Midnight Ride (1990)

This movie was suggested to me by my friend at Movies in the Attic. I liked the idea of a Hitcher remake with Mark Hamill as the baddie and Dudikoff as the hero. It's not available on DVD, so I had to scoop it used on Amazon.

Midnight Ride has Dudikoff as a cop in California whose wife needs a break from him because she thinks he loves his job more than her. While running from him, she picks up Mark Hamill. Funny thing is, Hamill's a psychotic killer, and he's taken a shine to her. His plan, after the killing spree, is to take her to his shrink, played by Robert Mitchum, so she can get some electroshock therapy. Now Dudikoff's not only chasing his wife to get her back, but to save her from Hamill.



This isn't that bad. I'm kind of a cat who, when I'm looking for a Dudikoff flick, I want him beating the crap out of a lot of people, and I didn't get that here. This definitely isn't American Ninja meets The Hitcher, even though it should've been. Hamill was surprisingly good as a deranged killer, but Dudikoff was extremely poor as the average Joe cop that takes heroic risks, but can't kick mad ass the way he could in some of his other films. That was a huge issue for me, because Hamill holds Duds at gunpoint early on, and then ties him to the hood of a car and drives him around. What? Dudikoff can't let that happen, I don't care what kind of character he's playing, and certainly not to a Mark Hamill.

I think what made this worse was the back of the box, which told me "Michael Dudikoff's at the wheel. And all roads lead to action!" Forget the grammatical issues with separating "wheel" and "and" with a period instead of a comma, the line signifies to me Dudikoff kicking some ass. In one scene he's in a diner, and bikers are making fun of him. One of them needed to throw a punch, leading to him taking out like five of them. Instead, he just walked out and nothing happened. Hey, I'm all for a good suspense thriller, just don't tell me I'm getting a Dudikoff beatdownfest when I'm not.



Michael Dudikoff is an interesting figure in the DTVC Hall of Fame. He's not the star Dolph, Van Damme, Seagal, and Lambert are. But for a lot of us, especially the cats who really cut their teeth in bad movies by watching action films of the late 80s early 90s, Dudikoff almost eclipses those other four. They were making mainstream films at that time (I guess not Dolph, but definitely the other three), while Dudikoff was earning a living in DTV. I think that's a good thing, in that when I review his films, the old guard feel like I'm meeting their bad movie needs; but also the new comers to bad movies can be given a road map to explore a real king in the industry that they may not know about.

Mark Hamill was pretty solid as the psycho. I mean, he was pretty creepy and scary, which is what you want. I'm not sure I get the new wave of horror films that go for gore over fear, yet at the same time think they're delivering fear, but this is the kind of movie they should look at when making the Saw 316 or whatever. There's one scene where Hamill offers a girl whose abusive boyfriend he just scared off a ride home. Dudikoff's wife already knows Hamill's a psycho killer, and she's trying to warn the girl. It was just really freaky knowing on that whole ride home that that girl was going to die, and a big part of it was how realistic they made it. I'm generally not a Mark Hamill guy, and I was really hoping for a Dudikoff beatdown of him that didn't happen; but he was good in this film.



As I mentioned above, Robert Mitchum's in this picture. One of my all time favorite actors. Of all the genres he excelled in, I'd say his best were his Film Noirs. If you haven't seen Out of the Past with he and Kirk Douglas, you should. He's only in this at the very end, but he's perfect as Hamill's psychiatrist. He just spoke in this cool, monotone, and it brought me back to some of his older films.

If you're looking for a Dudikoff beatdownfest, like I was, you'll be sorely disappointed. But if you want a decent Hitcher remake, this works. Hamill's no Rutger Hauer, but he doesn't try to be, and he comes off pretty creepy in his own way. Dudikoff, though, was hard to watch considering he didn't deliver the bone-crushing action I'm used to from him, so on that end I can't give it a full recommendation. I'd say if you see it in a VHS bargain bin for a buck or two, go for it.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100148/

The Marksman (2005)

This film's been sitting in my Netflix queue for sometime now, and I finally bumped it up when I realized I hadn't reviewed a Wesley Snipes movie in a while. I think maybe part of me had pushed it down because I was so focused on getting movies with other stars up, and the previous Wesley Snipes films didn't exactly do it for me. Why sit through a notsomuch, when I can be entertained by a Nemesis or Stone Cold.

