Cop Game (1988)

This is one I'd been meaning to do for a long time, and seeing it recommended to me countless times on Tubi, plus considering I needed to get more Bruno Mattei on the site, I decided to finally take the plunge. In addition to us, Ty and Brett and Comeuppance (whose review was quoted on the Severin Blu-ray) and Simon at Explosive Action have covered this as well.

Cop Game is about a special forces unit in 'Nam that's gone rogue and is killing officers during the last days of the war. Military Police detectives Brent Huff and Max Laurel are called in to find out what's happening, and end up getting a lot more than they bargained for. This either goes all the way to the top, or is somewhere in the middle but is causing issues for the top, but either way, it's not good for anyone. As Huff and Laurel go in deeper they don't know who they can trust, and it doesn't help that the Vietnam War they're living in looks like late '80s Manila. Will they get out alive?

This one was a fun time, but I think it may only qualify as a fun time for people who like these kinds of movies. Like do you get a little thrill if you see Mike Monty or Jim Gaines? Then it's for you. Do you like seeing what name Bruno Mattei will be using instead of his own? Then it's for you. ("Bob Hunter" if you're wondering.) Do you like Brent Huff yelling at people and dressing like he just rolled out of bed? Then it's for you. Once you get past those things, I think the most it has to offer is Mattei not caring how much his movie that's supposed to take place in the closing days of the Vietnam War looks like it took place in 1980s Manila, which adds to the charm when you're watching it in 2026. Also, Tubi has the Severin version, which looks really nice, and while I think there's additional charm in finding an old Japanese VHS with hardcoded subs, my eyesight is getting worse as I get older, so a cleaned up version helps. Maybe not the classic for me that Strike Commando or Robowar is, but how many things are? If you're looking for some Mattei fun to help you forget your troubles for 90 minutes, this will do the trick.

We're now at six movies for Mattei, which is low, but in looking at his IMDb bio, I don't know that we'll get him that much higher, I see maybe four or five other movies of his that we could review. That's okay though, in this case it's quality over quantity, so to speak, because he's made some classics, and while this one isn't quite that for me, it's plenty fun enough. Nines are wild for the three other names people would recognize here, as this is the ninth film for Brent Huff, Mike Monty, and Jim Gaines--who is finally getting tagged on here, not sure why it took so long. Obviously Huff is the star, and while on the surface he looks like he cares as much about his role as Mattei does about anachronisms, as you watch the film you can see him bring it, which is what gets this thing over the goal line and makes it enjoyable. Monty I believe has one blink and you'll miss it scene that's been taken from another movie where he's piloting a helicopter, which isn't much, but enough to get him another tag. And then Gaines is one of a character named Ludge's henchmen (that's his character name, "Ludge's Henchman), who we're going to get into in the next paragraph. It's definitely more than Monty--and was actually newly shot footage!--but still a small part. Either way, we'll take any Gaines we can get.

Back to Ludge, he's in the shot above, holding Huff at gunpoint. He's getting his own paragraph here because his name is Donald Wilson, credited as "Don Wilson." That's right, the same name as DTVC Hall of Famer and one of the greatest to ever do it, Don "The Dragon" Wilson. You may remember a controversy that came up a few years ago where we didn't know how many movies Don "The Dragon" Wilson had been in based on his IMDb bio, and we here had reviewed two films, Siege of Firebase Gloria and Saigon Commandos, that we gave tags to "The Dragon" for, only to discover IMDb took those movies off his bio. That led to a delay in getting that Don Wilson into the 40 Club. I believe Will at Exploding Helicopter had a similar issue, because removing these movies lowered Don "The Dragon's" films with exploding helicopters count. Now we have a face to put with the other Don Wilson, who's now listed on IDMb as "Donald Wilson" to avoid confusion. He's a bit of a Philippines movie mainstay, maybe not at the level of Monty or Gaines, but he's done a good number of films with greats like Mattei and Cirio H. Santiago, so we'll definitely see him again. As far as the confusion goes, this is what happens when we wade in the murky waters of 80s DTV films, combined with relying on the murky waters of a crowdsourced site like IMDb, but we wouldn't have it any other way--actually we would, we'd like to have a reliable way to know exactly how many movies each actor has done! 

As much as I've been extolling the virtues of this film, it had its flaws, and not all of them were endearing like Mattei not caring about making the film look more early 70s or more Saigon. First, in our quest to find more Presidential Portraits, Mattei teases us with all these shots of governmental offices, yet sans Presidential Portraits! How am I supposed to take these governmental offices seriously as governmental offices without a Nixon hanging on the wall? And we need a Nixon, we've never gotten one before! One theory is these movies didn't want to platform Nixon based on how bad he was, which is an interesting one. Like in 15 years will movies have Trump portraits? I mean I guess if we go full fascist like it looks like we're going, it might be required to have his portraits in everything by then. Either way, the search for a Nixon continues, with no help from Mattei. He also didn't help our friend Will with any exploding helicopters, but the same way he teased us with multiple governmental offices, he teased us as well with not only multiple helicopters, but helicopters engaged in firefights! Come on Mattei, you didn't have a stock helicopter explosion you could mix in? (And I selfishly wanted that exploding helicopter so I could get my number on his Letterboxd list up.) The only thing we had was the Manila Chinatown, which we'd seen before in Bloodfist, but here we also had the Friendship Arch, plus the novelty that it was supposed to be in Saigon, so I guess you take your wins when you can get them.

