Close Range (2015)

As we wrap up the month of October, our last 2022 Hall of Fame inductee is our director pick, Isaac Florentine. This film is one I've had in the can to review for a long time, but had been putting it off because there were so many newer Adkins films I wanted to review; but with this being Florentine's induction post, I figured this was the chance to do it, as I thought this film really spotlights what Florentine does best. In addition to us, Comeuppance, Bulletproof, and Cool Target have all covered this as well.

Close Range has Adkins as a former special forces guy who is wanted by the military after he refused to carry out an order. On the run, he's like a samurai without a master, a ronin, a gun for hire. That changes when his sister (Caitlin Keats) needs him to rescue his niece from some drug cartel guys her horrible new husband has run afoul of. He does, but in the process erroneously steals a flash drive they have that contains all their cartel admin information, and they want it back--how can they do payroll without those spreadsheets? So they lay siege to the sister's ranch in Arizona, helped by local sheriff Nick Chinlund in his most Chinlund-iest. Can Adkins take all these guys down and protect his family?

Spoiler alert: yes. This is the high-octane action Florentine and Adkins are known for. Great stunts, great action sequences, well-shot, well-performed. The film clocks in at about 80 minutes, and within that 80 minutes there aren't many down moments, we go from action sequence to action sequence. On the other hand, there isn't a lot of plot here, and what plot we do have is well-worn territory, so there might be a question of "this movie had all this great stuff, but what are we left with?" I get that, and even further, we have an Adkins with an American accent, shaved head, and goatee over top of five o'clock shadow, making him pretty one-note despite the great action scenes. So in answer to that question, what we're left with is a straight-ahead actioner that doesn't let the plot, as paint-by-numbers as it is, get in the way of the action, with a hero who, while he may be pretty one-note, is still Adkins bringing it. I'll take this over a lot of DTV action films from the 2010s, and while it may not make any best of lists, it also doesn't do anything too egregious to upset us, which is important. For an evening time killer as a free streamer, this does the trick for me.

Usually we start with Adkins in this paragraph, but since this is Florentine's induction post, we should start with him. In an age where DTV is moving in more of a Bourne/Taken-Damon/Neeson quick edits approach to make the non-action lead look like an action lead, Florentine is one of the few out there who still looks to make solid, well-shot, well-performed, actioners. The knock on his earlier stuff is that he was too wedded to his sound effects--looking at you Bridge of Dragons--but he's always been true to the genres he came up in, notably martial arts, Japanese samurai, and Westerns, and this film has all of that. We generally think of him as one of two main directors who's doing great stuff with Adkins, along with Jesse V. Johnson, but Florentine has actually worked with almost every big name, from Dolph, to Van Damme, to Gary Daniels, even guys like Michael Jai White and Olivier Gruner. This is now 15 tags for him, but one was for his stunt work on American Cyborg: Steel Warrior, and another was him as producer on Boyka: Undisputed, which he couldn't direct due to the tragic passing of his wife. 13 director tags is third all-time, behind Albert Pyun and Fred Olen Ray. While he doesn't have the output to keep up with a Ray, or to probably ever catch Pyun, there are a few in the back catalog that I can still get to, plus it looks like he's made some stuff recently that's in various stages of post-production. His ultimate legacy to me is taking what we loved about 90s action, and staying true to it into the 2000s, 2010s, and now 2020s, at a time when the industry has been moving in another direction. Hopefully the industry will follow his lead and swing the pendulum back toward what he's doing.

Now to Mr. Adkins. I think when I had this listed for our Hall of Fame induction posts, people probably expected that it would be him getting this honor, but I was thinking he's not quite there yet. In looking at his IMDb bio though, he probably is, and I was just looking at his overall tags and not his overall body of work. We're now at 23 tags for him, but on top of that, I have five others I've watched and haven't reviewed, plus he has some others on free streaming sites that I haven't seen yet, so we could potentially get him to 30 next year. It sounds aggressive, but as we near having all of Dolph and Seagal's stuff up, there are going to be more openings for posts, and with his output, he'd be poised to take more of those openings. This film typifies what he brings to the table, solid martial arts and action sequences, and a strong leading man presence that makes him one of the best in modern DTV action. The one problem this has, and that many he does with Florentine have, is him speaking in an American accent. It's not that he doesn't have a good one, it's more that I'd rather he play a Brit, like he does in Jesse V. Johnson's movies. Maybe Florentine will see the light on that. One can only hope.

