Prey of Wrath (2026)

This is one Ty and I covered on the podcast, episode 273 in the archives, which was one we had to record twice, because I accidentally deleted the first one! Either way, it needed a post on the site too, so we're making it happen now. In addition to us, Chris the Brain at Bulletproof Action has covered this as well.

Prey of Wrath has Tatiana Neva as Lyudmilla Alekseyenko, a Russian special forces agent sent to the US to track down some rogue agents who absconded with some nuclear warheads. One of those agents, the ring leader, happens to be her mentor, Gray Michael Sallies (Viktor Reznikov), and the question is can she pull the trigger when it comes time to take him down? At the very least, she can't kill his innocent wife when ordered to, so that means she's going rogue too. At the same time, two CIA agents (Cynthia Rothrock and Leonard Zhang) are interested in these warheads, for obvious reasons, and when they encounter Neva, it's a question of whether or not they can trust her. Do they have a choice though, considering the alternative?

This isn't bad, and the main reason for that is Tatiana Neva. She was fantastic, great screen presence, solid martial arts, a more grounded version of Marvel's Black Widow character, which made for a great action lead. Some of the special effects, especially the greenscreen effects, revealed the film's budgetary limitation, but Neva does what a star should do, and lifts the material beyond those limitations. From there we have DTVC 40 Club member and one of the best to do it, Cynthia Rothrock, who has her own fight scene which looked great too. I think her name on the tin is what will get people to click play, and even though Neva is the one to watch, for people who tuned in for Rothrock, it's good to be rewarded. Then we have the all important runtime, and this clocks in at a cool 79 minutes, including credits, so another plus in its favor. Finally, it's free to stream on Xumo here in the States. Add that to the short runtime, an up-and-coming star and one who's already a legend, and you have yourself a fun actioner.

Usually we'd start with our film's Hall of Famer--and in this case 40 Club member--but I wanted to start with Tatiana Neva because she was so great here. I could see this character in multiple movies, but I think anything in the action genre with her as the star would work. Before this she had been playing Black Widow in some short fan movie productions, which look like they could be fun, but what I liked here was she was playing an authentic original character, one that was larger than life in the action movie sense, but more grounded than something in the superhero genre. People often ask who the next big action stars are going to be, but I think we've seen two of them here recently between Neva and Shaina West. A team-up between those two is the action movie I'd want to see. Come on Mr. Nevsky, you can make that happen, can't you? Even a Western with those two would work, and considering he has Matthias Hues on speed dial, I think we have our baddie lined up too. Even if it's not with Shaina West, after seeing what Neva can do in this film, I'm looking forward to whatever her next project is. 

Now to Rothrock, who is in her 48th film on the site, which is three ahead of Don "The Dragon" Wilson for third all time among actors, and 14 behind Gary Daniels's 62, who's in second. As I said above, this isn't a big role, but I'm okay with that, because she already has dozens of movies where she was the lead, including her own film Black Creek, and the amount of her we get in this, including the fight scene, was actually a pleasant surprise. We've seen ones like Darkness of Man where she only has a one-scene cameo, and this definitely isn't that. I don't know that it's a passing the torch to Neva kind of thing either though, and I don't know if we'll ever see that, as one, I don't think Rothrock sees her career as at that point where the torch should be passed; but two, I think it's more a matter of the torch being taken from her by mainstream actors and she's been trying to reclaim it, or at least reclaim the credit for the work she did. Every clickbait list of the "Top Female Action Stars" that doesn't have her on it, let alone at or near the top, is a reminder of that, and I don't blame her for wanting people to know about the path she blazed. So while this is Neva's movie, and she should be part of the next wave of great action stars, Rothrock's wave hasn't crested yet, which means we have a lot of other movies of hers to review, so the 50 Club is definitely on the horizon.

As you know, we have a thing for Presidential Portraits here at the DTVC. It started more unofficially, so I didn't tag them at first, which means from time to time I'll go back through our archives and find another to add--like I did recently with the Dudikoff flick Chain of Command. In this film though, instead of a possible Trump, we got a Putin, which leads to the question, does that count? The only other time this has happened as far as I know was former Mexican president Vicente Fox's portrait in Shark Attack 3 (which is know for much more than that!), but that one also had George W. Bush (plus VP Dick Cheney), so it was getting tagged regardless. The other category of these we've seen is the fictitious movie president having a portrait, like Eric Roberts in Top Gunner: America vs Russia, where we had a Roberts portrait conspicuously tacked on the wall in one of the rooms he was in. I didn't tag that one, and I think I'm going to say no on tagging this for now too, unless we get a spate of Putins or other foreign leader portraits, then I'll reconsider. Part of that is wanting to stick to American Presidents for this, at least for now; and part of that is the fact that we live on the second story, so I think I could survive any defenestration attempts should Putin get his back up about this--though to be fair, a letter from one of his aides would be more than enough to get me to tag him, hopefully precluding any attempts at defenestration, even if I'd survive the fall anyway.

