Invasion Force (1990)

This is one we covered on the podcast, back in December on episode 191, with Chris "The Brain" Kacvinski from Bulletproof Action, and it was time to cover it on the site as well, especially considering we hadn't done any AIP in a while. In addition to us, Chris has covered this on Bulletproof, as have the guys at Comeuppance.

Invasion Force looks like it's going to be about David "Shark" Fralick kicking ass and taking names. Not so fast, cowboy, turns out this is just a movie that's being made, none of this is happening for real. As luck would have it though, Richard Lynch is in the vicinity training mercenaries for a plan to take over the local town, which would then lead to them taking over the whole country. As luck would have it for them, they have no idea a movie is being shot on the other side of the mountain, and when they happen upon the film's leading lady, Renee Cline, arguing with her boyfriend, who just happens to also be the film's producer, David Marriott (the Basher from Shotgun), they kill him, but she survives and escapes back to the set, where she tells the director (Walter Cox) and some of the crew what happened, and they decide to load up on all the live ammo they have, and use all their special effects know-how to take these baddies on. Will they survive?

This is another fun time from AIP. Maybe not at the level of a Deadly Prey--though I think this shows they were more self-aware than we may have though with that movie--it's still pretty solid, and has a lot to like. Lynch is exactly the scene-chewing lead baddie you want, and the fact that he plays this whole thing straight adds to its charm. Cline and Cox were also fun as the leads--love that as the name of a legal comedy about two lawyers that were married but now divorced, and have to keep the practice alive--or I guess just the name of a personal injury firm that you see billboards of on the highway, "Cline and Cox will fight for you!" Then there's all the little extras that add to the enjoyment, like the product placement, this time Anheuser-Busch, especially at the cast party with the massive Busch beer can that looked like something from MTV Spring Break; or that the Basher from Shotgun is in this, and gets a great death scene. The fact that something like this is available on Tubi is a great thing.

This is our 11th AIP film on the site, which lags well behind other studios, like PM, Cannon, Imperial, and even The Asylum. A big part of that is how a lot of these films weren't as available when I started the site, but also they don't have the number of names those other studios have had. Essentially, we're reviewing AIP movies because they're AIP movies. Yes, you get names like Richard Lynch or DTVC Hall of Famer David Carradine from time to time, but compared to the names those other studios can give us, many of which are Hall of Famers, AIP sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. Even with Hall of Fame recognition, this October we have Imperial going in, because when we tagged them we discovered they had over 30 movies, so AIP will have to wait another year, but hopefully in that time I'll do a better job of getting more of their films up, because they have so much great stuff.

Speaking of finally getting a tag, David "Shark" Fralick somehow hadn't been tagged to this point, so we took care of that, which makes this his 15th film on the site. I haven't done a count of which first names are represented the most, but you'd be surprised how many Davids we have, it's right up there with Michael and William/Bill/Billy--I mean this film also has director David Prior and producer David Winters tagged. Anyway, Fralick is one of those guys that we see in a lot of these, and while he may not be the guy you seek out--even though he is on the cover of this one--he's one that when you see his name in the cast, you feel like it's got a bit more weight to it. I'm sorry it's taken me this long to tag him, but if any film would be worthy of him getting the tag, it's this--even though his cover is a bit of a red herring, and his part is more in line with the size of the parts he usually gets.

That 15 for Fralick is one more than the film's main baddie, Richard Lynch, a name that's been up for Hall of Fame consideration almost since we started the site, and it seems like every year he gets pushed back. I don't see that changing this year unfortunately, as we have slots already taken for Cole S. McKay, the aforementioned Imperial Films, and Kathleen Kinmont. He's such a fantastic baddie, and this film reaffirms that--as if you needed any reaffirmation, but it's nice to see it anyway. He's almost exactly playing the part he played in Invasion USA, except he wasn't Russian in this. That could've made it even more fun, but he was plenty fun enough. Exactly the baddie you want, every time, and here is no different.

The word "meta" gets thrown around a lot. I looked into it, and technically the term has been around since the late 80s, but it wasn't until later that it became a popular term. For kids reading this that are used to using the term, this movie is definitely "meta" before anyone would've really referred to a movie as "meta." Can you still call it "meta" when it was made before people called things "meta?" It's like "Yacht Rock," music that we called "Soft Rock" or maybe "AM Gold," was called "Yacht Rock" by some Gen Xers, and the term took off among a bunch of kids who like to call things "meta." The thing is, language is always changing, and this is just part of that. For example, I saw the word "nonplused" in Nabokov's Pnin the other day, which means "surprised" or "perplexed," but here in the US there's been a "nonplussed" definition shift to meaning "couldn't care less," probably because people initially confused the meaning, and enough people perpetuated the confused meaning that it's now become the meaning. It's how language evolves, except in my novel Chad in Accounting I used it with it's official, intended meaning, and now people who only understand its meaning as the new, US definition-shifted one, would be confused, as they would if they read Pnin. What I'm trying to say is, no, in 1990 this movie wasn't "meta," but due to changes in language, it's "meta" now, whether we like it or not, because that's "literally" how language evolves. (Like what I did there?)

