I made a crack about it, only to see that he was actually wearing it! And it's not just there for show. Uh-uh, no way, he's packing heat underneath there-- whoa, hold your horses ladies (and some fellas), I'm not talking about that, I mean he's hiding a gun... well, you know what I mean... anyway, this thing is in every scene. When he's saving a kid in slow motion, there's the fanny pack. When he's having a conversation with the chief, there's the fanny pack. I imagine even his stunt doubles wore it for continuity. Overall, the action was pretty solid, so, in addition to the hilarity of the fanny pack, this is a lot of fun.

There's something about Bradley throughout this that's kind of dandy-ish, like he's Gene Kelly or something. The way he leaps around, does his roundhouse kicks, the faces he makes when he's waiting for someone to attack. On top of that, you have the fanny pack. Luckily, the film makers countered all of this by making his character kick lots of ass. I mean, in the build-up, we're told these cyborgs are pretty much indestructible, but they're no match for our be-fanny-packed hero.



This how ridiculous the whole fanny pack thing got, other people were rocking them! Here is Bradley's dead partner's widow. Inside her fanny pack is her dead husband's Zippo, which she gives Bradley, and he promptly puts it in his fanny pack, until he needs it at the end of the film. It's like his fanny pack is his utility belt or something. They should've outfitted Bradley with a cape and cowl. "Brad-Man!" "Robin, get me the Shark Repellent Brad-Spray!" "But Brad-Man, you already have it in your fanny pack!"

It looks like even Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is getting in on the act here with Bradley. I can't write a great Scottish accent, but you have to imagine this is hurting his sensibilities. "Noe David, tha' fanny pack doosen't soot ya. If yew were my player, I'd suspend ya er poot in a transfer request." (Speaking of Man U, as I write this, it's one day after Blackpool coughed up a two goal lead to them, extending their undefeated season. I'm hoping beyond hope they don't finish that thing off, because I'm a huge Arsenal fan.)



The thing that gets me most about the fanny packs in this film, is that they're all made of leather. Now, I'm no vegetarian, and I have some leather hiking boots and sneakers, so I'm not about to preach to you. All I'm saying is, a cow or bull's life is worth more than that, isn't it? I get that leather is a by-product of slaughtering the animal for meat, so technically it wasn't killed to make a fanny pack, but just the same, to use the leather to make a fanny pack, is like buying a steak just to let it rot on your shelf-- or to make a meat helmet out of it. What a waste of that animal's life on something so gaudy.

I got this from Netflix in a one disc two-pack that included part III, Terminal Impact. For this one alone it's worth it. Great action, great fanny pack...age, I guess... I should probably end this now before we get anymore phallic.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109518/

Ninja III: Domination (1984)

I've been warned to avoid this one for some time, and I totally understand why, because it's a pretty bad deal. The thing is, though, it just doesn't feel right not having the third of the three Ninja movies up here, even if the first two had nothing to do with this one, or each other. The other thing is, we at the DTVC feel it's as important to warn people off about the bad ones as much as celebrate the great ones. So with that being said, here's Ninja III: Domination.

Ninja III is about a bad ninja almost killed by the cops after he assassinates a scientist enjoying 18 holes at his local muni. Before he goes, though, a Solid Gold dancer making extra cash as a technician for the electric company happens to see him struggle and tries to help, only to find herself bewitched by his evil spirit. We don't know which is worse, that or the stalker cop who she suddenly falls for and has lick V-8 Juice off her neck, but regardless, she's now blacking out and committing murders dressed as a ninja, and only Shô Kosugi knows what the deal is, and only he can stop her. Throw in James Hong again acting as an ethnicity not his own, and you've got Ninja III.



This starts off amazing, with the bad ninja kicking ass and taking names. Helicopters are exploding, golf balls are being crushed, and stuntmen are dying all over the local muni. I was even cool with the girl being possessed, because it was so funny. But the hairy stalker cop turned hero was just too much, and just too creepy. I also get that they were trying a Kwaidan Japanese ghost story type deal, but the execution was just ten kinds of wrong, with a lot of bad Poltergeist rip-offs and so forth, and the movie ended up being all over the place.

