The Driver (2019)

In our goal of getting Mark Dacascos into the 30 Club by the end of the year, and in my attempt to take advantage of the cheap Starz subscription I've got right now, and considering I'd been meaning to do this one for a while anyway, I figured it was time to finally make it happen. Also, the screenplay was written by a fellow Pear Tree, so I have to support that. 

The Driver has DTVC Hall of Famer Mark Dacascos as "The Driver," also known as "Dad," a guy with a certain set of skills who works as the driver and head of security for a small community of people who have barricaded themselves against the zombie apocalypse. When things go sideways, The Driver has to escape with his daughter Bree (Noelani Dacascos). His plan is to take her to a place called "Haven," a possible myth, but also a possible safe zone where more humans are living away from the zombies. The thing working against him: he's been bitten, and only has so much time before he turns. This means he needs to take as much advantage of the time he has left to show his daughter how to take care of herself after he's no longer there.

This is Wych Kaos at his most Kaos-ian, which I think contributes to the low IMDb user rating despite me enjoying it. It's got action elements, it's got zombie elements, but then it has this human drama element that Kaosayananda really wants the movie to be about, and I don't even know that he wants to package the human element inside a zombie actioner, I think this is how he wants the movie to be. And the thing is, it all worked for me, but I think that's because I'd been seeing more of his work, not only as a director but a cinematographer, where I think he really earns his money, and I think because of that I have a better sense of how he wants to make a movie. The thing is though, how do you package that? You have Mark Dacascos in a great performance, but he's known for his next-level martial arts ability, not for acting opposite his real life daughter and playing a father who knows he's going to die soon and is teaching her how to shoot a gun. I think if people know going in that there's some of the Mark Dacascos action star, but overall it's more a dramatic role, at the very least fans of his would watch this and appreciate what he, Kaos, and everyone else were trying to do, and even if that's a slim audience, sometimes it's about making the movie you want to make and letting the audience come to it instead of thinking about the audience ahead of time. (Easy for me to say though, I'm not dealing with the savage reviews on IMDb after putting myself out there.)

We're now at 27 films for Mr. Dacascos, and out of those, this doesn't reach the highs of a Drive or Crying Freeman, and I'd probably put something like Sabotage above it too--though we get a callback to that movie when Dacascos is showing his daughter how to shoot with a scope, and he tells her to keep it away from her to avoid the "idiot cut"--but I thought his performance was a better realization of what he and Kaos were going for in One Night in Bangkok. Kaos really leans on Dacascos to make this movie work, and the sense I got in watching him was that Dacascos relished the opportunity to be leaned on like that. The other thing I thought he did a good job of was divorcing himself from his character, even though he was acting opposite his real life wife and daughter. There were moments where he had to pull from that reservoir to get the emotion he needed out, but this character is not exactly a good guy, and as the movie unfolds his humanity is revealed, which wins us over, but it's a strange alchemy that we don't generally get in a movie like this, and Dacascos had to work to walk that tightrope to make it a success. As I said above, if you're a fan of Dacascos you need to see this, and while it may not be a favorite, you'll at least appreciate the performance.

This is the fourth film Wych Kaosayananda's directed that we've reviewed on the site, with another three films of his that he was cinematographer as well, and I think it's that acumen as a cinematographer that makes his films so interesting. There are moments where he's literally telling the story through his cinematography, which is something I picked up on more here than in the other films of his I've watched, and like One Night in Bangkok, Dacascos is good at performing in these scenes where there isn't any dialog, and Kaos is using his cinematography to advance the plot. I went back to my reviews of the other three directed films of his we've covered, which in addition to One Night in Bangkok are Tekken 2 and Zero Tolerance, and I found that I wasn't as hard on them, especially the latter two, as I'd thought, so maybe by this fourth one I was primed to watch his movies and understand better his unique perspective to filmmaking. 

Another interesting element to this film is it was supposed to be the third film of a planned trilogy, of which the first film, Paradise Z, came out a year later, and the second film, The Rider, hasn't been shot yet, and isn't even listed as an in development credit for him on IMDb. What that means is, at the end when he's tying the three films together, because we're watching this out of order, it creates a deus ex machina moment as the characters from the other movies step in to help out the current characters when all hope appears to be lost, because we've never seen them before. I almost think it's more Kaos that they're out of order than if they'd been filmed and released in the order they were supposed to be. Eventually I'll see Paradise Z, and hopefully someday The Rider will be produced as well, because this first one was compelling, and I'd like to see how the rest of it plays out.

Finally, I mentioned in the first paragraph that a fellow Pear Tree wrote the screenplay for this, that's because my last name, Poirier, is French for Pear Tree, and the screenwriter for this was Steven Poirier. According to IMDb the only two films he's written are this and Paradise Z. In his IMDb bio, he said he's descended from Acadian French who came to Nova Scotia from France in the 17th century, and I had recently done some research on my lineage and discovered I too was descended from Acadian French who came here in the 17th century, only my line moved to Quebec in the 18th century. Wonders never cease, but it's great to see a Poirier making it happen.

And with that, let's wrap this up. This is currently in Starz Purgatory, but hopefully it'll be back on Tubi soon. I think if you're a Dacascos fan, this is worth checking out, you'll appreciate it.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9272568

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

Dragstrip Girl (1994)

When I saw this movie I thought it would be perfect for my Mark Dacascos review as we try to get him into the 30 Club. It was directed by Mary Lambert, one of my favorite directors and someone whose work I've wanted to cover more of, and despite the fact that it was a TV movie, I figured direct-to-Showtime and direct-to-video are pretty similar. Then I discovered this movie was part of a series of movies on Showtime called Rebel Highway, so it's even more like a TV series than a DTV movie. I guess my rules were made to be broken, so why not?

Dragstrip Girl is not a remake of the 1957 film, but rather is about young man named Johnny (Dacascos) who dreams of leaving the world he inhabits as a Mexican American in 1950s Los Angeles, to join the rich elite he sees when he parks their cars at their fancy clubs. In particular he's taken a shine to high school girl Laura Bickford (Natasha Wagner Gregson), and concocts a way to lie and con her into loving him. At the same time, to sell his lie, he's stolen a nice car, and the cops are looking for it. As he gets the girl, everything else crashes down around him. Will he manage to make it all work?