And with that, let's wrap this up. You can get this on Tubi here in the States. I think that's a great way to go, though if you see this on VHS at a good price somewhere, it would be a fun addition to your collection. And if you haven't yet, you can check out the podcast episode I did with Chris from Bulletproof, episode 191 in the archives.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238314

And if you haven't yet, check out my newest book, Nadia and Aidan, at Amazon in paperback or Kindle!

Raw Justice aka Good Cop, Bad Cop (1994)

Wasn't there a Klingon proverb that said "justice is a dish best served raw"? Either way, this had been on my radar for a long time, and when Tubi finally picked it up, I didn't have anymore excuses, so we're making it happen now. In addition to us, the guys at Bulletproof and the guys at Comeuppance have covered this as well.

Raw Justice has David Keith (not to be confused with Keith David) as a former cop who's now a bounty hunter. When he's not wearing the clothes of a lady of the night--and magically making said clothes fit him--in order to fool a mark, he's drinking and ruing his lost love. When said lost love is murdered, Airplane's Robert Hays is implicated, so lost love's father, mayor Charles Napier, calls in Keith to keep an eye on Hays, because Keith can work outside the law. At the same time, he's being harassed by former fellow cop Leo Rossi, who's working for lieutenant mayor Stacy Keach to cover up the murder; and then lady of the night Pamela Anderson comes calling for her clothes Keith took, and gets wrapped up in Keith and Hays's troubles. Just put your goggles on for the last 15 minutes, because you'll need some eye protection when all these loose ends start flying together.

What do we make of a movie like this? It's pretty paint-by-numbers, except it isn't. First off there's the music, which is a cross between the start of the Chili's "Baby Back Ribs" song and what you'd hear in a Roseanne episode supporting a scene change establishing shot. Oh, they're at the Lobo Bar? Now they're back at the Connor's house? Maybe Darlene's apartment in Chicago? Ooh, is David hiding in the bathroom? On the other hand, this had some nice action sequences in it, not PM, but nice enough; and the names are prodigious, with Keith as the disgraced cop on the edge, Robert Hays in a Guttenbergian turn as the awe-shucks guy--yet he also knows kung fu?--, Pamela Anderson pre-Barb Wire but mid-Baywatch slumming it in a David Prior-directed flick, and then Napes, Keach, and Rossi being as Napes, Keach, and Rossi as you want. And before I forget, the great Ted Prior in a small role as another cop helping Rossi, sans mullet but fully-shirted, almost like a Bizzaro Danton. And maybe, for all the things that worked and all the things that didn't, that's what we ultimately needed to get us over the goal line: more New York Seltzer-sponsored AIP action. Where's William Zipp when you need him?

This is our first Pamela Anderson film on the site, just shy of 1300 posts in. I'm not sure why I didn't do Barb Wire back when I was doing Wild Card posts on comic book films, but I must've missed it. With all of the talent in this, it was apparent that she was the one with the real it factor, that it was only a matter of time before she became a big star, though it was more star in the celebrity sense, because she never really had that one breakout acting role. This was maybe 5 years before one could be famous just for being famous, like Paris Hilton, or later Kim Kardashian, so Anderson at least had to try acting, but I think she was one of the first stars to create that famous just for being famous ecosystem, so without her we wouldn't have Kim Kardashian. According to the trivia, she said the love scenes in this were horrible for her, which I definitely saw in the David Keith love scene, where he's really rough with her; but the one with Hays seemed very tame. From a character standpoint, I get why Keith would've gone that route, but he also could've acted it out more than actually going for it. It felt very Jeff Conaway in a Traci Lords PM flick, and you could even see in the shots they used in the film how uncomfortable Anderson was with it, but how she tried to go with it--which again, fit their characters better in the movie, but that doesn't help Anderson out with what she went through at all.

