The Hunt proves once again that Man is ultimately the most dangerous game.
It’s not often that one of our action movies becomes so topical that it’s condemned by the president of the United States, but that’s exactly what happened last summer when the trailer for the Blumhouse Studios picture The Hunt hit. The trailer depicted liberal elites hunting “Deplorables” in the woods. Now that the finished product is out, does it deliver? And is it worth all the hype?
The story of man hunting his fellow man may be one of the most oft repeated themes in action cinema – The Most Dangerous Game, Hard Target, Predators, Avenging Force, Battle Royal, Surviving The Game, Hunger Games, The Purge and now this. But what sets this above the others is the performances and the social satire it exhibits in this politically charged environment.
Note: there are spoilers contained in this article! You can stream the movie here if you’d like to watch it first!
Betty Gilpin as the Female John McClane
It delivers on the trailer where a dozen deplorables wake up in a clearing where they are allowed to open a crate of weapons and The Hunt begins. Sniper rifle, handgun, bow and arrows, mines and punji pits quickly par down the cast and allow us to get to the meat of the story.
It’s not often you get to witness the birth of an action star but you do here in Betty Gilpin. She plays Crystal Creasey who happens to have the same name as an internet troll and is kidnapped by mistake. Doom on them because Crystal is an Afghanistan War vet with PTSD issues and a serious skill set with firearms, hand to hand combat and tactics. She literally is a female John McClane, as she quips wise after every kill as she turns the tables on her pursuers and starts hunting the hunters.
The puppet master of the Hunt is Athena Stone played by Hillary Swank who channels it an in a shape of Hillary Clinton. Turns out she lost her spot in society after a text message about hunting conservatives was taken out of context and fuels an internet conspiracy called “Manorgate”. Athena’s response – to actually start hunting conservatives, starting with the people who brought her down. This consists of an Alex Jones like internet celebrity and a number of his followers who commented on the thread. And she’s literally out for their blood!
The movie climax is in one of the best fight scenes of the year. Calling it a cat fight would be dismissing the brutal affair that these two actresses put on screen. Kudos to the studio for showing that two woman can carry an action movie. There was a dry spell after Kill Bill, but that seems to be over with the likes of Atomic Blonde, Fury Road, Furies, The Villainess and Maria in recent years.
The Hunt is a timely social satire that skewers both sides of the political spectrum as buffoons through the eyes of an innocent. Albeit one with a serious skill set. I think we can all agree that dueling should make a comeback and would probably make the world a more civil place. Politicians should settle their differences this way. I would tune in for that rather than a debate. Google Vice President Allen Burr if you think it’s an unworkable proposition. Give this a viewing and you be the judge, the jury and the executioner of this wicked political satire.
It was pulled five days into its theatrical run because of the current crisis and is now playing On Demand for $19.95 as the studio had to pull it from its theatrical run. Give it a view and join the debate from a script from Lost and Watchman’s Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse and directed by Craig Zobel of the post apocalyptic Z for Zachariah film.
Ultimate virtual reality action in ‘Expect to Die’ (1997).
So it’s a day off. With all that’s going on in the world, I was looking for a good ‘escape’ and the perfect choice for that was a virtual reality themed martial arts film from the 90s!
1997’s Expect to Die was one of two films that seen Jalal Merhi (Tiger Claws/TC2000/Talons of the Eagle) team up with David Bradley (American Ninja 3-5/Hard Justice/American Samurai). The other one was the Bradley-led Crisis, where Merhi directed. In Expect To Die, Merhi pulls double duty as he shares the screen and is in the director’s chair as well.
UAMC Reviews ‘Expect to Die’
So here’s the scoop. The military has been testing this new virtual reality fight simulator and it’s all good and well, until a soldier loses his life and testing of the program is canceled. Bradley, in a rare villain role, plays it even better than I could have imagined. He plays the Dr. that created the whole program who goes underground to continue developing the device.
Merhi and Evan Lurie (Operation Cobra/Double Impact) play cops who are on the case and break into the syndicate to stop Bradley’s new and enhanced version of the simulator. Merhi’s first partner Mary Moore (Murder at 1600) gets killed in the beginning of the film, but not before we get to see her shooting up the bad guys in lingerie.
Jalal Mehri vs David Bradley
When Merhi and Lurie team up, it brings a pretty fun buddy cop feel to the proceedings. There are quite a few shootouts and the fights in the second half make it worth the price of admission. I especially liked the scene where it showed Merhi and Lurie fighting separate groups of thugs at the same time.