Finally (that previous paragraph felt like the finally, didn't it?), this and all of Nevsky's recent films are going straight to Xumo, which is great because we can see them, but also interesting on two levels. One, IMDb doesn't list Xumo as a place where you can see something, so as far as they're concerned, this is only available to rent on Amazon for $4.99. Letterboxd does list it, and that applies to a lot of other streaming sources, so I've found it's better to go there to see if a movie's available. And two, Xumo doesn't have a search function. You think I'm fucking with you? Well I'm not fucking with you, they really don't have a search function. I know, it's 2026, and a search function would've been a prerequisite back in 1996, but they ain't got one. Usually films like this are visible on the first bar of scrolling, so you don't need to search, but still, how do you find something that's not featured? A lot of times I'll find it on Letterboxd and click the link from there. I think it was in episode 261 of the podcast where Jon Cross and I are discussing Body of Influence, which is also in Xumo, where Jon gives his theory on how he thinks Xumo ended up without a search function. It involves a group of overweight, aging, organized crime types eating greasy sandwiches and trying to cut corners while telling a young computer programmer what they want the site to look like. It makes as much sense as anything.

And with that, let's wrap this up. Xumo is the best way to go, unless you really want to go above and beyond when it comes to supporting indie films, and then you can get it on VOD on Amazon for $4.99. Tatiana Neva is the main reason to watch this, but Rothrock and the 79-minute runtime don't hurt either. and check out the podcast episode Ty and I did on this, number 273 in the archives.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13650572/

Taken from Rio Bravo (2024)

This is one Ty and I covered on a podcast episode, episode 210 in the archives, part of our Xumo double feature with 12 to Midnight, and with all the names involved, it was only a matter of time before we reviewed it on the site too, so here we are. In addition to us, Chris the Brain at Bulletproof Action has covered this as well.

Taken from Rio Bravo is a sequel to Gunfight at Rio Bravo, with Alexander Nevsky reprising his role as a fictionalized version of Union Army officer Ivan Turchin. This time, some young women have been taken by dastardly traffickers (led by Dolph movie mainstay James Chalke), and it's up to Nevsky and his sheriff friend (Joe Cornet, who also directed) to track them down and rescue them. Along the way, they get some help from a Native American tracker (Don "the Dragon" Wilson), and they encounter all manner of ne'er-do-wells who impede their progress. Finally, as they near the young women and are about to achieve their goal, an old foe enters the fray. Who could that be? I mean, if you read the cast list, you probably know, but still, pretend you didn't so you can be surprised. Will Nevsky and Cornet prevail?

When you do this kind of thing long enough, you find yourself saying things you never thought you'd say, but here I am saying this movie needed more Nevsky! Usually I'm railing against what I call a "Nevsky vanity project," but here he's really realized his version of Ivan Turchin, and when you have a fun gunslinger hero like that in a Western, you want more of them! What happens though is this gets too bogged down in the particulars of trafficking, which also gives us more Chalke than we needed. One scene that stood out involved Chalke wanting to take one of the women he trafficked back to a cabin to have his way with her. It went on too long, and ultimately didn't go anywhere, and while this is happening, we're missing an opportunity for Nevsky to take out more men in a saloon or something. All that said, I think this is the closest Nevsky's come to making this approach work, where he's the star and he casts a bunch of other stars in smaller supporting roles, and I think the Western and the use of his version of Ivan Turchin as the hero is a great formula for him. The runtime is also great at 80 minutes, so he keeps it lean, which always helps. Now he just needs to swing the pendulum back a bit in the other direction and include more of himself as that hero, and I think he'll have it.

Art Camacho is now at 56 tags on the DTVC, which used to be good enough for third all-time, but since we've tagged Cole S. McKay, it's now fourth-best. Either way, Camacho brings his talents as fight choreographer to this, elevating fight scenes and giving the film a sharper feel than its budget would normally allow, which is why you bring him in in the first place, but it's still always great to see. He also has a scene as a character named Camanchero who has a fight with Nevsky, which we don't see often, he's usually behind the camera, so I had to get a screen of that. Between all the PM stuff of his that we still need to get to, and the new stuff he has coming out that looks promising, 60 Club and beyond is more a matter of when than if. One of the greatest to ever do it, and he gives us that here.