Out of all the names, Napes is the one with the most tags on the site, this being his 13th. After that, David Winters has his 8th (he's a producer), Keach, Rossi, and both Priors have 6, and David Keith has 3. In the scene I took the screen of above, he's in Keith's apartment asking for his help to keep an eye on Hays while Hays is out on bail. From a story standpoint, it's a ludicrous construct, why would Napes do this, especially when we find out he doesn't suspect anyone else, he really thinks Hays did it, why bother getting Keith involved at all? But Napes sells it as only Napes can. "What is my motivation here? Why would I do this if I was this guy?" The paycheck is why, and Napes knows that, and he delivers. The Keach kind of makes no sense, it took a second to even realize it was him. I guess he had to play it this way for us to believe he was the lieutenant mayor to Napes, but I like a good mustachioed no-nonsense Keach if I'm getting Keach in my film. And then there's Rossi. He has this combination Cajun and an impression of the late Leslie Jordan accent that was equal parts hilarious and fascinating. Like I think if I could have one wish, it might be to eat at a Waffle House with Rossi while he's doing that voice the whole time. "You 'bout done with that Heinz 57 sauce? My potatoes are cryin' out for a lil' dab uh two." Who am I kidding, it'd be an honor to have a meal at a Waffle House with Leo Rossi, even if he wasn't doing his Cajun crossed with Leslie Jordan voice. A guy can dream, right?

As I said above, this is now six films for David Prior, but only 5 for directing, which puts him way down the directors tags list--he got a tag for his writer's credit on Dancin' It's On, that's why he has six. That's definitely on me, because I'm behind on my AIP flicks overall--of which this isn't one--but also Prior is one of the DTV greats, and deserves to have more films on here. For all the paint-by-numbers-ness of this, Prior does inject some nice action sequences, from a mall dirt bike chase, to some nice flying cars, to an exploding helicopter. I'm not going to say this is as good as Shakedown, but Prior does his best to get us closer to that. Looking at his IMDb bio, he has another 25 or so films that we could cover here on the site, so I just need to get after it. I'll do my darndest. Here's to you Mr. Prior, you were one of the greats.

Finally, who remembers Montgomery Ward? When our heroes are chasing each other on dirt bikes through the mall, we get a good shot of one here. Growing up, Wards was the anchor at the Newington Mall, which was run out of business by the bigger Fox Run Mall that was opened near it in the late 80s--and the Montgomery Ward along with it--only for the Newington Mall to be torn down and replaced by a massive strip mall with a Barnes and Noble, Kohl's, and Best Buy, which has since almost killed the Fox Run Mall. Anyway, back to Wards, did you know they still exist online? And you can go to the site and request a physical catalog be sent to you? Now I don't know if that catalog has He-Man figures for sale in it, and my parents live over 350 miles away, so I can't just circle the guys I want and dogear the pages so they can find them, but just the idea of a Monkey Wards catalog is fantastic! As an aside, did anyone else call it Monkey Wards? Was that a thing everywhere, or just my neighborhood in my small town in Maine? If you're wondering, I ordered the physical catalog. I had to. Maybe the next Prior film I review will have a chase in front of a Service Merchandise.

And with that, let's wrap this up. You can currently get this as Good Cop, Bad Cop on Tubi--despite that fact that neither character is a cop--which is as good a way to get it as any. With the names and the good bits of action here and there, it's a nice weekend morning time killer--if you find you have time to kill some weekend morning.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110948

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/

Dancin': It's On! (2015)

When I was going through Gary Daniels's filmography for the Letterboxd list I made, this mysterious gem stood out--along with The Wrong Child--but it seemed it was nowhere to be found. Alas, I kept looking, and lo and behold, Tubi picked it up. At the same time as I was watching it, Will from Exploding Helicopter was watching it too, and thought it would be best to take advantage of fate by having me guest on his podcast to discuss it. That episode was released last year, so you can check it out in the show archives.

Dancin': It's On! has Witney Carson of Dancing with the Stars as young lady who's been sent to live with her estranged father, Gary Daniels, who owns nice hotel resort in Panama Beach, FL. She's into dancing, which brings her into the orbit of a young man, Chehon Wespi-Tschopp of So You Think You Can Dance, who is also quite the dancer. This is an issue, because he's just a dishwasher, and Daniels does not want his daughter dating a dishwasher. At the same time, there's a big dance contest, and it would seem these two would be perfect for this. Will fate bring them together the way it brought Will and I for the podcast episode we did?