Chinlund. It doesn't get more Chinlund-y than Chinlund, and this film brings the Chinlund-iness. It's maybe not Chronicles of Riddick level Chinlund-iness, but it's pretty Chinlund-y. It's one of those things where a filmmaker says "my move needs a certain Chinlund element," they see if he's available, and if he is, it's an ingredient that's hard to approximate with anyone else. What it does here is gives us instant bad, corrupt sheriff with little-to-no backstory, perfect for an 80-minute actioner that wants to spend more time on the action than the plot. As an ingredient, I don't think he'd be MSG, probably more like Lowry's Season Salt, where you can sprinkle him in and add a flavor to the film without a lot of effort. We don't see him often here at the DTVC--I think the only other time was Felon--in part because bigger productions also want to add the Chinlund flavor to their films, so for Florentine to get him here was a nice change of pace, and again, that flavor we got by adding him really helped in an 80-minute actioner with minimal plot development.

 

Because Florentine tends to focus on the action in his movies, if his plots are thinner they tend to be trope-filled as a result, but I noticed he tried to mitigate one in particular: "the white man dispatching the faceless brown hoard." Here we had Adkins as your American hero, fighting a gang of Mexican cartel baddies. Only one year after this came out Donald Trump became president primarily by race-baiting white Americans on the prospect of the "brown hoard" coming across the border to take their jobs and commit crimes. Florentine must've been cognizant of that vibe, so he tried to mitigate it by individually introducing us to each of the Mexican cartel baddies as they were driving out to Adkins's sister's ranch. The problem was, it was a clunky device, and I don't know that slapping that on was enough to get past what is so embedded in the rest of the film, especially since this is a trope that's been established in American movies since those Westerns Florentine was influenced by were being made decades ago. The reality is, Mr. Florentine, they all ruined it for you, if you make a movie like this, you can't divorce it from that tradition. The better mitigation technique would have been to have Mexican characters who weren't cartel baddies, but that could've weighed down his film in ways no one wanted. Despite the fact that it may not have worked though, I think Florentine needs to be given credit for at least recognizing it was an issue, and trying to mitigate it.

And with that, let's wrap this up. Currently you can get this on most free streaming sites in the US, and I think that's the best way to go. I was trying to think where I rank this for Adkins films, and while it may not be a top one, it's also not anywhere near his worst either. For Florentine, this is another solid actioner at a good runtime with not a lot getting in the way of his well-shot and well-performed stunt work, and in 2022 when you're looking for something fun to stream on a Saturday night, maybe that's all you need. Congratulations to Florentine for getting into the Hall of Fame this year, you're truly one of the greats, and we look forward to what you have in store for us next.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3511596

And if you haven't yet, check out my new novel, Holtman Arms, at Amazon in paperback or Kindle!

Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You! (2012)

As we wrap up October, our indie pick for the month is one I've been meaning to watch for a long time, so once it appeared on Plex, I figured I'd make it happen. I first got wind of the movie's existence through our friend Jon Cross at the After Movie Diner. He does a great job getting the word out about all kinds of indie creatives, and deserves a lot of credit for the work he does in that regard. 

Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You! stars Matt Farley as Neil Stuart, disgraced local tutor who was run out of town when he told everyone about the riverbeast he encountered. He returns when his God-cousin is getting married, but the demons of his past haunt him. If only he could prove to the world that he's not making it up. It won't be easy, as rivers are mutable by nature, so it's hard to know where to spot the beast should it return. When locals who once had issues with Stuart turn up dead though, is it his doing, or is the beast returning to kill?

This was a fantastic movie, a lot of fun, but it is possible because I grew up near where the film takes place in New Hampshire, that my bit of homesickness mingled with the characters and accents to make it more charming for me. Just the same, I think the goofiness and charm transcends that for people who don't have that same connection. How do you not find Chekhov's kitty litter funny? Or when Stuart, angry at a local reporter who's trying to ruin his life, tells him he's going to "give him a knuckle sandwich"? We also had a fun monster, which is important for a 50s monster movie send-up. I think for horror-comedy fans, this isn't as gory as you might want; and the film is a bit long, but on that score it felt like every time it was about to lose me, something would happen that made me laugh out loud, which pulled me back in and got me reinvested. When you're looking for a film to watch, I think fun is the most important thing, and this delivered on that.

