A peak behind the scenes into the mega-explosions, high flying stunts and ultimate action of… ACTION USA (1989).
If you haven’t heard of Action USA yet, well, nuts to you. But also good for you because you’re reading about it right now! Here at the Ultimate Action Movie Club we love all the over-the-top and awesome action from the ‘80s and ‘90s and Action USA is a lost classic that should be up there with Commando, Cobra and Invasion USA.
And while it might have only been known as a cult classic for much of its existence, Action USA has made a triumphant resurgence thanks to Vinegar Syndrome and Alamo Dafthouse. So, if you haven’t yet, read our full review of Action USA here, then check out this ultimate interview with longtime stunt coordinator and performer turned action director John Stewart!
UAMC: So, what got you into action movies and stunts?
John Stewart: When I was 10 years old watching John Wayne movies I knew I wanted to be a stunt man when I grew up. I started driving cars and mini-bikes and jumping off roofs at a young age, so I knew I wanted to do that pretty early on. I got a chance to double Matt Dillion in a picture in Boston when I was 18 and from there I moved out to LA.
What’s the craziest stunt you’ve coordinated or performed?
Obviously there’s a million of those in Action USA but before that there was this movie called Cold Steel with Sharon Stone. I did a couple of things for that. For one I did a 16-story high fall on fire off a building. And then I directed a car chase off a main road into a raceway where there was a race going on. With the good guys chasing the bad guys and we jumped over a wall and we’re going the opposite way of traffic as the race cars – so you have race cars flipping over the stands and taking out the cars, it was just crazy stuff. Action USA obviously had some crazy stuff too – like jumping over the train in the police car.
Action USA starts off with a bang and has some of the best action sets that I’ve ever seen. What were you looking to accomplish with the film right off the bat?
I learned that early on when I was directing movies because the way it worked at the time was the buyers would come in to a screening and decide within five minutes if they liked it or not. You’d have to grab them at the beginning or they’d just walk out and you’d blow the sale.
What’s the secret to ULTIMATE stunt choreography
You see nowadays you can do whatever your brain can think with CGI, but back then I was always looking around at other films and shows to see what they were doing and trying to see how you can do it bigger and better. How can you do it with a higher speed or off of a higher ramp. Everything has to start somewhere, these movies like Action USA paved the way for Fast and Furious and what they’re trying to do these days. We were just trying to do our things faster and higher and to try to make stuff that would stand out.
There’s a car jump scene that stood out to me where a police car in pursuit crashes and blows up. We cut away for a second to our heroes escaping, but then cut back to see the officer get out of the car while still on fire – and I love that you went back to this rather than just letting the action scene end there with the initial crash.
Yeah exactly that’s what it is. We wanted to put a fire burner in there and that was a perfect place to put it even though we certainly could have just jumped the gorge and moved on, but I cut back to give the stunt performer Gary Beal his fire burn! I mean I was trying to make a cheap, fun action movie – it was a no-brainer where I wanted people to just have some popcorn and enjoy it so I put everything I could into the movie.
Do you think stunt experts make good action directors?
That’s how it’s normally done – most directors who come out of film school can’t direct action much less traffic. But that’s what they should do and what they all do – like James Cameron where they hire a good stunt coordinator for the action scenes then they handle everything else.
I never planned to be a director but when the chance was just tossed into my lap I definitely felt like I had an advantage where I could at least always direct the action and I could direct it well – like I knew where to place the camera to make it look good and I could measure out where a car was going to land after going over a jump ramp and get the camera within five or ten feet to get those money shots that you’d see in the commercials that were selling the films.
But 99% of commercial directors would have no idea where to put the cameras or coverage and would have to rely on a second unit director to help figure it out.
What’s the best action movie that you’ve seen recently?
I haven’t been watching a lot of action films these days mostly because of all the CGI and all that crap. I don’t want to just say Fast and Furious to say it but I don’t feel like they’re doing many stunts or effects grounded in real life. I did see that Spenser Confidential film with Mark Wahlberg that I did like, but for the most part I think the genre has gotten away from its roots.
Is there going to be an Action USA 2?
Absolutely not because we’ve lost too many of the great people involved over the years. Plus everything came together at the perfect time for the movie, the right time, the right location, the right stunt team, the right script you know what i mean? My effects guy was great and it really was a perfect storm so there’d be no way to live up to the original.
I’d much rather do a new action film that has nothing to do with Action USA, but do it in the old style with none of the CGI stuff but do it the way we know how to do it.
Looking back at Stone Cold’s first foray into action with this ultimate hit!
Part of being a professional wrestler is having the ability to act a particular character in the ring convincingly enough. Many wrestlers have acquired some base acting skills, which would help them to make the transition towards starring in a feature film. After a long and successful career, Steve “Stone Cold” Austin decided to do just that. WWE Studios helped him to enter the movie arena with The Condemned. Scott Wiper was in charge as a director, and he came with the reference of his kick-ass debut A Better Way To Die.
The Condemned tells the story of an illegal contest where a group of convicts from all over the world is forced to kill each other on a tropical island. Their violent clashes are broadcast illegally on the internet for paying audiences. Jack Conrad is one of the contestants, a wrongfully incarcerated Delta Force operative, who takes up the fight against his competitors and the production team of the broadcast. The premise of The Condemned is hardly original, a mixture of Takeshi Kitano’s Battle Royale and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Running Man. And while it does not have the sleaziness of the former and the cleverness of the latter, it turns out to be a more than solid actioner.
The movie starts with presenting the assembly of murderers, rapists and other psychopaths, and how they are “convinced” to take part in the contest. After that, the chase is on, with people running through the jungle trying to kill each other for the largest part of the movie. There’s some naive critique of the “anything goes on the internet” attitude, but it’s not really presented in a way that one is animated to reflect on it. The producers of the illegal broadcast are just another bunch of greedy criminals.
The Condemned movie image Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vinnie Jones
With no real story to impress, the action better be good, and it’s freaking awesome! The centerpiece are the various fights between Austin and his fellow convicts. In a style similar to the Undisputed series, the movie is full of raw, close-up brutality. Bones break and skulls are cracked as Austin puts his wrestling skills to use.
His fighting style is rather static, but quite effective. He just grabs people and crushes them, or knocks them out with a couple of well-aimed punches. The shackles that are attached to the ankles of the contestants add to the excitement, as they explode when being tempered with and result in more than one person being ripped apart.