As you can imagine, this isn't our usual fare here at the DTVC, so with that in mind, I probably should approach this one differently as opposed to a Dolph actioner or Troma horror flick. It has its holes for sure, like how Wespi-Tschopp as a dishwasher seemed to be washing dishes off and on all day--which as a former dishwasher myself was particularly grating; or why Daniels didn't want her to date the dishwasher, but the guy he did want for her was the head bellhop, like that's that much more of a high-end career? But overall it's kind of fun, and I think David Winters's earnest attempt at making a last dance film for his legacy is something to appreciate. Then there's the exploding helicopter, which is what brought this into Will's orbit. Wespi-Tschopp, after getting into a fight with Carson, has one of those angry dance routines, a la Bacon in Footloose, and when the routine brings him to the resort's pool, he starts throwing patio furniture into it. At the same time, David Winters is dreaming about his son dying in a helicopter explosion while serving in Iraq, which causes him to wake up and see Wespi-Tschopp tossing lawn chairs into the deep end as part of his angry dance routine. He intervenes, explaining to the young man that he was once a dance star himself, and he'd be happy to help him train for a routine that doesn't involve throwing anything into a pool.

This is 54 films on the DTVC for 50 Club Member Gary Daniels, but the first of the new year. This, like The Wrong Child and his religious movies, is another quirk in his career. Unlike The Wrong Child though, where he was one of the stars, he's very much a supporting character here, which had us wondering why he did it at all. He doesn't have a dance number, and the closest thing to action is when he hits a punching bag while working out to try and intimidate Wespi-Tschopp. The thing is, if they'd removed the construct of Daniels wanting Carson to date the head bellhop (played by another dancer, Matt Marr), they could have given Daniels more to work with. Just the same, this is an interesting addition to his filmography, and the only reason we're reviewing it here is because he did it. We'll get back into more of his straight-ahead actioners from here, but we need to do them all eventually, so why not get this one in the can now.

This was one of the last films written by the great David Prior, who, with David Winters, put out a lot of DTV flicks through AIP. No, this doesn't feature a corrugated iron building shanty town, or appearances by his brother Ted or the great William Zipp, though those would have been some nice touches for us DTV action fans. We lost prior in August of 2015, only a couple months before his 60th birthday, and only a couple months before this film came out. When you think about it, you combine his passing with Albert Pyun's debilitating illness sidelining him around the same time, that's two heavy hitters in the DTV world no longer putting out work, and I think we felt that loss of work more than we've realized. With all the talk of how the overall quality of DTV films has dipped since the 2010s, this was one reason we haven't considered, but I think it is important.

Getting back to David Winters as director, for someone who was more into the musical/dance film genre, he has some solid DTV actioners to his credit, including some Ginty classics like Code Name Vengeance and Mission Kill--plus the Reb Brown MSTK great Space Mutiny. In addition to this, as mentioned above, he did a lot through AIP in producing many more gems. I've finally, with this movie, given him the tag he so greatly deserves, which puts this as his sixth film on the site. Out of all of them though, this is the one that feels like the passion project, which makes the DTV action that much more astounding. It's like if Gary Daniels didn't do just one dance film, but 15, plus produced another 20. He left us in 2019 at the age of 80, and while I think he'd want his legacy to be all the dance work he did, he also leaves behind an indelible contribution to the golden age of 80s and 90s DTV action, for which we'll always be appreciative.

Finally, I was trying to think if this is the first film with a mime in it that we've done on the site. When I saw it, I tweeted at Will to see if this was the first exploding helicopter film to feature a mime, but he thought A View to a Kill did as well; and it was through that tweet that he realized we were watching this at the same time, and decided to have me on the podcast episode. I feel like, 1100+ films in, we must have had a mime at some point, even if it was just a goofy Paris establishing shot, or even a guy as part of a heist disguised as one, but if there was, I can't think of it. Unfortunately, while the mime makes an appearance, spoiler alert, he doesn't have any scenes with Daniels, let alone any scenes where he has to fight Daniels. Tell me that wouldn't have made this film an instant classic? Maybe Daniels roundhousing the mime through a cheap plaster wall?

Alas, we get nothing of the sort here, but if you're a Gary Daniels--or an exploding helicopter--completist, this is a must, just for the quirk factor alone. As of my writing this, it's available free on Tubi here in the States, so you don't even have much of a financial commitment. And if you haven't yet, you need to check out the Exploding Helicopter podcast. I get it on iTunes, but I think it's available on most major podcatchers.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2598580

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

Mankillers (1987)

I recently had Jacob Gustafson, author of Awful Awesome Action Vol. 1 on the podcast, and we looked at this film. After the Final Sanction post, I wanted to fulfill my promise to do more AIP, and thought that would be a good way to hold myself to that, but also because his book had a lot of AIP in it, it was good for me to get a better sense of these movies. In addition to me and the inclusion in Jacob's book, this has also been covered by Ty and Brett at Comeuppance, and robotGEEK's Cult Cinema, so you can go to their sites to see what they thought.