Matt Farley's Neil Stuart character is the center of the action, and what I loved was how no one thought he was goofy for being a tutor with a set of guidelines for his students--including a dress code, or for not having a cellphone in 2012, or not driving in New Hampshire (which, as someone who also didn't drive in New Hampshire, I can say that would be considered the goofiest), but because he said saw a riverbeast. Yet, it was all those little touches to his character that made the rest of it all work. I can see though how the humor in his part may not have worked for everyone, like when he asks his tutor friend Troy (Bryan Fortin) if he thinks the Ministry of Tutors has more work for him so he can pay famed hunter Ito Hootkins (Jeff Farley) to help him find the riverbeast; or when his friend Ted's (Tom Scalzo) girlfriend leaves him because she's feeling restless, and he offers the friend a piece of beef jerky to make him feel better. It worked for me though, and Farley set the tone that made that work.

There are a lot of send-ups or spoofs made of the 50s monster movie, and I often have trouble getting into them because it's hard for me to connect the modern movie, made on modern color film with modern settings, with the movies I watched on TV growing up from the 50s in black and white with clothing and styles from that time. I thought this did a great job of splitting the difference though. The dialog was a mix of something from that period, and modern ways of speaking, with Farley's character doing more of the anachronisms, while some of the more uncouth characters defaulted to the modern new England bro type, like the guy who's engaged to his former love telling him he's going to "give him a beatin'." I also liked Sharon Scalzo's Allie character, because she played up that vibe of the 50s teen girl character from those older films in the way she spoke and interacted with Stuart. Another part that I thought was funny was how Ted meets his girlfriend Pamela (Tiffany L'Heureux) when she dances next to him playing guitar at the park. She then explains that her dance is called "popping and locking," in this way that was completely like a character in one of those old movies explaining a popular dance that was however many years old at that point too. Tonally it all came together in a way that these old monster movie send-ups don't always do for me.

I listed this as horror-comedy, but when I think of my favorite horror-comedies, they're all much grosser, like Blood Diner, Bad Taste, or even Bloodsucking Pharaohs in Pittsburgh, there's more over-the-top gore, plus other gross elements, like disgusting food, vomit, or gooey slimy things. This by contrast is relatively clean, there's one shot of innards from a victim of the riverbeast, and we get some potato casserole thrown on the ground, but that's about it. It actually worked with the rest of the film's clean feel, with everyone in clean clothes, yards nicely landscaped and houses well-kept--even the scene at the rock lookout, I believe that's a spot in Manchester where my buddy and I went rockclimbing one time, and if that is the spot, it was also a place where kids threw things like beer bottles and TVs from off the cliff face, so we had to step around the broken glass while we belayed the person climbing, but they didn't show any of that in the film. Back in high school my buddy and I used to do the Firecracker pickled sausage challenge with those gross horror comedies, where we'd buy a bunch of them at the convenience store and see who could eat them at the grossest parts. This is a movie where we didn't have to worry about losing our appetite, which was a fun change of pace.

Finally, as I'm wont to do, I'm making this last paragraph about me, especially since this film took place near where I grew up. I've been living in Philadelphia since 2014, and I don't have any plans to move back to the Southern Maine/New Hampshire area where I'm from, but it's nice to find some home cooking like this while I'm living down here. One of the things this movie spotlighted was the regional accent, which I don't really have--if I get tired I may drop my Rs, but now I've also picked up the South Philly "O" sound, so I'm all a mess. When I met my wife, she joked about the accent, but assumed because I didn't have it, that my parents wouldn't either. I informed her, after we heard Emeril Legasse on Top Chef and she got a kick out him, that my parents had even stronger accents--which was only a few minutes before my mother was picking us up at the hotel. First thing my mom says when we get in the car: "I need to go to Wahl-maht to get some things fuh yah fah-thah." Later, when we were walking on the beach, Jen said "awff" for "off," and my mom said "oh, do I detect an accent?" For me, this film really captured the charm of that moment of my wife and mother meeting for the first time, and just the charm of where I grew up, which, again, was really nice as a New Englander living in the diaspora down here in Philly. 

And with that, let's wrap this up. As of this writing, you can stream this free on Plex and the Roku Channel, or buy it digitally for a low price on Amazon or Vimeo. Also, if you're a fan of physical media, this is available to buy on Blu-ray through Gold Ninja Video. At the very least, this is worth streaming, but I also think for those physical media fans, worth adding to your collection.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2202382

And if you haven't yet, check out my new novel, Holtman Arms, at Amazon in paperback or Kindle!