This was a fascinating movie. As someone who enjoys the source material, 1950s low-budget genre movies, it felt like Mary Lambert nailed a lot of it, including the bad parts, like the loose ends of the story flying together in the last five minutes, or the massive both figurative and literal right turn the thing takes at the end. The other thing I appreciated in both her direction and Jerome Gary's writing was the ambiguity in Johnny, which Dacascos pulled off well in his performance. There are times where we root for him, which makes sense with him as the lead, but also plenty of times where we want Laura or his previous girlfriend Pearl (Maria Celedonio) to get away from him. And Lambert doesn't shy away from any of this, like when Johnny and Laura have sex, Laura says to him "don't ever lie to me," when Johnny knows full well he's been lying to her this whole time; but then Lambert takes these issues regarding consent where a 21-year-old has conned a 16-year-old into being with him, and while in the construct of this movie is brushing them aside with Laura telling Johnny after the fact "you should've just told me the truth," but she still loves him, we still feel that lack of consent and manipulation hanging over things. The other part of this is Johnny's identity, and Lambert doesn't shy away from that either, as Johnny aspires to be a part of this rich, white world, he's casting aside Pearl for the symbol of that rich, white world, Laura, but Pearl doesn't disappear from the film, reminding us of what Johnny is forsaking in his aspirations, which, again, makes us not want to root for him. It definitely has its flaws, and whether those flaws are intended or not, they're there; but for me the ambiguity Lambert infuses into the whole thing makes this work in a way other movies like it wouldn't.

I originally thought we were now at 25 films for Mark Dacascos, which would've meant I did my math out wrong for getting him in the 30 Club by the end of the year, because if we do one every other month from here out, that would've left us with 29 in November, meaning we'd've had to double up at some point. Then I discovered that we hadn't tagged him for his stunt work in Steele Justice, which means he's at 26, and we're on track for the 30 Club again. This is a unique role for him, no martial arts, a few stunts, but it was more about his acting, which I thought he did a great job with. He gets that Johnny is supposed to be someone we root for at points, but also be someone we look at and say "you're being kind of a jerk, Johnny," or "that behavior's kind of predatory, Johnny." Obviously we like seeing Dacascos show off his next level martial arts skills, but it's nice to see him hit a dramatic role out of the park too. What I would say to that though is, as a dramatic actor, he's good, but as a martial artist, he's one of the best to do it, which is what's always exciting to see from him.

We last saw Mary Lambert here on the site for Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, which was the only other film of hers we've reviewed. I've always known her more for her great music videos, but a film like this is a reason why I'm a huge fan too. In a way she refracts the light off of the lead character, Johnny, and shines it on his two love interests, Laura and Pearl. Not only does he treat them poorly, but they love him in spite of that, and Lambert gives us this without any judgement on either of them. Part of that is the performances too. Natasha Gregson Wagner really plays her character like she's 16, which is even starker when compared to Dacascos's character who's supposed to be 21, but feels older. She's sixteen and feels trapped in her world, and here comes this man in a fancy car to help her escape all that. She doesn't realize what's happening when Dacascos takes her to a Mexican restaurant where everyone he knows hangs out so he can show her off to them. At the same time Pearl is being treated poorly by Johnny too, but there's a part of her that thinks he'll come back to her once he's rejected by the rich white girl and her friends and family, and she thinks he's worth waiting for, even if he's treating her poorly in the process. I don't know if Lambert could've made this movie about Gregson and Celedonio's characters instead inside of this Rebel Highway construct, but I like the way she packaged it as a coming of age story about a guy while ultimately telling the story of the two female leads as well. In a way she subverts the story of the original Dragstrip Girl, which was supposed to be a girl who was a drag racer, but ends up being more about the two guys who have a thing for her.

This is our second Traci Lords film this month, which wasn't something I planned on, but I wanted to do both this film and Intent to Kill, so here we are. She plays Blanche, a friend of Dacascos and his brother Anthony's (Augusto Sandino) mother, and takes them in when she dies. She does a great job playing a high-end sex worker who has clients back to her place next door to them. The weird part is she's younger than Dacascos but playing older, but I can also see how she was right for this role, even if age-wise it was off. We also had Raymond Cruz, who is probably best known for Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, but he had one of the more prodigious CVs of anyone in the cast when this film was made, having been in Clear and Present Danger, and two Seagal films, Under Siege and Out for Justice. You could kind of see the seeds of Tuco Salamanca in this performance here, and I wondered if Vince Gilligan caught this on cable and was like "there's my Tuco Salamanca!" This wasn't his first time on the site either, all the way back in 2008 we reviewed From Dusk Till Dawn II: Texas Blood Money.

Finally, of all the videos Mary Lambert has directed, one I didn't expect was Boz Scaggs's "Heart of Mine," which was off his 1988 Adult Contempo come back album Other Roads. Why is that important? The song was written by one of my favorite artists, Bobby Caldwell, who was a friend of Scaggs, and Scaggs was the one who told him he could make money writing songs for other artists, like himself. I don't remember the song from when it was new, I knew it first from Caldwell's album of the same name, Heart of Mine, where he did his own versions of all the songs he wrote for other artists--one you might know is Al Jarreau's "All or Nothing at All." Anyway, going back to Scaggs, that album had all the hallmarks of that late 80s/early 90s Adult Contempo album from a singer who was big in another era, complete with him in the midlife crisis leather outfit while leaning on the equally midlife crisis-y sport bike on the cover. There were also a bunch of great artists on it, like David Paich, Jeff Pocaro, and Steve Lukather from Toto, and backing vocals from Phil Perry, Siedah Garrett, and James Ingram--who performed on "Heart of Mine." It was the kind of music Boomers of that era loved when they were entertaining--earlier in the evening, of course. Once the wine has kicked in after dinner though, they pulled out Silk Degrees from the collection and cranked "Lido Shuffle" while their teenage kids were rolling their eyes in their rooms upstairs. I'm joking about all this, but I'm older now than Scaggs was in 1988 when he donned that leather outfit and leaned on that motorcycle, knowing full well I'd have been yelling at the photographer "take the picture before I fall over! I can't stand like this anymore!"

And with that, let's wrap this up. Currently this can be rented on Amazon, Xfinity, or other places you rent movies on demand. I don't know if it's worth a rental, but if it comes up on any streamers, I think it's worth checking out--and to be fair, it would be nice if all the Rebel Highway movies ended up on streamers, there were some other great directors involved in those, including William Friedkin.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109662

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

Jade (2025)

This is one Ty and I covered back on episode 232 of the DTVC Podcast, "Rourke to Oblivion," where we looked at two Mickey Rourke movies. With all the other names in this, it was only a matter of time before we gave it a review as well, so here we are. In addition to us, Chris the Brain at Bulletproof Action has covered this too.

