Darkness of Man (2024)

This is one we covered on the podcast, episode 194 in the archives, with Sean Malloy from "I Must Break This Podcast," and with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Cynthia Rothrock, we had to get it on the site eventually too, so we're making it happen now. In addition to us, Chris the Brain at Bulletproof Action has covered this as well.

Darkness of Man has Van Damme as Russell Hatch, an Interpol agent who was supposed to be protecting a witness, but when she's killed, he agrees to protect her son. Years later, said son is now a teenager, and said son doesn't get along well with either the grandfather who's taking care of him, or Van Damme, who acts as the guy driving him to school while living in an extended stay hotel. At the same time, the kid's uncle runs an organized crime ring, which is going up against the Russians in an all-out turf war. Will the son get caught in the middle? And if so, will Van Damme be able to protect them? Is this his chance at redemption after failing to protect the mother all those years ago? Oh, and isn't Cynthia Rothrock in this film?

When Sean and I were looking at Van Damme movies to cover, it was between this one and the two Kill 'Em All films, and Sean said he needed to do this one first because he'd already seen it, and wanted to cover it while it was still fresh in his mind so he didn't have to watch it again. And that pretty much sums this one up, it's a rough sit, and you don't want to put yourself through it again. Why? First off, it's long, 107 minutes. Second, we have a lot of moving parts, and to try and sort them all out, we have Van Damme's voice-overs. Third, there are random things that feel like they were grafted into the movie, like the fact that Kristanna Loken's character is a veterinarian. Finally, we have a lot of moments where not a lot happens. It's a recipe for a tough sit. There are some bright spots though. We have some fun Van Damme fights, and director James Cullen Bressack went for some old Film Noir tones, that, when combined with the cinematography of Pascal Combes-Knoke led to some inspired shot composition; and I think something does need to be said for filmmakers and stars trying to do something outside the usual DTV fare, so I don't want to dump on this completely, it just missed for me overall.

We're now at 35 films for Van Damme, even though he has 36 tags, because our 400th post was a Van Damme film fest, so it doesn't count for inclusion in the 40 Club. At 35, could he get there? In the hopper we still have Kill 'Em All, and then for DTV stuff left to watch, there's Swelter, Welcome to the Jungle, and We Die Young. That's 39, and depending on how we feel about The Gardiner, he could get there. As much as this movie didn't work, the thing I appreciated was how present Van Damme was, and how much he was trying to stretch himself and try something different. The fact that he's still doing that at this stage in his career, when he really doesn't have to--he could just be in the movie and cash the check--is refreshing, and is the reason why I'm still going to keep watching his stuff. (Though to be fair, Seagal is the exact opposite of Van Damme, and I still watch all of his stuff too.)

Cynthia Rothrock has a one-scene cameo, but a one-scene cameo is enough to get another tag, which puts her at 44. I don't even really know what she's doing here, she's the nurse checking in on Van Damme after he survived a shooting, and that's it. She doesn't even share the screen with Van Damme, who knows who she's even speaking to when they shot her lines. I thought when this first came out that she was higher billed on IMDb, but now I don't see her on the first page, so either I was wrong, or something changed and they shuffled the cast names to make her less prominent. It brings up an interesting concept in the world of IMDb, using listings on an actor's bio to sell a movie. Even if she's not on the first page of the movie's listing, when you go to Rothrock's bio, this is the fourth film from the top, and the only one of those four that's not rent VOD. If you click on it, and see it also has Jean-Claude Van Damme, and it's on Hulu, why wouldn't you want to see what that's about? And then you get this tough sit of a movie that doesn't know exactly what it wants to be, and Rothrock only has this one scene where she doesn't even fight at all. By then it's too late, Hulu and the movie got their stream, and you've been had. Will IMDb bait-and-switches become more prominent as we go on? We do have a couple movies in the hopper where she had bigger roles than this, The Last Kumite and Taken from Rio Bravo, so we'll be seeing more of her soon. Unless you're a completist like me, this isn't worth it if you're a fan of hers.