Fist FIghter (1988)

Our third 2022 DTVC Hall of Fame inductee is the one and only Matthias Hues. Last year when Fred Olen Ray got in, we reviewed Droid Gunner aka Cyberzone, which had a great Hues part, and I think between that and the Hues podcast I did with the guys from Comeuppance back in April, it felt like it was time for him to get in. In addition to us, it's the guys at Comeuppance who have covered this as well.

Fist Fighter has Jorge Rivero as CJ, a bare knuckles fighter who travels to South America to seek revenge for the death of his friend. He finds his way into the under ground boxing circuit, where Mike Connors, aka Mannix, is running the show, with his star fighter Rhino (Hues). After it looks like Rivero is going to beat him, Connors cuts the lights in the bar, the fight is suspended, and then Connors has Rivero sent to prison on trumped up charges. It's not a fun prison, but Rivero, ever shirtless and denim pantsed, fights through, eventually taking down the Beast, a massive fellow prisoner. This earns the respect of the warden, who has a score to settle with Connors, setting up an epic finale.

The Hues as a character named Rhino is what makes this for a Hues induction film. I don't think it's his best, and I think the prison bit in the middle really slogs things up, but it has a lot of fun aspects, including Hues. Rivero as a hero is good too, the problem is, the construct they used had him beating Hues in their first fight, which left no suspense for the end, and also I guess forced them to include that prison slog construct to pad out the film. As someone who watched Mannix when I was younger, and whose wife watches it on MeTV now, the novelty of seeing Connors in this in a track suit attacking a woman in a Jacuzzi, or just wearing shades and saying sinister things, was fantastic. Unfortunately, with his advanced age at that time, he couldn't dive on someone from off a balcony. Anyway, for what this is, a late 80s DTV actioner with some good names, it delivers enough that if you're a fan of this kind of thing, you'll enjoy it.

When we did the podcast episode on Hues, we talked about how this period of action, mid-80s to mid-90s, was the Golden Age, and how someone like Hues as a supporting character in a lot of these movies was a big part of that. He just added an extra umph that movies like these didn't even know they needed, but the fact that he was so sui generis at that time meant that as he's gotten older, it's impossible to replace what he brought with someone new. Beyond the mullet and the muscles, he's a supreme athlete, which made him that much more imposing as a baddie; plus his ability to chew scenery turned what would've been a one-note baddie's main hatchet man role into something so much more fun. This is his 18th movie on the site, and while he's still making stuff now that we'll probably get to, he also has a lot of stuff in that late 80s/early 90s window that we haven't covered yet either, and I think his Hall of Fame induction will be the impetus for us to get more of those done--assuming their available, because this one was only on YouTube.

I thought this was the third Jorge Rivero film we've covered here, the others being Death Match, which he did with Hues, and Werewolf, which we did as part of our MSTK films, but in looking at his IMDb bio, it looks like he was in Guns and Lipstick too. In Death Match he had a very small part, and in Werewolf he played a violent jerk, so at least here he got to play a good guy. There aren't a lot of other films of his that we'd cover here, because most of his damage was done pre-video era, but I think seeing him in something like this, taking on Hues and Mike Connors, was a lot of fun. The problem was, when the film hit the prison slog, Rivero didn't have much to give us. That may have been the film's fault as much as anything, so I can't blame him. Also, he was 50 when this film came out, which I think was a harbinger for what we would get in the 2010s and now 2020s with guys not only in their 50s, but 60s and even into their 70s maintaining their status as an action lead.

Mannix: extra large. I can hear the theme song in my head as we speak, one of the best themes in American television history, as Mannix is running on the bridge. When I watch that show now, I see Mannix as one of the first action heroes, played by Mike Connors, an inspiration for a lot of the hard-nosed cops we got later on, leading eventually to the cop on the edge that blew up tons of shit and flipped a bunch of cars in PM flicks. I was going through his bio to see how many other opportunities we might have to get him on the site, and there aren't many, though one was a Jess Franco film called Downtown Heat. I haven't gotten into his films at all, so this might be a reason for me to start. Either way, here's to you Mike Connors, you were one of the greats.