Mankillers follows AIP mainstay William Zipp as a former fed turned baddie who the feds want to catch. The problem is, as a former fed, he can smell an undercover fed a mile away. That's when the higher-ups call in his old partner to bring him down, and she gets the crazy Grinchy idea of going into a women's prison and taking the 12 worst offenders, and training them to take Zipp down. It's Dirty Dozen meets AIP, but when their training is cut short because the higher-ups want to take down Zipp now, our ladies are put to the test sooner than they expected. With the odds against them, can they beat Zipp and his army of baddies?

The cover of this leads one to believe this is an Andy Sidaris/Julie Strain style sexy actioner, and that isn't what it is. Yes, there's plenty of women clad the way you see above, but there's no sex, no nudity, nothing of that sort. What this is is an AIP actioner from 1987 that, without having a Z'Dar or a Cameron Mitchell or anyone like that, still works in that fun, AIP vein. Zipp as the baddie just straight kills it, whether it's the mullet or the slicked-back ponytail look, as he's doing enough blow to make Scarface uncomfortable and cutting guys up with a chainsaw, you can't help but love it. Yes, the premise is crazy, and yes you see things like the same guy killed twice, but when David Prior is giving us a shoot-em-up on a budget, I'll take all of it.

This is the second of Prior's three 1987 films we've covered here on the DTVC, the other being the cult classic Deadly Prey, and then the third, which we need to get to, is Killer Workout. This isn't the classic Deadly Prey is, and I think Final Sanction is probably the best next film to watch after that, but this one really works as well. I think I've said it before, when people think "Direct to Video Connoisseur," this is the exact movie they're looking at. In the past I did "wild card" posts to spotlight some theatrical junkers, or I took a look at The Irishman as a one-off, but really, this should be our bread and butter, and I'm going to make sure we get back to it more often, especially since a lot of the greats are on Prime right now.

Would you look at that? It's Peggy from Mannix! According to IMDb, this was her last film role, and what a movie to be in. Looking at Prior's age, you have to imagine that he grew up on stuff like Mannix and that inspired him to make the movies he made. To see Gail Fisher here brings that kind of influence full circle. Mannix was one of the best shows of the 70s, and it's on MeTV at like 2 or 3am, so you can still catch it. I had completely forgotten about it, but my wife found it, and she's a fan, so I started watching it again with her. Just typing this paragraph has the theme song in my head. Here's to you Gail Fisher, you were one of the greats.

We're a little over the 1000-post mark here at the DTVC, and the truth is, we don't have many films that pass the Bechdel Test--in fact, I could only think of three: Wild Girl Waltz, Venom, and I think Lethal. That's not a good percentage, so I should probably go back and look through the posts to see if any other do. The point I'm making is this one does. For those who don't know, the Bechdel Test is two named female characters, without any men, having a conversation, and not talking about men. It seems like such a low bar, but so few films meet it, especially in the DTVC world. And here's one that did, but it needed to be marketed to us as an Andy Sidaris action sex romp to get us to buy it.

Finally, when I did the Deadly Prey post, I mentioned the shot of a bottle of New York Seltzer I saw, and here we have another, as heroine Lynda Aldon is enjoying a bottle while watching the fed try to sneak onto her property. That wasn't the only great find in this though, you may have noticed I tagged DTVC Hall of Famer Art Camacho. In one of the battles the women had with Zipp's men, I saw someone that looked a lot like Camacho, and joked that he was in so many films, that he was even in this--then I looked through the cast on IMDb and found out it was him! When I went back through to get screengrabs, I couldn't find the scene he was in, but he was there, and I have IMDb to back me up.

Right now you can get this on Prime, also it's one of the few on AIP flicks on Tubi--and I believe the only David Prior one. On top of all that, it also has a blu-ray release. This is a fun 80s action romp as only Prior and AIP could give us, so it's worth checking out. Also worth checking out is Jacob Gustafson's book, Awful Awesome Action Vol. 1. The link to the book is on our DTVC Book Review page, and if you want more information, he goes into detail about it on the podcast episode, no. 68 "Mankillers," which you can get on TalkShoe, iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher. The links are on the left side of the page.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093491

The Final Sanction (1990)

We start our five-movie 1000th post celebration at 998 with this AIP gem, suggested by our friend Simon at Explosive action. I'd been meaning to get more AIP on the site for a long time, but I felt like for a 1000th post, maybe Deadly Prey would be more iconic for that, which I've already covered; but at the same time, I felt like a celebration like this deserved a nod to AIP and all of the great David Prior action that made DTV what it was in the 80s and 90s. In addition to us, Ty and Brett at Comeuppance have done this, as has Mitch at the Video Vacuum; and if you haven't done so yet, check out the Explosive Action YouTube channel!