The production quality is excellent. The fights and shootouts are filmed intensely with the camera always being close to the action, and the movie moves at a good pace overall. The dialogues and characters on the other hand are as cliched and one-dimensional as they can get. Of course Austin’s character is ex-Delta Force, of course he’s locked up innocently, and of course he has a pretty wife waiting for him at home that follows his ordeal in front of the TV. None of this a problem, though, and one may even say that the whole setup creates a somewhat charming old-school vibe.
Steve Austin plays his part well enough, and makes a good impression with his stoic attitude and over-the-top physical traits. And Vinnie Jones, while acting out his usual role of a psychopathic sadistic killer, is a formidable counterpart, and the most charismatic villain of the whole bunch.
The Condemned does about everything right to make it a fun and exciting watch, and should please wrestling and old-school action fans alike.
One of the greatest martial arts movies to come out in the modern century!
Jet Li is one of the great heroes of Chinese martial arts cinema. Outside of Asia, he made his debut in the late 1990s with Lethal Weapon 4. His performance as main villain was a real blast to watch, and actually saved the movie from mediocrity.
After that, he somehow got talked into doing the abysmal Romeo Must Die, but returned to full form in 2001’s Kiss of the Dragon. And no other movie from that period of his career gave Li the opportunity to display his martial arts prowess as much as Kiss of the Dragon did. Produced and written by French mastermind Luc Besson, it’s not your typical comic-style Besson production but takes a slightly more grounded approach to plot and action.
Chinese special agent Liu is invited by the French police to help with the arrest of a Chinese gangster in Paris, but the corrupt police captain Richard kills the suspect in cold blood. Liu is framed for the murder, and takes the top spot on Richard’s kill list. This premise, while certainly not original, works perfect to pave a way for plenty of action sequences as Liu fights for his survival against Richard’s henchmen.
Kicks and punches start within the first five minutes of the film, and the opening sequence sets a proper stage with a violent chase through hotel rooms and over balconies. Liu fights to kill, and some of his attacks are so ferocious that it almost hurts to watch them.
Always outnumbered and unarmed, he uses any tools he can find to cripple his enemies. Billiard balls, cleaning mops and furniture, everything becomes a lethal weapon in Liu’s hands. There’s not a moment of idleness, and the sheer quantity of fight scenes in Kiss of the Dragon would be enough to fill three action movies of lesser quality.
When he’s not busy thrashing the bad guys, Li’s character is a very likable guy. Humble and kind, he’s quite the opposite of your standard overconfident action movie protagonist. He’s also one of the most environmentally conscious action heroes, as he spends the entire movie either on foot or taking public transport.
Li’s stoic performance is nicely contrasted by the escapades of Tcheky Karyo who had a winning streak in the 1990s with many great villain roles. His character Richard is running the most corrupt police squad in France, and pulls one nasty act after another during the course of the story. You know he’s the ultimate sadist when it’s revealed that he keeps a helpless turtle in his desk’s drawer 24/7.
Kiss of the Dragon is a spectacular martial arts action flick that will knock you out of your seat. Jet Li gives an amazing performance on all levels, which resulted in the best movie he made outside of Asia so far.
Members of the cast and crew responsible for one of the best action hits of the 90s…
Released 25 years ago this week, GoldenEye is up to this date considered a modern James Bond classic. For those who lived their childhood in the 1990s, watching it on the big screen or even in VHS, Laserdisc or TV, it had the same effect that Goldfinger or Thunderball produced in senior 007 fans.
Grossing over 356 million dollars worldwide, the film was an instant box-office hit, particularly in the United States where the critics also praised the spectacle offered by director Martin Campbell and the new star playing Ian Fleming’s secret agent 007, Pierce Brosnan. Now, let’s take a look at the members of the cast and crew who are directly responsible for bringing Bond back to life in the 90s (no particular order).
FILM ‘GOLDENEYE’ BY MARTIN CAMPBELL (Photo by Frank Trapper/Corbis via Getty Images)
He is perhaps who deserves the biggest credit for GoldenEye’s success. Campbell had just directed the dystopian actioneer No Escape in 1994 and was already very popular in the UK thanks to the TV miniseries Edge of Darkness in 1985. Those were the two productions that led him straight to become the man who would replace John Glen, who had directed the five Bond films of the 1980s (three with Roger Moore, two with Timothy Dalton). The New-Zealand born filmmaker reminded us why James Bond is best viewed on a big screen after the character had been artistically limited by Glen’s films, which were quite interesting plot-wise but lacked the polish and visual impact of a Bond film.
Campbell rewatched the first 16 films on tape and decided that the 60s Bond era, starring the late Sean Connery, was the one he should base GoldenEye on. He felt Roger Moore leaned too much into comedy, while Timothy Dalton didn’t lighten up enough. He also took special attention to detail, hiring professionals that would make this film big and impacting for a new generation of moviegoers. A movie that would not also retain the best elements of the Bond folklore but would also compete with other action movies like True Lies, Clear And Present Danger and the Die Hard sequels. The action and humour have a clear nod to these productions, but the exoticism of locations like Monte Carlo, St Petersburg or the Caribbean and places like a paradisiac beach or a high-stakes baccarat table are Bond’s exclusive trademark.
Campbell could combine both styles while also taking the best of the cast and crew members and pushing them to the limits. He also makes the women of the film look impossibly beautiful and GoldenEye features the first proper sex scene in the series, as Xenia Onatopp terminates Admiral Farrel by crushing him with her legs during lovemaking: the shots of Famke Janssen in black stockings and red lips playing with her pray as a ferocious tiger were the ultimate fantasy of the hot-blooded heterosexuals Ian Fleming wrote his novels for – a testimony that Martin Campbell’s beginnings on the erotic industry with movies like Eskimo Nell and The Sex Thief weren’t wasted! Campbell’s directorial talent was valued a lot by producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who hired him to introduce Daniel Craig’s rebooted 007 in the first official adaptation of Casino Royale, released in 2006.
Nominated for an Academy Award in 1982 for Chariots of Fire and known for the sci-fi thriller Blade Runner, Rawlings collaborated with director Campbell in No Escape and was a key ingredient of GoldenEye’s success. On the cutting-room floor, while listening to jazz or Vivaldi CDs, he edited the film in a way that was frenetic or relaxing according to the film’s needs: as Natalya Simonova, the film’s leading lady, realizes that the space weapon that gives its name to the film is set to detonate on the very place she is in in a few seconds, Rawlings gives us exasperating quick shots of Natalya’s face registering the tension and the digital face of the wall-screen counting down to the doom.