Finally, we get a great theme song in this, one of the best parts of the movie actually, but despite that, I had "Head Games" by Foreigner replaced with "Cop Game" in my head. Growing up in the 80s, I know Foreigner is a big deal, but they haven't had a hit in a long time, and I worry that they'll be a victim, if they haven't been already, of this growing trend of kids saying a huge band or artist from the past is "underrated," just because they've never really heard of them. Again, maybe I'm creating a strawman here because I haven't seen anywhere that anyone has said Foreigner is underrated, but they're the kind of act that would be labeled as such by the kids. The worst offender was one my wife told about where a kid said George Michael was underrated. No, he was rated, and a quick check on Wikipedia would tell you that. "Regarded as a pop culture icon, he is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time... [h]e was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023. The Radio Academy named him the most played artist on British radio during the period 1984–2004." That's literally in the first paragraph about him, he was never "underrated." For any of you kids reading this, if you have a notion to say "Foreigner is underrated," I also suggest looking them up on Wikipedia, where, again, in the first paragraph, it says: "Foreigner is one of the best-selling bands of all time, with worldwide sales exceeding 80 million records, including 38 million in the US."

And with that, it's probably best that we wrapped this up. If you're into physical media, Severin has a Blu-ray that's on sale as of this writing--and again quotes Ty and Brett's review on the cover. If you want to give it a test run first, the Severin transfer is on Tubi, which maybe doesn't have the charm of hard-coded Japanese subs, but it looks nice. Either way, this is a fun time and worth checking out.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094909

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The Secret of King Mahis Island (1988)

So this is it, 1000 posts at the DTVC! Who'd a thunk, not only when we started this thing back in 2007, but also when I went on an unplanned four-year hiatus starting in 2015, that we'd ever make it here. But we did, and I am thankful and so appreciative of all the support everyone has shown me and the site over the years. The idea of doing this for number 1000 came out of Jon Cross from After Movie Diner's suggestion of doing Bloodmoon for 1000. It definitely qualified, but I felt like since I'd done it before, it wasn't quite good enough for a repost. But, I had just caught this on YouTube through JCT, not long after our friend and tireless collector Simon at Explosive Action had obtained a Japanese VHS copy. A Holy Grail film that I've been wanting to see since I started the blog, nothing felt more fitting for this post.

The Secret of King Mahis Island has Daniels as a fortune hunter searching for a secret treasure. On his heels are a series of baddies looking for the same thing, plus dangerous natives who want nothing to do with treasure hunters invading their island. Will our hero find the treasure and make it out alive?

This one is a definite fun time. Part of the charm is knowing this is one of, if not the, first Gary Daniels films. That novelty alone, combined with the fact that I've been wanting to review this for so long, makes it work. We also get some great Daniels kickboxing action, which we can't always say about all of his modern efforts. For a film shot in the Philippines, this is a bit bereft of huts getting blown up. It's not your traditional Vietnam War in the Philippines flick, and in that sense, I think this maybe only works on the novelty factor as Daniels's first flick and being one we've all wanted to see for so long, but sometimes with this kind of thing, that's all you need!

When I decided to not do Dolph for 1000 because I had just celebrated him being the first to 50 film reviews, the question was who's next, and while to some Daniels may not seem like a natural choice, he is second to Dolph in all-time reviews, and one of only four members of the 40 Club, along with Dolph, Art Camacho, and Albert Pyun. In that sense, he was probably more overdo for a spotlight in a milestone post like this than an iffy choice. The one thing that strikes me about this here is not only how young he is, but how much he's just going for it, and I don't know that that part has ever left him--it may have morphed in him with age and become something different, but it's never left. Even if he only has a small part, he does his best to make that small part his, and I think that more than anything is something we here at the DTVC can appreciate. The crazy thing is, when I finally decided on this film and to spotlight Daniels, it just happened that the date of this post falls on his 57th birthday! Sometimes things just work out.

As I mentioned, for many years, this was a Holy Grail film, one of those ones we saw listed on IMDb, but we looked everywhere for and couldn't find. There was a feeling though, if anyone could make it happen, it was Simon at Explosive Action, and sure enough, he finally found it. He has a fantastic YouTube page with videos on his collection, and he did one about this find, so you can see more details, like the box, and clips of it. The title of the post is "Three Rare VHS Tapes!" It's been one of the great parts of doing this blog over the last 13 years and 1000 posts, the people I've met and friends I've made, among them Simon and Jon, but also the community out there overall for people who love these kinds of movies, and try to track them down however they can, both for their own collections, but also so we can all have chance to see them. Just looking at Daniels, I've seen his on Japanese VHS like this and rips from Greek DVDs. I started out in 2007 expecting to go it alone and try to get my hands on whatever I could, and found instead a community to which I have graciously been a part for many years. In that sense, choosing this movie for the 1000th post is as much a celebration of Gary Daniels and finding a film we've all wanted to see for many years, as it's a celebration of all the wonderful people I've met along the way, and the great friends I've made.