The Marksman is about some special military soldiers called painters that place tracking beacons in targets so planes can hit them with missiles. Snipes is one of them, and he's sent with a special forces unit to plant devices in a hijacked nuclear facility in Russia. But Snipes thinks things aren't what they appear, and he's right. Before he can get to the escape chopper, he sees the special forces betrayed and almost killed. Three are captured, and one hides out and finds Snipes, so they can go back in and save them. Emma Sands is working with the NSA, and she's the only person Snipes can trust. Luckily he doesn't rely on her fully, because by the time she realizes what's going on and who's behind it, the missile's in the air and ready to blow them up. Snipes has something up his sleeve, though.



I don't know what to tell everyone. This was okay. But does okay cut it? Explosions? Sure, there were some. Car chases? Not really. Martial arts? Considering how good Snipes was in the Blade films, the few minutes here and there were pretty lackluster. Nice shootouts? They were okay, but pretty run-of-the-mill. Nothing like the graveyard shootout in Pistol Whipped. Am I being too harsh on Snipes? He was good, but the movie was pretty blah.

The Blade movies were so good. Sure, they were effin' ridiculous, but they were awesome too. Yes, this movie would've been enhanced by a Ron Perlman with a small bomb stuck on the back of his head. Yes, this movie would've been better if a previously incapacitated Snipes regained his strength and took out a slew of Eastern European foot soldiers to Crystal Method's "Name of the Game". Is it so wrong to find that kind of shit awesome? Why do I need slow moving scenes with weird jumpcuts and bad techno only to end in Snipes shooting someone and sneaking off and trying to contact Emma Sands? Give me a Dominic Purcell as Dracula saying in a deep voice with no irony whatsoever "I saw Christ die." Yes, I want to laugh out loud every once in a while.



It's because of Blade, though, that I'm not giving up hope. He has a film coming soon called Gallowwalker, where he plays a gunman whose victims come back to life as zombies. That just sounds brilliant, doesn't it? This is the sixth Snipes film I've reviewed. Chaos, the one he did with Jason Statham, doesn't really count, because it was more a hidden gem that should've been a major release than a DTV actioner. Of the other four, my verdicts fluctuated between this wasn't bad to this didn't do it for me. This one's in that range as well. I just need that punch me in the face killer, and stylized military suspense thrillers with no identity won't get me there.

On initial viewing, I was like, wow, Emma Sands is hot for her age. Then I looked her up on imdb and saw that she's only two years older than Snipes. Oops. Is that still a compliment? She looks good for her age, but I thought she was older? Maybe I should stop while I'm ahead. She was able to parlay her success in this role to work on a BBC drama Doctors, and then a reoccurring part on General Hospital, on which she starred a long time ago with Demi Moore.



Skip this. It's just not worth it. I've softly recommended a few Snipes DTV films-- you know, the classic "you could do worse" or "if there's nothing else, give it a try." I'm not even going the soft recommendation route. You got better things to watch with your time.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457090/



But since I have an extra paragraph, why not discuss another film that came out on DVD recently, the new Friday the 13th. I don't know about you, but I grew up on the old ones. Sure, they were silly, but that's what made them so great. Jason was this supernatural killer that beat women in sleeping bags against trees and punched boxers' heads off, and that's how we liked it. Think of part four with Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover. Do horror movies get any better than that film? Four words: "No wa-hay, not to-ni-hight." With this in mind, my buddy and I rented the new one, and it sucked balls. First, they tried to make Jason realistic, like he was a real human being. Really? Real human beings that raised themselves after their moms were killed when they were ten have the capacity to build intricate tunnel systems under the ground wired with electricity? Really? Jason shooting an arrow through a man's head driving a speeding boat from 500 yards out is much more believable if we see that he won an archery tournament when he was ten? And that sleeping bag scene I talked about above, that's somehow better if the woman is instead hung upside down in it over a fire? In trying to make something silly from the 80s more "real", they came off even sillier. And not in a good way. Who comes up with this stupid shit?

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758746/

Automatic (1994)

This movie comes up often on people's lists of best Gruner films. I saw it way back when it came out on video in the mid-90s, and I must confess, I don't remember it as well as I should. My brain is all a blur with myriad futuristic cyborg action thrillers, more often than not starring Olivier Gruner. It's a trend that went out in 90s, and maybe it'll come back in the 2010s.

Automatic takes place in the future, where a man has invented the pinnacle in home security: the Automatic. A bunch of androids that look like Olivier Gruner and kick ass like him too. Anyway, one of them working at the factory sees a major executive trying to rape a woman, and he steps in to prevent it. Problem is he accidentally kills the guy. Automatics aren't supposed to kill, but this one knows something's up when the inventor sends a hit squad headed by Jeff Kober to exterminate him. Now we've got Die Hard meets Blade Runner with a taste of Small Wonder and Cyborg 2 thrown in.