The stalker cop was probably the most irresponsible thing in the film, even more than James Hong as a Japanese man. To me it was actually kind of scary, our heroine meets this cop while she's telling the police about the dead ninja, and the cop hits on her, even after she tells him no multiple times. Then he calls her (how did he get her number? illegal police procedure probably), and after being rebuffed again, follows her to the aerobics class she teaches. As if that's not enough, when she's accosted by some bodybuilders in an alley outside the gym, he doesn't help, makes her fend for herself, then takes her away under the pretense that she's been arrested for assaulting them. What is that? And what recourse does she have if she doesn't fall in love with him and invite him back to her place to lick V-8 Juice off her neck? What, she reports him to the same police department he works for? Yeah, I bet that'd go over great, considering you're giving the report to the guy's friends. Now her report gets "lost", and he's suddenly "patrolling" in her neighbor hood 24-7. Police officers are entrusted with a very great responsibility, and to have a cop hero condoned and even vindicated in his stalking practices is simply appalling.



Shô Kosugi isn't in this anywhere near as much as he should be. When he's there, he's great, but what the hell does that even mean, right? He's always great when he's there, it's always just a matter of how much there there is, right? Go to Revenge of the Ninja or Pray for Death for the good Kosugi.

Is there anything hotter than a chick in a leotard playing a classic arcade game? In this case, unfortunately, the game is Bouncer, one that was still in development and didn't make it big, instead of something truly awesome, like Galaga. Women, if you've got a guy in mind you want to impress, this is the way to his heart. You don't exactly have to go the leotard route, especially since classic arcade games can be pricey, and you may have to play outside of your home, but you take a guy to the arcade and you start killing it on Pac-Man or something, he'll be yours forever.



Did I mention the cop guy was hairy? Like gross hairy, all over the back and shoulders, and in one scene he's rocking a tank top. Part of me wants to say "hey, more power to you", but no, that's just disgusting. You need to have more consideration for the people around you, and as a director, Sam Firstenbirg needed to step in and put some sleeves on him.

This isn't out on DVD, and perhaps that's a good thing. Sautéed in wrong sauce doesn't begin to describe what's going here. It's like they took all the awesomeness from Revenge of the Ninja, and decided give us ten minutes at the beginning to remind us of what they were capable of, knowing full well they were going to hit us with a hairy stalker cop and bad Poltergeist rip-off graphics.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087805/

American Samurai (1992)

The idea of this film intrigued me. David Bradley paired with Mark Dacascos in a samurai film. Of course, only ten minutes in and I realize that Dacascos is the bad guy. Suddenly I was having misgivings...

American Samurai has Bradley as a kid whose family crashes a plane over some remote areas of Japan with an infant him in it. He alone survives, and a dude who runs a samurai training place takes him and trains him, much to the chagrin of the guy's real son, Mr. Dacascos. Dacascos swears revenge for the favor his dad has shown Bradley, and fast forward so many years and Dacascos hires some thugs to steal a sacred family samurai sword from Bradley's home in LA. That means Bradley, a journalist, traces the sword to Turkey, where he goes after it pretending to be after a story. A Romantic Comedy ensues, and then a rip-off of Enter the Dragon with weapons.



I don't know what to say. I imagine the idea sounded great on paper, but it only translated so well on screen. Fighting with weapons is only so entertaining, and when some of the people involved look ridiculous-- see Conan wannabe and Anachronism the Great, a viking-- it only looks worse. This is especially disconcerting when you have two quality martial artists and instead of them doing what they do best: hand-to-hand combat; you have them in a couple of fairly clunky sword fights. I understand that they're samurai, and samurai fight with swords, but if these guys aren't great at them, mix it up and have some martial arts stuff with no weapons first, just to let us know what we have.