Equally, when Natalya shares a romantic kiss with James Bond on a Caribbean beach near Cuba, their kiss fades into the fire of a hearth where they are later sharing a bed, symbolizing the liberated passion between the two protagonists. The film’s many action sequences, from the opening assault to a nerve gas facility in the Soviet Union to an escape from St Petersburg’s Military Archives followed by a tank chase and a confrontation between the hero and the villain on a platform suspended 300 meters above the ground are all marked by an intense, immersive pace delivered by this professional. Rawlings, who died in April 2019, didn’t return for another Bond film, but his efforts have certainly not been ignored by millions of Bond fans who still enjoy GoldenEye at this time and age.
Campell’s DP of choice (he worked with him in every major big-screen production except for Vertical Limit, Green Lantern and The Foreigner) gave GoldenEye a special vibrance. The colours speak for every scene in the movie: the claustrophobic feeling of an interrogation room in St Petersburg or a chemical warfare facility in the USSR are echoed by chiaroscuro techniques and a lot of grey and desaturated greens, while in the Monaco harbour the sea’s intense blue contrasts nicely with the bright white of the anchored yachts. During the scenes in Cuba, the vegetation is deep green and the skies during sunset are bright orange.
Méheux is also responsible –in many occasions under Campbell’s directives– of many artistic shots that graced the film: the iris of the iconic gunbarrel sequence opening into a Pilatus plane that flies over a huge dam, guiding the viewer to the first establishing shot of GoldenEye; a supine shot as Bond is frisked by Janus’ guards on the antagonist’s Cuban base, a perfect zoom-in at the eyes of 007 as he discovers his enigmatic enemy is none other than his former colleague and friend agent 006, a shot of the eyes of a semi-unconscious Bond who has the villainous Xenia Onatopp abseiling down of a helicopter reflected, and many more. The close-ups and extreme close-ups are also remarkable, particularly during the casino scene where we can appreciate the hands of Bond and Xenia dealing the cards or her reactions as they seduce each other. Along with Campbell, Méheux returned for Casino Royale, providing another memorable contribution for the franchise.
Everybody talks about GoldenEye’s action sequences, but many seem to forget the man behind them. Crane has been a member of the James Bond stunt team since 1987’s The Living Daylights and was promoted to stunt coordinator for GoldenEye. The action in this film looks extremely realistic: every jab hurts, the bullets coming out of Bond’s AK-47 made the Russian soldiers fly through windows, and the destruction of St. Petersburg by a T55 tank never felt so shockingly real.
Under Campbell’s instructions, Crane devised ways in which Brosnan’s Bond could kill enemies in a fast, economic way as a trained professional would: a simple towel was enough for the new 007 to incapacitate an attacking sailor who slowly tried to come after the secret agent’s head with a baseball bat in the Manticore yacht. Every stunt action in the film and minor fight scene or shootout seems choreographed with extreme detail.
Not a new face for the Bond franchise as he has been working in the series since 1964’s Goldfinger, acting as a production designer between 1981 with For Your Eyes Only to 2006 with Casino Royale (except for Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997), but Lamont is certainly a remarkable GoldenEye hero. No film studio was big enough to house the production, and the 007 Stage at Pinewood was already occupied by First Knight. He found an abandoned lot at Leavesden, in Hertfordshire, England. The place has been an aerodrome during World War II and then became a Rolls Royce factory.
Lamont turned it into a film studio basically from scratch, building the actor’s dress rooms, administrative offices and the sets for the movie. Only the bathrooms were fairly usable. Leavesden Studio served for all purposes and doubled for many interiors seen in the film, such as the villain’s hi-tech base in Cuba, Valentin Zukovsky’s nightclub, the chemical weapons plant and the MI6 office. When shooting the tank chase in St Petersburg required a lot of negotiations in Russian and cutting through red tape, Lamont made a verbatim replica of the city’s streets in the Leavesden backlot to shoot most of the tank action. 007 Magazine editor Graham Rye, who was invited to the shooting of those scenes, declared that “you could be forgiven for believing you were in Russia” if you were transported from your bed and wake on this street.
Lamont helped the producers save at least one million of their precious budget, but that’s not all. His talent made each location feel as it should feel: if we are in the mid-1990s and computer technology is a key weapon used by the villain to hurt the British economy, his base should be surrounded of all type of computers and digital visuals: a huge wall monitor provided by Pioneer, lots of desktop PCs, an improvised e-mail interface that (back in the day when few people were experienced with this revolutionary communication tool) resembles a modern chat conversation, and digital palm readers.
The interior of Alec Trevelyan’s hideout, a disused ICBM train, has all the technological requirements this villain needs in one carriage but its dining room has furnishings and wallpapers that would have been the envy of Czar Nicholas. But if the enemies are so advanced in terms of technology, the British Secret Service couldn’t stand far behind: the new MI6, led for the first time by the female M played by Judi Dench, is also equipped with computers, fax machines, electronic dossiers, a situation room that provides satellite imagery over Russia, and furniture that looks much more in tune with the 90s than the naval feeling of the old Admiral Messervy’s room.
No-one should be surprised at the grandeur of Lamont’s work, but it certainly feels better in GoldenEye than in most of the other Bond movies he worked, partially thanks to the budget increase and the vision of Campbell and Méheux that makes it stand out more than in the Glen films.
Controversial, you say? Well, indeed. For many, one of GoldenEye’s weakest points is the soundtrack by Luc Besson’s movie composer of choice. However, his music was a key element in giving the film a special mood. The timpanis and synthesizers contribute to generating a metallic, industrial feeling that is far from the horns and guitars of John Barry, but this is exactly what the people behind the movie wanted. According to author Jon Burlingame, Marsha Gleeman from MGM/UA Music felt that, with Barry unavailable to score GoldenEye, they should try something different and appeal to current generations with the sound of the film. This is where Serra, who scored Nikita and Léon: The Professional, came into the play.
Serra’s music accentuated the sombre feeling of the post-Cold War days in Russia along with the dominion of technology in our lives and the use of space weapons to create havoc on Earth. But his more traditional take on the music could also generate the feeling of melancholy, poignancy, romance and finesse: this is what his recurring string music (tracks “We Share The Same Passions”, “The Severnaya Suite”, “That’s What Keeps You Alone” and “For Ever, James” in the album) evocates depending on the scene. Serra also performed the film’s end title song, “The Experience of Love”, based on the music he first wrote for Léon: The Professional with lyrics by the late Rupert Hine. The lyrics aren’t exactly what you expect from a Bond song, but it does fit with the film’s romantic ending and the music is really beautiful.