Finally, in the recent Willis solo podcast episode I did, I talked about how part of what we're seeing with these Willis movies is the law of diminishing returns, that they've flooded the market with too many, and people have hit their saturation point; the other thing I mentioned is that there are more options nowadays, especially with companies like Vinegar Syndrome, Arrow, Severin, and even Cinema Epoch putting out films from this late 80s era, making them more available than they were 6 or 7 years ago when Willis started on this run of bad DTV. Even something like this, which is only available on a low-quality VHS rip on YouTube is often a better bet on a Saturday night than one of those new Willis joints that are ubiquitous on all the streaming services. The question is, does that end up having any kind of significant effect on the quality of new DTV films overall? Looking at this movie, I don't know if it makes a top 100 list for 80s DTV action, but if we put it against 2010s DTV actioners, it might be top 20. If more of us turn to watching these instead of those Willis flicks, will the makers be more thoughtful and less assembly line in how they make them? We can only hope.

And with that, let's wrap this up. As I said above, YouTube is the only way to go on this one. It's a fun time though, so I think it's worth it. And congratulations to Matthias Hues on his induction to the DTVC Hall of Fame, it's much deserved.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094599

And if you haven't yet, check out my new novel, Holtman Arms, at Amazon in paperback or Kindle!

Ten Zan - The Ultimate Mission (1988)

For our next DTVC Hall of Fame inductee, we have the one, the only, Frank Zagarino. He was featured on a DTVC podcast episode back in June that I did with the guys from Comeuppance, and I had this one on my top five Zags, so I figured it was a good one to review, especially with the novelty of it being shot in North Korea. In addition to us, the guys at Comeuppance have also covered this, so you can go to their site to see what they thought.

Ten Zan - The Ultimate Mission is about Charles Borromel ("Borromel, the thorough, gentle laxative") running experiments on kidnapped women. Some people aren't happy about that, so they send Zags in to find out what's happening and take him down. When he gets there, he teams up with a buddy on the ground, and said buddy's sister, whom Zags falls in love with. At the same time, Borromel is working with some tough customers, including Glenda (The Not so Good Witch), played by Sabrina Siani (of another Ator film fame) in a leather jumpsuit. As Zags gets closer to the truth, things get more dangerous, and it's going to take all he's got to stop Borromel and his sinister plans. Oh, and it was shot in North Korea.

This is a fascinating film. It's essentially a late 80s Philippine action film with an Italian director using an English name (Ferndinando Baldi as Ted Kaplan), but shot in North Korea! I think this was a one-off because Zags was arrested by the North Koreans after he took some pictures and they thought he was a spy. Can you imagine that happening in the Philippines? Or Thailand? Beyond that, Zags is great as the hero, he's the perfect blond-haired all-American these Italian directors love when trying to get funding and sell the film abroad--this version I watched was on YouTube of a Dutch VHS rip. Had it been made in the Philippines, I think it still would've been fun, but it has that added kick of the North Korea novelty, and I love the idea beyond that that North Korea couldn't not North Korea long enough to avoid arresting Zags for being spy during filming. Oh you guys!

This is our first Zags review since 2013, and while with most stars we induct into the Hall of Fame I give the requisite "this was long overdue," in Zags's case I don't think that's true. This is about the time he should've gotten in after all the other names were inducted. The thing is, he's known for a lower tier of movie, but as a star he's probably more deserving of higher tier films, as this movie shows. He has a leading man quality that should've made him a lead in more films, but I guess the name recognition is what hurt him--maybe his best known movies are the Project Shadowchasers, which he plays a baddie, and an android baddie at that. He was an integral part of the 80s and 90s though, and beyond the Project Shadowchaser franchise he also had the Airboss franchise, which may or may not have been good, but it's a franchise for him nonetheless. Zags is truly one of the great ones, so it's good for us to be able to celebrate him officially with his induction into the DTVC Hall of Fame.

"Borromel, the thorough, gentle laxative." One of my favorite jokes from MSTK's Cave Dwellers episode. It also carried over to the Boromir character in Lord of the Rings for me. I was looking through our archives, and I think Cave Dwellers is the only other Borromel film we've done on here, which isn't surprising considering he last worked in 1990, so he didn't do many films in the video age. Some things I didn't know about him: he was born in Scotland, where he moved back to after he was done in movies, and where he eventually passed away in 2007 at the age of 74. Unlike in Cave Dwellers where he played a benevolent, heroic scientist, here he plays an evil, baddie scientist, but still a scientist all the same. I guess with a name like "Borromel," if you're not a laxative company, scientist is your next best bet. Here's to you Borromel, you were one of the great ones.