There are a bunch of other names in this, all playing parts of varying degrees. We mentioned Kristanna Loken above. She's the only other one who's tagged--still as "Painkiller Jane," because I haven't had the energy to retag her, even though this is only her sixth film on the site, so it wouldn't take that much work. It's crazy to think Painkiller Jane was still airing when we started the DTVC, it's been that long. We also had a couple James Cullen Bressack mainstays in Zack Ward, Scut Farkus from A Christmas Story, and Kristos Andrews. They play Russian mobsters here, and small, supporting roles. Then there were some nepo babies, with Weston Cage, and Van Damme's two sons Kris and Nicolas. Then we had MMA star Nick Diaz, former child star Spencer Breslin, and hip hop star Sticky Fingaz. I thought that was everyone, but totally forgot that Eric Roberts is in one shot where he orders a taco from a food truck. Your guess is as good as mine, but he was there.

One name I didn't mention, because I'm saving it for this paragraph, was the late Shannen Doherty. A 90s icon who grew to prominence with Beverly Hills 90210, then received a bad--and probably undeserved--reputation as being difficult to work with when she left that show. Soon she had two movies that were going to be her Hollywood breakouts: Blindfold: Acts of Obsession, which ended up going directly to the USA Network here in the US instead of getting a theatrical release; and Mallrats, Kevin Smith's follow-up to Clerks that wasn't as well-received, though I think people my age really loved it. Eventually she got on another TV show, Charmed, but that ended in more on-set strife, and from there she bounced around from TV movie to TV movie, which is where she ended up in the orbit of James Cullen Bressack, who cast her in a bunch of his films, with this one unfortunately being her last. I think one of the most enduring parts of her legacy is that when we think of 90210, we think of her, even though she was only on 111 of the show's 292 episodes, because she played such a compelling character, and they never really replaced her. Here's to you Ms. Doherty, you were one of the greats, and you'll be missed.

And with that, let's wrap this up. You can currently get this on Hulu here in the States. As I said above, it's a bit of a tough sit, and with barely any Rothrock too. Proceed at your own peril. And if you haven't yet, check out the podcast episode we did on this, number 194 in the archives.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23173980

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

Repeater (2022)

This is one where there really wasn't much excuse for why I didn't get to it sooner. There was an outside idea that I might save it for a podcast episode, but really, this was the most recent Gary Daniels flick, free to stream on Tubi, I should've made it happen. Finding out Art Camacho was the stunt coordinator made it all the worse that it took us this long to get it in, but at least we're making it happen now.

Repeater has Paul Sidhu as an assassin who has a job go bad in Bolivia, and has to take a high-risk open contract job as a result. That job involves taking out hacktivist Nick Moran, who has stolen data from an unscrupulous business man that's about to sell his business empire and retire. That businessman has a long-time hatchet man of his, Gary Daniels, also after Moran, and when his boss gives him the go-ahead, Daniels's new job is to kill everyone. On top of that, Painkiller Jane is Moran's bodyguard, and she and Sidhu have some history. Now the question is, will Sidhu kill Moran when he gets the chance? Or maybe he'll help him across the border so Moran can get help from the US Marshals.

This was pretty good, but I think it was a bit longer than it needed to be, and had the classic "hit man saves the lady of the night from being a lady of the night, and she nurses his wounds for him" trope that we've seen so many times. The thing here though was we didn't need it, it just weighed the film down. Sidhu as the lead holds his own really well despite the other names in this, and I'd like to see him in some other R. Ellis Frazier flicks; Daniels is great as a baddie; and Nick Moran, while we could've done without the French accent, is solid as the hacktivist. Also really liked the stunt work Camacho did, especially with Daniels in the fight scenes. The other thing was the film looked really nice, R. Ellis Frazier knows what he's doing at least as far as directing a film goes. The story just got away from them a bit, and in cliched ways that we've seen enough already.

Mr. Daniels is now on 58 films on the DTVC, second all time after Dolph. He just turned 60 this year, so when we finally get him into the 60 Club, he'll also join Dolph as the only other person on the site to have the distinction of having as many films on the site as years on the planet. What we get here is a solid-enough baddie, which worked if we just want more Daniels movies, but I liked the role he had in Bring Him Back Dead better, where he got to be the lead. If this performance shows anything, it's that Daniels can still lead a film if he's given the opportunity. The question now is, where do we go from here with him to get him to the 60 Club? Astro is next on the docket, unless The Gardener suddenly comes available, which I doubt it since it's been this long, but you never know. After that he has his religious films, all of which are on Tubi now, and of which we've already done one, so that leaves us two more of those. The 70 Club where Dolph is headed soon is probably not within reach, but 60 by the end of this year should be.