Bradley and crew end up kidnapping Merhi’s wife played by Laurina Hanson and Merhi is forced to fight his way through the simulator, while she is chained up and giving him instructions somehow. The effects inside the simulator looked cheesy, and low budget, but that was to be expected. It was supposed to look like a video game style, so it fit.
Merhi and Bradley do get a climactic showdown. I heard somewhere that Bradley was injured around this time, so we didn’t get to see him do all we know he could do. Having said that, the two fights that he had with Merhi were solid and not nearly as bad as some of the critiques I’ve seen. Don’t listen to the random people out there who you see on places like IMBD, listen to me! Someone who you know is a genuine fan and appreciates these films.
But How Ultimate is it?
Seeing Bradley play such a different kind of character was one of the biggest highlights for sure. He was not the hero here, but of course women still tried to throw themselves at him. He turned one down, leading her to say that “you’re no prince charming”, Bradley replies with, “Well you are not my princess”! He then got kicked out of the bar, but not before cracking a couple guys over the head with bottles. He later came back and kidnapped the bar owner and had him fight to the death in the simulator… so Bradley got the last laugh there anyway.
Merhi kicking plenty of ass as usual. But seeing Bradley as a bad guy, while Lurie was in an equally rare role for him as a protagonist, made it feel like the twilight zone. If you don’t mind your old school martial arts action with a healthy slice of cheese, I recommend it. Expect To Die brings you back to a time when virtual reality was thought to be the way of the future!
The Prologue to an in-depth analysis of the ultimate action movie exploits of the ‘The Fast Saga‘.
Before men (and women) in spandex and capes ruled the box office there existed the Ultimate Action movie. It’s entries are numerous. It’s heroes’ names live on forever: John Rambo, John McClane, the Terminator. These peak action films cemented the tropes and staples of the Ultimate Action Movies we love today. But as other ultimate action movies and franchises have retired to Hall of Fame status, one franchise continues to carry the torch: The Fast and the Furious.
There’s a movie franchise that’s outlived all manner of cinema trends. It avoided the renewed interest in 3D. It plowed past the increasing appearance of superheroes and dove head first into international cinemas making a name for itself as a rogue entry into franchise territory NOT based on a pre-existing IP. It survived by adapting, by innovating, and mostly by appealing to the lowest common denominator.
Cinephiles decry the franchise as a death blow to cinema calling it a bloated international moneymaker devoid of character or soul. Their criticism is harsh, but refutable. The numbers don’t lie. Despite all odds the Dominic Toretto and his family made a cumulative five billion dollars and confuses critics to this day about it’s ongoing success.
Over the next several weeks I’m going to take a look at every single entry into the nine-part franchise. Mostly because I have nothing better to do for the foreseeable future (thank you Coronavirus) but also so you all don’t have to. I will watch these and witness the growth of this franchise. You see, this franchise means something to my generation. For the entirety of my life there have been F&F movies (long before there were Marvel or DC movies.) They have grown alongside me and occasionally earmarked some of the best summers of my life.I intend to honor them.
The Saga of this family derives its value by adapting consistently with the times and employing common blockbuster tactics to score strong box office gains in each successive entry. It became a marketing machine: churning out DVDs and providing a new summer pop single every time it releases. In fact, the seeds for this global phenomenon start in the very first movie…
Read along on the rest of our Fast Saga coverage with these articles on the other Fast & Furious installments:
To fairly find this first foray of the Fast & the Furious world we must provide a little context. That summer Fast and the Furious played against films as wide as A Knight’s Tale, Moulin Rouge, The Mummy Returns, and Shrek. The entire budget for the movie cost roughly thirty eight million dollars (to put that in perspective Fast Five cost 125 million dollars!) – the typical price point for mid-range action flicks.
This was June 2001. A national tragedy was still months away. The director of the movie, Rob Cohen, made a name for himself directing episodes of action TV classics like Miami Vice and the fantasy film Dragonheart. We can see in his career that after F&F he deployed his expertise in the action genre with aplomb crafting some hits (xXx, Stealth, Hurricane Heist) and some misses (Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and Alex Cross.)
The very first Fast and the Furious functions as something of a throwback to the glory days of action movies – fitting into the template left behind by flicks like Point Break – while hovering on the edge of a new wave of digital cinema. The standard 80’s everyman hero grafted perfectly onto Paul Walker’s Brian O’Connor while the early aughts anti-hero finds its place in Vin Diesel.