This lists Philippine DTV mainstay Jim Gaines as the uncredited director. According to the IMDb trivia--which it's amazing there's any trivia at all on this gem!--the original director quit after one week of filming, which, considering it was a low-budget Philippine actioner, I can't imagine there was much more filming going on than that. But I think Gaines is another example of an actor I hadn't heard of when I started this and now know and can recognize when I see him in a film. When I conceived of the idea of this, Direct to Video Connoisseur was a tongue-in-cheek term, trying to evoke this image of me like Alistair Cooke, in a smoking jacket and ascot, smoking a pipe, but watching Dolph flicks instead of a ten-part BBC production of Nicholas Nickleby. I don't know that I've ever lost the tongue-in-cheek aspect, but what I didn't expect was to develop the almost connoisseur aspect of recognizing names like Jim Gaines that only someone who really gets into movies like this at a high level would.

The other piece of trivia on the IMDb page is that Gary Daniels almost drowned when he was swimming with a backpack on for a scene, and the backpack filled with water. Beyond the obvious, that we're glad he didn't die, in part because he's had such a fantastic DTV career and has given us such memorable performances, this also highlights the danger that comes in making DTV films that we often forget about. When I had Jacob Gustafson on the podcast, who wrote Awful Awesome Action Vol. 1 (more info on which can be found on the DTVC Book Review page), we talked about Mankillers, and he said how scary it looked with the explosions, how they had to make sure they got them right so no one got hurt, but how do you know when you do them on the cheap? That's another thing I've learned as I've done this: I'd rather they settle for cheap CGI than do the real thing if it means everyone's safe hahaha

Getting back to Daniels's DTV career, watching something like this, you can see the young actor who's just excited to be in something. Over 30 years and 60+ films later, I think Daniels would be disappointed that he didn't have that one big screen breakthrough. Cam Sully at the Action Elite and Jacked Up Review Podcast said he talked to someone who interviewed him, and Daniels thought Fist of the Northstar would be that one, but it just didn't happen. Unlike Dolph though, he didn't have those early big-screen roles, like the iconic Ivan Drago, that could give him an in with Hollywood later-on down the road, which I think Dolph leaned on in The Expendables and has since rode to big-screen roles in movies like Creed II and Aquaman. Daniels has one of the best fights in The Expendables, but really, only people in our DTV watching community knew him and respected his role in that fight. And maybe on that score too, it's better that we're using one of his films for our 1000th post instead of Dolph, because this can be a moment where he isn't overlooked in favor of someone like Dolph for once.

One of the things I used to do a lot when I got my screenshots was get the logo of the production or distribution company. I still do it for ones like Canon or PM, but sometimes it's these ones that are more fun. We've done one other Solar Pictures flick on the site, the Gary Daniels action Final Reprisal, but according to IMDb they have some that Phillip Ko directed in the late 90s/early 2000s starring the late Darren Shahlavi, so maybe I'll have to track those down. One Holy Grail search ends, and many more begin...

Well, that does it for the 1000th post. The celebration continues with two more honorable mentions for posts 1001 and 1002, so we're not done yet. Right now you can stream this on YouTube through JCT's account, and I think it's totally worth checking out--plus don't forget to check out Simon's post about it on his Explosive Action YouTube page. Thank you again to Jon for his suggestion of a Daniels film for this post, and Simon for finally tracking this bad boy down; and thank you again to everyone for sticking with the site through the hiatus and being here now. Without you I wouldn't be doing this, so I appreciate all of your readership and support. Hopefully at some point in the future we'll be here with a 2000th post.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903017

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/

DNA (1998)

This is one I've been meaning to do for a long time now, and even with it's availability on Netflix Instant for almost as long, I still haven't managed to make it happen.  Well, now we're finally rectifying that and getting after it.  One of our friends who already got after it is the great Exploding Helicopter, written though by guest reviewer and other friend of the site, Ninja Dixon.  You can go there to see what they thought, and read further to see what we thought.

DNA has DTVC favorite Mark Dacascos as a doctor in a small hospital in Indonesia who is approached by Jurgen Prochnow to further his work on an experimental serum that boosts the human immune system.  The problem is, he's trusting Jürgen Prochnow, and that proves costly as Prochnow double crosses him and uses the serum to resurrect this alien killing machine that looks exceedingly derivative.  Now Dacascos, with the help of a beautiful CIA agent (Robin McKee), is looking to take Prochnow down and stop this beast.



While this is a DTV flick, it looks so much like it could have been widely released theatrical flop from the same time period, between the special effects and the canned dramatic wannabe John Williams orchestral music.  In that sense it's cool to see Dacascos in a film like that, but beyond that, what are we doing here?  Who knows why it wasn't a theatrical picture, but one guess is how derivative it is.  How many times have we seen this before?  And while we see it so much still on SyFy, at least those ones are bringing a camp element that this doesn't.  All time special effects great William Mesa directs this, so he gives the film a competence that on some levels works against it, because the story is such well-worn territory that it's crying out for camp.  At the same time, this is still 1998, so even his great special effects look dated at times, not to mention he probably didn't have the budget here to do what he could in some of the pictures he's known for.  The film's one exploding helicopter comes to mind as an area where his visual effects missed in a hilariously bad way, probably due to that lack of budget, and it stands out as a fun schlock moment, one that unfortunately wasn't indicative of the film as a whole.  Overall, while this isn't horrible, it's too unremarkable for a recommendation.