Jade has Shaina West as the eponymous hero. She's living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, growing up in the city's seedy criminal underbelly (your guess is as good as mine). Then she ends up with a harddrive that the baddies want, plus her deceased brother's girlfriend is pregnant with his child, so Jade wants to protect her from the baddies too. Anyway, over the course of the next hour or so of the film, she evades the baddies, there's some cutesy, indulgent edits, she gets caught by the baddies, zip-tied to a chair, escapes, and then the process is repeated over again, until she gets a samurai sword and the cutesy, indulgent edits get cutesier and more indulgent, and she defeats the baddies. Then there's some ending padding with people double-crossing her and some loose ends getting tied up. Also Mark Dacascos is an Interpol agent, even though Interpol doesn't have agents.

This could've been an all-time classic, between West, the other stars and all the stunt talent that was lined up for this. But all the cutesy editing diminished it all too much for me. Also, the plot was a mix of convoluted and repetitive, with all these players talking on the phone to each other, double-crossing each other, and getting into stand-offs with each other. Compare this to one that I thought was the year's best, Diablo, where everything was just straight-head, any fancy editing enhanced the action, as opposed to diminished it, and the director, Ernesto Díaz Espinoza, let his stars and stunt teams shine. It's like, "oh cool, another long one-take of West running away, but nothing happening" or "oh cool, they wrote 'fatality' on the wall after she killed someone with a samurai sword," except, that's not what a "fatality" in Mortal Kombat is, it's meant to be an extreme death, like if she'd pulled someone's heart out. I think of another great actioner from 2025, Ballerina, did Chad Stahelski and Darren Prescott load the movie up with cutesy, indulgent edits? No, and they let their stars and their stunt teams shine. All that said, we do get some nice action moments, and despite the film working against her, West does her part to give us a compelling lead. And maybe that's the problem with this film, we've seen myriad films where directors, editors, etc., tried too hard to make it about themselves, but the movies didn't have much going for them anyway, so it wasn't as egregious; but this could've been an all-time classic, so it makes the fact that they couldn't get out of the way more frustrating.

Usually we'd start with the film's Hall of Famer, which here is Dacascos, but I think even he would prefer we start with the star, Shaina West. I said in our Shepherd Code: Road Back review that the search for the next great action star is over, we've found her in West, and I think Jade reinforces that. I was trying to think if other stars had a movie like this where the film was actively working against them, and one where I think it could've would be One Shot and One More Shot, but despite James Nunn using the one-shot look, the fights and action were never diminished by it--in fact in some cases they were enhanced. That tells me that we just need to get West in a Nunn, Espinoza, or Isaac Florentine movie so we can get some all-time classics with her. Anyway, until she gets those roles, this will have to do, and she's great in it.

Mark Dacascos is now at 24 films on the site, which, if we did one of his films every other month for the rest of the year, we'd get him into the 30 Club, which I think is a worthy goal. He plays an interesting character here as an Interpol agent--which Will, from Exploding Helicopter has mentioned before on his podcast, Interpol is not itself a law enforcement organization, it's a resource for international law enforcement agencies to pool resources and information in order to take down transnational crime, so there's no such thing as an "Interpol agent"--but anyway, it's kind of a small part with a couple nice fight scenes and some shootouts. Any Dacascos is good, so we'll take him when we can get him, but if I'm able to hold true to my word in this paragraph, we'll be seeing a lot more of him on the site in 2026.

When Ty and I decided to do a Rourke double feature, we though our usual "on the skids" moniker that we gave to episodes like that didn't fit with Rourke, because he's beyond the skids, so we went with "to oblivion." And while this feels less "to oblivion" than a lot of stuff he's done, I was thinking it's more an exception that proves the rule, but it does look like his more recent stuff has been more a cut or two above the dregs of the DTV world, which is a good thing, because Rourke is still a fun time, no matter how much he's giving to the part. You look at where he was in 2008, The Wrestler put him back on the map, and he does The Informers, plays the main villain in Iron Man 2, and has a small part in Stallone's ensemble hit The Expendables, and then that's it, he falls off the proverbial career cliff. And I think I look at his IMDb bio in the 2010s, it's not so much that he climbed out of the cliff, but the entire DTV film industry fell off the cliff too, so by the 2020s the tier or two above the dregs now had the budgets of what was then the dregs, and they came calling to Rourke again. It feels so Rourke-y, doesn't it? Just keep being you, and wait for the industry to come back.

Finally, this took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is probably most known for Breaking Bad and its prequel Better Call Saul. I've never actually been, my only trip to New Mexico being my visit to Four Corners. As someone who doesn't drive, the fact that they have a train that connects Albuquerque with the state's other big city, Santa Fe, is a plus, plus it just looks like an all around great deal. The corner of it that I walked on in 2012 seemed nice enough anyway. I don't know if it has to do with Breaking Bad, but it looks like a lot more DVD productions are being shot here, with the desert locations doubling for Mexico, California, Texas, or Arizona. The thing I appreciated here was that they used Albuquerque as Albuquerque, it wasn't doubling for something else. This paragraph not brought to you by the Albuquerque Tourism Bureau, but if they wanted to sponsor us I'd be open to it.

And with that, let's wrap this up. You can currently stream this for free on Tubi. I think that's the way to go. West is great, the supporting cast is fun, there's solid stunt work, and you may not be as put off by all the ways the film got in the way of everything as I was. And for our podcast episode, "Rourke to Oblivion," it's episode 232 in the archives.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14469386/

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

One Night in Bangkok (2020)

I saw this was available on HBO Max, and with us needing to get more from newly inducted Hall of Famer Mark Dacascos on the site, it seemed like a perfect match. By the same token, every time I see the title, I get the Murray Head song of the same name stuck in my dome. I haven't had it this bad since Mike Nelson sang the chorus while he and the 'bots were riffing on Alien from LA. Anyway, in addition to us, our friend Cam Sully reviewed this at Action Elite, Matt Spector covered it on Bulletproof Action, and it was done on Roger Ebert's site, so you can go to those places to see what they thought.

One Night in Bangkok is a remake of Collateral, with Dacascos as Kai, a Hawaiian hit man out for revenge. He gets picked up by a ride share driver, and tells her he'll give her six grand if she drives him around for the evening. With a sick brother, this sounds like a great deal for her, until each stop leaves Dacascos more bruised and bloody, making her wonder what he's up to and if this is a good idea. The thing is though, once you let Dacascos in, it's hard to quit him--we've all learned that over time.

 

Where do I go with this one? It's more of a slow burner, which isn't always a bad thing. Also, I was a fan of Dacascos taking on a role that was more than just mean-mugging and beating people up--though I love seeing him do that too. He takes the scene I took a screen of above, where he's just sitting outside the airport waiting for his ride, and makes it something I want to watch, which is not always easy to do. On the other hand, the runtime was a bit long; the director, Kaos, used a split screen effect at times that I felt was distracting and gimmicky; and the dialog left a little to be desired, which, when you're working on a slow-burner, it needs to be better since it's propping up the film more. In fact, there was a lot of non-speaking chemistry between Dacascos and the driver, played by Vanida Golten, and I felt like some of the scenes of them in the car together could have been better without dialog, especially with the great shots of Bangkok at night mixed in. Overall though, I liked this different take on Collateral, and the attempt to go outside the usual tone and style of an action movie, especially with how Dacascos took this part and really went for it.