A good film needs a good script, and while the late Michael France deserves a big recognition for the genesis of GoldenEye’s story, it is New Jersey-born screenwriter and author Bruce Feirstein who deserves the credit for making the 17th Bond film so enjoyable and appealing to younger audiences. Feirstein is that man who knew how to put the B in Bond in the verge of the new millennium. He made us feel that we were watching James Bond in a James Bond film, not just a James Bond film where James Bond takes part in.
France conceived a script where the escapism wouldn’t go as far as Moonraker and the seriousness as far as Licence To Kill, while also trying to bring new challenges for 007. This way, his enemy was a former colleague and almost a mentor for him who bore the number 006 betrayed the British and conspired against them under diplomatic immunity by the new Russian government. The action scenes were clever but at the same time too expensive to execute. After the collaboration of Jeffrey Caine and Kevin Wade, Feirstein came in and made some interesting changes that made the pacing of the film faster and more exciting.
He toned down the political aspect of the original story and brought new characters into the play: computer hacker Boris Grishenko, who despite his goofiness is essential to concrete the villain’s plan; ex-KGB agent and current arms dealer Valentin Zukovsky, a former enemy Bond has to deal with again; and Xenia Onatopp, who had already preexisted in France’s script but Feirstein emphasized her sex appeal by having her killing people during lovemaking, the reason why the character’s surname was changed from Labyakova to Onatopp. He also suggested the new M should be a lady, considering that Stella Rimington had been appointed as the Head of MI5 one year before the film’s release.
Feirstein’s premise to GoldenEye was that “the world changed, but Bond didn’t”. This way, he didn’t alter any of 007’s well-known traits except smoking. He would still be a womanizer, although this time the women he came across had vital importance in the film’s plot.He would still be employed at MI6 and regarded as one of the Service’s best operatives, although the new M would brand him as a “sexist, misogynist dinosaur” and “a relic of the Cold War”. People like Valentin Zukovsky, Jack Wade and Alec Trevelyan would laugh at his old fashioned patriotic codes and ethics, but he would still prove that we still needed men like him into the new world order.
Feirstein would later write Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough, plus the Bond video games 007 Everything or Nothing and From Russia With Love for Electronic Arts, plus Blood Stone and the 2010 remake of GoldenEye 007 for Activision.
In every James Bond film, James Bond is the most important character of all. None of the formula elements can work if he’s not there or if he doesn’t have a commanding presence in the story. And similarly, if the actor playing Bond wasn’t good enough and he didn’t have a connection to the viewer, all the effort would be lost. Pierce Brosnan was originally signed in to play 007 in 1986 before his Remington Steele contractual obligations terminated his chance to become the fourth Bond. However, he was the first option considered by the producers once Timothy Dalton left the series, unable to return for more than just one film. Thankfully, this time, Brosnan had no compromises and on June 8, 1994, he was announced as the fifth Bond actor.
The Irish-born star mixed the best elements of his predecessors: Sean Connery’s self-assurance, Roger Moore’s humoristic traits and elegance, and the emotional qualities provided by George Lazenby’s and Timothy Dalton’s Bonds in their short appearances. At the same time, Brosnan could also deliver some introspection into the secret agent’s psychology suffered by the strain of his singular profession. He could look dashing on a Brioni dinner jacket or a three-piece business suit, but also lethal on a close-quarters-fight and avoiding thousands of bullets after him. Without explicitly falling in love for her, he could generate a romantic attachment with GoldenEye’s leading lady that felt genuine. Just like it happened to Connery and Moore before him, Brosnan didn’t just appeal to a couple of fans, but to entire generations of men who dreamed to be like him and women who dreamed to be seduced by him.
The posters of the film featured him in the classic tux, holding the famous Walther PPK handgun and sporting a comma of black hair falling above the right eyebrow – echoing Ian Fleming’s description of the character in his first novel, 1953’s Casino Royale. Without doubt, having a man that looks, kills and seduces like James Bond should do taking the lead in a James Bond film guaranteed half of GoldenEye’s success.
There are many more people among the cast and the crew who deserve the credit for rejuvenating James Bond with this movie: Daniel Kleinman provided an unforgettable and relevant main title sequence artistically representing the fall of Eastern communism, Lindy Hemming’s costumes are fitting for the character’s personalities and moods. The teaser trailer directed by Joe Nimziki is fabulous with that techno-influenced James Bond Theme arrangement by Starr Parodi and Jeff Fair. The poster campaign by Bemis Balkind would have compelled you to pay an IMAX 4D ticket for this movie if it had been released today, and let’s not forget the supporting cast: Gottfried John, Tcheky Karyo, Joe Don Baker, Robbie Coltrane… far from the Oscar radar but really impressive in their roles. GoldenEye is indeed one of the Bond few movies where all the supporting cast leaves a lasting presence in the minds of the viewer.
Last but not least, the stunt performers shouldn’t be ignored, from Wayne Michaels who jumped 195 meters off from that dam to Tracey Eddon who was propelled from an ejector seat at Q’s Lab and sustained a lot of injuries or Gary Powell, who drove that T55 tank at full speed and to this day reflects it wasn’t something easy to do. And they all risk their lives frequently just to cheer us up!
Ranking the very best of Nic Cage (Ultimate Action Category)!
Nicolas Cage established himself as an incredibly talented actor in the 1980s and early 1990s. He has a great natural charisma, a very recognizable face, and also became known for his intense performances that frequently went over the top to become almost cartoonish.
These traits also made him a perfect choice for starring in action movies. From the mid-1990s he would take on roles in high-profile productions, some of which have become classics of the genre. His newest action flick Jiu Jitsu is scheduled for release on 20 November. Because of this, we thought that now might a good moment to give you an overview of his ten best excursions into the action genre in this article.
Next is based on a story by Philip K. Dick, and many great films such as Total Recall and Blade Runner have been created based on his work. Cage plays Cris Johnson who works as a show magician in Las Vegas. He has the supernatural talent of being able to tell the future, but can only anticipate the next couple of minutes. His skills are utilized by the FBI to track down a group of terrorists, who also have taken an interest in his powers.
Next has a really interesting premise, but somehow it never fully takes off. The first half is quite a drag, the story just meanders around without much happening. The second half has a higher pace, as Johnson uses his powers frequently to escape bullets and crashing cars, and also to dispose of his enemies.