Mark Dacascos is a solid lead as always.  Don't know if I liked the hairdo after the beginning, but beyond that he's good.  I'm not sure why he didn't get more bigger roles, but I wonder if it was a film like this being relegated to DTV in the late 90s that held him back.  I wonder too if he lacks a certain on-screen charisma, which isn't as evident in his films where he's allowed to showcase his superior martial arts skills, but in a film like this rears its ugly head and holds him back in the lead.  I don't know.  One thing that would be really cool is if he can get a spot in the next Expendables film.  I know for guys like Scott Adkins and Gary Daniels, seeing them opposite more of the heavy hitters did a lot to showcase them to newer audiences, and I think that would be key for Dacascos as well.



Okay, do we want to do Jürgen Prochnow, or Proch-later-- Hey-oh!  The thing I don't get is, how does Dacascos not know what Prochnow brings to the table?  He's one of the ultimate baddies, of course he's going to double cross you and try to kill you-- Cenk Uygur voice: "of cooooourse!"  He is one of those ready-made baddies though, where you can just take him out of the package and insert him into your film and you're good to go.  I don't know what this one was trying to do by passing him off as a potential good guy for the first ten minutes, they weren't fooling anyone, but hey, good of you to try though.  Here's to you Jürgen Prochnow, you're one of the good ones.

Robin McKee as the CIA agent helping out Dacascos was so 1998.  She doesn't have a lot of other roles on her CV, and most of the ones she does have are small ones, but here she is 1998-ing it up.  Between the hair, the outfits, the make-up, it was all like "just give me the Friends look", and I gotta say, I loved that time.  It's an interesting fashion period, because the kids today miss it in favor of the more notable early 90s fashions, not the way guys getting their tips frosted has been embraced by them, even if they lump it in with early 90s Chess King style, as if the 90s existed as a monolith (sorry if I sound bitter about twentysomethings butchering my decade...!).  The only places I ever see the 1998 aesthetic exist today outside of movies like this are in tributes to Friends or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and it is there that it will survive and exist for posterity.



What travesty did this film commit that truly sunk it for me?  No, not the fact that it's story was derivative, it was the addition of the kid.  Argh!  Why do movies do this to us?  And this isn't an indictment of the kid playing the part, it's an indictment of the actual plot device in toto.  Kids in action movies are annoying.  Period, end of story.  And this film makes it worse by committing the classic two wrongs don't make it right, by killing the kid off later on.  You can't do that.  The only thing worse than kids in action movies is killing kids off in action movies, so you can't fix the mistake of including him by having his death scene near the end.  All sauteed in wrong sauce.

Okay, let's wrap this up.  Beyond being there for a Dacascos completist or exploding helicopter connoisseurs, or maybe even Philippine movie connoisseurs-- check out the great Jim Gaines with a cameo up there!--, but it's a pass for me.  Even the nice run time and availability on Instant can't save it for me.  While it's not bad, it's not all that good either, and the fact that it's that unremarkable kills it in a sea of other options for you.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118912/

P.O.W.: The Escape aka Behind Enemy Lines aka Attack Force 'Nam (1986)

It has been a while since I'd made it out to do some thrift shopping, but I went recently and dug through the VHS section to find some gems. It was a different world from the one I'd remembered, with many more mainstream films from local video stores after they'd closed, not the kind of stuff a guy who runs a blog about Direct to Video movies could use. But I did find this bad boy, and for .99, it was a good one. Let's see if it made the trip worth it.

P.O.W.: The Escape is a Golan-Globus production of a Cannon flick starring DTVC Hall of Famer David Carradine as an Army colonel sent to rescue some soldiers from a POW camp in the waning days of the Vietnam War. It's a setup, and Carradine finds himself a prisoner among the troops he intended to save, including DTVC favorite Steve James and Philippine 'Namsploitation mainstay Jim Gaines. The man running the prison camp, Mako, has family in Miami that he'd like to join, so he cuts a deal with Carradine: you get me to Saigon, and then to America, and I'll help you escape. Things go wrong though, and now Carradine and his troops need to navigate the dangerous countryside and make it to the coast to rendezvous with some choppers that will get them the hell out of there.



Definitely worth the dollar, and probably worth a few more, this one delivered. Great Philippine 'Namsploitation from Cannon, plenty of exploding huts and other action, Carradine is great as the main hero, Mako as the baddie, and Steve James in a supporting role. Near the end there's a bit of dead spot on the way there, which could cause your buddies' ADD to act up, but if they can persevere, this is the kind of movie you came for. Just a lot of fun.

David Carradine was about fifty when this was made, and he did joke at one point "I'm getting too old for this shit", to which Steve James gave him a knowing smirk and head nod. He still carries the day with this "I get shit done" demeanor and screen presence, the kind of thing he took with him somewhat to Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, but was able to flourish much more in a role like this. By the end, when he's running around with a machine gun shooting up Filipino stuntmen, then he sees a tattered American flag flying on a pole that he takes down and drapes over his shoulder, we're all in and loving it. A great Carradine vehicle here.