Third in line for number of tags is Art Camacho, who now has 49, putting him one away from joining Dolph and Daniels in the 50 Club. In talking to Ty from Comeuppance, we have a film lined up for that one, Chinatown Connection, because he stars in it. Here's the thing though: according to IMDb, Camacho also did uncredited writing work on another R. Ellis Frazier film, The Line, something we haven't tagged him for on here. With what happened with Don "The Dragon" Wilson and us having to remove tags from him after films were erroneously credited to him, it might be better to keep his count where it is for now, and we can add that in later if we need, so the next post will be still 50 for us. (Speaking of Wilson, in the trivia it says that the Ray Liotta role in The Line was originally written for him, and then totally rewritten for Liotta to remove the martial arts content. Wilson cites losing that role as a reason why he took the hiatus he did, something that had been a bit of a mystery to us, so interesting to find out that that was a reason why we lost him for about five years.) When we get to that 50th post for Camacho, we'll talk about his contributions to DTV action more, but it's also cool to see him lending his talents to something like this, which just takes everything up a notch. Also cool to see him back with Daniels for the first time since 1998's Recoil (if we're not counting The Line), which I have up as my favorite PM flick of all time.

As R. Ellis Frazier films are wont to do, we had a bunch of other people in this. First off, Nick Moran, traditional British crime film mainstay, is in this as the French hacktivist everyone is after. Why he had to be French--complete with the French accent--is beyond me. It's not possible to be a British hacktivist? You can rewrite an entire role for The Line so Ray Liotta can take Don "The Dragon" Wilson's part, but you can change the hacktivist's nationality when you get Nick Moran for is? We also have Painkiller Jane, aka Kristanna Loken. When I first reviewed a film she was in for the site, back in October of 2007, Painkiller Jane was still on the air, so me, being snarky, put that tag instead of her name, and it's stuck. This is only her 5th film on the site, so who knows, maybe if she gets some more I'll swap that tag over, but it's kind of fun that she's remained "Painkiller Jane" on here long after that show was cancelled. Finally, we have Corbin Bernsen as Sidhu's fixer. We've seen him two other times on here, both Frazier films, so I figured it was time to give him a tag.

Finally, an R. Ellis Frazier mainstay whom I love, and want to give some more shine to, is Luis Gatica. He's only in this in the opening scene, which is too bad, because I prefer to have my Gatica sprinkled in throughout to keep my interest, but I'll take my Gatica any way I can get it. Here he's like the opener in baseball, which, the purpose of the opener is to use a reliever to start the game, get through the other team's top of the batting order, and then hand it over to the a starter to take over from there. Like Paul Sidhu is good, but he's not great--at least not yet--but Gatica is, so let him open the movie, get us through the tougher bats, and then when Sidhu takes over, Gatica has already started us off in a good enough place. It was pure professional Gatica, absolutely killing it, and while, again, I would have preferred to see him in this more, I respect the role and performance he put in and its importance to the film. This isn't my first Gatica appreciation post when doing a Frazier film, so I was surprised I hadn't tagged him yet. We've remedied that now, this is film number 5 for him here. Here's to you Senor Gatica, you're one of the greats.

And with that, let's wrap this up. You can currently stream this on Freevee, Plex, and my favorite Tubi, here in the States. As this is a bit on the longer than it needed to be side, free streaming is the way to go. Sidhu is solid, you get the Daniels you want, with some great Camacho stunt coordination too. 

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7979692

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

Mercenaries (2014)

Back when I did the podcast with Jamie, we covered this in an episode, and neither of us were big fans. Just the same, it's a Rothrock movie, and eventually I'm going to get all of them reviewed, so I figured why not give this one another try and see what happens. In addition to us, our friends at Comeuppance Reviews and The Video Vacuum have covered this as well, so you can see what they had to say.

Mercenaries looks like a female cast version of The Expendables, but is rather a remake of Mankillers, an AIP flick that was a female cast version of The Dirty Dozen. When Brigitte Nielsen kidnaps the president's daughter while she's on a philanthropic mission in an old Soviet Republic, Cynthia Rothrock needs to get a team to rescue her. The problem is, Nielsen doesn't trust any men (except her right-hand man Tim Abell? And most of her crew?), so it needs to be a team of women, but there aren't any women who are trained enough in the service, so they need to get them out of prison. The team, led by Zoe Bell, goes in to get her out. But will they be able to make it out alive?