The Final Sanction has the crazy Grinchy idea of settling the Cold War with a mano-a-mano battle between the Soviet's best and the US's best, Robert Z'Dar and Ted Prior respectively. We watch as each train for their fight in their own unique ways, with Z'dar throwing shovels and getting mentally tortured by William Smith, and Prior crushing cheeseburgers. Who will emerge victorious?

This was a fantastic fun time. With a plot like I described above, it can only go one of two ways, right? And fortunately this one went the right way. This is the AIP you came for, and I think a perfect pick by Simon for a celebration like this. Almost 1000 posts in, this is the kind of movie I started this blog for, and while I tend to get caught up in doing all the most recent Dolph posts or whatever, these kinds of movies consistently deliver the bad movie fun I'm looking for. In a sense, they were made with that in mind, so instead of jacking up the runtime and trying to make something more "serious," they're banging this thing out with as much action as they can squeeze in and let the devil take the hindmost. You can't not applaud them for that.

This is only the third David Prior flick we've covered here at the DTVC, which is a major oversight on my part. He deserves his due among some of the DTV greats, like Pyun, Wynorski, and Fred Olen Ray. I recently had Jacob Gustafson on the podcast--who wrote the fabulous Awful Awesome Action Vol. 1, which you can get more details on on our DTVC Book Review page--and he talked about Prior's late 80s early 90s output. It was like 3 in '87, 4 each in '88 and '89, and 6 in '90. You don't know when he actually shot all of those, if some were in the can before that and held back on release, but that's still 17 flicks in four years, which is something we love here at the DTVC. I say this all the time, but we're going to make sure we get more of his stuff up in the near future--for that podcast we looked at Mankillers, so we already have that one in the can.

The great Robert Z'Dar left us in 2015, right around the time I unfortunately went on an unplanned hiatus, so I wasn't able to give him the tribute he deserved then. A total icon who did it for multiple companies over many years, he's someone who will definitely be missed. In this one we get all of the best of him. He's totally buying in on this plot and his character, and he's giving it everything in every scene. I think that's part of what makes a classic like Samurai Cop work so well too. If you're looking for great Z'Dar after checking out Samurai Cop for the first time, I think this is a great place to go next, it's classic Z'Dar. Here's to you Mr. Z'Dar, you were one of the greats, and you will be missed.

This is the first time we've seen Ted Prior since we reviewed another all-time cult classic, Deadly Prey, which was also directed by his brother. Ted and David teamed up on a lot of AIP flicks, so we have a lot of work to do to get caught up on them, but I think it will be a fun ride. What makes Ted great here is he really plays up the other side of the coin to Z'Dar's cold, emotionless Soviet soldier; he's the rude, chauvinistic, burger crushing American that is part loose cannon, part honorable soldier who we trust will get the job done when the chips are down. Again, like Z'Dar, if he doesn't sell this to us, none of the film works in the fun way we want it to. The fact that a lot of the Prior brothers' AIP work is on places like Tubi and Prime and I haven't gotten to them yet is a travesty, but we're going to try to make it happen soon.

I want to finish this by talking about another element that these movies have that modern movies don't--and it's not the modern movies' fault. There's a nostalgia factor in seeing these late 80s/early 90s movies that, when we watched them back then didn't exist, but now make them even more fun. Whether it's a Bud Dry truck in Skyscraper, or Ted Prior washing down his cheeseburger in this with an RC Cola, they're little touches that add to the enjoyment. They pad out slower moments in ways that are a lot of fun as well--though to be fair, this movie at a cool 85 minutes didn't have much in the way of slow moments.

Let's wrap this baby up. Right now you can stream this movie, along with many more of David Prior's AIP flicks, on Amazon Prime. When I first started the blog in 2007, we had to scramble to find them on VHS, which I think also hampered my ability to get more on the site. Now, with so many available to stream, this is a great time to be a DTV movie fan, and this gem should be at the top of your watch list. Thank you again to Simon at Explosive Action for this suggestion, and as I said, everyone should check him out on his YouTube Channel!

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101876

Future Force (1989)

I've been meaning to do this one for a while now. We're talking a film with DTVC Hall of Famer David Carradine, directed by Deadly Prey's David Prior, and produced by Action International Pictures (AIP). It just seemed too good to be true, but other things bumped it down the priority list. We're finally here now though, so let's see how it went. Also, our buddy Ty at Comeuppance Reviews did this about six months ago (and I said then I needed to add it to my to watch list).