Steve James has a smaller supporting role, but unlike his other supporting roles where it feels like he should be the main star, his character works better here as a guy supporting Caradine. His character gets who Carradine is right away, and Carradine's gets him, and they know that each other will make a great asset in getting the whole crew out alive. I just love Steve James so much, and he's great here. Also love Mako as the baddie. Unfortunately all three of this film's main stars are no longer with us.

Watching this, especially at the end with the American flag stuff, it had me thinking: what do people in other countries that watch these films think of that kind of thing? What about the 'Namsploitation genre in general. It has a certain connotation in the States, but 'Nam was our thing. Is it just that there's a universal language in exploding huts? Not only that, but a lot of them only exist today in the form of Japanese or Dutch VHS, so it's as if they're more popular abroad than they are here. It's fascinating, on top of the fact that movies themselves are often very fun. Any of my readers from outside the States, let me know what you think about this.



Speaking of Philippine 'Namsploitation, check out the dude to the right, Jim Gaines (credited as James Gaines). I'm sure if you've seen any amount of these films that you recognize him. Unfortunately, at least as far as I could tell, there was no Vic Diaz too, so that was a disappointment. Gaines only had a very small role, appearing in a few scenes, never having a close-up, and playing a character listed in the credits as "POW #5", but it's always fun to see guys like this in a movie like this.

This is on DVD under the Attack Force 'Nam title, or it can be found on VHS under P.O.W.: The Escape. I'm not so sure you need to go out of your way unless you're a big time collector and want to add it on VHS, but definitely, if you're making your way through a VHS bargain bin and see it, don't hesitate to pull the trigger. This is a worthy find.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091713/

Strike Commando 2 (1988)

This is the second of two Strike Commando films sent to me by our buddy from Down Under over at Explosive Action, so we thank him again for that. I watched it the first time with a friend while we were house sitting over a year ago, so that just shows you what my To Watch list looks like when something like this can be lost in the shuffle for so long.

Strike Commando 2 I guess picks up sometime after part 1, only now instead of Reb Brown, we have Brent Huff as our hero, Michael Ransom. His old major, Vic Jenkins (played by none other than Richard Harris--yes, that Richard Harris!) is kidnapped, and Ransom has to pay a ransom of $9 million in diamonds. Along the way, he picks up sexy spitfire Rosanna, and both the action and the sexual tension heats up as the two brave the wild Filipino--err Vietnamese--jungle and try to bring Richard Harris back safe and sound.

This is a great time. No, it's not the total classic Strike Commando is, but it's very serviceable for a Bruno Mattei under the name Vincent Dawn Vietnamese actioner shot in the Philippines. Brent Huff works, even though he's not Reb Brown, the Richard Harris factor never ceases to be puzzling and fantastic--seriously, what the hell was he doing in this?--and the silly Romantic Comedy element between Huff and Mary Stavin (Rosanna) is equal parts something to laugh at and something that's actually charming. Then there's all the stuff you want from this, like the rip-off plot--lots of Indiana Jones especially--the inappropriate music, which sounded like something you'd hear in a kids' movie fantasy romp scene where something magical and wondrous is happening, mainstays like Vic Diaz, and then all the stuntmen craziness and explosions you can cram into 90 minutes--Mattei even went the "ninja" route, simply using it as a ploy to double up on stuntmen by obscuring their faces so we can't see that they were just shot two scenes ago.

I'm serious, Richard Harris is in this. What was he doing? A friend told me a story about how his grandfather, back in the 50s, was drinking with some of his buddies, and one of them got really drunk. Long story short, his grandfather was rich, and he and his friends sent the guy on a plane to Havana, his grandfather footing the bill. I have to imagine that's what happened here, Harris was on a bender, and some of his rich actor friends sent him to Manila. Once he sobered up, he was probably like "fuck it, I might as well make some cash," or maybe Mattei offered to pay his ticket back. I mean, did he really take this gig on his own accord? Did the same agent who booked him Harry Potter book him Strike Commando 2?

If, in a sequel, you're going to take the lead star a step down, I think Brent Huff is a sold step down from Reb Brown. Maybe not Ted Prior good, but good enough. I had a lot of fun with him here at least. The best was when he'd yell at Mary Stavin when the two were in Romantic Comedy mode, because he was trying to sound exasperated, but it came off more like he had Tourette's syndrome or was hard of hearing or something. There was also an element of the tongue-in-cheek here as well, as if he were really playing the action lead to the hilt, which was great too.

I think it's a movie like this that makes me wonder where the art of the B-action film is going, because it's hard to find something this fun being made anymore. So many are just these overproduced, MTV-style edited, with a bad soundtrack and an even worse plot that dominates the movie more than some quality, fun action. Mattei has it figured out: throw some famous movie plots into a meat grinder, hire a bunch of local extras, and blow shit up. And the thing is, it really works. DTV movie houses need to go back to their roots and stop thinking they can put lipstick on a pig, when their audience doesn't want them to to do that.

The Romantic Comedy element led to an interesting dynamic as far as the lead female role in this movie went. It wasn't as simple as boy meets girl, boy likes girl, girl gets kidnapped, boy rescues her. Both were pretty much equals, and Mattei pits the two against each other as if they were in their tenth year of marriage. Even the scene here, where Mary finds herself bound and gagged in the back of a truck that Huff is driving--long story short, the work of ninjas--it's not played as a damsel in distress, but more like Mattei telling us "sometimes I'd like to do this to my wife when she's giving me a hard time! But in the end, I still love her." I'd like to see to some degree we in the States get to that level of interplay between male and female in our B-movies, but I think it takes someone with a European sensibility to make that happen.