The acting of everyone involved, including Nicolas Cage, is a bit underwhelming, and the movie never builds up any real tension. Next is one of the more mediocre conversions of Philip K. Dick’s work, but it is still entertaining enough to prevent it from being a complete failure.
After creating their opus magnum Con Air, Simon West and Cage teamed up again in 2012. Its production values and overall quality are not in the same league as their first collaboration, but Stolen still turns out to be a more than solid old-school actioner. Master thief Will is released after spending 8 years in prison for a botched heist.
He looks forward to seeing his daughter Alison, but she is abducted by his former associate Vincent. Vincent wants 10 million US dollars in exchange for Alison’s life, and sends Will on a new heist. Stolen is a fairly standard action thriller by all measures, but also never pretends to be anything else than 90 minutes of mostly harmless fun. It’s a good ride from beginning to end with plenty of thrills as Will needs to outsmart his adversary and the police at the same time.
The set pieces are not as lavish as in Con Air, but everything looks pretty decent production-wise. Cage is in good form as sly but kindhearted comeback criminal against his will. Stolen also marked Cage’s preliminary farewell from action movies shown on the big screen. Since then he has taken on roles in numerous low-budget productions with his participation often being their only redeeming quality.
Windtalkers was the second collaboration between Nicolas Cage and John Woo after their masterpiece Face/Off. It is based on the true story of Navajo recruits who transmitted encoded messages in their native language in the Pacific theater of World War 2. Cage plays US marine corporal Joe Enders, who is tasked with protecting the young Navajo soldier Ben Yahzee from falling into the hands of the enemy at all costs.
The plot of Windtalkers evolves around a sequence of battles that took place during capture of the Japanese island Saipan. In between the combat sequences we’re in for a lot of interpersonal drama that is drooling with cliches from the last 50 years of war movies. Nevertheless, Cage’s somber portrayal of a traumatized and weary soldier is actually quite compelling. We’re not really watching a John Woo feature for the dialogues, though, but to see some epic action scenes.
And there’s quite a few massive battles with large-scale mayhem and destruction. American and Japanese forces clash ferociously, and the movie was Woo’s most bloody and gory piece of work since his temporary farewell from Hong Kong cinema. Windtalkers is not the best we have seen from either Woo or Cage, but it’s a tight war action drama with enough spectacle to keep the viewers’ adrenaline level high.
Welcome to Grand Theft Auto: The Movie. Retired master car thief Memphis Raines is called back to action, as his brother’s life depends on him stealing 50 luxury cars within 24 hours. He assembles his old crew and gets to work, all the while avoiding a pair of watchful police detectives, who believe they can convict him this time. Gone in 60 Seconds has Cage portraying the exciting and adventurous life of a professional car thief. He plays it cool and self-assured, and is joined by a cast that reigns in on the upbeat mood, among them Angelina Jolie and Robert Duvall.
The movie is not about all-out action, but there’s always something fun and exciting going on, including a couple of nice car chases. And the last thirty minutes are one big explosive showdown, when Memphis tries to get the last car to the drop-off point while racing the clock and the police. Gone in 60 Seconds features flashy cars, funny lines and cool characters, and shows Cage delivering another highly entertaining performance.
“With no power comes no responsibility.” This quote from Kick-Ass is a fitting description for its ironic take on the superhero genre. The movie tells the story of comic book nerd Dave who decides to become the superhero Kick-Ass. Even though he has no superpowers, he still manages to build up a reputation after a successful vigilante action.
This gets him the attention of a local crime boss, but also of two real superheroes who are less than charmed by his attempts to imitate them. A parody of sorts, Kick-Ass has its heart at the right place. It shows compassion toward all characters, and even the bad guys are quite easygoing. This does not prevent them from dying in seriously violent ways, however. Watch out for an interrogation scene with a man-sized microwave that goes terribly wrong.
Cage has a supporting role only, but his part and the movie as a whole are just too good to not be mentioned on this list. He plays the slightly neurotic superhero Big Daddy, who is also a single dad. His daughter Mindy (aka Hit-girl) is a 12 year-old, foul-mouthed martial arts expert who effortlessly thrashes entire squads of buffed-out gangsters. Kick-Ass is a clever and charming production with plenty of slapstick humor and bloody violence.
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance came out at a time when the Marvel Cinematic Universe really got going. Thankfully, and I apologize for inserting a maybe too strong personal opinion here, it’s not part of this new sober branch of Marvel features. Spirit of Vengeance was a sequel to the rather boring first Ghost Rider, and got a lot more interesting due to the involvement of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor of Crank fame as directors.
Johnny Blaze is the Ghost Rider, a former stuntman who is sometimes possessed by a vengeful spirit. Johnny is tasked with protecting the boy Danny from the grip of the devil who thinks Danny would be the perfect vessel for him to walk the earth. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is saved from its generic premise by a weird atmosphere, plenty of humor, and relentless action. It also shows Cage going into full lunacy mode with an overabundance of grimacing and screaming like he did in no other movie on this list.
The action scenes bear the Neveldine and Taylor trademarks with the camera moving all the time close to the protagonists, and shots from impossible angles. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is one of the most eccentric and likable manifestations of the Marvel universe on celluloid.
The bloodthirsty coolness of From Dusk Till Dawn meets the foul-mouthed high-octane action of The Last Boy Scout in Drive Angry. Milton escapes from hell with a car and seeks to bring down a cult leader who is responsible for the death of his daughter, and has Milton’s baby grand-daughter in his captivity. Milton’s quest for revenge is made more difficult by the police and the mysterious Accountant, who has been tasked to return Milton to the Netherworld. Cage is the grand-daddy from hell who spends half of the movie with a bullet in his eye.
He can shoot a whole gang of bad guys while having sex, and is the undisputed master of car action mayhem. Add to that an ironic self-awareness that leads to plenty of laugh-out moments, a groovy soundtrack, and we got ourselves a masterpiece for the lower instincts. Cage’s performance is as awesome as it can get, but the movie is made even better by William Fichtner’s role as slightly cranky, but cultivated minion of hell, who just owns every conversation he’s in. Drive Angry literally is one hell of a movie that explodes right in your face.
The star power of Nicolas Cage and John Travolta met with the visionary style of legendary director John Woo in the action extravaganza that is Face/Off. Psychopathic terrorist Castor Troy has planted a bomb somewhere in Los Angeles that is set to go off in a few days. FBI agent Sean Archer captures Troy, and agrees to infiltrate his gang by having Troy’s face exchanged for his own through surgery.