Let's start with Bradley. Why doesn't he often work in these situations? I think here it was the material. He only had a few instances where he was the man, and just as often he was getting tasered and being ordered around by the baddies. That kind of thing just doesn't work in an action film. Why they needed to cram this story into an Enter the Dragon rip-off is beyond me as well. Make it a detective film, have him track down leads, get caught in traps of baddies, and have to fight his way out. Then at the end, Dacascos kidnaps his Romantic Comedy lead, and they have their final showdown.



More than Bradley, they really wasted Dacascos. Let this guy cut it loose and show the world what he can do. After seeing him in Drive, I have very little respect for any film maker that doesn't give us that level of action when he or she has Dacascos at his or her disposal. Not only that, but his long hair made him look feminine. At the beginning he was revealed as a Yakuza. Why not have him in Turkey on some kind of drug deal, and Bradley has to take him down. Throw in a couple scenes where a larger group of cops try to take him in, and he takes them all out with his bare hands.

There was one interesting scene at the beginning when Bradley first loses the sword and dreams about it. There's an Onibaba style demon samurai that Bradley faces in his dream. At first I thought this was telling us how this would be a samurai film in the style of x, y, and z; instead it was telling us that there are good films out there, and this is not one of them.



Maybe it's not the fanny pack moment from Cyborg Cop, but it's close. After another bad dream, Bradley wakes up in his tighty... err... orangies? Anyway, it wasn't a good look. Maybe not as bad as the fanny pack, but close. As we make our way through the rest of Bradley's brief period in the movie industry, I'm left to wonder how many more moments like this we have to look forward/fear coming. And we're still left with the mystery of why Bradley stopped making movies in the first place.

This could be good with a group of people making fun of movies, but there's just so much more out there with funnier scenes to choose from, so I'm not sure I can even recommend it on those merits. If it ever ends up on something like EncoreAction, I'd say DVR it and give it a look see. Otherwise, don't go too far out of your way.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106258/

Avenging Force (1986)

I grabbed this around the same time I got Radioactive Dreams, and only reviewed the latter first because I wanted to make up for the bad post I did for Urban Menace and give Albert Pyun a little redemption. It never crossed my mind that this post would coincide with a potential New Orleans Saints Super Bowl victory, which is important because Avenging Force takes place in The Big Easy. Kind of a cool tribute DTVC style.

Avenging Force has Dudikoff as a former CIA guy whose buddy, the late, great Steve James, is running for office in New Orleans. Some right bigoted wing terrorist group doesn't like this, and they ambush his float for Mardi Gras, killing his son. Dudikoff takes the assailants out, and the CIA wants him to fight these guys, but he refuses. But when they attack James again, then attack and kill James and his family at Dudikoff's ranch, at the same time kidnapping Dudikoff's sister, he realizes he can't stand by any longer. The only way he can take out these baddies though is to be the hunted in their deadly sport in the Louisiana Bayou. It's a case of who's hunting whom, though, when you're hunting the Wild Dudikoff.



Okay, I know I'm going to upset my buddy at Movies in the Attic here, because he's been wanting me to review this one for a while because it's one of his favorites, but I had one issue with it that prevents me from completely loving it. For the first hour it was one of the best things I've ever seen. Dudikoff and Steve James were amazing, kicking ass, gunning guys down, blowing shit up. Then at the hour mark, they kill off James, leaving Dudikoff to fight it out on his own for the last forty minutes, which was good, but not as good as it could've been. I understand the way they wanted the end to play out, it worked better with just Dudikoff, but I just don't see how anyone during filming looked at the earlier scenes and didn't say "we gotta switch things up and just run with this Steve James and Michael Dudkioff thing. We can't kill him off now." A five-star gem turned three-star in one fell swoop.