This is not the first time Dacascos has played a more emotionally complex hit man, and one fun similarity that this film has to Crying Freeman, is Dacascos's wife, Julie Condra, whom he met on the set of that earlier movie, is in this as well--I won't give it away, but just mention she's in this and leave it at that. Again, I can't give away too much of what the movie's about in order to keep it fresh for you if you do decide to see it, which hampers my ability to go too far into why I liked Dacascos's performance, but the coolest part for me is that he's playing someone ten years older than him. We're so used to these aging action stars playing someone younger--Van Damme's character wasn't born in 1960, he was born in 1970; or Seagal playing a 60-year-old active duty soldier--for Dacascos to say "no, make me ten years older; make me a grandfather; don't give me the love scenes with the younger actress," to me is not only refreshing, but shows who he is as a professional. And the dialog issues I mentioned aside, I think he hits this out of the park, which makes it all the better.

 

This is the second Kaos-directed film we've done here at the DTVC, the other being Zero Tolerance with Adkins and Daniels. This one works better, but it has a similar narrative to the other film, so perhaps Kaos has a thing for fathers going on killing sprees for their daughters kinds of story lines. For me, what made this more, was how he made Bangkok a character in the way a Scorsese makes New York City a character. We're so used to Western directors making films in Asia and projecting this "mystery of the Orient" tone that's steeped in Western Imperialism--and to some extent, this is done in a lot of DTV films because the movies are made on the cheap and the studios want every cliche checked off to keep us Western audiences happy. In a way, even the title is a play on that tradition, because nothing typifies that more than the song that the film shares its name with. This is not to say we need to "cancel" all the DTV flicks shot in Asia that traffic in these stereotypes, rather, it's just another thing for us to recognize along with the boom mics and other gaffs we catch as we're watching them.

Kane Kosugi has a really small part in this, despite his name being on the cover. The thing is though, he was a really cool character, so it's kind of too bad he wasn't in it more. I think the issue is, as I watched the movie, I don't know how would Kaos have fit him in. One thing I noticed, is in the IMDb synopsis, and the Roger Ebert site review, Kosugi is incorrectly listed as the cop chasing Dacascos down--and the Ebert reviewer actually calls him "Shane Kosugi," so I wanted to clear that up for anyone who gets confused when they watch this. Another performance I liked in this was Prinya Intachai, who is actually the one who plays the cop chasing Dacascos. He brought a New York sensibility to the proceedings that I thought added a lot of flavor in away that hearkened back to an old hard-boiled NYC detective tradition.

 

Finally, one thing I liked about Dacascos's character was, not only was he Hawaiian, but it was brought up in the film specifically that he was Hawaiian. It's one thing for a movie or TV show that takes place in Hawaii to have Dacascos playing a Hawaiian, but here he was representing Hawaii in Thailand, which I know as a proud Hawaiian he must've appreciated. I also think it helped Kaos in his attempt to divorce this film from the constraints of Western Imperialism, as we're used to seeing the American or European go into Asia and beat up and/or kill a bunch of local baddies and save the girl. By having Dacascos say he's "Hawaiian", he's no longer the ugly American or representing the idea of American exceptionalism against Asia that he would've been if he'd said he was "American." 

All right, it's time to wrap this up. This is still available on HBO Max, and if you have it, I think it's worth checking out. It is a little long, the dialog is a little off, and I could have done without the split screen effect; but overall I liked what Kaos was going for here, and I liked how Dacascos took a part that stretched him as an actor and hit it out of the park.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12192190

And if you haven't yet, check out my novel, Chad in Accounting, in paperback or on Kindle!

Operation Rogue (2014)

In the spirit of getting more Dacascos on the site, I saw this on Tubi and thought I'd give it a shot. The idea is to eventually get all of Dacascos's stuff up on here, so to find a free one on Tubi it's like low-hanging fruit. Often we've found this can also lead to bad results, so I guess the question is what we'll get with this one. In addition to us, our good friends Ty and Brett at Comeuppance have covered this too, so you can go there to see what they thought as well.

Operation Rogue takes place in the Philippines, where--wait for it--a local terrorist group is causing problems, so we need Americans to come in and fight them. Treat Williams is leading the American forces there, with Mark Dacascos as his number one guy. When Treat's daughter--who also happens to be Dacascos's girlfriend--is kidnapped, it goes from imperialist intervention to being personal. After a couple failed escape attempts on her part to pad the film, Dacascos and his men swoop in and save her--only to find him captured, leading to more padding. The question now is, how much torture does he endure before he turns the tables and takes these guys out?

 

This didn't work for me, and I know it probably should have, and maybe I'm being tough on it, especially considering how cynical my description was above. The thing is, the whole "Brown Menace" theme, whether it's in the Philippines, Vietnam, Africa, Latin America, or the Middle East, seems so tired and dated. Throw in the padding that itself was full of however many lazy devices--like the failed escape attempts, with the daughter's weaker friend getting his head chopped off after they get caught one time because he was too weak to wield a gun properly, that way we feel like he kind of deserved it, but also the baddies get to kill someone so they seem baddie enough. When the whole movie has a lot of fun elements, it can overcome those tired standards, but this didn't have enough good Dacascos action; plus the construct of him getting captured at the end also dragged the film out more. This could have been a fun Philippine actioner--and I think a lot of people could find fun in it, but unfortunately it didn't work for me.

Our man Mark Dacascos has a couple good fight scenes, the problem is, in a 90-minute film, he either needs more, or there need to be more people with him to have scenes too. I saw one of Scott Adkins's interview shows recently, the one where he talked to Michael Jai White, and they discussed how, if a movie doesn't work, they get the blame for it. I've never really seen it that way. Mark Dacascos in a movie like this makes it better than it would have been for me if he wasn't in it; and when he's in a movie that's great, it's usually great because of him. The other thing is, I think this movie did work for some people, so it would be even more inappropriate to blame him for a movie that I just didn't care for. I don't know, maybe Adkins and White were right, that people do blame them when the movie doesn't turn out well, and if that's the case, unless we know it's the star's fault, I don't agree with that. I do understand that they want their movies to have great things said about them no matter what, so I do get that no matter how much I say I like Dacascos, if I say I don't care for his movie, he still might take it personally.