I think the issue we had with this was it was a bit all over the place. Like why did it need to be a Dirty Dozen paradigm? Why wasn't Rothrock in it more? You have Abell as a great henchman to Nielsen's head baddie, but the movie couldn't tell if he was a comic baddie, or a vicious baddie, so one moment he's chewing scenery like the best Die Hard villain, and the next he's slitting a girl's throat--and the thing with Abell is he can do both equally well, which made the unevenness even more pronounced. The general idea of this is a great one, and I applaud them for that. I also really liked the cast they had. I think the overall execution though in how it was written and carried out did it all a disservice, which was unfortunate.

As always, we start with our Hall of Famer, and that's Rothrock. It's funny, because I think she plays the part she does in a sense to, not pass the torch, but almost more like opening the gates to let the stars in, in particular Zoe Bell, Kristanna Loken (still tagged as "Painkiller Jane" here on the site) and Mei-Lin Fong. What we see here though with Rothrock, is one, how the right project really matters. She needed the China O'Brien and Rage and Honor films, plus the great Godfrey Ho flicks she did, that really showcased her talents; but two, I think her time in Hong Kong sharpened her skills to be able to kill it on screen in a way few stars, man or woman, have ever done. I think the idea that there's ever going to be a "next Rothrock" is a fallacy, because Rothrock was a unique singular talent who brought it on a level we've seldom seen in the action world, and with that in mind, I can't say she's passing the torch in this film, because no one can fully take over that legacy.

All that being said, I liked Zoe Bell in this, and I feel like she's someone we could latch onto when we think of who out there will be part of the next wave of action stars. We should be able to put her with a Scott Adkins, and while she may not do the martial arts the way he does, her stunt work and overall badass action qualities give us that "it" factor we want in someone to lead an action film. Just the same, while I'm championing her here in this paragraph, she's been in two previous films we reviewed here on the site, Bitch Slap and Game of Death, and I gave her zero mentions in those write-ups. That's something I need to change going forward for sure; but can you imagine a Debt Collectors type film with her and Gina Carano in the leads instead of Adkins and Mandylor? How amazing would that be?

If you see this on Tubi right now, the cover features Vivica A. Fox. On Letterboxd, the cover features Kristanna Loken--which is what it looked like when I watched it for the podcast five years ago. When we did the pod, Jamie and I wondered what the story was with Fox's character. She didn't seem to fit, the part wasn't working for her, and we wondered where Fox's career was headed from there. If you look at the five years since, she's really made a name for herself in the David DeCoteau "Wrong" movies, not to mention she became the first black woman to play the president in a live action movie. I still think having her front and center on the cover does Bell a disservice, but it shows how far she's come in those five years that anyone selling the movie will think she's the one to sell it on.

Finally, Brigitte Nielsen plays the baddie in this, and I really enjoyed it. I think, like Abell, the character was written a little unevenly, but when she was supposed to be a fun, over the top (Stallone pun intended) baddie she played it as well as you'd want in a film like this. This isn't the first time she's played a great baddie either, she was great in Martial Law III too. In a way, I think Nielsen more than anyone shows us what this could have been if it were on a bigger budget and a bigger time scale than if it were an Asylum rush job. This is a good point here to mention as well that this was directed by Christopher Ray, Fred Olen Ray's son, and like his dad, he can get a movie in on time and under budget and make it look good despite the constraints involved, which makes me wonder what he could have done with this if he had more time and more money, and with this cast. Maybe we get something that rivals The Expendables.

And with that, it's time to wrap this up. I think similar to when I watched this for the pod with Jamie, I was rooting for this to be great, but ultimately you end up with Mankillers with a better cast but not as much fun. As the French say, c'est dommage.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3598222

S.W.A.T.: Fire Fight (2011)

What we got here is a Stage 6 production of a S.W.A.T. DTV sequel set in Detroit, and it's on Watch Instantly. It's got everything I could need, right? Plus it's got Giancarlo Esposito and DTVC favorite Robert Patrick. Why then am I so apprehensive?...