Okay, that might be harsh. The last forty minutes were great too. Dudikoff taking out the four baddies hunting him was great, especially when you see what the baddies were wearing. If you took that on it's own, and didn't have the first hour of amazing-ness with James and Dudikoff to compare it to, it would be plenty good enough. I'm not sure I've ever been so torn on a film before, and I'm not even torn on whether it's good or not, because it is. I've just never seen anything before that starts out five-star, and then tacks a four-star film onto the end. It was like the Colts sitting their starters against the Jets instead of going for the perfect season.



With or without James, this is one of the better Dudikoff films. If you want to look at one that's definitely above it though, see American Ninja 2, which fully understood what it meant to have Dudikoff and James together, and didn't wreck that chemistry mid-stream. I could spend all day talking about all the awesome things that are in Avenging Force, though, and when I think of some of the stinkers Dudikoff has done, I can't complain too much. Seeing him fight a samurai that looks like a cross between Death in The Seventh Seal and the samurai general in Onibaba was great, as was his final fight with the end baddie. If Dudikoff and Steve James is a great combo, Dudikoff and Golan-Globus is even better.

I got some great responses on the Radioactive Dreams post about Vestron Video and the memories seeing it on screen evoked, and I think seeing the old Cannon Films logo is even bigger for me in that regard. Cannon and Golan-Globus was a symbol for anything goes action films that threw everything including the kitchen sink at us and did it all without a trace of irony. Right off the bat with Avenging Force, we see two guys being chased by that Seventh Seal/Onibaba type dude I mentioned above. When Steve James' Mardi Gras float is ambushed, it's not a sniper shooting one well-aimed bullet at James, it's four guys with moustaches, mullets, sunglasses, and uzis spraying everything in sight. These are the action movies we grew up with. The 2000s saw an unfortunate step taken away from this style of action film, in favor of sleeker, less kitchen sink-like movies. Maybe that older stuff was silly, but it was a hell of a lot of fun, and I can't say that about a lot of today's films that turn their noses up at the 80s and 90s.



Growing up I was naturally a Patriots fan first, and what people have forgotten is pre-Tom Brady, they weren't a great franchise. Anyway, I always liked the Saints too, because I felt like if the Pats couldn't do it, it would be cool that the Saints, who never get there, could do it instead. Fast forward to now, and the Patriots not only don't suck anymore, but have won three Super Bowls and were the team everyone rooted against two years ago when the Giants beat them to end their perfect season; while New Orleans has gone through hell and their team was finally in the big game, a sentimental underdog. Last night's win won't build new houses or anything like that, but it does say a lot about team loyalty and being rewarded for not rooting for a frontrunner. It was as much a win for that city as it was for all the Clippers season ticket holders that haven't switched over to the Lakers; all the Cubs fans that didn't pull a John Cusack and try to get tickets to the White Sox in the World Series; and it's to all the people I knew who wore Yankese hats in the late 90s and suddenly hate them like the plague because the Red Sox win now. What made that win all the more special was seeing the two-faced owner up there talking out of both sides of his mouth about how great New Orleans is, when we all knew if he'd had his way that would've been the San Antonio Saints or Los Angeles Saints winning last night. Probably what I liked the most about that game, was it reminded me of what it was like when the Patriots won their first one, when losing one game wasn't the end of the world to Pats fans like it is now. It reminded me of what it was like when my team loyalty was finally rewarded.

Okay, huge rant there that had nothing to do with the movie. Anyway, this is a great one, and though it could've been one of the greatest of all time, it was still great, and I don't want to scare you off from watching it if you see it on a shelves somewhere. I put about six images up in addition to the three you see here, and if you click on any images it'll take you to all of them-- some of them a pretty funny. Unfortunately the movie is only available on VHS right now, which is too bad. You never know, though-- if the old Ain'ts can win the Super Bowl, anything can happen, right?