We have three other Hall of Famers here who, in true Nevsky style, only have small roles, but they're fun to see, and it gets them more tags. First off, this makes 47 for Cynthia Rothrock, so we're closing in on the 50 Club for her, and with all she has out now, three more movies should be easy enough to make happen, except when you dig deeper, you see stuff that is either only available to rent, or isn't available at all, so unless that changes, it could be a while for her. In this movie, she has a small part as the older sister of the two women that get kidnapped, including one small fight scene which was pretty good. Then for Don "The Dragon" Wilson, this is 42, so still a ways from 50, but unlike Rothrock, he does have a few that we haven't done yet on free streamers, so we'll need to make those happen. Here he plays a Native American, which didn't make any sense, except they could've used the fact that Wilson isn't genetically of Native American descent as an opportunity to show that "blood" shouldn't exactly be the determiner of being part of a first nation, the same way that someone can become American without having been born here. Finally, we have Matthias Hues reprising his baddie from the first film. Unlike Rothrock and Wilson who are in the 40 Club, this is only 22 tags for Hues. I think a big reason for why that is, is I don't necessarily seek out Hues movies, he just happens to be in the ones with people I do seek out. But considering how much he does, I imagine we'll stumble into another 8 movies of his at some point along the way.

Like the previous installment, this took place in "Eastern Texas," despite being shot in Arizona, which doesn't look anything like "Eastern Texas." From there, they're supposed to be going to the Mexican border, because apparently even in the Old West, middle class conservative trafficking panic was about middle class white women being kidnapped and taken to Mexico--though Nevsky didn't go far enough and have one of the women find a water bottle on her car, which I guess showed some restraint. Anyway, the other thing is East Texas is much further away from the Mexican border than West Texas. As I said when I reviewed the previous one, why not just set the movies in West Texas? What is it about "Eastern Texas" that it needs to be there, despite it being shot in Arizona? But then another thought hits me: why does it matter? I'm watching a 2024 Western where Don "The Dragon" Wilson is playing a 60s stereotype of a Native American, harkening back to when movies would have Italians do that, and I'm concerned about the location accuracy? But that's the kind of content you've been coming to the DTVC for since 2007, right?

Finally, in looking at these Nevsky vanity projects, where he gets all these stars and they all have smaller parts, the question then is, "Matt, what would you do if you could get names like Rothrock, Wilson, Hues, or Gruner in a movie?" Yes, I would definitely want them to be in it more, even if they only have a day or two of shooting. And then I have a top five for what my one scene would be, because I would definitely not try to make myself the star. Number 5 would be the standard henchman machine gun shimmy death. Get me in a blazer, maybe put on a ponytail wig, and cut to me shimmying to death while one of the names I mentioned above is hosing me down in Uzi fire. Number 4 would be the knife throw, preferably between the eyes, but if I gotta take it in the chest, that's fine too. I could be lurking around, holding my gun, and then one of the heroes lets fly, and in the next cut I'm falling over with the knife in me. For number 3, it's gotta be taking a Wilson roundhouse kick to the face. With it being a Western, if I fall into a trough of water, all the better. And if you're thinking "Wilson can't get up that high anymore," I'm only 5'7", so it won't be as difficult. Number 2, taking a scorpion kick to the head by Rothrock. This time I wonder, with me being only 5'7" if that makes it harder, because my head is a lower target than some of the taller guys she does that to. Finally, number 1, me as a front desk security guard, Matthias Hues takes me out, preferably with a silencer. Might be difficult to pull of in a Western, but if I'm giving you a movie with more of the stars you want, I think you'll indulge me.

And with that, let's wrap this up. In addition to Xumo, it looks like this is available on more free streamers, including Tubi and Prime. I think with the names and runtime, it's not a horrible watch if you're not paying or it's included in your streaming package. Also check out the podcast episode Ty and I did on this, episode 210 in the archives.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20202928/

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Tales of Frankenstein (2018)

This is another screener submission from Joe Williamson, who got us Eternal Code and Abstruse. Unlike those, this one isn't a Harley Wallen project. It's also a horror film, which we haven't done a lot of on here lately. Finally, it's got Mel Novak, which is always a good thing. On the other hand, like Abstruse, it has a runtime closing in on 2 hrs. Uh-oh!