 

The other name in this (other than Roger Corman) is Treat Williams. I looked, and while this is his fourth tag on the site, we haven't seen him since September 2007 when we did Gale Force. I know, I know, that's no way to treat Treat. Here he doesn't do much beyond tell Dacascos to bring his daughter back alive, no matter what it takes. I don't know what more I wanted to see from Treat at this stage, but I think what we got here adds to the overall unremarkability of everything. If this had been made in the late 80s/early 90s, Treat's character would have been played by Mike Monty, and it would have been tons of fun. Instead it's just Treat playing a one-note and making a paycheck. It's not Treat's fault, he can only work with what he's given.

And maybe therein lies the rub. If the goal is to pump out something paint-by-numbers on the cheap and on the quick, if it comes out relentlessly unremarkable, what are we supposed to make of it? Do we just accept it and say "it's not bad for what it is"? To a large extent, this film represents a lot of what was wrong with the 2010s. Pump out something unremarkable, splash a couple names on the cover, and call it good. There was no PM of the 2010s out there fighting the good fight; but I think the name Roger Corman still meant something, and I feel like seeing his name on the tin meant we'd get something more in line with the fun of the 90s and less in line with the cynicism of the 2010s. I guess it could be worse, it could've been a Bruce Willis Fake Shemp vehicle.

 

The main problem with a film this unremarkable is it's hard to fill the paragraphs I need to for a review. If it's horrible, I can complain more; if it's awesome, I can continue to extol its virtues; but here we have neither. I guess we could go with the old "Matt, what would you have done better?" There was this tangential chemical bomb plot that I think may have been something better to underpin the film. Just remove the rescuing the daughter thing, and instead maybe have it where she stows away on the transport Dacascos is taking to retrieve the bomb, so the two of them are working together, and the bomb is the thing they need to get. It can get a little jungle-sloggy there, so I think you need a lot of explosions and fight scenes. Also, to remove the "Brown Menace" angle, make Treat the baddie. This way you get more out of Treat, as we know baddies have more places an actor can go with them. He could be more of a scene-chewing baddie than the guy they had in this, and instead the guy they had as the baddie could be Dacascos's superior and father to the daughter character. I think we're getting somewhere now.

Rather than flesh out my entire rework, why don't we wrap this up. Unfortunately it appears that this has been dumped from Tubi, which is no good, because I think paying to rent it isn't the way to go. I think even for the people who enjoyed it, I don't know that it's enjoyable enough to pay for a rental, considering there are so many great ones out there free to stream or included in streaming packages.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3560658

And if you haven't yet, check out my novel, Chad in Accounting, in paperback or on Kindle!

 

Crying Freeman (1995)

It's October at the DTVC, which means Hall of Fame month, and the first of our 2020 inductees is someone whose induction has probably been a long time coming, Mark Dacascos, and what better film to do as his induction post. I had been meaning to make this one happen for a while, and not only did I find it on YouTube, but now Prime has it. Among the many other people who have done this one, we have Ty and Brett at Comeuppance, Cool Target, RobotGEEK's Cult Cinema, and Kenner at Movie's in the Attic, so you can see what they all thought as well.

Crying Freeman is based off of a comic of the same name, which has Dacascos as Freeman, a man turned into a killer by a Triad demon, but still maintains some of his humanity, which causes him to cry when he kills. After sparing the life of a woman who witnesses one of his hits (Julie Condra, who became his wife in real life after), Freeman decides to fight the Triad demons that turned him into a killer. The problem is, the Triads don't want to give up such a weapon, so they try to stop him from retiring. Will our hero get out alive?

 

This is the real deal. I think I have Drive as above this on my Dacascos list, but that's a high bar to be under and no knock on how great this is. To me it's a fantastic combination of style and substance that so few action films embrace fully; but this film not only embraces it, it lives in it. The real shame is that it was never released theatrically here in the States, because it holds up with some of the other 90s greats that got those big screen runs. Beyond Dacascos's performance, Christophe Gans as director brings a unique and compelling vision of the action genre which Dacascos appears to be in lockstep with; and then we have fantastic supporting performances by Mako, Byron Mann, Rae Dawn Chong, and Tcheky Karyo, among others. The whole thing just works.

And with this we're inducting Mark Dacascos into the DTVC Hall of Fame here in 2020. The reality is he probably should have been in sooner based on the career he's had and what he's brought to the table, but I went a few years where I didn't induct anyone, and then a few years where I didn't even post reviews, so that meant people like Dacascos who should have been in missed out, and I'm trying to make up for that starting with this year. When you think action lead, Dacascos is on the short list of the best to do it, and this film really drives that home. A well-deserved and long-overdue celebration of one of the best to do it, and if you're looking to get into his films, this is a great place to start.

 

Another great in this who could be someone to consider for a future induction is Mako, whom we last saw in the PM great A Dangerous Place. He doesn't have a big part in this, but he's still a welcomed sight. As I mentioned above, he was one of many great supporting actors in this, and while this is the Dacascos DTVC Hall of Fame celebration post, it is good to give some shine to actors like Mako who often take on supporting roles, but do them so well that it props up the great performances of the leads. Here's to you Mako, you were one of the great ones.

Again, with this being our Dacascos Hall of Fame celebration post, we also still have our continuing mission to get Byron Mann more recognition, so it's good to do that here in this paragraph. His part isn't as big in this, but he's still great. In looking at his IMDb bio, I'm seeing more major TV roles than DTV movies, which in a way is probably better for his career, but wouldn't it be nice to see him in a good DTV actioner? I know I paired him with Michael Jai White in a previous post, but why not Dacascos? Set it in Honolulu, make it a buddy cop thing, and let them get after it. I know a lot of people who would love to see something like that. They had a great fight scene together on the Netflix series Wu Assassins, along with Iko Uwais, which just makes us want more of that. Maybe Seagal on the tin gets views, but Dacascos and Mann get us to watch and spread the word to get more people to watch.

 

Getting back to Dacascos, sometimes we talk about how people end up doing more DTV stuff and less big screen films, and I think if you put this with Double Dragon you can see what happened for him: Double Dragon ended up being a flop, and this great one never made the big screen here in the States. By the same token, just because he didn't get the big screen leads he deserved, doesn't mean he hasn't had a great career, and I hope this post and his induction into the DTVC Hall of Fame will spotlight that. Dacascos really has been one of the best to do it, big screen or not, and he's provided a lot of great moments for us action fans over the years. Truly a well-deserved honor to get Dacascos in, and again, long overdue.