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090678/

Revenge of the Ninja (1983)

For our last post in our Golan-Globus week, it was decided that we needed to have a ninja movie. I had pretty much covered the American Ninja series, so those were out. Then there was Enter the Ninja, the first in the three part Ninja series, but that doesn't have a lot of actual ninja fighting, and Shô Kosugi was a bad guy and in it only at the beginning and the end. So it was settled, Revenge of the Ninja would be our ninja movie to end the week.

Revenge of the Ninja doesn't exactly take place after the first one, because Kosugi's beheaded at the end of that, and here he's a good guy. Anyway, his clan is slaughtered except for his mom and infant son, so a buddy from the States offers to put him up in Hollywood so the two can open an art exhibit. Turns out the friend is also a ninja, and he's using the store as a front to sell drugs. Shock, horror, gasp! Even worse, he's pissed off the mob, and they're kind of taking it out on Kosugi.



This is amazing. Very close to the first two American Ninjas in quality. Kosugi shines, and it was a much better move to focus the film around him instead of The 'Stash like they did in part one. Sure, it's extremely silly, but the question is, how exactly would you like your ninja film? I personally prefer them catching arrows with their teeth, having the capacity to store a Walmart sized inventory of weapons on their person, and the ability to dispatch anyone not trained in ninjitsu with relative ease. This also came correct with a great ending battle, where the bad guy somehow stored a few dummies of himself in the area, knowing he and Kosugi would be fighting there. From front to back, side to side, an amazing piece of cinema.

One advantage to having Kosugi not only in the protagonist role, but also fighting a guy without a moustache at the end, was that we were able to root for him. No one expected him to defeat The Stash in the first movie. Really, it was the only way we could accept him losing, I mean, it's understandable to take one on the chin to a guy with that kind of facial hair. But in Revenge of the Ninja, he was the real deal, and we were all better for it. This was also a much better use of his great skills than Black Eagle was. I'm curious to see what he does in the new Ninja Assassin, because imdb says he's in it. It better be good, that's all I have to say. They have a lot of great Golan-Globus ninja films to live up to.



A lot of people would write a film like this off as "cheesy". "Oh, look at that, you can see when he jumps off the building that he's bracing himself so he lands on the safety mat, then they cut away to him landing on his feet. That so cheesy!" Is it? Is it really? "That sword blade barely touched that guy, and now he's dead. That's so cheesy!" Is it? Is it really? I say it's awesome, that's what I say. I'd rather see a guy jump from a building then cut to his landing, than see him jump in front of a green screen. Maybe if Golan-Globus were still around today they'd be wearing the green screen out too, and I'd call them to the carpet for it just like I do the rest of today's film makers. Which was the better movie, the first Star Wars in 1977, or the one Lucas made in 1999 with all the computer shit? Call Revenge of the Ninja silly, call it ridiculous, call it fun, but don't ever call it cheesy.

I could've sworn John Miller from Undefeatable was in this as the police officer in charge or martial arts training who helps Kosugi out, but from imdb I can't tell. None of these bastards ever have pictures, and I never pay attention enough to the film to find out the characters names, so when I look them up, I'm like, "was that what that character's name was?" He looked a little rounder, but he delivered his lines in exactly the same way-- this kind of slow, halting style. I mean, I didn't see a John Miller in the Revenge credits, but who knows. Maybe I'm just losing it in my old age.



Before I wrap things up, I needed to mention a scene where Kosugi and the John Miller look alike take down the Village People. I'm not sure exactly what they were going for with that, but it was amazing. Cowboy in a blue outfit, sure, why not? "Look at the guy dressed like a cowboy. That's cheesy!" Is it?... okay, I'll stop.

Perhaps no film better embodies the Golan-Globus bouillabaisse sense of film making than this one. You had Native Americans, six-year-olds, and grandmothers all fighting at some point. People were stabbed, slashed, gouged, etc. in myriad ways. Plenty of car chases, fight scenes, and explosions too. It was a virtual cornucopia of amazing action without a hint of pretense. How else would you take your action?