Inspired by a 1998 Vibe article titled ‘Racer-X’ the first Fast and the Furious begins as a somewhat convoluted tale of cops and criminals. Paul Walker stars as Brian O’Connor, an eager-eyed wannabe street racer working in a garage. He tries to get in tight with the king of LA’s underground racing scene, Dominic Toretto. Dom and his crew don’t trust O’Connor, but Dom’s little sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) might have a crush on him. MEANWHILE, someone keeps stealing from eighteen-wheelers using elaborate mid-traffic heists. It’s basically, the entire plot of Point Break but with street racing instead of extreme sports. Swap Keanu with Paul Walker and Swayze with Diesel.
The movie stands as much a product of it’s time as another foray into ever-so-meaningless action. But the beginning of the Fast and the Furious’s own, unique franchise identity crop up from the start: high-octane stunts, cheesy one-liners, a current soundtrack, slightly naked women, and a bizarre emphasis on family despite the 150 mph plot. Let’s break those down.
The stunts in this movie are almost exclusively high-speed street racing. While cars whizz and blur past each other, a barrage of sound effects help sell the noise of a car accelerating into infinity. The races happen like any action sequence: quick cuts between cars (enough to maintain some semblance of geography), inserts of the actors reacting, and a gag here or there. The cars – apparently over sixty Japanese vehicles – take center stage with elaborate dressing and vibrant colors. (In fact, the production designer asked blocks of LA residents to paint their houses drab colors so the cars might stand out more.) In a 2000’s-era spike of genius Cohen added a digital sequence where the camera dives into the car’s engines just when someone pushes the NOS button. Digital flames shoot past the lens and pistons explode in an effort to go faster. Sure these effects have not aged well, but they’re a sign of the oncoming digital era.
The one-liners are something of an artifact harking back to the golden lines of the 80’s. Very few lines rarely ever land perfectly (“I’ll be back” or “Yippee-ki-yay!”) so it’s no surprise the general movie going audience finds these to be droll or juvenile. Still, the first entry delivers on the number one line of the entire franchise “I live my life a quarter mile at a time.” Dom pontificates to Brian O’Connor after a particularly hairy run-in with the police. It’s a line that would come to define the franchise’s mentality about action.
One of the biggest selling points of any F&F movie is it’s soundtrack. Who can forget Wiz Khalifa and 2 Chainz’ triumphant “We Own It” from Fast & Furious 6 or the reggaeton smash hit ‘Danza Kuduro’ by Don Omar? The films – much like the Bond franchise – often become arbiters of taste with at least one of their soundtrack songs one of the marquee soundtrack songs moving onto radio stations and to the top of summer charts. (Just take Charlie Puth’s “See You Again” from Furious 7 which became the hallmark song of high school graduation in 2017, cheesy or not. )
The first movie is no different, giving us classics like Ja Rule’s “Furious” or the quintessential “Rollin’ (Urban Assault Vehicle)” from all star lineup of Limp Bizkit, Method Man, Redman, Swizz Beatz, and DM Freakn’ X. These songs place us firmly in the South L.A. culture and anchor us in a “street” aesthetic most white audiences don’t know. These songs place us firmly in South L.A.’s culture and anchor us in a street aesthetic most white audiences aren’t familiar with.
F&F’s PG-13 rating prevented it from ever dabbling in raw nudity but the amount of clothing available to the women at street racing contests apparently borders on wildly inappropriate. This would be a running bit every entry afterward would cling to, despite outgrowing the need for it. Yes, they sexed up street racing parties. Forever after, whenever Dom and Bryan would hit up a local street race (whether it be in Cuba, Rio, Tokyo, London, Dubai, etc.) there would always be women in booty shorts and tube tops. It’s one of the few elements the franchise could do away with but constantly chooses not to, largely to appeal to it’s one quadrant male audience members who drive box office profit.
The most important thing to this whole franchise is it’s odd emphasis on characters. For an action movie there’s plenty of plot, sure, but a surprising amount of character growth. This movie delves more into the character’s relationships as they grow and change setting it apart from another racing movie, Gone in Sixty Seconds.
This movie attempts to give breathing room to Diesel, Walker, Lindberg, Rodriguez, et al to perform. It’s an odd choice given that they have all the elements they need to be successful. It’s a choice that almost sets the movie back a bit, but this focus ultimately helps develop the strong theme of ‘family’ that carries this entire franchise. It’s not about cops and robbers. It’s about the ties that bind this band of misfits.