And with that, it's time to wrap this up. Right now you can stream this on Prime. I can't think of a better way to watch this. And for more talk on Dacascos, you can go to the podcast, where I had Ty and Brett from Comeuppance on to discuss his films. It was a great conversation, and a great place to start for people who want to get more into Dacascos's movies.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112750

Ultimate Justice (2017)

In looking to get more Mark Dacascos on the site, I saw this one on Tubi, with a nice runtime around 90 minutes and also featuring Matthias Hues. Why wouldn't I review this? Also, I was preparing to have Ty and Brett from Comeuppance on the pod to talk about Mark Dacascos, and figured I'd get as many as I could in before that. In addition to us, Simon at Explosive Action has covered this one, so you can go to his site to see what he thought of it. Now, without any further ado...

Ultimate Justice has Dacascos as the head of a mercenary group who decides he's had enough after one of the team gets killed on a mission. So he sells the company at a big profit and has a big party to celebrate, where his business partner Wolfgang Riehm meets a beautiful woman. 8 years later Dacascos meets Riehm at his beautiful house to have dinner with him and his wife, and after he leaves, later that night, some baddies break in, rape and kill the wife, and beat up Riehm. Now Dacascos has to get the gang back together to exact Ultimate Justice!

 

For me, I was of split mind on this one. On the one hand, there was some great action, which I enjoyed; on the other the story was really contrived and to some extent not plausible, and I think it hampered things a bit. Yes, I always say good action outdoes bad story, but this one was a bit too convoluted for me. The other problem was the film's revenge construct meant we lost a lot of great characters just as we began to like them. No spoilers, but in some cases these characters were really put through the ringer, only to just be killed off. When you go down the list of rules for action movies, I think killing off characters with impunity is one we don't see often, but it still counts. Action is similar to horror, in that we in the audience won't always go with you if you kill off characters we like, and this movie didn't seem to care--and for me, the film suffered as a result.

We've seen Mark Dacascos as both the lead hero and the lead baddie, and he does both equally well. In this movie his character is more of a jerk than either of those two, and unfortunately that isn't a good look on him. That may come from the old adage that the best baddies in movies are played by people who are really nice in real life, and Dacascos seems like a genuinely nice person in real life. World domination is one thing, but stealing his buddy's woman didn't seem like good fit for him. On the other hand, the action scenes he has in this are fantastic, and that's really what we come for. I think from that respect, this movie really works, and why I think a lot of people weren't bothered enough by the plot and enjoyed this.

When Ty and Brett came on to discuss Dacascos, I think the main theme was that Dacascos is one of the best out there doing this, and while he should have gotten better big screen roles, his career has by no means not been successful. When we see his name on the tin, we know what kind of electric martial arts he's going to bring, and for us fans of the genre, that's all we ask. This film marks his 20th on the site, so he has some time to go before he hits the 30 Club and beyond, but the DTVC Hall of Fame? I think that could be in his future this fall.

Speaking of tags, this is 15 for Matthias Hues, but I believe this is his first as a good guy. I have to say, I often enjoyed rooting for him as a baddie, so it was nice to be able to root for him guilt free in this one. He has a good amount of stuff out there, especially in those late 80s/early 90s Golden Years of DTV, that I haven't touched yet, so we should be seeing him here a lot in the future. When we look back on the 1000+ posts we've done on the site, Hues is one that, while we don't put him up there with a Dacascos, without him, the 80s and 90s for DTV wouldn't be what we know it as. Oh, and look at the screen I took of him. Best scene since Bolo Yeung was working a food truck in Tiger Claws II.

Finally, we're always talking about who could be in the next wave of great action stars, and one to keep an eye on here was Mike Möller. His martial arts prowess was fantastic, and the scenes he was in were the kind of high octane stuff we want out of a movie like this. I looked online, and he has three more movies on Tubi, one in particular that features Hall of Famers Fred Williamson and Lorenzo Lamas. We'll definitely bump that one up in the queue, and I'll tag Möller now with the idea being that we plan to see more of him in the future.

And on a good note like that, let's wrap this one up. This movie clocks in at a good 90 minutes, and has a pretty nice action quotient; but the story is a bit of a drag, and the film tends to kill people off after having us invest a lot in them, which is a bit of a dirty trick that I don't enjoy. The fact that this is on Tubi and Prime is a definite selling point too. 

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4041476

Sabotage (1996)

I was looking to do more Dacascos--especially a redemption post after Double Dragon--and our friend Ty from Comeuppance Reviews said he was doing a rewatch of this one. It sounded great, and even better, Tubi has it, so I could stream it for free. In addition to Ty and Brett at Comeuppance, Mitch at the Video Vacuum has also covered this, so you can look at what they thought as well.

Sabotage has Dacascos as a special forces soldier who almost dies when a hostage extraction goes wrong. It goes wrong because international assassin Tony Todd makes it go wrong. However many years later, Dacascos is doing private security for a senator, and Todd strikes again, but this time, because Dacascos survives, people think he might be in on it, including FBI agent Carrie-Anne Moss. When it seems like her work is being ignored, she starts to think Dacascos is on to something--the problem is, this thing may go all the way to the top! In addition to these players, Graham Greene and John Neville are lurking about, so their involvement spells more trouble too. Can Dacascos and Moss figure it all out?

I really liked this. It could have had more action, and does slow down a bit in the middle, but what it does that I really like, is it leans on its talent to get through those non-action scenes. Tony Todd is a fantastic villain, giving a masterclass on how a role like his should be played. That's huge, because he makes even "villain planning things" scenes work. Graham Greene is another who's great. He takes the usual banal jerky higher-up probably in on the conspiracy guy, and elevates him beyond the material. Finally, Moss and Dacascos have great chemistry, and with these great villains, it's easy to root for them and want to see them succeed. I think I could have used more Dacascos martial arts, but again, that's a qualm that's mitigated by the other factors above.

As I said, I wanted to have a redemption post for Dacascos, and it's interesting when you compare his career with Carrie-Anne Moss, who only a few years after this is in The Matrix. For Dacascos, this is two years after Double Dragon, and one year after Crying Freeman, the first of which looked like it could be a multiple-film franchise and ended up being a dud; and the second of which wasn't released in the US, meaning the bulk of American film audiences didn't get to see what he could do. This isn't to say Dacascos hasn't had a fantastic career, it's just too bad for someone with his skills and screen presence that he didn't get those big screen leading parts that he deserved. The most recent thing I saw him in was Netflix's Wu Assassin TV show, and the two things I took away from it were, one, it needed more Dacascos, especially in fight scenes with Byron Mann; and two, he was referred to as "an old, bald chef." Bald I can't argue with, but old I can't get behind--50 is the new 40. If I'm that young when I'm old, I'll be very lucky.