S.W.A.T.: Fire Fight has Gabriel Macht as one of the best SWAT team leaders in the country, leading his team in the always violent LA. He's hired to go out to Detroit to get their team certified for some new anti-terrorist stuff or something, and, of course, when he gets out there, he ruffles some feathers. None more so than that of Robert Patrick, whom the Macht led Detroit SWAT team encounters holding his estranged girlfriend, Painkiller Jane, at gunpoint. She kills herself because they won't kill Patrick, and now Patrick wants his revenge. Poor Macht doesn't know what he's in for, but he's ready for it.



This had some good things going for it. Macht, for starters, was pretty sweet as the lead. I'd like to see what he'd do with some better material. Patick and Esposito were equally solid, which is no surprise. Some of the action was pretty decent too. The problem was the story and the execution. First off, we have more training than we do actual action. You can only make training so good, and this didn't even do that, saddling us with first-person shooter cam. Who thinks that's a good idea? We like it in video games because we're the ones doing the shooting. In a movie it's just annoying. The execution of the Patrick revenge was also a little plodding, coming in fits and starts, and then ending in something that had potential, but ended up being all over the place. The whole movie should've been Macht and his new SWAT team going in and battling with Patrick and a bunch of stuntmen holed up in a building. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and ultimately, neither did this movie.

I think in general, the idea of SWAT seems more exciting in movie form than it actually is. I watched the reality show based on the Dallas SWAT team, and while this had more compelling characters in people like Macht and Patrick, it needed to find a way to make it's stylized violence and it's fictional story more entertaining than watching real people rip down a door and toss some flash-bangs into a real drug dealer's house. That's where this movie missed the mark. What's compelling about training? What's compelling about first-person shooter cam? What's compelling about Patrick toying with Macht, when we all know where the story is going. Cut to the chase, amp up the action, and get us into a big building Die Hard style and kick some ass for 60 minutes. That's what we're here for.



Robert Patrick has always made an excellent baddie, and this is no exception. Unfortunately he's forced to go through a lot of the classic baddie clichés: the creepy phone calls, the intel on the SWAT crew, finishing with the no-win situation for our hero to try to mitigate, which the film totally bungles and pretty much ignores after they set the parameters. He had the potential to be a Texas-style Hans Gruber, and it would've been nice if the film had let him. Also gotta say that they dropped the ball with Macht's character too. He had a lot of style and charm early in the film, but as the plot spirals out of control, so does his character, and he loses all of what made him compelling. Macht and Patrick should've been a great two sides of the same coin type of foes.

Maybe the worst injustice done to a character was Shannon Kane as the equal parts hot and deadly Iraq vet who is called in at Macht's request to help train the SWAT team. She goes from being totally kick ass to nothing more than a damsel in distress at the end of the film. The thing was, we already had the psychiatrist/love interest that's been kidnapped, so we didn't need Kane too, except for the fact that she's a woman in an action film, and as such needs to be tied to chair and anxiously awaiting our hero to rescue her. She should've been with our hero helping to save the day, not needing saving. Also, while we're on the subject, the character of the psychiatrist (played by Carly Pope), is wasted as a damsel in distress as well. She's a psychiatrist, there should've been some interplay between her and Patrick where she tries to manipulate him into letting her go or letting his guard down. Maybe she's even an agent in her own rescue. Anyway, like most of the film, it was a wasted opportunity.



Finally, I wanted to look at the trend of DTV action flicks set in and shot in Detroit. It's like we're getting a new "Detroitsploitation", and I for one am excited about the possibilities. Can it have the same success as the great Cannuxploitation flicks of the 90s? So far not really so good, but I'm still holding out hope. Maybe with the success of The Expendables we can get some film makers in that aren't about camera gimmicks and silly MTV edits we don't need, and some writers with some straight ahead action plots that are more about the exploding cars and the sweet martial arts than they are about padding a wafer-thin story with more wafer-thin story. The possibilities of a new Detroitsploitation are endless, but as of right now we've barely scratched the surface.

And chalk this one up as one that's a missed Detroitsploitation opportunity, because, while it had some good qualities, overall it missed on a lot of the things it tried. The ultimate flaw was that we as an audience knew all along where they were going, but they still tried to keep us from getting there with stuff that we didn't necessarily need. Hopefully, if there's another S.W.A.T. DTV sequel, it'll get right down to the action.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1621429/

In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007)

This was supposed to be the box office bomb from two Fridays ago, but between being sick and my trip to visit friends in Mass, I fell a little behind. It worked out, though, because I was able to watch this with my buddy and his wife, and she's a huge Lord of the Rings fan, which gave me a better context to put the movie in. I'm not sure if you noticed, but I'm not huge on the fantasy genre, though I hear the chicks dress pretty hot at the conventions.