The first entry is a hodge-podge of movie moments. It’s got your quippy one-liners and your macho man brawling. It carries hints of LA gangland drama. It skims over the cop versus criminal aesthetic in favor of a more subdued family drama – when it’s not roaring it’s engine at us. It’s unsightly at first watch, dangly and awkward. It employs old CGI to make the cars feel faster when it could’ve showed us more stunt work. Still, all the things that make The Fast and the Furious what it is exist here in prototype form. The fact that these old tie overs still inform the franchise nine movies later only speaks to some weird Promethean ability of the first film.
When this movie came out it earned over one hundred and thirty million dollars in domestic box office alone, well over three times its budget. It has its own ride at Universal Studios theme park in Orlando. It’s stars are international icons now. It all started with a small tale of a couple of robbers in South L.A. trying to supplement their racing with a dangerous side gig. America’s most international family started in the halls of a two-story house on cement blocks filled with people who only drink corona. Oh! And if you touch the food first, you pray. That’s tradition and if there’s one thing we learn the movie loves, it’s tradition.
Can you watch movies on Youtube? You betcha can! Youtube actually has plenty of ultimate action movies to choose from – and some are even free!
When one ponders on when and where to watch an Ultimate Action Movie, the first inclination should always be towards rummaging through your VHS collection to pick the most enticing to cram into your VCR. Bonus points if your VCR is built into your TV! But for many of us, there are times where we are stranded VHS-less.
When we find ourselves wanting an ultimate action movie fix, we turn to many places. Most of them involve modern streaming channels like Netflix or Amazon Prime. However, while there are other lesser known options like Tubi and Vudu, there’s actually one HUGE option that you might not often consider. And that is Youtube.
Not only does Youtube have tons of great action movie clips and breakdowns (many can be found on our UAMC channel), but Youtube also has tons and tons of ultimate action movies. Some of which are available to rent or buy, but many are available to stream (legally!) for free!
And while you watch Youtube on your laptop and on your phone, you can also pull it up on any streaming device from your Roku to your Xbox. The Youtube app can also be found on your smart TV, Amazon Fire stick, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, TiVO or anything else.
So, let’s take a look at the most ultimate action movies currently streaming on Youtube!
Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus eat your hearts out! Cannon Films couldn’t have produced a more ultimate classic than Over the Top (although they most certainly did with the hundreds of other ridiculous actioners that they pumped out in the 80s and 90s). But Sylvester Stallone in Over the Top remains unbeatable. From the backwards hat turn, to the David Bowie-looking wife, to the late-introduction of a Bloodsport-style arm wrestling tournament, there’s no excuse to not watch Over the Top 10 times a day. Every day!
In the world of Ultimate Action, there is no one more deadly serious than the legendary Michael Mann. Throw in Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro together in one of the most ultimate showdowns of all time, times it by Val Kilmer and exponentially multiple some of the most well-down action set pieces of all time and you get one helluva watch.
There’s only so many times that we here at the UAMC can recommend watching Lone Wolf McQuade before every single person on this planet can appreciate its ultimate greatness. And what a treat, it’s streaming for FREE on multiple apps right now. It’s Chuck Norris at his absolute best. He’s the karate kicking Clint Eastwood as the Texas Ranger that the world deserves. Watch it now!
Sure, Die Hard is better. We’re not going to argue that. But is Die Hard 2: Die Harder more ultimate? Now that’s an argument we’ll entertain! Regardless of how you feel, you have to agree that Die Hard 2 kicks butt. It’s a great follow up to the original and brings back so many of the elements the first one is so much fun. A great one-two pairing or just watching it for appreciation of its glory in of itself too!
Who knew Robert DeNiro could be such an action hero? Like not just a tough guy that you don’t want to mess with, but someone who can be the centerpiece of some serious action sets and great action film storytelling. Ronin, similar to Heat, is just great, gritty style that films to this day try to emulate. Don’t watch the new crap, watch the masterpieces like Ronin!
Contract Killer aka Hitman is a great introduction to some ultimate Hong Kong Action and the very impressive stylings of Mr. Jet Li. Contract Killer is great fun as it mixes in solid humor with just outstanding action. Highly recommend this flick while it’s up for free on Youtube if you love martial arts action!
Synopsis: Arnold Schwarzenegger fights the nastiest of unknown other-wordly big game hunters with invisibility and futuristic gadgets and wins by covering himself in mud. He also yells like a badass. And he shakes Carl Weathers’ hand in such a legendary fashion that UAMC has officially adopted it as our official handshake. Seriously though, watch it for the all-star ensemble cast and peak Arnie.