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086192/

American Ninja 2: The Confrontation (1987) (Revisited)

I rented American Ninja 3 from Netflix, and it came packaged with American Ninja 2. I realized then that it had been almost 15 years since I last saw it, so I watched it again. I came to the conclusion that my original post, on May 6, 2007, though a good one, should be revisited. I hate the idea of Lucasing the older ones with new information, so I'm letting that one stand, unaltered, and just adding this one to the archive.

American Ninja 2 takes place a few years after the first one. Marines working for the US Embassy on a small Caribbean island are disappearing, and the Pentagon suspects foul play, but instead of sending more Marines, they send two Army Rangers: Dudikoff and Steve James. What they find is a small neighboring island that is cloning a new race of super ninjas, and Dudikoff and James are the only ones who can stop them.



Is it possible that the 30 year-old me appreciates this more than the 16-year-old me? Also, there were many reasons why I dug this back then that I had forgotten about over all this time. Steve James yelling "I want fresh meat!" at a group of thugs chasing after them. We rewound that scene over and over at the time, and I have no idea how I didn't remember that when I wrote the first blog. The tongue and cheek factor was completely lost on me then. As far as I could tell, they were dead serious about everything they were doing, and now I see that that's impossible. They had to be kidding about a lot of it, especially James' scenes. My overall opinion hasn't changed though, this is must watch material.

In May of 2007, I had just started this blog, and I wanted to get as many reviews up as possible. Then, more so than now, my goal at the DTVC was to have an archive of as many DTV films as I could get my hands on. I didn't have the structure I have now of 8 paragraphs and three pictures, and I didn't have any software to capture images from the movies, so I was often at the mercy of the Internet. I didn't even have a Netflix account. Just the same, in looking at some of these old posts, I see some ways in which they were better. They were often funnier than they are now, because I was pulling them from memory, so there was always some funny anecdote that made me want to cover them. I do think I did myself a disservice, though, by posting reviews about films I hadn't seen, in some cases, in more than a decade, so no matter how funny they might have been, my new policy of watching a movie right before I review it is probably the best improvement I've made over the last two and a half years.



I'm going to announce my new Hall of Fame inductees next week. Michael Dudikoff is part of the inaugural class, and when I wrote the original post, there was some concern about his inclusion. I can see it in my conclusion when I say he's a bona fide Hall of Famer. I think now, with 14 films reviewed, and so many more to go before we're done, any questions surrounding him are answered. And having explored (and in some cases re-explored) his filmography over the past two-plus years, I'm still convinced that the three American Ninja films that he's starred in are his best, and the perfect starting place for anyone wanting to delve into his oeuvre.

Maybe the biggest difference between 1995 and 2009 is my appreciation for Steve James. He's amazing here, and I'd say less Dudikoff's sidekick, and more his partner. He's not mailing it in like he did in American Ninja 3, he's actually in full glory. He has some of the best fight scenes in the film, and I can't imagine anyone not enjoying watching him. There was a reason why we replayed the "I want fresh meat!" over and over again: because it was so awesome!



Another big thing I forgot over fourteen years was the use of Guns N' Roses' "Move to the City", off the Lies EP. We seldom see songs we recognize, let alone bought the CD (tape) for at the time. 1987 was a different time for Guns. They were ushering in a new movement in rock, pushing out the old guard of hairbands, and had it not been for Nirvana and grunge, the rest of the hairbands may have had an opportunity to evolve. Instead, Guns were able to survive the post grunge purge, only to be felled by the megalomania of their lead singer. I bet Axel looks back on their song being in American Ninja 2 as being a bad thing, but the bad thing was how thoroughly he killed something so good.

Next week we'll go back to the box office bomb segment of the blog, but it was cool to return and look at a film I covered a while ago and hadn't seen in some time. If I learned anything, it's that these films, no matter how silly, deserve a rewatch, especially when they were so awesome! If you haven't seen American Ninja 2 in a while, I urge to to give it another look. You'll be happy.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092548/