Tales of Frankenstein celebrates the bicentennial of the publication of Frankenstein (wow, 200 years since that came out already? Time flies!) with four short films that all present a new take on the Frankenstein theme. In the first, a relative of Dr. Frankenstein is trying to make his own Frankenstein bride, but when he brings her to life, will she have a surprise for him? The second involves a plague ravaging the village Dr. Frankenstein lives in, and after he dies, a neighbor wants to exhume his body to steal a ruby ring from his dead finger. Can't see anything bad happening there. The third is a pulp detective story with Mel Novak as a mad scientist who puts human brains in gorillas; and the last has a man related to Frankenstein who tries to revive his work in Transylvania.

The runtime gets it again. The thing is, if you lop off the last story you have 90 minutes but I don't know if that would have saved this, as each of the four all went a little longer than they needed to. For 25-minute affairs, they tended to waste a lot of the openings and spin their wheels a bit before getting to the meat of the story, so perhaps the better solution would have been to make them all shorter. 4 20-minute stories plus the bumpers and your hovering around 85-90 minutes. Now you're looking good, and from there the elements of this that I enjoyed, like how it brought me back to some of the low-budget horror my friends and I would rent from the video store in the early 2000s, can really shine through. That 90-minute rule might be the one that holds up the most in almost every situation, and this was no exception.

All four of these had the feeling of a one-off Tales from the Crypt episode, which was a great show and a lot of fun. The thing is though, for an anthology, they're all directed by the same person, Donald F. Glut, best known for his novelization of Empire Strikes Back. I think had they been done by different directors and submitted to an editor, that editor would have trimmed them all down; but because this was all Glut's writing and direction, he didn't see it that way. This is one similarity with the other two films Joe has submitted to us, as those two were directed and written by one person too. I used to be a big fan of that, especially considering how two of my favorite movies were made that way, Citizen Kane and Bad Taste, but I think I'm seeing more how giving a script to a director and letting the director and actors give it a once over can be important. When the writer is the director, they may be more protective or less likely to see how the dialog is going a bit too long, or how an opening scene isn't moving as it should. If I read a novel based on these four stories it would've felt well-paced, but in a movie those extra minutes can feel like an eternity.

This is our ninth Mel Novak film on the site. To give you an idea of where that puts him, he's passing Casper Van Dien's 8, and 9 also ties him with people like Kim Coates and Klaus Kinski. In this film he plays Dr. Mortality, the evil doctor who, in the name of Dr. Frankenstein, wants to put a human brain inside a gorilla's head. It has more of a pulpy feel to it, which I liked, but it didn't finish it off, if you know what I mean. I think I would have liked to have seen a better outcome for our gumshoe in the spirit of those old pulp novel/film noir stories. Anyway, Mel Novak doesn't look like he's slowing down at all, so expect to see him back here soon.

One thing this film reminded me about was the fact that horror tends to be one of the main bastions of the indie/low-budget film world. Unlike action, which requires a lot of money to blow things up, shoot people, and choreograph nice fight scenes, with horror it can be done for less, so the wealth of indie horror is much greater. As such, I think I've been doing that market a disservice by not covering it more. One of the films I did when I came back was Clownado, a Todd Sheets indie horror flick, and the people involved, including Sheets, were very appreciative of me giving it the spotlight, and as a result, their spreading the word about my review got it even more views, making it one of the most viewed posts I've made since I came back. It's like the Beatles said: "The love you take is equal to the love you make."

Finally, I wanted to wrap up with one of my favorite takes on the Frankenstein story. In the Highlander TV series, there was an episode where we learn that Lord Byron was an immortal, and in the early 19th century, he kills another immortal out on a lawn after hanging out with Mary Shelley. When he beheads the other immortal and the quickening happens, she watches it, the image of Lord Byron engulfed in electric bolts inspiring her to write Frankenstein. That's one area where this movie disappointed me: outside of the Novak story that had more of an old detective pulpy feel, the other three were pretty standard for what you'd expect out of a Frankenstein theme. What if someone had done something like what the Highlander writers did, maybe show where Shelley got her inspiration. Another different take on the story was Data's character on Star Trek: The Next Generation. There were more places this could have gone that it didn't, which I think was a missed opportunity.

With that, it's time to wrap this up. Once again, the 90-minute rule rears it's ugly head, and again it's undefeated. I think a half-hour shorter we would have had a fun collection of horror stories in the tradition of Tales from the Crypt. For me though, close to two hours is too long, and ultimately that hurts the film. Thanks again to Joe for another opportunity to look at a screener like this, I always enjoy the chance to do this!

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7365740