Believe it or not, there was a time when Charlie Sheen was more than a walking meme, or even a lampoon-ish comedy star. Instead, he was actually a badass bit player for some solid actioners, like Navy SEALS alongside beloved UAMC stalwarts like Michael Biehn and Bill Paxton. Sure it doesn’t make a lot of sense at times, but that’s not what ultimate action is about – it’s about the fun of watching it!
Unlike Die Hard and Die Hard 2, First Blood and First Blood Part II are vastly different movies where – we here at UAMC – strongly will argue that it’s the sequel that really deserves our attention. Rambo II is everything the original promised and then some. It doesn’t take its time or slow burn its way to a bloody climax, it hits early and often and so much harder than the rest of the series. Don’t agree? Fight us in the comments!
And there’s more to choose from! Like, a lot more. You can search them all out on the Youtube movies page, but here are some more UAMC recommended picks:
Check out this hard-to-find ultimate gem starring Frank Zagarino, Billy Drago and Todd Jensen in ‘Never Say Die‘!
You last heard from Frank Zagarino here at the Ultimate Action Movie Club when he went full on blonde terminator mode in one of my cult favorites, Project Shadowchaser II: Night Siege. This time around, Zag is pulling lead hero duties in another lost classic from the mid 90s, Never Say Die.
Zagarino is living a quiet life somewhere that looks like the Florida everglades as a boat repairman. He is soon forced to confront a “friend” from his past special forces days that left him for dead; played by the legendary Billy Drago (Delta Force 2/Shadow Warriors: Assault on Devil’s Island).
Drago is absolutely in top form here, immersing himself into his role as the leader of a religious cult. Some actors were born to be the hero, and some, the villain.. Drago is most definitely one of the top action movie villains of all time.. so when I say this is one of his finest hours, it is saying something.
The main story revolves around Drago who is now the psychotic leader of this religious cult out in the middle of nowhere. He has gained many followers and has started to gain unwanted attention from the government, as a General’s daughter (Jenny McShane/Cyborg Cop III) is one of the cult members.
So this leads to a group of spies being sent in, led by Todd Jensen(Cyborg Cop/The Cutter/Target of Opportunity). Of course things don’t go as planned and Zagarino is forced to get in the middle of everything and reveal his true identity.
I thought this was a surprisingly good and fairly unique setup for this Nu Image action flick. This is probably the best all around Zagarino led vehicle I’ve seen so far. I’ve seen some refer to him as the “poor man’s Dolph Lundgren” and whether that is true or not, he certainly carved out his own place in the direct to video action world in the 80s and 90s, putting out a mass amount of films.
While his unhinged Terminator-esque performance in the Project Shadowchaser movies are still my favorites, he is solid here as well with some memorable badassery.
From motorboat chases, to climbing cliffs, to setting traps in the swamps, it is a good time watching Zag take out the enemy. Some of the most memorable action highlights include jumping off an exploding bridge and swinging onto a rope. Jumping into a window of a church from the roof while letting out the most awesome, trademark Zagarino yell.
There are a few solid fights in the finale, especially the ones with lead henchman, Robin Smith (Red Scorpion/American Ninja 4/Kickboxer 5/Project Shadowchaser II). Smith belts out probably the best line of the movie, when he says “Welcome gentlemen…. TO HELL!”. He keeps coming back after we think he is dead.
Never Say Die is not the easiest film to track down, but I did and now it is certainly a memorable gem in my collection. Zagarino doing his best Lundgren, Drago being Drago to the max, it is worth seeking out, if you are a b-movie diehard like me!
This movie! Wow. The first minute made me pause the film to look up crime statistics in Italy in the 1970s. 15 seconds in a woman gets her purse snatched in a violent manner. Over a forward-charging, dynamic score, courtesy of Franco Micalizzi, we are treated to a street view of Rome from the roof of a police car, a shot that might have influenced the opening sequence of Police Squad.
30 seconds in. A car pulls up and a man gets out and saunters to a storefront display. The man smashes the glass, grabs handfuls of jewels, jumps in the car, and the car speeds off.
Here’s a few highlights of what the Google search on Italy’s troubled yet exhilarating 70s returned:
Gioia Tauro massacre: on July 22, 1970, a train went off the rails due to a previous bomb sabotage, killing six people.
Piazza della Loggia bombing: on May 28, 1974, a bomb explodes in Brescia, killing eight people.
Italicus massacre: on August 4, 1974, a bomb exploded on the Italicus train, causing twelve dead and forty-eight wounded.
Bologna massacre: on August 2, 1980, a bomb explodes at the Bologna Centrale railway station, killing eighty-five people and wounding more than two hundred.