The version of this that I received was a DVD burn off a Japanese VHS rip, which is probably roughly how you'd have to track this down. For our readers in the States, there is the bonus that we both use the same format; and in getting a Japanese VHS shipped to you, there's less worry about breakage, because they make their tapes much sturdier than we make ours (this sounds like the Japanese vs. American car debate from the past 30 years, huh?). Anyway, I wouldn't spend too much unless you're a heavy duty collector, but if you are, this is one worthy of your collection.

Note: Severin Films now has a Blu-ray of this.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098398/

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/

Strike Commando (1987)

This was another one of the films our buddy from down under, Sutekh, sent us in a package that also contained Deadly Prey and Robowar. Like Robowar, Strike Commando is a Japanese VHS rip, which comes complete with Japanese subtitles. If you want you can check out his review of both this and the sequel, at his site, Explosive Action.

Strike Commando stars DTVC favorite Reb Brown as Sgt. Michael Ransom, the best guy we got, doing special forces work in Vietnam. He ends up stranded, thought to be dead, after a mission goes wrong-- because evil colonel Christopher Connelly screwed it up. Now Reb is back at the US base, and he has proof that the Russians are involved. Connelly wants more proof, so he sends Brown back in, only for him to get captured and tortured by the evil Russian officer Jakoda. Problem is, all they've done is awoken a sleeping bear, because Reb Brown is pissed, he's armed, and he's beefy, and everyone's gonna pay!



This is fantastic in every way imaginable. Is this good Reb Brown? No, it's great Reb Brown. Is this great Bruno Mattei? No, it's exceptional Bruno Mattei. Is this a good Vietnam War in the Philippines movie? No, it's pretty much as good as it gets. This is just the perfect get your buddies together and laugh at the screen kind of film. I know my buddy and I watched it while he was house sitting last year, and we loved it. It might be a difficult one to find, but if you can get it, by all means.

What do you think of when you hear the name Reb Brown? Beefiness combined with screaming, right? And this has all of that. I uploaded the end fight scene with the major baddie (you can check it out on the image page), but I easily could've uploaded seven or eight more. There's the torture montage, which shouldn't have been funny, but was. Or the tearful goodbye where Reb Brown tells a kid all these lies about Disneyland as the kid dies in his arms. Come to think of it, any scene with Reb Brown in it in Strike Commando is great. (I don't want to give away the context of that first image above, but it's equally fantastic.)



This is only the second Bruno Mattei film we've looked at, the first being Robowar-- and both with him credited under the pseudonym "Vincent Dawn". That number will only go up as we swim in more of his circles, but his movies aren't exactly the easiest things to find either. He passed away in 2007, and of his last five or six films, I'm not sure that any were released in the United States. At the very least, we still have Strike Commando II to cover, so we're not done with him yet.

Christopher Connelly plays the bad colonel. If you've watched any TV shows from the 1970s, you'd recognize him. He passed away shortly after this was made, though there were two other films released after his death, Night of the Sharks, co-starring Treat Williams and Antonio Fargas; and Django II, starring Franco Nero and Donald Pleasence-- both films were Italian productions, though neither were directed by Mattei.



The best judge of an action film is how many end fights they have-- and how great they are. This has two-and-a-half, each one better than the first. I uploaded the first one, with big baddie Jakoda. Then he has one against the American that double-crossed him. Then he has a half of one after that against Jakoda, just to finish things off. This is a very important lesson for people who drag their films on. First, if you cut down on the boring early on, you can get away with multiple endings; but second, and most importantly, each one needs to be better than the first. If you're thinking of drawing your film out more, go to Strike Commando for a clinic on how to do it properly.

This can either be purchased on VHS, or is available on a big Grindhouse collection, which the reviews of on Amazon describe it as varying in quality. Really, anyway you do it, this is very worth it. It's some of the best Reb Brown you can ask for.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094059/

Robowar (1989)

Our buddy from down under, Sutekh, who runs the great blog Explosive Action, sent me a copy of this along with a bunch of others, including Deadly Prey, almost a year ago. Don't ask me why it's taken me so long to get this and the others he sent me reviewed up here, I guess it's always a matter of timing, but we're finally making it happen.

Robowar is 85 percent Predator, 12 percent Robocop, and 3 percent Philippines Vietnam War film (which equals 100 percent awesome by my calculations, but we'll get to that in the next paragraph). Reb Brown plays the head of a rag tag bunch of ass kicking special forces dudes sent into the jungle after what they think is a band of guerrillas. Not the case, it's actually a cybernetic killer created by the US military that needs to be tested by the best the Army has to offer. Will our boys figure out what they're up against before it's too late? Is it too late anyway?

Did I mention this was awesome? Yes, in a Deadly Prey or R.O.T.O.R. sense, but still awesome just the same. Reb Brown is Reb Brown, and everything else is as simply fantastic as that synopsis above would suggest. I watched it initially about a year ago with a buddy while he was house sitting, and we were in agreement, this belongs up there with some of the best bad movies ever.