In the Name of the King is an Uwe Boll film with Jason Statham as Farmer, a dude whose wife is captured and son and in-laws are killed by gross demon characters controlled by Ray Liotta. His king, Burt Reynolds, wants to conscript him, his brother in-law, and Ron Perlman, but they'll have none of it, and want to take on Liotta's army on their own. What they don't know is Liotta is working with Reynolds' conniving nephew, the always annoying Matthew Lillard, and is seducing the king's magus' daughter (John Rhys-Davies and Leelee Sobieski respectively). The kingdom's only hope lies in the hands of this Farmer and his magical boomerang.



This was a pretty fun deal. It sucked that it was two-and-a-half hours long, that was the biggest complaint-- and obviously no one is meant to take it all that seriously-- but for me and my buddy, it was a pretty solid nonstop laugh fest. Statham was great as a fighter named farmer. Who comes up with that? It's great. Even better, he was raised from a boy by Ron Perlman. Of course he would be. And who else would you want as your king? Or your evil sorcerer? Again, the story was a little long, but it was much easier to take than a Lord of the Rings or Dungeon and Dragons movie. Fantasy has a certain place in the movie industry: done by German directors making the crappiest big budget movies possible to take advantage of a German tax loophole for film makers.

That's right, according to his Wikipedia entry, Uwe Boll has gotten funding for movies like this ($60 million budget) by using a German tax loophole that, until it was amended in 2005, allowed investors to write off 100% of funding for a movie, and also to write off fees associated with borrowing additional money for it. So despite the fact that this movie made about $10 million worldwide, his investors were able to get a good chunk of that money lost back. It kind of sucks that Germany's no longer subsidizing Uwe Boll's ridiculous video game movies. The result was the much less fun DTV BloodRayne 2, which I reviewed back in 2007 I believe.



This is the third Jason Statham film we've done at the DTVC. I think out of all the new crop of action stars, he's the best bet to carry the torch. My friend and I were looking at how long gone are the days of Terminator 2 and True Lies. The question is, what's next? I think Statham's newer, slimmed down, more sophisticated version is probably the best option. I do like Vin Diesel, despite what most of my friends think, but he allowed Paul Walker to outcool him in Fast and Furious, and that should never happen. Throw in that Crank: High Voltage was pretty cool, and I think it's unanimous that Statham is our current biggest action star, and he was as fun to watch in this as he was in anything else.

This is also the second movie we've reviewed with Statham and Liotta (Revolver). At one point I quoted the beginning of Goodfellas, and my friend was like "Oh my God, don't remind me he did such a good movie." I've found the best thing to do when faced with a Ray Liotta sighting in a bad movie is to sing "Rah-Rah-Rah-Ray Liotta" to the tune of The Knack's "My Sherona." What was great about him was he didn't try to affect an English accent for the role. Good for him.



Most people know that I'm pretty tough on The Lord of the Rings movies, books, etc. I guess I just don't get it. I don't get talking trees, and I don't get how talking trees are any different from Painkiller Jane in this movie leading a clan of swinging tree women with magical vines. I understand that Tolken begot a fair amount of fantasy stuff that came after, but I guess the question is, why does that matter? The Middle Ages sucked ass-- it's a historical fact. Why would anyone want to glorify that? I get it Tolken, you were upset that the lower classes in England were being elevated by social reforms, and you thought it would bring about the downfall of civilization, and you longed for the times when everyone knew their place and did what they were born to do. I guess I'm just too American, and I think by virtue of my being born poor I'm good for more than just neck tattoos and bunch of kids born to a bunch of different moms. Maybe it's just me.