Understandably, in such a chaotic environment, you need a hard-nosed no nonsense super cop who absolutely will not put up with the shenanigans of extremist groups and/or hippies. A cop who makes a weapon out of a fire extinguisher, a chair, or his bare fists. Now, when we’re introduced to Leonardo Tanzi (Maurizio Merli), he’s not a cop anymore. He’s turned in his badge and is now a book editor.
But the police sirens he periodically hears outside the printing factory he works out of keep beckoning him. Things are happening in the streets of Rome. So many longhairs making trouble for the decent, law-abiding folks. So many shaggy-haired punks knocking over banks and jewelry stores to finance bombings and kidnappings. Also, there’s the immediate threat of the Chinaman. Tanzi’s testimony was crucial in sending crime rising star Luigi “Chinaman” Maietto to prison a few years ago. Maietto has not forgotten this insult, and the setback it cost him in becoming the kingpin of Rome, and he’s barely completed his prison escape before he’s already put a target on Tanzi’s back. Tanzi gets a warning call from his former boss, Commissioner Astalli (Renzo Palmer). But no worries. Tanzi turned in his badge but not his gun. Tanzi takes out a .45 and checks the load on the magazine as two armed thugs walk up the steps to his apartment…
The pacing of Cynic is forceful. You might even say it’s aggressive in its race to the end credits and the final showdown between Tanzi, Maietto and Frank DiMaggio (John Saxon). One thing Eurocrime films do extremely well is story structure. Through these writeups, I am realizing now, I’m on a quest to quantify what makes an action film effective. Pacing is a crucial criteria, and Cynic excels in this element. The editing, the score, the violence, the way exposition is parceled out. All the cinematic elements serve to create the sense of an impending clash between eccentric, hyperbolic characters. There’s a zest, a vitality to Eurocrime that makes it a pleasure to watch. In Cynic we also have the blurring of the personalities of the main characters so we’re not sure who is the Rat, the Cynic or the Fist of the title.
Tanzi is the good guy by default as the former cop, and because of his pathological hatred of criminals. To Tanzi, a member of the Red Brigade is no different than the psychotic Chinaman, who imparts multiple fractures to “clients” who fall behind in their payments for “protection.” Or Frank, China’s competition for Rome’s criminal throne. Frank enjoys tying up people who skip on payment for “protection,” and chucking golf balls at their faces before letting his massive spotted Great Danes maul them to death. The tactics and goals of Frank and China are not the most original, but a complex, ambitious character study would interfere with the energeticpacing that a few simple cinematic strokes can do. We see and hear enough of them to know it’s a terrifying future for this fine Mediterranean country if either one of these two becomes the head of crime.
But lucky for Italy, and for our entertainment, the assassination attempt on Tanzi fails. Though injured, Tanzi is more irritated than hurt, and by letting the Chinaman believe he is dead and out of the picture, Tanzi begins a soft pitting of Frank against China through Yojimbo-style antics. As a blunt force instrument of law and order, Tanzi never bothers in changing his appearance as he goes about dismantling the respective street operations of these two men. Broad-shouldered and burly, with flaming blond hair, a paint brush mustache and a passing resemblance to Franco Nero, Merli punches, kicks, stomps and shoots his way through the ranks of underlings without mercy, disrupting the flow of money along the crime pyramid and causing unrest.
This lack of subtlety eventually gets Tanzi discovered, and the Chinaman goes on the offensive. But like Steven Seagal, Tanzi is hard to kill, and these attempts at eliminating Tanzi lead to thrilling action sequences on foot and on cars, on rooftops, restaurants and even in a discoteca. There’s a brief and amusing scene where the film takes a detour into the spy/thriller genre where Tanzi sneaks into an office building after hours, a la Mission:Impossible, and goes through a “laser” grid (red ribbons strung up across a hallway) to retrieve some documents.
But this is a minor blip on the flaw radar, compared to the more noticeable treatment of women. What few women there are in this film get manhandled and backhanded, and unfortunately this is a common trait of Eurocrime. Woke politics do not exist in this world, so be warned if you want to give this one a try. (Am I addressing a nonexistent demographic of movie watchers here? Are there movie fans out there that could enjoy classic action and embrace current identity politics at the same time?)
The Cynic, The Rat, And The Fist delivers solid thrills as a late-cycle Eurocrime entry. (The year of release places Cynic as latter-day Eurocrime. In the same way that Hair Metal, New Wave, and Grunge peaked and ebbed, Eurocrime is about to become a parody of itself. And Cynic just about managed to miss this.)