As good as Dacascos is in this, Tony Todd really makes it. While this kind of villain can often be a lot of fun, Todd takes it to another level completely. It really is a masterclass, and I feel like anyone playing a similar part in future DTV movies should be forced to watch this to see how it's done. I also think of previous films where Todd played a baddie, like The Debt Collector, and can't believe how this Tony Todd wasn't tapped into to enhance those films. This also underscores how important a good baddie is to make a movie like this work. Had Todd mailed it in, or the part been played by someone that didn't do as great a job, Dacascos still would have been good, but I would've been complaining about the lack of action with this paragraph. Instead I'm saying how great it is, and giving another reason why you should see it.

This though brings up a good point, and that is, with these conspiracy movies, it's hard to balance unraveling the conspiracy with good action, and keep the whole thing around 90 minutes. The problem with modern DTV, is if you get a Tony Todd, you may not have him for a lot of shooting days and a lot of locations, so you have to mitigate that by limiting the screentime and focusing on other aspects of the movie--and that's where you need a bunch of good Dacascos fights to make up the difference. Part of me wants to say, "how do we get modern DTV out of the rut it's in?" but how many DTV movies that were made around the same time this one was did I make the same complaints about? It's the age old issue for DTV--you have to cut corners, the question is, are you able to cut the right ones.

For Carrie-Anne Moss, she was making this not knowing that The Matrix was around the corner. I think the outfits she had to wear in this were probably easier to work in, but beyond that, The Matrix was that explosion that sent her career next level. It's crazy now to think that was 20 years ago, and there was a bit of a dip after, but she was still part of one of the most influential action movie phenomenons ever. Like Dacascos, the most recent thing I saw her in was a Netflix show, in her case she played a cut-throat lawyer on the Jessica Jones show, which I abandoned after the second season due to Netflix Fatigue Syndrome, where I can't handle the ten-hour movie format of their series.

Before I change what is an otherwise positive post into a negative rant, it's probably good that I wrap this up. As of the time I'm writing this, you can watch it for free on Tubi, which is a great deal. This is not an all-out actioner, but the great performances get us over the top.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117533

Double Dragon (1994)

As we continue our five-movie celebration of our 1000th post, we come in with Jeff LoPresto's suggestion with number 1001. Jeff has been a longtime friend and supporter of the site, even sending us screeners and copies of films he had for us review. The thing I couldn't believe when he suggested this was that I'd overlooked it for so long. I think I just assumed it was above the $10 million threshold for a theatrical picture, which wasn't even close to the case. Between that and the Patrick and Dacascos factors, this should have been a post years ago, but in a way perhaps it's fitting to have it here in this celebration. In addition to us, Cool Target Action Reviews has looked at this, so you can go there to see what he thought.

Double Dragon takes place in the near future/now recent past, after an earthquake has decimated LA. Robert Patrick is an evil businessman who got his hands on half of a sacred medallion, which on its own is pretty great, but with the other half makes him omnipotent. The other half is now in the hands of two brothers, and they'll do anything they can to make sure he doesn't get it.

This is one of those ones that, in 1994, wasn't anywhere near as fun as it is now in 2020. For one thing, 1994 was a bit past Double Dragon's prime as a Nintendo game, and as I remember, the franchise itself was trying to find ways to reinvent itself, like pairing with the Battletoads in one effort, so it wasn't the hot property other franchises were then. On top of that, this suffered from what a lot of other video game adaptations suffered from, like the Super Mario Bros. adaptation. It plays fast and loose with the canon, tries to make it on the cheap, and just piles up as many cliches and overused film devices as it can. They also have to be these origin story bildungsroman-type deals where our heroes have to be non-heroes to start and then find their heroism by the end of the film. In 1994 it all adds up to a bile of blah; but in 2020, it's a fun 90s nostalgia romp. Yes, there are still elements that are sauteed in wrong sauce, like Abobo's transformation, and later torture by being fed spinach by Alyssa Milano, but for the most part, even the bad works in that fun 90s nostalgia mode.

According to imdb, the original idea was more along the lines of the game, with Marian, who in the actual version was played by Milano, kidnapped by the Big Boss's gang, and the guys have to fight their way through the gang to get her back. It sounds like one reason why they didn't do that was to keep it PG for kids to watch. The problem is, for a 15-year-old kid like me, the one we got was such a turn-off, and I could go to my video store or fire up cable TV and see plenty of PM Entertainment flicks doing Double Dragon right and awesome. If it had been made more like the actual game, maybe this becomes a minor franchise. Maybe Mark Dacascos, who was 30 at the time, by playing someone who isn't a teenager, is seen as a more serious action lead and gets bigger parts in Hollywood films. On the other hand, if Alyssa Milano is essentially reprising her role from Commando, only now as an adult, maybe she isn't as interested and they need to get someone else. Maybe we don't watch this today with goofy 90s nostalgia, but with a "this is so awesome I used to watch it all the time when it came out" nostalgia.

And that gets to a different point when we look at movies like these, that are, for lack of a better term, flops. The people involved have high expectations for it. For Dacascos, maybe it's to get into that Van Damme/Seagal territory on the big screen. Maybe Scott Wolf is looking combine success here with his new role on Party of Five to be the next Andrew McCarthy. Maybe Alyssa Milano is hoping to move on from her Samantha on Who's the Boss stigma; or Kristina Wagner move past the world of daytime soap operas. Robert Patrick was probably hoping to build off his great turn as the villain in Terminator 2, which was one of the biggest films of the first half of the decade. When a movie like this ends up only grossing $2.3 million worldwide, even in 1994 numbers, it's not just a disappointment for the studio, it can seriously damage careers, or be the thing that keeps the people involved from making that move to the next tier of movie. If this becomes the blockbuster they were hoping for all of those careers are different. When we think of a movie like Pulp Fiction, we think about what it did for people like John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, but look at Ving Rhames or Eric Stoltz--or Tarantino, who is still able to make whatever movie he wants in Hollywood 26 years later.

The two names in this that we know the most on the site are Dacascos and Patrick. For Dacascos, again, the fact that he's playing a teenager at 30 should be considered a stretch; but according to IMDb he sprained his ankle on the set and hid it so he could continue on, meaning he thought this was going to be an important opportunity for him and his career. I saw him recently in Wu Assassin on Netflix, and for me, he was right there with Iko Uwais and Byron Mann as the show's standouts. So on the one hand, we watch this now and joke about how sauteed in wrong sauce it is, but on the other, I can't help but think what this would have meant for his career had it been successful. Same with Robert Patrick. This was a more scenery-chewing villain than the relentless killing machine he played in Terminator 2, but he added a level of fun to it that showed he could have done this villain in any number of great big screen actioners opposite Arnold or Van Damme. I wouldn't say that either career has been a failure after this by any means, but I think seeing them here in '94, you can't help but wonder if this had worked, if we wouldn't have seen them in as many films here on the site.