This wasn't too bad. It was what it was: a low-budget sci-fi actioner with Olivier Gruner. It was fairly action packed, and Gruner got to flex his martial arts muscles, so that was good. The story was pretty run-of-the-mill, and it was hard to see what kind of obstacles Gruner was overcoming when every time he was shot he seemed to be able to heal himself. It's not like seeing Seagal as omnipotent and knowing no one can take him; with this film, they were trying to create tension with Kober's extermination squad, but what kind of tension is it if he can take a bullet and get up five minutes later. I guess the difference is a set of defined rules: in the Seagal film, the rules are simple, he kicks ass. Even if the rules are simple, I just want some.

Gruner was good. He's especially great at the beginning kicking ass in the advertisement for the Automatic. I didn't like this as much as The Circuits and Nemesis; nor Savate or Crooked either. That doesn't leave anything else as far as his films I've reviewed, but don't take that as an indictment of this picture. It was very entertaining. If anything, it says that Gruner had stellar resume to pick from, which is always a bonus.



DTVC favorite Jeff Kober is here, but this is the first time he's had more than just a secondary baddie role (the other two we've covered with him are Desert Heat and One Man's Justice). For my money, he's a quintessential baddie who tends to get overlooked by film makers that stick him in the lesser baddie role. Even here he was the head baddie's hatchet man-- but that actually worked better than if he was the head baddie, just on how the movie worked out. Kober tends to live mostly on the TV drama and action series, and you'd probably recognize him more as That Guy from Buffy or Falcon Crest, depending on how old or young you are.

Speaking of TV, Marjean Holden, star of the hit syndicated series Beastmaster is in this as Kober's military cohort. If you remember, if I even mentioned it, and I don't remember if I did, she was supposedly in Nemesis, and I didn't spot her. Well I spotted her in this Gruner flick. If I had the time to do a blog on old syndicated TV shows, Beastmaster would feature prominently. It was no Highlander or Hercules-- in fact, it was utter ridiculous crap-- but it got me to the church on time when I was trying to sober up at 3AM so I could sleep without that bed spinning feeling. Remember when hit TV shows were syndicated, like Star Trek: The Next Generation? Now stupid broadcast TV shows like Navy NCIS and CSI: Des Moines are aired in their spots in this new trend of early weekly syndication. No good.



Despite the low budget nature of this film, it had one thing a movie like it made today wouldn't have, namely a realistic look to it. There were no CGIs in this at all. Sure, a lot of it looked fake, but it looks fake when it's made by a computer too. Which looked more realistic, Star Wars IV or Star Wars I? That's why I like a lot of movies from the 90s more than today. Sometimes I think the computer generated images have removed a lot of the creativity from directing.

This isn't a bad deal. If you see it in a bargain bin, give it a whirl. It's only available on VHS, so if you're going to go out of your way to get it on Amazon, make sure you've seen Nemesis first, because it's a better use of your money.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109178/

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (2009)

I've been looking forward to this for a while now. I was delayed quite a bit when the film was stuck in the Very Long Wait limbo in my Netflix queue. Last weekend I was at my local video store with some friends and found it, and decided to rent it. I think my friends weren't too impressed.

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus is about a mega shark and giant octopus that have been frozen in glaciers for 15 million years or so. They're released when the military drops a sonar device into the water around them, cracking the glaciers. Debbie Gibson (Deborah if you're her or her agent) is an expert marine biologist, and she and a couple colleagues are brought in by Lorenzo Lamas to deal with them. The next hour or so involves a series of catastrophes and attempts to corral the animals, before they finally just decide to let the two kill each other.



This is your run-of-the-mill Sci-Fi channel Saturday afternoon monster movie. That's it. There's plenty of ridiculousness: Lamas, a shark attacking a plane in mid-air, Gibson as a scientist. That definitely gives it a leg up on the average Sci-Fi channel movie, but does it warrant new release money? Definitely not. We got it for free because my buddy's wife works at the video store, so I can't complain much. I'd say either get it free too, or hope it ends up on Sci-Fi.