Yep, that's Reb Brown in a belly shirt. And yes, Reb Brown screams a lot in this movie. And no, he doesn't wear the belly shirt the whole time, this scene is the last time we see it. And yes, Reb Brown screams a lot. Did you know this is only the second film of his we've done? I think it's just a by-product of the fact that a lot of his movies are in that third or fourth tier--maybe fifth tier--and we're still working our way through the first and second tier of the DTV world. As we get more films of Hall of Famers out of the way, and as I finally give up on those new punchfighting movies, I'll make more room for Reb Brown on here, something that's probably been long overdue. Besides, Sutekh also sent me Strike Commando, so we'll always have that bad boy.

This is Jim Gaines. He had a significant role in the Gary Daniels classic Final Reprisal, and he's something of an icon in the Philippine cinema world, though if you look at his IMDb bio, he has as many bit parts and cameos as he does big roles like he did here and in the Daniels film. Also of note on his IMDb bio: he apparently was in the new The Rock movie Faster. I haven't seen it yet, but even if the movie sucks, the fact that he's in it, for however long he's in it, is awesome. Here's to you Jim Gaines, you're one of the good ones.

Another one of the good ones: Catherine Hickland, who plays Virgin. I think it was supposed to be Virginia, but that's what they listed her as in the credits. I guess it's apt, considering the land of Virginia was named after the virgin Queen Elizabeth. Anyway, I thought I recognized her as a Soap actress, and I was right, One Life to Live, but even better, she was married to The Hoff, as in David Hasselhoff, and co-starred in a couple episodes of Knight Rider, including one where The Hoff infiltrates a rock band. Now she's married to a dude whose real name is Michael Knight, but I guess she filed for divorce there too.

I wanted to point out this scene, because it hit me, the reason why these movies from the 80s and 90s worked so well, and these newer ones don't so much. You can say what you want about Bruno Mattei, good or bad, or about Albert Pyun, or about any other B-movie director, but the one thing they always are is a movie director, not a music video director. I mean, would we see a scene like this in a modern DTV flick? Not just the skull rock, but holding on the shot, and holding on it for more than .1 seconds. I think if you're an quick-cut filmmaker, you should watch Robowar and know that you're not better than this, as much as you'd like to think you are.

Obviously this is a tough find. Sutekh sent me his copy of a Japanese VHS--it even had the Japanese subtitles. Amazon doesn't have it, but it is on YouTube as of the writing of this post, cut into multiple parts, and with the same Japanese subs. I won't put the link, just because those things change as people add and close accounts, but if you go to YouTube and type in Robowar, it'll pop up.

Note: updating this post in 2024, Severin Films has a Blu-ray version.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096000/

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/

Final Reprisal (1988)

According to imdb, Final Reprisal was the second film Gary Daniels made, but it's actually the first, and the other one, The Secret of Mahis Island, he made soon after. As an aside, I haven't been able to find The Secret of Mahis Island, which could eventually prove to be a problem depending on when we get around to finishing off his DTV filmography.

Final Reprisal has Gary Daniels as a Marine in Vietnam, sent to take out a bunch of North Vietnamese leaders at a meeting. Turns out the meeting is postponed (those things are almost always postponed for one reason or another), and Daniels's crew is trapped in a North Vietnamese fortress. As luck would have it, the defense minister who lives there also has a daughter, very young, like a preschooler, and he's very fond of her. Daniels and his two remaining men take the girl as a hostage, escape, then run over a mine, which blows up their jeep and separates them. When the minister and his soldiers arrive, the girl has been shot through the head, and as luck would have it for him, one of Daniels's men, his best buddy, is wounded and ripe for capture and torture. Fast forward five years, and Daniels has a wife and kid, and a job training the special forces in Thailand. When the old buddy shows up out of the blue, it seems great-- until Daniels and his family are attacked. His wife and son don't survive, and now Daniels wants his... final reprisal... or does the North Vietnamese defense minister?...



For what this was, a no-budget late 80s bad actioner from the Philippines, it actually wasn't bad. Bad acting? Yes. Bad script? Yes. Bad special effects? Yes. Bad Foley? Yes. A timeline that either doesn't work, or everything in the film is anachronistic? Yes. But if you're going into late 80s bad action from the Philippines, are you expecting anything less? What surprised me was how solid Gary Daniels was as a leading man. No, he couldn't mitigate the poor script, but can he now either? But there was no sense that he wasn't the man we loved in the 90s into the 2000s. His martial arts were solid, his screen presence was all you could ask for. It wasn't so much DTVC Hall of Famer in the making, it was more like DTVC Hall of Famer already there.

And I guess why I was surprised by how much of a star he proved to be in Final Reprisal is that in a lot of his other early films, like Ring of Fire or Deadly Bet, he's barely in them, and I can't figure out how that could happen if anyone casting any of these films had seen him in this. The only thing I can think is that Capital Punishment didn't do anything for them, but even then, that doesn't excuse, for instance, the scant part he had in Bloodfist IV, or that he wasn't the lead heel in Ring of Fire. Here's an interesting question for everyone, who's had the better career, Daniels, or Don "The Dragon" Wilson?