This might have been director Ferdinando Baldi's final film, at least how it's listed on IMDb anyway. Like Borromel, he didn't go far into the DTV age, so beyond the fact that this is our first film of his on here, he's only done a couple others that we could review, Just a Damned Soldier and Warbus--both of which the guys at Comeuppance have covered. Like his contemporaries, Bruno Mattei and Antonio Margheriti, Baldi has that professional, Italian style, that gets the film done quick, efficiently, but artistically enough that it doesn't feel like it was produced on an assembly line, which is something I've always appreciated about these directors. It's one thing I've noticed too about Williamson's style, in his late 80s/early 90s films, as it seems like he was influenced by these directors in his time over in Italy working. It was a unique moment in time, but these directors and their upbringing in the Italian cinema industry added a fascinating element to the low-budget actioners they made, which to me is a big part of why that period from the late 80s to the early 90s was so big for low-budget action.

 

If you go back to April and the episode Will from Exploding Helicopter was on, "Virtual Reality Action Movies," I get into my passion for train travel and how important I think it is, and how America is so far behind on that, after I bring up the high speed train from Vegas to LA in Virtual Assassin that I think is unfortunately never going to happen. Anyway, here we get a look at a train station in North Korea. It's really nice, and I have to assume it was included here as a way to show off some of the nicer aspects of the country. And to be fair, I don't think you'd see a train station like this in a film shot in the Philippines, Thailand, or Indonesia at this time. Overall North Korea looked like a nice place to film a movie like this, the problem was, North Korea just couldn't keep their shit together long enough, and I have to assume once Zags was arrested and spent two days in jail that they were like "no more making movies in North Korea," so instead of becoming the start of an industry or sub-genre, this movie ends up simply being a novelty, but a fun one at that.

And with that, let's wrap this up. As of this writing, it looks like YouTube is your best bet, unless you're a collector and go the foreign VHS route. I think it's worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of Philippine actioners from the late 80s, simply for the novelty. Beyond that, it's a fun film, and the Zags is solid, so it does what you want for a Saturday night time killer. I think a great one to get Zags into the Hall of Fame on too.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0254814

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

Killing American Style (1988)

It's October, and you know what time that is at the DTVC, right? Actually you may not, because I usually don't have my shit together, but this year I do. It's time for Hall of Fame inductions, and we start with the one and only Robert Z'Dar, so I figured this would be a good one for his induction post. In addition to us, RobotGEEK's Cult Cinema has covered this, plus our other three usual suspects, Comeuppance, The Video Vacuum, and Bulletproof Action, so I finally join those three in finally making this happen too.

Killing American Style is an Amir Shervan joint starring Robert Z'Dar as the leader of a gang who, after a robbery where people are killed, is arrested, but then en route to prison, his brother springs him and his pals. Problem is, said brother is injured in the execution, and they need to get him help quick. They find a nice house with a nice family inside and take them hostage, hoping to get a doctor to nurse the brother to good health, and also pick up the money from the robbery gone bad. The fly in the ointment though, Harold Diamond is the man of the house. Z'Dar an co won't know what hit them.

From a Shervan film standpoint, this one is good, but as opposed to Samurai Cop or Young Rebels, which are suitable for a mixed bad movie night audience, this is more for your hardcore crew. One, there's a rape scene. Two, we have some extended nudity. And three, overall it's a bit darker. Beyond that though, this is the fun Shervan you came for, between Z'Dar as the main baddie taking his baddie to another level, to Diamond as the family man who just happened to know martial arts and wear unzipped coats with no shirt underneath, it delivers the goods. The other issue is, because it's a home invasion movie, and clocks in at 101 minutes, it does spin its wheels a bit in the middle--another reason it's probably not a good bad movie night pick, but I think once you've done Samurai Cop and Young Rebels, this is your next Shervan go to.

Now for the man of the hour, Mr. Z'Dar. When I did a Z'Dar podcast episode with the guys from Comeuppance (episode called "A Z'Dar is Born" in their podcast archives), I had a realization that he probably belonged in the Hall of Fame, so from there it was a matter of what movie to choose. Sure, a Maniac Cop would be a good choice, but I thought because is face is all scarred that that might not be as fitting. His Shervan films on the other hand, though maybe not as iconic as the Maniac Cop films, were really the ones that let Z'Dar stretch his acting chops, and I think he really enjoyed making them for that reason. In that vein, this is a more fitting way to celebrate him. With that shot above, I don't know what's happening with his rib cage, but overall, I think he played an excellent baddie here, which, despite the fact that the film dragged in spots, helped get us through some of that dragging.