Future Force takes place in the future, circa 20 years ago, when crime has gotten so out of control the government couldn't handle it and has outsourced it to a corporation. Through the corporation, law enforcement is essentially a ragtag group of de facto bounty hunters acting as judge, jury, and executioner, and the best of that bunch is lone gunslinger David Carradine. When a local TV news reporter gets evidence that the corporation head is not a great guy, he puts a bounty on her head that he hopes his own personal cops will take care of, but Carradine jumps them in the queue and gets to her before them. Now they're both on the company hit list, and it's up to Carradine to keep himself and her alive long enough for the rest of the world to learn the truth.



This one had a lot of fun moments, but it also has some dead spots, and both ends of that dichotomy are embodied in the film's star, David Carradine. Sometimes he's a really cool Western style hero, with a cool gunslinging style and great one-liners; and other times he looks like he's just mailing it in, and the movie suffers in those moments. The funny stuff is pretty prodigious. First and foremost, there's the power glove. On the image page I embedded a YouTube video of it attacking late veteran character actor Robert Tessier-- all by itself, not on Carradine's hand. That was pretty fantastic, and the kind of thing you're going into an AIP picture for. Second, we had the other officers, and they looked like rejects off the Waterworld set. Eye patches, mullets, denim vests, cigar chomping. That's easy heckling material. Third, the perfunctory helicopter explosion was carried off by a man dressed like a reverend. I love seeing a man of the cloth pick up a rocket launcher and dispatch a helicopter. Fourth, the music was sweet, great fist-pumping 80s stuff. Finally, the mistakes, like "Demiliterized Zone", which I love, but I know some people see that and run to imdb to kill the film. If this had more action, and had a more engaged Carradine, this would've been fantastic; but it didn't, so ultimately it's just a fun bad movie night movie, but nothing spectacular.

Carradine was 52 when he made this-- his character was listed as 40-- and as we've seen with other great action actors, 52 isn't always the end. But there were times that this 52 was like 70, the way he had trouble in hand-to-hand combat with Robert Tessier-- himself no spring chicken when this was made either. I don't hold that against him though, that's the film makers' faults for putting him up to it. There were other times when he seemed disinterested, and that was a little tougher to take. It's hard to tell, because his character was supposed to be that gruff, withered, seen it all on the streets, hardened vet who's seldom impressed or excited, and is always sardonic. I don't know, Clint Eastwood played that part a lot in Westerns, and he didn't make it feel so mailed in at times. On the other hand, when Carradine doesn't make it feel mailed in, when it is that Old West throwback gunslinger, it's really cool and a lot of fun to watch. Maybe it was the material more than him-- can you blame him?, he was pushing the same button on a cheap remote control, pretending that it was directing a big mechanical glove at Robert Tessier.



I want to draw your attention to the rare Poodle Mullet. It occurs when an Italian or other swarthy Mediterranean type with curly hair tries to match his straight-haired brethren's Ape Drapage. Frankie Banali, drummer of Quiet Riot, had perhaps the most famous instance of the Poodle Mullet, and that one was much more robust than the one here. This one in Future Force is crossed with a pork roast though, making it even rarer. What we're looking at is a guy who had a falling out with his father, quit the family butcher shop, and got a job downtown at a nightclub as a bouncer. From there, someone casting for this movie spotted him, and asked him if he'd like to be in a film. (Of course, this is all conjecture, but the series of events seem pretty realistic, right?)

Right below us is a late 80s/early 90s phenomenon. This guy was ubiquitous back then. You could find him at the grocery store in a BUM Equipment sweatshirt and zebra-style NFL team logo pants, acting like he knew what he was looking for and hoping to attract all the women, but really looking lost with his basket full of TV dinners. You could find him on TV, interviewed by the local sports guy about how poorly the team is doing. I know I've seen him on MTV Spring Break from that era, yelling out his college to Kevin Seal and Cindy Crawford. To see him here though, in this movie, where his cohorts are Carradine, or the pork roast Poodle Mullet guy, or the eye patch guy, he seems way out of his league. He needs to go back to the arcade in his denim jacket and play some Cruisin' USA with his buddies.



I want to use this last paragraph to bring up a few people. First, there's the late Robert Tessier, who died not long after this came out. An excellent character actor who is always great as the hired muscle in a film like this, but here he gets to be even better as the baddie's main hatchetman, and he does that well. Also, like Carradine, he was over 50 (55 when this came out), but unlike Carradine, he doesn't seem nearly as tired. Speaking of the main baddie, he was played by William Zipp, who was also in Deadly Prey. Like Tessier, he seemed to have a lot of fun as the baddie, and it'll be cool to check out more of his stuff as we do more AIP flicks down the road. Speaking of that, we then get to David Prior, who has done about 30 DTV flicks in his time, of which, we've only done Deadly Prey and this. That needs to change, and I can't wait to go through his filmography and see what gems we uncover.