One of the most difficult moves to pull off in an action film is the bad guy revenge on the good guy, especially when it involves the bad guy losing a loved one. Here they tried to mitigate it, in part by saying the bad guy was falsely accusing Daniels for killing his daughter-- sketchy at best, considering he did take the daughter hostage, and in a court here in the States, that would be enough to convict him as an accessory to the murder, even if he didn't pull the trigger; and in part, by playing up anti-communist sentiments. I guess a dead 4-year-old, if it's a dead commie 4-year-old, counts less than an American 4-year-old. Anyway, if Daniels wasn't awesome in this, I would have been rooting for the baddie-- Daniels's awesomeness saved the film.

Often, I have very little to report to my straight female and gay male readers in terms of gratuitous PNA (pecs and ass). Usually you get the hero shirtless, but after that, it's all for us straight guys and lesbian women, with naked hot chicks all over the place. None of that here beyond a couple naked strippers at a bad club, but for the other half of my audience, you get some Gary Daniels bare buttocks. Shower scene with his buddy, no curtains in either stall. And here you thought you only got that kind of action in a Van Damme movie.



Finally, Miami Vice, while waning in popularity here in the US in 1988, was I guess just getting started in the Philippines, because near the end, they decked Daniels out in a Crockett special. They even went with the perfect undershirt in exactly Crockett's style. I don't know if you've seen that asinine LeBron James commercial where he whines to us because we don't like him anymore, but the Don Johnson cameo is great. If LeBron was half the cat Johnson is, my Celtics wouldn't have destroyed his Cavs in last year's playoffs.

Okay, I'm way off topic now, so let me reign it in. This is hard to find, but worth it. It would be worth it on it's own as a Daniels flick, but this has the added bonus of being Daniels's first flick. Total fun time, Rambo and Commando rip-off, with zero budget, and bad everything-- except for an awesome Daniels, and that's plenty.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0832300/

American Ninja (1985)

I don't really remember when I first saw this amazing classic. I wasn't that old, I know that. It was one of those movies we really weren't supposed to watch, but did anyway, sneaking over to a friend's house before his parents got back from work and catching it on HBO. Either that, or we'd rent it during a big sleep over night. It's the perfect movie for a ten year old, even if it is a little violent.

The first installment of the American Ninja series introduces us to Joe, the American Ninja, played by DTVC Hall of Famer Michael Dudikoff. Here, he's a mysterious amnesiac with amazing martial arts skills. During a hijacking of a military convoy, he rescues the Colonel's daughter, played by Judie Aronson from Weird Science. She's very upset by his rough treatment of her, until she sees his ripped abs, and then she falls in love with him. No one's happy with his heroics when he gets back to base, except for her, and a dude named Jackson tries to kick his ass. He fails miserably, and as a result, he and Dudikoff become fast friends.



As you can imagine, the hijacking was planned by the Colonel and his sergeant in order to funnel weapons to an arms dealer, who is supported in his endeavor by a master ninja and his myriad trained underlings. Only the master ninja and Jackson understand how good Dudikoff is, and so Jackson helps him while the master ninja tries unsuccessfully to kill him. Finally a mysterious bald Japanese man who looks like Gabe Kaplan gives Dudikoff his memory back and a whole bunch of ninja equipment, so he can beat the baddies, save the girl, and win the day.

Dudikoff's American Ninja is what we in the biz call a five tool hero: he's a great warrior, great driver of trucks and crotch rockets, has a genius level IQ, has amazing power over women, and practices magic. The magic part may not be clear, but it simply means he can make bullets miss, cause cars that hit trees head on to explode... that kind of stuff. Today, film makers try to make us take their movies more seriously, so they may remove one or more of those tools. It's kind of too bad really.

This film was made in 1985, and nothing in the film reflects the times more than the Colonel's daughter. Played by Judie Aronson from Weird Science, she's a throwback to a time when women wore baggy tops, skirts and dresses that went below their knees, and overly feathered hair. I'm not saying I like the way women dressed then better than now or vice-versa, but I am saying it doesn't matter what women wear, men will still find them hot. I think that's an important point: women and gay men decide what women wear, not straight dudes.

Ninjas were everywhere in the 80s. As a kid, ninja was behind fireman and baseball player on my list of things I wanted to be when I grew up. If I wasn't watching a movie with the Coreys in it, I was watching something ninja, or playing ninja video games. This movie just added to the ninja mystique. In the opening scene, the army dudes are easily beating the armed hijackers, but when the ninjas show up, with their no guns and prehensile chains, the American military was no match. It was like the ninja could do anything.



As an adult, this film is pure silliness, and I think that makes it all the more enjoyable. Dudikoff as the guy with no past who has amnesia and doesn't know why he has such great skills; the master ninja shooting lasers out of something on his hand; how quickly the female lead changed her attitude toward our hero once she saw the abs; and more than anything else, the sheer volume of explosions and gun shots, most of which Dudikoff avoids. The plot is simple, doesn't get in the way, and is sufficiently stupid.

I'm not sure it gets much better than this classic. If you're a fan of bad action, you need to have this in your collection. It's like being a fan of Fellini, and not having La Strada. You shouldn't have to pay more than $10 for it, and I think it may be boxed with part 2. Renting it isn't enough, you have to own this bad boy.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088708/

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/