We're back to The Asylum again. I just don't know. I think the issue is, and I had this conversation with my buddy at Friends in the Attic, Nu Image and Millennium are the companies we think The Asylum should be. They're doing the work Golan Globus and Cannon did 15 to 20 years ago. The thing is, The Asylum have all these low-budget movies with silly rip-off names, and we think, "That's it." In reality, Direct Contact or Driven to Kill are it. Those are the DTV bad action movie titles we're used to. A cheesy CGI shark is cool, but Dolph beating the crap out of someone is cooler. Not only that, but you gotta blow shit up for real. Fake flames on a computer might save money, but it doesn't get me anywhere.



I looked around on The Asylum's website. First, I read a statement they made about people asking for temporal refunds, essentially "can I have my 2 hours back?" They made a great point that first, their movies are only 90 minutes long, but second, they generally don't get any better after the first fifteen. My feeling is I waste my 90 minutes so you don't have to. If you read a review of an Asylum film, and it's bad, and you watch it anyway, that's your own fault. The second thing I read was how they got into this silly business. They started by distributing art house films, and found no money in it. Then they made War of the Worlds with C. Thomas Howell, and wanted to table it after they got word of Spielberg's project. Blockbuster said no, just send it to us anyway, and it was really successful. The rest is history.

There isn't much Lamas here to report. He doesn't fight anyone, he doesn't do any action hero kind of stuff. Maybe someone reading this is thinking "What, do you expect him to fight a giant octopus?" Yeah, okay, I'd like to see him fight a giant octopus. Is that so bad? I'm not sure if you saw Lamas on TMZ chilling with Bush 41 in Kennebunkport, ME, but he's actually performing in A Chorus Line two towns up from me in Ogunquit. I don't know how many readers of the blog live in the New England area, but maybe we should make a DTVC field trip...



I noticed the film stars an actor named Michael Teh. I bring that up because Teh is my number one typo. I think I type "teh" more than "the". I believe I do that, because I type the "T" and "H" with the same finger, and the "E" with my left, so the natural motion is to go "right, left, right," as opposed to "right, right, left".

This isn't bad for what it is. If it's on Sci-Fi channel sometime, it's plenty worth giving it a looksee. If you see it on your video store shelves, I'd avoid it, especially at new release money. There are better ways to spend that cash, like say on Direct Contact.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1350498/

Martial Outlaw (1993)

I've been meaning to get some Jeff Wincott up here for a while now, and Netflix's Watch Instantly had this among a couple others, so I went with it. The deciding factor when faced with a few Wincott options was the addition of Gary Hudson.

Martial Outlaw has Wincott as a DEA agent who comes home to LA on business, where he's forced to work with his older brother who's a beat cop in the LAPD. His brother, Gary Hudson, is hella jealous of him, despite having a hot wife, and he sees Wincott's operation as an opportunity. He signs on with the Russian mobsters Wincott's investigating and trying to bring down. Now Wincott's getting it from all sides, and it'll take all he's got to bring these guys down.



This is pretty sweet. Wincott's the man, and the movie doesn't spare any opportunity for him to flex his martial arts muscles. In one scene he has to fight a bunch of dudes standing in a circle around him. I could've gone for more explosions and car chases, but the fight scenes were good enough that I couldn't complain too much. Hudson was solid, as was Stefanos Miltsakakis as the baddie's hatchet man. All in all, a very entertaining early 90s bad actioner.

I had a conversation with my friend at Movies in the Attic about the future of the DTV action star. With Dolph, Seagal, and Van Damme getting older, who's out there to step into those big shoes. I'd go one further and say, who's the next Jeff Wincott. Who is that thirtysomething martial artist from Toronto that can step in and do a ton of bad police action films. You could maybe see a Statham or Diesel dropping off the way Seagal and Van Damme did, turning to the DTV movie; kind of the way Wesley Snipes has. But where's the Wincott? The guy that only does DTV films.



Jeff Wincott also underlies one of my biggest issues in running this blog. There are only so many hours in a day, and the unfortunate reality is I don't make any money from the site. As such, with limited time, it's people like Jeff Wincott who end up being left behind like Kirk Cameron. I don't want to do it, because Wincott was a big deal for me growing up, and it's certainly not something I do on purpose, it just happens. That's why it's important to make your suggestions if you want to see a certain actor or movie up.

But Martial Outlaw underscores the point that I want more Wincott up here too, and with guys like Dolph and Seagal having nearly exhausted filmographies, there should be more room for a Wincott. Many of his films aren't available through Netflix, so it may take some time to get them via VHS. I have Open Fire available on Watch Instantly, so maybe that's where I'll go next, before I get the Martial Laws on VHS.