The film is stripped down to its essential moving parts, and pumps up Merli’s character as a juggernaut that interposes himself between civilians and lawlessness. A lot of the discount action heroes of the 80s and 90s were cut from the Merli mold, even if the writers and stars of these films don’t know it.
Cynic is both an entertaining watch and a socio-cultural time capsule of a turbulent time in Italy that until recently was still happening. Read about it! It’s fascinating, and it’s hard to imagine these films existing without the cultural upheaval around them.
Article by Melvin Cartagena – born and raised in Puerto Rico on a diet of mainstream, cult and action movies. Currently resides in Massachusetts where he writes fiction and nonfiction, and writes and draws comics. You can see his work on YouTube at RoboPulp Media.
Your chance to win one of the best action movies of the year! Find out how…
In the tiny niche-land where action and horror genres meet, we have only a handful of titles and auteur filmmakers who can find the perfect balance between the two. The most notable name that comes to mind is John Carpenter with quasi-action / horror classics like The Thing, They Live and Escape from New York.
Well, we have a new name to add to that list, Joe Bergos and his film VFW delivers a great film that pits a rag-tag group of aging action movie veterans up against a horde of drug-induced zombies. And it’s awesome!
We caught VFW at Fantastic Fest last year and highly recommend it to any ultimate action movie fans. So, we’re honored to be hosting a giveaway!
So what makes VFW so great you ask? Well, let’s start with the cast! Look at this ultimate collection of UAMC-stalwarts who have sharpened their teeth for years in a wide variety of notable roles and films. Here’s big names:
Stephen Lang(Tombstone, Manhunter, Fire Down Below)
William Sadler(Die Hard 2, Hard to Kill, The Shawshank Redemption)
Martin Kove(Rambo: First Blood Part II, The Karate Kid series, Cobra Kai)
Fred Williamson(From Dusk till Dawn, Delta Force Commando, The Equalizer)
From there you some great character performances, a solid plot, and just an endless hammering of ultimate action!
How to Win – It’s simple!
UAMC Giveaway Time! Win a DVD copy of the new action/horror smasher 'VFW' by simply sharing and replying to this tweet with your favorite 'VFW' action movie star!
'VFW' features Stephen Lang, William Sadler, Martin Kove, Fred Williamson, David Patrick Kelly and George Wendt! pic.twitter.com/7HBcDbZsxZ
To apply to win the DVD copy of VFW, all you need to do is follow the directions of the tweet above. We’re asking people to share (retweet) and reply on Twitter with their favorite action movie star in VFW. So follow the link and let us know your pick!
If on the off chance you don’t have a Twitter account, and don’t want to make one. You can also leave your pick in the comments below.
A winner will be chosen before the official DVD/Blu-ray release date of March 31st. Although you can currently stream ‘VFW’ online here too: https://amzn.to/2UxaXLD
The two most ultimate forces in the action movie galaxy team up in Shadow Warriors: Assault On Devil’s Island (1997).
My first off day in a while and I couldn’t have made a better turn-your-brain-off selection than Shadow Warriors: Assault On Devil’s Island. For me, it was nostalgia overload seeing all of the familiar faces. I remember when this first premiered on TNT right after WCW Monday Nitro. Ah, the good ol’ days.
Yes, long before wrestlers like Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson crossed over from dropping elbows in the ring to the big screen, Terry “Hulk” Hogan did the same thing. But in his case, it was leg drops to the direct-to-video world.
The Rock is not the only one that took a page out of the Hulkster’s playbook, none other than Sly Stallone himself did so as well. Almost immediately when going back to revisit Shadow Warriors, the similarities between that and The Expendables hit you like a big boot to the face. Just like Sly, Hogan is the leader of an elite commando unit, who fly into their missions on a big cargo plane. Among Hogan’s team is the legendary Carl Weathers (Rocky/Predator/Action Jackson), real life Navy Seal and ex-NFL player Mike White, soap star Christopher Douglas, and the underrated Trevor Goddard (Mortal Kombat/Men of War).
Similar to Lundgren’s character in The Expendables, Goddard takes the role as the loose cannon of the group. Much to the surprise of no one in the audience, during the film’s opening sequences, he does a heel turn of his own, backstabbing Hulkamania, and sides with the big bad drug lord of the movie, played by the always devilishly charming, Billy Drago (Delta Force 2/The Untouchables/Martial Law 2). It only lists a special appearance for Drago, but I was pleased to find out that he is featured quite a bit throughout.