This is now three Harold Diamond films here at the DTVC, but I discovered in his IMDb bio that he was a fight consultant in Kickboxer: Vengeance, so I added that tag in for him as well. The problem for him here is, despite how cool he could be, the home invasion construct forces him to look weak for large portions of the film. That's an area where the Die Hard paradigm improved action films, because if his family were being held hostage, and he had to get them out of a building, he could just take guys out one-by-one. The other thing is, because Diamond has such a scant filmography, it's hard to see one of his outings waste him like the home invasion paradigm ultimately does with its heroes. Looking at his IMDb bio, he doesn't have much else for us to do, especially since some of his films are hard to find--including Gypsy by this director. It's a shame he didn't do more, because between this and his Sidaris films, he makes a fun action star.

This is our second Amir Shervan film we've covered on the site, but we also did a podcast episode on Young Rebels with Jacob Gustafson of the Awful Awesome book series as a guest, and we got into Shervan as a director in general there. In school I studied Iranian film, but what I studied was the post-Revolution New Wave stuff, and Shervan was before that. One thing Jacob and I talked about was the idea that maybe all the stuff we see as silliness, was Shervan trying to mimic what he saw as popular trends in American movies. In that sense, are we're getting something like Ross Hagen dressed like a cowboy in Action USA telling Hoke Howell "when in Rome...", or maybe a distorted mirror reflecting what Shervan thinks we value back at us, but we don't recognize it as such. The only thing missing was the Garfield phone, but seen through that lens, it gives the films a different vibe, which to me makes them more fun--and you need all the fun you can get when a movie has a rape scene in it.

Finally, earlier I mentioned the fact that this film has a rape scene in it. It reminded me of when I read about Sidehackers in the MST3K Episode Guide and how they committed themselves to that movie without watching it, and realized there was a rape and murder scene that they had to cut out. It's just not fun, and while I get that Shervan or the Sidehackers director weren't making movies so we could make fun of them, it does serve as a reminder that the movies we watch and celebrate on this site and others like it aren't always for everyone, and when we're introducing our movies to friends and family who aren't otherwise inclined, we have to make sure there isn't anything in there that might be uncomfortable. Animals being killed, women being raped, nudity, over the top torture of the hero, all things we need to screen in advance. That's why Bridge of Dragons is one that always works, but Showdown in Little Tokyo maybe not so much. With Samurai Cop, is the bacon grease too much, or not graphic enough to be an issue? You gotta know your audience, but if you pull it off right, you can have a great bad movie night that people bring up years later.

And with that, let's wrap this up. As of right now, Cinema Epoch has this on DVD, and available to stream on Tubi here in the States. I think if you're a Z'Dar fan, and you haven't seen this, it's definitely worth a go; and great to finally get him into the DTVC Hall of Fame with this post, as he's truly one of the DTV legends. In terms of a classic "that kind of movie," the way Samurai Cop is, this is a bit too brutal to be that, plus it drags in spots. That's okay, the way Jim Morrison told the Doors "we've already done Ed Sullivan" after a producer told them they'd never be able to go on again when Morrison sang the line "couldn't get much higher," we can say "we already have Samurai Cop, we don't need Killing American Style to be another."

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293324

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

The Big Score (1983)

This movie was further down on my to review list, but when I did Blood Street with Stack Pierce, who's also in this, I realized it had been a while since I'd done a Fred Williamson flick, and I'm always saying I need to do more Williamson, so why not bump it up the list and make it happen? In addition to us, our friend Mitch at the Video Vacuum has covered this, as has the great Roger Ebert, so you can go to their sites to see what they thought.

The Big Score is a Williamson Po' Boy Production where Williamson plays, you guessed it, a hard-nosed Chicago cop. In trying to take down a coke kingpin with fellow detectives John Saxon and Richard Roundtree, the baddie gets let loose through the work of his slick lawyer, and Williamson is under fire when the drug dealer's money goes missing. Now the baddies want their money back, and while the cops sort out what happen to it, boss Ed Lauter takes Williamson off the force, but for a cop like him, getting taken off the force is only a minor impediment. He's going to use all his resources, and stop at nothing to take down this baddie and get those drugs off the Chicago streets.