Getting off the Wincott subject, this film takes place in LA, and I just visited there a month ago. The reason I bring this up is this film uses the classic storyline of local boy leaves the small town he grew up in, makes good, and comes back to resentment. The only thing is, the small town he leaves is LA! I grew up an hour outside of Boston, and have been to many cities from London, to DC, to San Francisco, and LA felt big to me. Like really big. Maybe because it is really big. I don't know if they intended for the film to take place somewhere else, or maybe they just decided to go the postmodern route. In any case, it was a very interesting take.

This is a good time. If you find it cheap at your local video store or a bargain bin somewhere, go for it. And if you have Netflix Watch Instantly, this is a good deal. As far as I can tell, it's only available on Watch Instantly and VHS. I wish more movies like this were on there, like all the other movies I can only get on VHS.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107525/

CyberTracker (1994)

I thought I saw this a while ago on EncoreAction, but when I got it recently on Netflix, I found out I was wrong. I think it might have been Cyber-Tracker 2, but who knows. Those were the early days of digital cable, when that guide bar could be wrong at anytime, and channels like EncoreAction and ShowtimeXtreme had fluid programming line-ups that could change at a moment's notice. "What, this isn't Class of 1999, it's Gangland."

CyberTracker has Wilson as a CIA agent working security for a controversial senator promoting a new judicial system that's run by computers, and its sentences carried out by vicious cyborgs. Wilson uncovers some stuff he shouldn't, and now he's on the run. Sure, the CyberTrackers after him are tough, but Richard Norton's tougher, and he's pissed because he never liked Wilson in the first place. Wilson's only hope is to turn to a terrorist organization opposed to the senator and his computerized judicial system, and they're a bunch of kids who don't know what they're doing. Does it matter? Does Wilson ever really need back-up?



This wasn't bad. In fact, it was pretty ridiculous, but its ridiculousness was the kind of ridiculous that made me laugh, as opposed to make me angry, and that's always a good thing. The cyborgs could pull guns out of their legs, but like, they would appear and disappear when the cyborg put them near their legs. Later, we found out the cyborgs' skin was made out of some nuclear protoplasm that was described as "the perfect substance." So perfect, in fact, that Wilson could defeat one just by sticking a grenade through his perfect substance skin. We all know that was just another excuse for a huge explosion. And, at least as far as I go, I was fine with it.

This is the first Donny film we've done since mid-March's The Last Sentinel. Wow. A couple months off for a DTVC Hall of Famer, that's big. It's even bigger when you consider the size of his filmography. This is his thirteenth film, but I'd say it's one of his better ones. He has a solid end fight with Norton, which I think we were all waiting for. It wasn't as well choreographed as one might like, because it was more in the knock down drag um out style, as opposed to the technically correct. Wilson will be 55 in September, and he hasn't done anything since 2007's Sentinel. He doesn't even have anything listed as in production. I guess that's okay, because we still have like 15 or 16 more movies of his to review, but I'd like to see something new. He's a good three years younger than Seagal, and Seagal's still at it.



Gotta love Richard Norton. Great accent, great pecs, and great martial arts. You wanna talk about old, Norton's 59. He actually is older than Seagal. This is the second film he's done with Wilson, the other being Redemption. In this one he actually has a major role, playing the senator's hatchet man, and he's good. His real best stuff is from the late 80s early 90s, and I've only begun to scratch the surface of it. Keep an eye out for Future Hunters, directed by the late Cirio H. Santiago, which will probably be the next film of Norton's I post.

Anyone watch Full House? Uncle Jesse's dad is the senator. I know, I spent the entire film trying to figure out who he was. I knew he played the dad of some Mediterranean sitcom character. I'll be honest, I never liked Full House. I watched it because all the other kids I knew watched it, but even at like 10, I knew it sucked ass. And people wonder why reality TV became so huge in this country. It's because out of all the sitcoms ever made, like five of them were actually entertaining. And that goes for all the TV dramas too. My roommates got rid of cable before I moved out recently, and we were stuck watching NCIS over the antenna. God, who writes crap like that? And who finds it entertaining?



Speaking of opinions. I try my best to not allow my blog to be a soapbox. The key is to post my reviews of new and old DTV films and see what people think. Sure, I spout off opinions like I just did about the state of writing on TV, but these aren't volatile issues that will offend people or make people with differing views feel unwelcome. I say this, because CyberTracker brings up an issue regarding the opposition to the computerized judicial system. The government calls them terrorists, but the group themselves are the good guys. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, I guess they're saying. I'm going to stay away from it, because I don't want the blog to become a political forum. I have called out films in the past that I felt were too politically charged in one direction or the other; but I don't think that's what's going on here. They're just asking the question, who really is a terrorist?, and I'm saying I won't get into it.