Troy gets Archer’s face in return, but awakes from his coma and manages to escape from prison with big plans for revenge. What happens when your identity is exchanged with that of someones else is an interesting thought experiment on many levels. And it’s pretty awesome to see Cage and Travolta playing each other’s characters. Both are the top of their game in Face/Off, and especially their portrayal of the lunatic killer Castor Troy is hilarious. John Woo stages the feud between Troy and Archer with elegant takes, and created some of the most spectacular action scenes that you will find in a movie from the 1990s.
Every single set piece is pure awesomeness from maestro Woo, be it a helicopter chasing an airplane, plenty of Gun-Fu mayhem, and an explosive boat chase that may the best one in action cinema history. Face/Off is perfect on every level, and an indisputable all-time action classic. Plus, it might be getting a reboot? Read more here!
The Rock was Cage’s first role in an action movie, and immediately resulted in a masterpiece. His acting style in The Rock seemed to have created a template for many roles that followed: a kindhearted, but somewhat goofy character with a great resolve. A group of angry marines demand compensation for the families of their fallen comrades.
They occupy the former prison Island of Alcatraz and threaten to wipe out San Francisco with poison gas rockets. It is up to chemist Stanley Goodspeed (played by Nicolas Cage) and ex-spy John Mason (played by Sean Connery), the only person who ever escaped from Alcatraz, to save the city from destruction. With The Rock, Alcatraz became one of the most spectacular playgrounds for heroes and villains in a movie where one of the best car chases in action cinema history is just an overture to everything that follows. Director Michael Bay created a sleek tour de force of monumental proportions.
The Rock features non-stop thrills, shootouts and explosions that are further magnified by Hans Zimmer’s bombastic soundtrack. Nicolas Cage and Connery make an awesome team, and are complemented by Ed Harris’ intense portrayal of a disillusioned US army general. The Rock is the very definition of a blockbuster movie, and at the same time one of the best examples of old-school action.
Big, bigger, Con Air! After scoring a huge hit with The Rock, Cage returned to the action genre, and managed to even top the spectacle of its predecessor, if only by a small margin, to be fair. And again he is a great hero, this time with a charming southern accent, wild hair, and a John McClane memorial tank top. He plays Cameron Poe, a decorated soldier who was unjustly sentenced to prison for some years, and now looks forward to be reunited with his family.
For his journey home, he is put on a plane with the nations worst criminals, who have their own ideas for the final flight destination. With Con Air, director Simon West and producer Jerry Bruckheimer distilled the essence of classic action films and created an inferno of fire, bullets and sweat. The magnitude of demolitions this movie delivers is something that is taken for granted these days due to the overabundance of CGI, but in Con Air it’s (almost) all real stuff being blown up and smashed into each other! Cars are flying through the air, planes are crashing into buildings, and it’s incredible how much havoc a single fire truck can wreak!
While Cage is the focal point of the movie to sympathize with, John Malkovich as psychopathic genius Cyrus the Virus leads an incredible assembly of villains. Everything in Con Air is delightfully over the top, and the movie delivers cool and cheesy one-liners by the minute. It’s a pinnacle of late-1990s spectacle cinema, and action movie brilliance in its purest form.
The awesomeness of Nicolas Cage combined with the action of Alain Moussi, Tony Jaa, and Frank Grillo!
To say 2020 has been quite the year is definitely the biggest understatement in history. Who could have foreseen that a global pandemic would force the closure of everything around the world, including movie theaters, which would compel movie studios to move all their major tentpole action flicks to either next year or the year after that? Not I, I’ll tell you.
But, to be honest, it didn’t really matter. Because you could lose the pandemic, and keep all the big action flicks in this year, and even add some new ones, like… Batman vs Ironman, G.I. JOE Meets the Transformers, etc, etc…
None of it would have mattered… because the most anticipated action movie of 2020 was always going to be Jiu Jitsu.
An ancient order of expert jiu jitsu fighters who must face a vicious race of alien invaders in a battle for Earth every six years. But when Earth’s hero is defeated by the leader of the invaders, the future of humanity hangs in the balance.
When this one was announced, I immediately called it that this was going to be the best movie of the year. The producer/director and star of the Kickboxer: Retaliation, Dimitri Logothetis & Alain Moussi, teaming back up and adding Tony Jaa, Frank Grillo, Juju Chan, and the great one himself, the Cage Man, Nicolas Cage, to the mix was almost too much for my heart to handle. And with that synopsis?? This sounded absolutely perfect. A dream come true of a movie! So now, after seeing it, was I correct? Let’s find out!
Ok, the big question is: was the movie perfect? No. But frankly, what movie is? (*Cough* Robocop *Cough*) But, as an action fan, was it everything I was hoping it would be? Absolutely! This is a gloriously bonkers, all out sci-fi/martial arts action extravaganza! A movie that needs to be seen by all action fans! A pure blast!
Let’s start with the cast. Alain Moussi is once again a very dependable leading man as Jake, the chosen Jiu Jitsu (in the movie, Jiu Jitsu is the title used for the chosen one who will be the last line of defense for Earth when all other combatants fail). While not yet at the level of the reigning kick of the action world, Mr. Scott Adkins, he more than holds his own with the other actors in the cast, and gives a fine leading performance.
Everyone else is awesome. Grillo, Jaa, Chan.They all did their thing acting wise. One little nitpick though regarding the cast: why were Marrese Crump and Rick Yune left out of the cast announcement?? Yeah, Marrese Crump and Rick Yune are in this movie. Was the guy who kicked Jaa’s ass in The Protector 2 and X-Blade from The Man With The Iron Fists not good enough to be announced with the rest of the cast?? I thought that was wrong.
But now, onto the acting MVP of this movie, because of course he would be, Nicolas Cage. Cage is an absolute joy to behold whenever he is onscreen. The idea to cast him in the role of the wise but eccentric kung fu mentor was nothing short of genius, and Cage plays it amazingly. I mean, just look at the line of dialogue they gave him to describe the alien: “The poet warrior in the sci-fi sense. The Spaceman.”
Now, picture Nic Cage saying that. Brilliant, right? I thought so too.
Now, onto the goods: the action. This is where the movie succeeds the most. The fight sequences are out of this world! (pun intended) I mean, the choreography is solid, but it gets taken up a notch thanks to the creativity behind the camera. Director Logothetis and his cinematographer Gerardo Madrazo (also returning from Kickboxer: Retaliation) really find unique ways to film the fight scenes without ever obstructing them, giving us new and awesome ways to view them. Salute.