This is actually available on DVD, and I believe even available in a value pack with part 2, Future Zone. It really is about how much you fancy yourself a collector or bad movie buff, because this doesn't have as much to offer someone who isn't otherwise a Carradine or AIP fan-- and even then, it's kind of stretching it. I say pull the trigger if you find it cheap, or someone you know finds it and lets you borrow it.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099624/

Deadly Prey (1987)

I'd been meaning to get my hands on this for some time, when our favorite reader from down under, one Simon from Explosive Action, sent me a copy of his. I couldn't wait to put it up here. I think this is one of those "this is why we do this" kind of films.

Deadly Prey is about a man named Logan who runs a romance novel publishing house. No one at his company can find the perfect model for the cover of their new series, so Logan sends some of them out to the streets to just grab someone. As luck would have it, they find themselves a gem in our hero, the hunky Mike Danton. Only catch is, Logan and Danton were once lovers. They had both moved on, Danton finding a beard and assimilating himself to straight society, while Logan found another beefcake to try and replace his lost love. Now that fate has brought them back together, can they heal these wounds and rekindle the old flame?

Before I get into the subtext of the two main male characters having a metaphorical romantic relationship, let me first say that it is one of the most awesome action films of all time. The biggest problem with the current DTV action genre is they try so God damned hard to not be Deadly Prey, because they think it's too cheap and silly. But Deadly Prey works, and it's exactly what we as the DTV action buying audience are looking for. In trying so hard to distance themselves from it, they alienate us, their core audience, which is just asinine. Listen guys, I know you've studied all the greats, you consider yourself real professionals, and you want to make "real movies." Guess what: you're making DTV action films. Acting professional is making something more like Deadly Prey and less like The Bourne Identity.

Now to the movie. Are we sure Tennessee Williams didn't write this? It's more than just sweaty, beefy guys wrestling in the dirt. It's in the subtext in the way guys talk to one another. Look at the scene where Danton is tied to a chair in Logan's tent. The tone of the conversation is like two former lovers figuring out why the other changed for the worse. And it doesn't help when the man tied to the chair is shirtless, sweaty, and full of pecs. Then the end of the movie, wow. "Take off your shirt! Take off your shoes! Now run!" I wish I could quit you. (I want to make clear that any gay metaphors I point out do not mean that I think they're a bad thing, just that they're there.)

Recognize this guy? It's Santa from Space Mutiny. Who'd'a thunk he gets actual work beyond that? He plays Danton's beard's father, and he goes to try and rescue Danton. I don't know that his character was any kind of gay metaphor. Maybe he was Karl Malden's character in A Street Car Named Desire. It fits with what I'm about to get into in the next paragraph.

A rape, and then later cold blooded murder, of the hero's wife in a film would usually anger me, and I'm sure anyone could go into my archives and find myriad instances of me killing a movie for doing just such a thing. But this is a totally different circumstance, and I'll tell you why. First, the rape scene was very much like Blanche DuBois's (Vivian Leigh) rape at the hands of Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando) in A Streetcar Named Desire, and in that context it represents Tennessee Williams' metaphor of wanting to be ravaged by brute in a similar manner. You can even take that metaphor further to earlier in the film, when Logan, who is the one that rapes Danton's wife, calls out "Danton!" in exactly the same manner Kowalski yells out "Stella!" in that famous scene. Then the death of the wife at the hands of Logan's lieutenant (or his new lover, metaphorically), and Danton's subsequent killing of the lieutenant, represents both Logan and Danton freeing themselves of the new lovers that have entered each life since the pair split up. Notice Danton never kills Logan, rather sends him off running after making him take off his shirt, and then yells into the sky for the film's final shot. The whole hunt itself represents the search for the right partner, and Danton finally admitted to himself that he couldn't quit Logan.

All right, let's get into something that's real, not a metaphor. Do you remember New York Seltzer? I had forgotten the stuff existed. Can you still get it, and if so, where? I almost died when I saw it in the movie. And Root Beer flavor to boot--though maybe that was the only flavor, I don't remember. And in the credits, they get a shout out. How awesome is that?

This is one of the best action films ever. If you see it anywhere, get it. I was lucky enough to have Simon send me one transferred to DVD. I guess it's one of the perks of the job, right? Anyway, get this however you can, you won't be disappointed.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092848/

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/