This is good old fashioned human versus cyborg action, with D "the D" Dubs and Richard Norton thrown in. You'll get your money's worth if you rent it cheap or buy it cheap. I got it on Netflix, and wasn't disappointed. If you want something to make fun of, this is a good bet.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109515/

Direct Contact (2009)

This was a long time coming. Longer than it should've been. First I tried watching it on Netflix's Watch Instantly, but the audio was a mess. Then I figured I'd wait till it came on DVD in the mail, but I don't live in an urban environment anymore, so Netflix doesn't get to me as fast as it once did. Finally, it arrived today, and I've watched it, and I'm reviewing it now.

Direct Contact has Dolph as a former Marine former gunrunner imprisoned in an Eastern European jail. Michael Pare comes and offers him a deal: his freedom and 200 grr, if he rescues a chick from a Russian warlord near the Black Sea. Before you say "hey, this sounds like The Russian Specialist", hold your horses. Things aren't what they appear, and Dolph has no idea who to trust. The girl was never really kidnapped, Pare's now chasing him in a military issue hummer and shooting explosives at him, and everywhere Dolph goes, he gets innocent bystanders killed.



This is amazing. Vintage Dolph. Great one-liners, massive explosions, ridiculous car chases, and beautiful bar room brawls. The film starts with Dolph in a prison, and these guys are trying to get money out of him. He hands them a coin and says "It's all I got." The head guy spits in his food, and Dolph says "That's no way to start a friendship", leading to a big fight scene. The quintessential way to begin any Dolph movie. And it just hits its spots from there. The only thing this film did that was different from all other Lundgr-flicks, was it had Dolph shot in the right arm, not the left.

2009 might be the year of Dolph. imdb lists three other Dolph films slated for release this year, with Command Performance, Universal Soldiers: The Next Generation, and Icarus. I won't lie, he did show his age some, with his moves looking a little slower and more scripted than usual, but the movie more than made up for it. He just seems to get better with age. This film, maybe more than any he's ever done, really shows this sentiment he has that he's playing with the House's money. He's having as much fun making this movie as we have watching it. That's big, because we who watch these movies don't take them too seriously, so it's nice to know Dolph won't insult our intelligence by taking it too seriously either. At the same time, this isn't too tongue in cheek, which I think would ruin the film for us.



Michael Pare is excellent. I thought this was the third film of his I reviewed, with BloodRayne II being one of the others, and 2004's Gargoyle being the other. Well, it turns out I never did Gargoyle. I could've sworn I did. I feel like I did. But it's not on there. My friend at Movies in the Attic has told me repeatedly that I need more Pare up here, and he's right. The guy is the man. He's more than just Eddie and the Cruisers or Trip Fontaine from Virgin Suicides: he's a grade A DTV action star. I am familiar with some of his other work, and I've always loved him, somehow he just managed to slip through the cracks. We'll fix that soon enough.

As you know, I always look up my movies on imdb before I review them, and this one had some interesting info. First, it takes library footage from a bunch of other DTV films, including Out for a Kill and Derailed, which have been reviewed here. Second, the film was released in Kuwait on 16 April 2009, which is almost two months before we got it here. Why do the Kuwaitis get first dibs? Finally, this dude named ztamir from Israel absolutely hated this movie. Generally I'm not a cat who says "he or she just doesn't get it", but man, ztamir doesn't get it. I have a feeling he or she read The Great Gatsby and was like "why did he die at the end?"



McDonald's gets some mad product placement in this movie. I saw the Golden Arches at least three times that I could remember. McDonald's is my number one guilty pleasure, so, at least as far as I go, the movie made me want to get a Big Mac. I guess it doesn't take much for me to want a Big Mac. I was pissed the other night, because my buddy and I were walking back to his place after our soccer game, and the McDonald's on the way closed it's dining room after ten, and we got there at 10:05. Why the hell don't they have a drive thru type area for walkers? I think I saw one in Seattle or Portland, OR. It would be perfect.

This is must rent material. I saw it at my local video store, and believe me, it's worth new release money to get it. For the Dolph Completists out there, you need to buy it, and I'll be buying it soon enough. A perfect fit for any Dolph Fest.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1182609/