All right, now that I'm safely off my soapbox, I'll wrap this review up. Rent it. You'll love it. The length is the only real issue, so just be ready to have a bunch of friends and your A material, and you should be fine.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460780/

Gangland (2000)

I first saw this film on Encore Action. On my program guide it listed Sasha Mitchell and Costas Mandylor as its featured actors, which was enough for me. Upon watching it, I saw that it also has Coolio and Ice-T for about ten minutes at the very beginning, and the chick who plays Painkiller Jane for a few seconds somewhere in the middle. Now, seeing it again on DVD, I find out that it's selling itself, not on Sasha Mitchell and Costas Mandylor, the film's stars along with the chick from Renegade; but it's listing the three people who're in it for a total fifteen minutes of screen time. If I didn't like the idea of a Sasha Mitchell Costas Mandylor feature so much, I'd take the people who market this to small claims court for false advertising.

Gangland takes place three years from now in a post-apocalyptic future where a US dealing with nuclear fallout is also dealing with a flesh eating plague. Vincent Klyn (Warchild from Point Break) has a huge gang of dudes in leather jackets and pants that are threatening to take over what's left of the country. Tim Thomerson has developed a cure for the plague and plans to take it to the only safe zone in the country, Phoenix. Klyn catches him in an attempt to control the cure. While all this is happening, Costsas Mandylor meets Sasha Mitchell in jail (Klyn's reappropriated a local prison for his own ends.) They escape, bump into the chick from Renegade, and take down Klyn-doggy. All in a day's work.



This movie would be sweet bad action accept for one thing that really irks me: constant fade-outs. I hate constant fade-outs. It's like they're always going to commercial or something. I know these aren't the best film makers in the world, but do they have to make it so obvious? I've seen better film making on YouTube. Doesn't it seem annoying to them too when they're editing? Maybe it's just me...

Sasha Mitchell's the bomb in this. His martial arts technique is almost identical to Guile from Street Fighter II. It was so cool watching him go to work on bad guys, I almost forgot he couldn't act. It's too bad he doesn't do more work, because, at least to me, it's evident in a movie like this that he can hold his own. Of course, it was hilarious when he was yelling in anger about his brother's killing. I think someone should make a movie where he plays Cody from Step By Step and kicks people's asses. Now that's a hit.

Kathleen Kinmont's in this as well. I have a bad habit of calling her the chick from Renegade, and considering this is the second, and probably not the last film I've reviewed that has her in it, I should probably start using her name. I didn't like her in this, because she was trying too hard to do dark and brooding. I know her sister, played by Painkiller Jane, was killed off, but as an actor she didn't do the part well. She's better doing the off-beat kind of stuff she did on Renegade. Leave the brooding to Costas Mandylor.



I'm a huge Vincent Klyn guy. It's not like Man Crush level, but pretty close. No one else could pull off playing a character named Warchild in a movie like Point Break, and make it work. I think that's something pretty cool to hang your hat on. He's also a mainstay in newly inducted DTVC Hall of Famer Albert Pyun's films-- you may remember him especially in Cyborg. In this film, as in those other two, he does a great job playing an awesome baddie that we still don't want to root for. That's all we want in a bad guy, right?

Beyond the overuse of the fade-out technique, my other major issue was Klyn's second in command. He was some geeky ponytail guy who also was the film's writer and stuff. He didn't look like a kick ass bad guy, he looked like some creepy guy who might hit me with his sack of 8-sided dice to keep me and my friends from giving him a wedgie. He annoyed the piss out of me, and I was kind of disappointed that Costas Mandylor finally dispatched him by setting him on fire. He should've beat him to death with a keyboard in the middle of a LAN party or something. Who thought this guy worked on camera?



The two best parts about this were the bad one-liners and the fact that everyone from Costas Mandylor down to Tim Thomerson the scientist could fight. Best one-liner: Klyn asks Mandylor if he thought it would be that easy to kill him, and Mandylor says "We had to give it the ol' college try." Yes! Best fight came when Tim Thomerson, with no prior mention of him having any fighting skills, takes out some baddies in hand-to-hand combat. It wasn't just like hit someone over the head with a vase when he's not looking, he was blocking punches and delivering expert blows to the gut. It was like just by virtue of being in the movie anyone could fight. I loved it.

Before I recommend this film, I must warn everyone that I'm not kidding about how little Coolio, Ice-T, and Painkiller Jane are in this film. The box may make it sound like they're the main characters, but it's the old fashioned Direct to Video bait and switch. On the other hand, for myself, being the Direct to Video Connoisseur, Sasha Mitchell, Vincent Klyn, and Costas Mandylor are plenty good to make the film worth while. If that sounds like a good time to you too, pick this bad boy up. Just don't pay too much for it.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265198/