The fight scenes are also immensely plentiful. The action starts right from the top and barely lets up until the end. Logothetis and his action director Supoj Khaowwong give us some of the most blistering fight scenes of the year, particularly Tony Jaa’s introduction to the film. There’s truly some exciting stuff in here, folks.
Now, onto the problems. The movie has quite a few moments where it drags. See, while the plot sounds fairly complex, the film itself is pretty simple. “Guy with amnesia discovers he’s been chosen to defend the Earth from an invading alien.” That’s it. That’s the whole movie in a nutshell. So with a story that simple, the movie really only works off of the backs of Cage and the Action. And when there’s no Cage or Action? It can get really bland and aimless.
Also, Grillo and Yune are wasted in the action department. Both men have proven to be really good action performers over the years, and this would have been as good a place as any to showcase that. But while the rest of the cast get copious amounts of moments to shine (even Cage), it seems like Grillo and Yune got the shaft. Especially Yune. He doesn’t even get to fight! Grillo does, but fairly briefly. Yune gets to shoot a big machine gun, and that’s all. Are you kidding me?? He’s X-Blade!! Let the man rock out!!
Finally there’s a character in here that’s meant to be the comedy relief, but just comes off as increasingly annoying. Luckily they’re not in the film all that much, but when they’re there? Oh boy…
But, with that being said, I really enjoyed this. I just wanted some wild & crazy martial arts awesomeness to put a big ole smile on my face, and by golly, I got it. And when you consider everything that has happened this year, I think I deserve that. We all do.
It’s Mel vs Walton Goggins in this grim Christmas tale…
A “grim and gritty” take on Santa Claus is, frankly, ridiculous. Even more so, a film where the embodiment of Christmas cheer battles a hitman trying to claim a bounty put out by a spoiled pre-teen upset over coal in his stocking feels like the sort of parody trailer you’d notice while absentmindedly scrolling YouTube. Worth a quick watch and a chuckle before you moved on to a cute cat video or some other bite-sized video distraction.
Yet, that film description is exactly what, the latest film from the creative team of Ian and Eshom Nelms (Small Town Crime), Fatman is all about. In a world where Santa Claus is very real, a vindictive, wealthy young man (Chance Hurstfield, Good Boys) hires a mysterious assassin (Walton Goggins, Justified) to track down the man known as Chris Cringle and make him pay for labeling the boy as a bad kid unworthy of gifts. Ol’ Chris isn’t the jolly cartoon the media makes him out to be though. He is a burly, tough as nails, survivor and he won’t go down without a fight.
So, we have to address the elephant in the room. Chris is played by disgraced megastar Mel Gibson (Braveheart). After having his career deservingly sidelined for several years after recordings of him drunkenly spewing racist and anti-Semitic tirades were leaked to the media, Gibson has slowly been trying to reestablish himself in Hollywood as an actor. He has at times chosen roles that clearly rebuke his now tarnished public image, like 2016’s Blood Father where he battled racist drug dealers, and at others he has taken on roles, like that of a disgraced cop in Dragged Across Concrete from 2018, that shamelessly leaned into the negative perceptions. It feels like Gibson is trying to appeal to both the people who were repulsed by his drunken antics and those who wish they could get away with such abhorrent behavior themselves. It’s a confusing approach and has only served to make him even more divisive among film fans.
Here with Fatman, we have Gibson trying to do something so distanced from his ugly past that it almost feels completely forced. That’s not really the fault of the script, the directing, or even Gibson’s own acting. He’s honestly quite good in the role but his image has such an incredibly dark stain on it that will always affect how the films he’s in are perceived. Even with this gritty interpretation of the character Gibson’s mere presence in the role still feels like a bridge too far.Another example is the role of Chris’s wife, Ruth Cringle, played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Without a Trace). She is wonderful in the role of Ruth- strong, yet warm and loving, but because of Gibson’s history and the fact that she is a person of color it causes doubt to creep in as to the filmmakers’ motives for casting her. It’s unfair to the Nelms brothers to wonder about that and even more so to Jean-Baptiste. We should just be focused on the great work she does here and not the intentional or unintentional optics of the situation. The sad reality is though that Gibson’s baggage weighs heavily on nearly every aspect of Fatman. I’m not sure there was ever a way to overcome that here and keep him as a participant in the film.
Which is a shame because there is a lot to admire about in the film. Despite its incredibly dopey premise, the world-building here is clever in how it addresses something like Santa Claus affecting the global economy and what his relationship to the governments of the world would be like. Even the idea that he is magical in a world where no other magic exists is handled in subtle yet interesting ways. It’s all fun background dressing though at times the nods to Santa lore tend to give the film a bit of tonal whiplash. Fatman is all fairly serious so when something absurd does happens, like the US military enforcing new security measures on Chris’s workshop elves for example (yes, there are elves), it muddles what is essentially a pretty straightforward story of a conflict between two men, one ordinary and the other anything but.
It’s not really accurate to label Walt Goggins’s nameless hitman (he is listed as just “Skinny Man” in the film’s closing credits) as “ordinary” though. He is menacing, comical, and tragic all at once and Goggins completely owns the film whenever he is on screen. He is equally adept at the physical demands of the role. Goggins is a part of every bit of action in Fatman and he is utterly convincing as someone who can handle themselves in a gunfight. I hope that someday Walt Goggins gets a high-profile antagonist role in a big budget film where he can really show off his action star chops. He’s got them and it’s a shame they aren’t utilized more often. If I had to give you one reason to see Fatman it would be for his one-of-a-kind performance as a guy who really hates Christmas.
Near the end of the film, when Walt Goggins and Mel Gibson finally square off against each other, guns at the ready, on a snowy landscape- the tension and electricity is palpable. The scene feels like a modern day-take on Sergio Corbucci’s snow-covered spaghetti western classic The Great Silence as it cuts to a closeup of Gibson’s icy blue eyes framed against the harsh, winter environment. It’s a moment that reminds you of Gibson’s powerful presence as an actor and why he was at one time such a big star. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to push his past misdeeds out of your mind and likely never will be no matter what roles he chooses in the future. Fatman suffers greatly due to that fact despite the positive efforts on display from everyone else involved with its production.
Looking back at how this smart thriller has aged over the years…
Directed by Bryan Singer, The Usual Suspects is an Oscar-winning thriller stars Gabriel Byrne, Benicio Del-Toro, Kevin Pollack, Stephen Baldwin and Kevin Spacey. Told in retrospect, the usual suspects sees Verbal Kint (Spacey) in a Los Angeles interrogation room explaining how a mysterious crime lord called Keyser Soze was responsible for he and his associates being involved in a shootout at a harbour that resulted in 20 people being killed.
