I mentioned to noise in an email yesterday that I hadn't posted any of the movies I'd been watching in this thread in a while. I thought about it a bit and then decided I'd go ahead and toss in the names of my usual action/scifi craptaculars, so here we go. Also please note I've been on a Billy Blanks action movie kick. I don't know why. This is what I've been watching lately:
The Perfect Weapon
Jeff Speakman plays a white guy with an attitude who ends up having to use his brawn to get revenge in Koreatown because he doesn't like using his brain. I mean that. While the action is actually quite good, and the big tough guy serving as the final boss is a freaking behemoth, this flick will also help you understand the plight of East Asian actors in Hollywood, as Japanese and Chinese actors play Korean gangsters in an organized crime group obviously based on Chinese Triads but using Japanese Yakuza titles. Still, it's also a who's who of East Asian and Pacific actors, as the cast includes Mako, James Hong, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, professional wrestler Professor Tanaka, and even Dante Basco post-Hook.
King of the Kickboxers, AKA No Retreat, No Surrender 4, AKA Karate Tiger IV
B-grade action films can be just as bad about naming conventions as 1980s Italian horror movies, which is why we love them.
Loren Avedon is a cop on the edge who gets sent to Thailand to investigate a series of martial arts snuff films where people totally get killed by Billy Blanks of Tae Bo fame. Also for revenge, once again against Billy Blanks. What follows is some of the worst acting but some actually really entertaining Thai boxing scenes. In fact the acting in this movie is so bad that it swiftly becomes a comedy with awesome fight scenes. For that reason alone, King of the Kickboxers is worth watching. Also Billy Blanks is delightfully intense and brutish in this movie, again making him a worthwhile final boss fight. KotK also has an absurd training montage in which the hero gets hit by swinging logs.
Back in Action
Billy Blanks is a retired special forces operative going vigilante on the mob for dating his sister. Roddy Piper is a cop on the edge. Together they're gonna team up to save Blanks' sister and Piper's sort-of news reporter girlfriend. What I love about this team up is the differences in action styles they both have. Blanks kicks the crap out of everyone while Piper manhandles anyone dumb enough to get in his way. Also this movie has a scene where an underwear-only-clad Blanks takes on a pair of 70's porn-stached identical twins in purple tank tops and Zubaz pants. Yet this comes across as perfectly normal.
Tough and Deadly
Note: despite the similar posters, these two movies ARE NOT RELATED.
That's right, another action team up that you didn't realize you totally needed! Billy Blanks and Roddy Piper are at it again, only now they're taking on a rogue group of CIA agents working with the mafia. Blanks is a CIA agent suffering from amnesia, while Piper is a PI who doesn't play by the rules and has a hot receptionist who loves/hates him. Together they try to restore Blanks' memory and take down the bad guys the only way they know how: through VIOLENCE! Again, Blanks and Piper work well together, so I'm actually glad they made a second movie. I like this one more than Back in Action, if only because the actual team up starts much earlier and lasts longer. Again, the two guys have great chemistry...which might be partially due to a homoerotic training montage in which they get shirtless and hug. While it's not the best homoerotic training montage(who can beat Rocky 3 or those sit-ups in No Retreat, No Surrender?), it's up there.
So yeah...that's just some of what I've been watching lately. It's all been delightful trash. Now I'm off to check out a Don "The Dragon" Wilson movie about a futuristic corporation selling human body parts...and there are cyborgs for some reason! Woo!