Finally, back off Warchild, seriously. Would you look at that: Albert Pyun mainstay and DTVC favorite Vincent Klyn is here in a one-scene cameo. How amazing would he have been as a boss-style baddie for Dacascos to have to take out as he fought his way to rescue Marian? Nils Allen Stewart played Abobo before his transformation. Again, another great boss if this were set up more like the video game. Either way, what's great is to see Klyn here during our 1000th post celebration. This is now his 18th tag on the site, which is amazing--and more than many Hall of Famers. Here's to you Mr. Klyn, you're one of the great ones.

And with that, we wrap up another post. Right now you can stream this on Prime and Tubi, so it's there for free to check out. There is also a blu-ray out there if you're looking for something more substantial for your collection. Thank you again to Jeff for suggesting this gem as part of our celebration, and also thank you for all the support you've shown the site over the years--you were one of the earliest. It has always been much appreciated.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106761

Showdown in Manila (2016)

Getting back into things after that long hiatus, I wanted to see what some of the Hall of Famers have been up to, and this one has three: Cynthia Rothrock, Don "The Dragon" Wilson, and Olivier Gruner.  In addition, it has DTVC favorites Casper Van Dien, Mark Dacascos, Tia Carrere, Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa, and Matthias Hues.  I couldn't not review this, right?

Showdown in Manila is about a cop, Alexander Nevsky, who gets his team killed when a bust goes bad.  He starts a PI firm with former LA cop Casper Van Dien, and gets a case dumped in his lap that may get him the revenge on the baddies, Cary Tagawa and Matthias Hues, who killed his team, when Tia Carrere hires them to find the same men who killed her husband, Mark Dacascos.  If Nevsky and Van Dien are going to pull this off, they'll need to call in some DTVC Hall of Famers.

This one was missing something, and I think the problem was there was too much shooting and too little anything else.  And it was that kind of shooting where you see one person firing a weapon in one shot, and then someone else in an entirely different shot getting hit.  The other thing is, when you have the names this had, you need more than just one Mark Dacascos fight and one Cynthia Rothrock fight for that to pay off.  I don't need Olivier Gruner and Don "The Dragon" Wilson to just fire weapons, anyone can do that, I need to see them take out a few guys at once with their martial arts.  I feel bad, because I think I'm judging the movie more on what it could have been as opposed to what it was based on the cast, but the trailer was selling me that too, and in my mind it just didn't quite deliver.

Another issue the film had was, it really was supposed to be Nevsky's, but Casper Van Dien was stealing every scene they were in together.  It made me want more of him, and the scenes that were Nevsky-focused had me waiting for when Van Dien would be back.  Then, as Van Dien is shining in every scene the way he was, I starting thinking "why isn't his character the one this is centered around?  He's more compelling."  That's a situation you never want to be in.  If you look at another "showdown" movie, Showdown in Little Tokyo, Brandon Lee was fantastic, but Dolph could carry it so well that they played off each other and the whole thing worked.  The other thing is I think Dolph had had more acting credits at that point than Brandon Lee, whereas Casper Van Dien has been around much more than Nevsky, and it showed in their scenes together.

Alexander Nevsky has made a few films over the past five years, and I think he could, with the right material, be one of those actors after Scott Adkins and Michael Jai White who could carry the torch after some of the old guard have retired--and to some extent, I think this movie was a bit of a passing of the torch with the names who were supporting him.  The problem Nevsky faces was staring at him in the person of Matthias Hues: the bad guy is usually the hulking Eastern European, and a lot of the stars working with him in this picture made their money taking down their share of Alexander Nevskys in their careers.  What that means is he's working uphill versus the high-octane martial arts of Adkins and White that make more sense to us as action fans.  I would add a Tony Jaa to that list.  I'm not saying I don't think Nevsky can have a career in DTV action, I personally would love to see him make it, I just think he needs the right material as he gets his feet under him, and I don't know that this film was it.

As we discussed, there are three DTVC Hall of Famers, and all three of them come in for the jungle scenes in the last half-hour or so.  Part of the reason why all three of them are Hall of Famers is we're used to them leading their own films--Gruner has 20 films on the DTVC, Rothrock 28, and Wilson 30.  You could also add Dacascos and his 16 films to that list, but seeing that he was also directing, his smaller role was more understandable.  The point I'm making is, adding headliners to this movie without giving them headliner roles I think brings us back to the idea that this film feels like it could have been more.  For example, Cynthia Rotherock had a good fight scene where she took out a bunch of henchmen, but that's the kind of scene an up-and-comer should get to show us what she's got, not someone who has helmed 5 DTV action franchises: China O'Brien, Rage and Honor, Martial Law, Lady Dragon, and Tiger Claws.  She's one of the biggest reasons why I got into DTV action, and to see her in this small role supporting Nevsky didn't feel right.  Same could be said of Don "The Dragon" Wilson and Olivier Gruner.  We may see more of this kind of thing going forward, where DTVC Hall of Famers take smaller supporting roles, and I don't know how we mitigate this issue of how much we're used to them being the lead, unless you only have them be baddies.  I'm not saying I need them in roles where they do a fight scene every 10-15 minutes--they've already done plenty of those for us, and plenty of great ones at that--, but I think you have to give the audience something they can really sink their teeth into so they leave feeling satisfied.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****SPOILER ALERT*****SPOILER ALERT*****
I wanted to discuss the very end of the movie, so if you don't want to know what happens, don't read this paragraph.  The way the film ends, the guys capture Tagawa, and take him back to Manila, where Matthias Hues has been lying in the trunk of their car.  They have the guys in handcuffs sitting in chairs in their office, when Tia Carrere's character comes in, and shoots them both in cold blood.  I don't want to get into the idea of victim's rights in real life, and whether or not a victim's family should have the right to get revenge like this.  Real life is one thing, but a movie is different, and it seems off when the heroes do it.  Again, this isn't real life, Mark Dacascos didn't really die, so in the construct of a movie, I think you have to have the baddie go for a gun or do something threatening to justify killing them.  They can't be restrained and defenseless, it just doesn't play well, at least to me.
*****END SPOILER*****END SPOILER*****END SPOILER*****

For me, I unfortunately can't fully recommend this.  It had its moments, but I feel like the bigger cast made me wish they had done more.  I like Nevsky, and think he could have a big future, but there were a lot of names that overshadowed him.  In fact, many of the big names made their careers in films where they defeated Nevsky-types, and I think that undermined what they were going for.  You can find this on Amazon Prime, so if you're a Prime subscriber, this won't cost you anything more.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4586626