Ivan Drago, Ong-Bak, Black Dynamite, RoboCop and Hellboy all together!
I’m truly loving the camaraderie within this generation of action stars. Back in the day, we’d dream of seeing our favorite action stars together in movies. But the presence of egos stopped any possible collaborations dead in their tracks.
Now, with The Expendables being the catalyst, it happens all the time. Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Van Damme, Adkins, etc… all the premier badasses of the action genre working together in some truly ultimate action movies.
And in 2014, we got an ultimate action movie collaboration between action stars with Skin Trade.
UAMC Reviews: Skin Trade (2014)
After his family is killed by a Serbian gangster with international interests, NYC detective Nick goes to Southeast Asia and teams up with a thai detective to get revenge and destroy the syndicate’s human trafficking network.
Talk about an action fan’s dream come true! Skin Trade is an awesome throwback to 80s/90s gritty and hard hitting action movies, with a fast pace, brutal action, and an ultimate action cast! Just take a look at these names:
That’s right, folks. We got Ivan Drago, Ong-Bak, Black Dynamite, RoboCop, and Hellboy all in the same movie. And they more than live up to expectations! A passion project for Dolph, who also produced, he turns in a strong lead performance as the vengeful Nick, who will stop at nothing to see his family’s killers brought to justice.
Dolph Lundgren at His Absolute Best in ‘Army of One’ / ‘Joshua Tree’
Quite an Ultimate Menagerie
Jaa is also fantastic as the tough thai cop with a chip on his shoulder, who must reluctantly team up with Dolph to take down the baddies. MJW and Weller are solid as the two FBI agents on the trail of Dolph’s rampage, and Perlman is intensely menacing as the main baddie.
Ok, so now that the formalities are out of the way, let’s get down to the action! Because when you have a movie that stars Dolph, Jaa, and MJW, the biggest selling point is the opportunity to see some serious ass kicking. And that we see in abundance!
But How Ultimate is it?
We got shootouts, chases, and fighting galore. But the standouts are the back to back fights that Jaa has with Dolph and MJW. Watching this go down was like winning some sort of action movie jackpot. Getting one dream fight in a movie is something, but two? That’s amazing!
Any problems? Dolph and MJW don’t have a fight scene together. You have 2 Kyokushin Karate badasses in a movie together and don’t give them an epic Kyokushin Karate fight scene? Such a missed opportunity. And Peter Weller definitely needed more screen time, because who doesn’t want more Peter Weller in a movie.
But all in all, this was a damn fine action flick that took me back to my younger days of watching awesome movies on Action PPV, but with the added incentive of having such an ultimate action cast of badasses on hand. What a time to be alive. Long live ultimate action movies!