 

As you can tell from the synopsis, this is a pretty paint-by-numbers Williamson cop action thriller, but between the cast, and the story and direction, this worked for me. Williamson is a bit grittier here, I think he's going for more of a Chicago gritty cop story, and while I love cool as the other side of the pillow Williamson, this gritty Williamson works as a change of pace. John Saxon and Richard Roundtree are no strangers to this kind of movie either, and help fill out the vibe Williamson was going for, which makes it more authentic. At the same time, this is still fun Williamson, maybe not to the level of fun of his Dakota "Dak" Smith or Black Cobra movies, but I also think this might be a better quality of movie than those are. Either way, this is worth it for a nice Williamson night.

With this film, Williamson is now in a very exclusive club here at the DTVC, the 20-10 Club for people who have starred in 20+ films and directed 10+ films. How exclusive? Williamson is the only member. (If you're wondering, I think Dolph is the next closest, with his 60+ acting credits on the site, and 7 so far directed.) According to IMDb, Williamson has 20 films he's directed (plus one more that's been announced), and I think I've seen 13 or 14 of them--it would be more, but the version of Adios Amigos on Tubi is horrible, Vinegar Syndrome or a similar outlet needs to do a boxed set of his Westerns to correct that--but I'm digressing here, the point is, I think after Mean Johnny Barrows, which was his directorial debut, this might be my second favorite of his directed films that I've seen, which makes it a fitting one to make him the inaugural member of the 20-10 Club. The other big milestone for him is the 30 Club, and with this review he's now 5 away from that. I think for someone of his stature in the DTV world, that's a milestone that's long overdue, so hopefully we'll get there soon for him.

One of the biggest selling points in a Williamson film is the names he's managed to corral for it, and this one is no exception. Of those names, Richard Roundtree is one I always enjoy seeing. In the 80s he was pigeonholed by Hollywood into a "blaxploitation star," which gave Hollywood an excuse to not cast him as a leading man, despite the fact that he had the screen presence to rival any of the white leading men who were popular at that time. I think there's a sense when Williamson casts him in one of his lower-budget films that he also thinks "I shouldn't be able to get this guy in my movies, he should be too big for them." In 1983, we were a good ten to fifteen years out from names like Denzel Washington and Will Smith finally getting the kinds of roles Roundtree should've gotten. While we had him here though, one scene I really liked was where he acted opposite Stack Pierce. It was great to see those two in a scene together.

Among the other names, there were a bunch. I mentioned John Saxon, Stack Pierce, and Ed Lauter above. We also had Nancy Wilson, D'Urville Martin, Frank Pesce, Michael Dante, and Joe Spinell. Those kinds of names get us by when the Williamson film is lacking due to budgetary constraints, etc., so when the film is more solid like this one is, it just enhances it that much more. John Saxon in particular was great here, as he was made for grittier police films, usually as a baddie, but in this case a good guy as one of Williamson's fellow detectives. This is only his fifth film on the site, which sounds low, but as I was looking over his IMDb bio, that's actually about right based on the movies he's done. I don't know that I'll specifically look to get more of his films on here, but seeing his name on the tin always helps in picking out a movie to watch.

 

As I mentioned above, Roger Ebert also reviewed this, and while he only gave it 2 and a 1/2 stars, he actually enjoyed it. One mistake he made in his write-up is he confused Three the Hard Way with its sequel, One Down, Two to Go, but I got what he was saying when he compared this with that movie. I think we have this idea that the more mainstream critics don't get the stuff we watch, and for some that may be true, but Ebert showed in his review of this one that, at least for him, he can enjoy anything that's good and give it a fair shake. For me personally, I don't consider myself to be a film critic, but rather a movie blogger, whose only training was the writing courses I took in college--which themselves don't always show through when I'm pumping out a review with only one read through before I publish it--so I don't see myself as trying to swim in the same pond as an Ebert; but it is interesting how blogging, and now social media and podcasting, have democratized the film critique and discussion space to such an extent that I'm on IMDb and I'm seeing Roger Ebert's reviews mixed in with mine and fellow bloggers/reviewers that I've become friends with through this process. When I was a kid watching him with Gene Siskel, I never could've imagined that there would be things like blogs or an IMDb that could have allowed for that possibility.

And with that, let's wrap this up. As of right now, this is only available on YouTube and DVD, which is good enough, but hopefully it'll get the higher quality release it deserves. This is a solid Williamson outing, and worth checking out, especially if you're looking for more Williamson to watch.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085245

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