I remember seeing this film one evening and it was so engaging that when I saw the ending my mouth was to the floor and despite having watched this movie countless times I am still in awe and makes me wonder what I watched.
The Usual Suspects did not get much exposure back in 1995 but has gone to become a bonafide classic. The real star of the Usual Suspects is the script written by Christopher McQuarrie who has gone onto become an acclaimed director, directing hits like Jack Reacher and Mission Impossible 5 and 6 and is currently directing Mission Impossible 7 and 8 back to back.
It is just incredible the story unravels and the more characters introduced the more engaging and enticing it is and after you have finished watching this movie you ask yourself how and where did they get me, at an hour at 40 minutes this film does not overstay its welcome.
The film is a puzzle that has to be put together. You have two pieces of the puzzle that are equally important from Verbal explaining how the series of events led them to be at the harbour, and in the hospital a survivor who has seen Keyser Soze and has been asked to provide a description of what he looks like. All of these elements build up to an incredible finale.
Believe it or not this film was given 2/5 stars by acclaimed film critic Roger Ebert when it was released but has gone to be featured in everyone’s DVD collection, the cast is unusual but works. You have a lot of character actors featured in the film from Kevin Pollak, Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin all lend fine reliable support as does Chazz Palimenteri as Dave Kujan who interrogates Verbal.
But the two standout performances are by Benicio Del-Toro as Fenster the inarticulate crook and partner of Stephen Baldwin’s character, whilst his character is not in the film he more than leaves his mark on the film and Kevin Spacey’s Oscar winning as Verbal Kint that makes The Usual Suspects so riveting.
The Usual Suspects has one of the greatest twists ever committed to film and will get you every single time, you have to see it to believe it, after 25 years The Usual Suspects has not lost any of its edge and is an incredible film from start to finish.
Gather your friends and get the beer and pizza ready… Action USA is truly an ultimate action movie watching experience!
You know, as an action fan, I’ve experienced a fair share of disappointment. There’s honestly been entirely too many action movies that have made promises they couldn’t keep in regards to their action content. Despicable. So nowadays, I try to be really careful. I don’t want my heart getting broken again.
So when I hear about a movie that’s called Action USA, my ears prick up. Action USA?? That’s a big promise you’re making there, guys. But with a title like that, how can I possibly ignore it?? I had to be sure, so I went ahead and checked it out. So, does it deliver? Let me break it down for you!
After her boyfriend is murdered by the gangsters whose diamonds he stole, a girl is protected by two FBI agents who plan to keep her from sharing the same fate.
Oh boy, does this one deliver! This movie goes out of its way to live up to its title! This movie’s main concern is car chases, high falls, bar brawls, and explosions. That’s all. You want a story? These filmmakers never heard of it! They just want to overload you with a gratuitous amount of spectacular stunts. And they sure as hell do!
Well, I may have been a bit hyperbolic. There IS a story present, but it’s not really that important. Just look at the intro for evidence. After 2 minutes of driving around, a beautiful woman is making out with some guy when two dudes, looking like Wolfman Jack’s brother and a buff Edward James Olmos, bust in and kidnap the guy.
After throwing him into the trunk of their car, they drive him to a nearby helicopter where they proceed to fly around while dangling him from it. The woman pursues them, and after surviving a magnificent fall from the helicopter into a river below, he and the girl get into their car and get into an epic car chase that sees like 17 cars destroyed, and countless near fatal collisions with pedestrians.
Oh yeah, the chase also caps off with a major car crash and massive explosion. This all happens about 3 mins into the movie, folks. These filmmakers really know how to set a tone, don’t they?
Oh yeah, about the story. It’s something having to do with hidden diamonds, gangsters, and the FBI. There’s 2 Agents that look like Great Value Riggs & Murtaugh that are trying to protect the girl, and there are 3 bad guys who are chasing them for the main mobster Frankie, and one of the guys looks like he raided Dennis Weaver’s wardrobe from the set of McCloud, and he carries a gun bigger than Jack Nicholson’s at the end of Batman, and his name is Drago, and it’s just them chasing each other for 80 something minutes. That’s all there is to it.
Acting wise, everyone is fine. The discount Riggs (played by the guy from Hack O’Lantern) and Murtagh are decent hero cops. The girl is cool, and the bad guys are an appropriate level of douchebaggy. The true standouts from the cast are Cinema legends Cameron Mitchell and William Smith, who look like they shot both of their cameos over the course of an hour each, although Smith does more. Mitchell looks like he never even left his house for his moments.
Any gripes? There were a couple of dull spots that left me thinking “For a movie that’s called Action USA, this is getting kind of Actionless–“, but then a car chase would break out and distract me. Or how the bad guys conveniently ending up at the same place as the good guys like 5 different times began to annoy me, but then something would explode, and I would forget all about that.
It’s that kind of movie, ladies and gentlemen. The best kind. Where the makers sought nothing more than to leave you entertained. The true definition of a beer and pizza movie. So do yourselves a favor: Grab a six pack, order a whole pie, sit back, press play, and watch all the mayhem go down.
And kudos to the Filmmakers and Stuntmen behind it all. You certainly fulfilled your promise. Salute.
Well, if this doesn’t look just darn-right awesome!
So, who’s ready for some news on a new, epic, blood drenched action flick?? If you are… then I have just the movie for you! From director Ranjeet S. Marwa comes Exiled: The Chosen Ones, an upcoming gritty and brutal action movie that stars Headshot‘s Sunny Pang, as well as Hanna Al Rashid, who appeared with Pang in the action masterpiece The Night Comes for Us.
UAMC Presents Exiled: The Chosen Ones
The synopsis reads: After a man-made virus failed to reduce the world’s overpopulated areas, global leaders would start a new program that would legitimize a new venture in a game show. The game would be broadcast live, where random contestants would be exiled into a concrete jungle, forced to kill each other for their freedom. Viewers would place their bets on who had a chance at survival. Be that as it may.no one survives the game.
If that’s not enough to whet your appetite for carnage, we also have the just released trailer for it! Have yourselves a look:
I don’t know about you guys, but that looks AWESOME!!! And you can be sure we at UAMC will keep you updated on this! Special thanks to my brother Lee Golden over at Film Combat Syndicate for the heads up on this!