The mission gone bad almost left Hogan with his head chopped off, if it weren’t for Playboy playmate Shannon Tweed (No Contest), who was there and had been working deep undercover for quite some time. Tweed is as stunning as ever and you could say she is on full display. When it comes to the action, I think Tweed is very convincing in that department as well.
With the big bad Drago in their custody, all is well and good until Goddard takes some hostages and is holding them on Devil’s Island, until they release Drago. As I mentioned before, I feel Goddard was super underrated. Much like his character in Men of War, he turns in another charismatic, over the top performance.
The cast of familiar faces doesn’t stop there. Martin Kove (The Karate Kid/Rambo II/Mercenary) plays Hulk’s old buddy who is now higher up in the ranks. Martial arts DTV hero Billy Blanks (Back In Action/King of the Kickboxers/Showdown) joins in on the fun as well, this time as a lead henchman.
The plot is thin, but it is clear what a good time the cast must have had filming this movie in the exotic locations, including the castle fortress on ‘Devil’s Island’. Everyone has their moments to shine in the action department. The movie is pretty much loaded with shootouts and explosions from beginning to end. The long haired Hulkster is apparently a martial arts master who is afraid of sharks.
Tweed strips down to a bikini to real a bad guy in, only to lay him out. Weathers gets to blow shit up with a gatling gun. But the biggest highlight has got to be the rooftop showdown between Hogan and Blanks. Trading kicks and blows in what turns out to be a surprisingly extended fight.
There was talks of making Shadow Warriors into a TV series and it would have been easy to do. The film had a mixture of styles. At times it felt like a TV program and at times it perfectly captured that old school action movie feel. They did do a part 2, and I look forward to checking that out for all you UAMC readers at some point in the future.
But right now, I will leave you with this. What are you gonna do, when Hulk Hogan and the Shadow Warriors run wild on you?!
Stuck at home? Let Arnold guide you through his personal ‘stay at home’ workout routine.
This ‘guest article’ comes directly from Arnold Schwarzenegger himself from a post-thread found on Reddit. Copied in its entirety below (with edits made for formatting):
This coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented. I have heard from so many of my fans that you are anxious and scared.
Almost everything happening around the world right now is out of our control. Almost everything. Instead of worrying about the things we can’t change, let’s focus on the things we do control.
First, and most importantly, we can control how responsible we are right now. We can slow down the spread of the virus by staying at home as much as possible. I know that isn’t easy, but right now it’s our responsibility. Most of us will be fine if we get the virus. This is a time not to think about yourself, but to think about the people you could be infecting. Be a part of the solution, and stay home every chance you can. That means no bars, no restaurants, no gatherings, and you’ll all be shocked to hear this from me, but no gyms.
Even without a gym, we can also control our physical fitness during this pandemic. Body weight, or freehand, training is the oldest method in the world. Gladiators and Vikings didn’t have gymnasiums. I started my own fitness journey with chin-ups on a tree branch by a lake in Austria. My father would encourage my brother and I to train by following the footsteps of a boxing hero of ours, László Papp, who chopped wood when he was preparing for a fight (this was a great trick to get us to do our chores).
And once, when I found myself in New York to promote fitness, but ironically I couldn’t find a gym, I still found a way to train. I ran up the steps of the Park Lane Hotel where I was staying, all 46 stories, and by the end I was completely schvitzy and my legs got an incredible pump.
You don’t need a gym to be fit. I’ve written a program for all of you. You can do it every other day and it will cover all of your muscle groups.
The system is simple. If an exercise says 50 reps, you are doing 50 reps however you can. You can do 10 sets of 5 reps, 5 sets of 10 reps, 2 sets of 25 reps. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you finish 50 reps with perfect form. Once you complete the reps of one exercise, move on to the next exercise.
A note on form: if you cheat at an exercise, you are only cheating yourself. Don’t let your ego do the movements for you. You might want to show off to me or your friends and do 50 push-ups in one set, but if you can’t do them with perfect form, I’ll be more impressed by 5 sets of 10 perfect push-ups.
I have given repetition guidelines for beginners who don’t train very often and for more advanced trainers. But if you have actually never worked out, spend your first few workouts just getting used to the movements. I don’t want you to force yourself through 25 rows or knee-bends and then be unable to do the workout again in two days because you are too sore. And adjust the exercises for yourself – if a push-up is too much, instead of putting your hands on the floor, put them on a counter to make the movement a little easier. If a dip between chairs is too much, use your feet on the floor to take some of the weight off of your upper body. Don’t feel bad about working your way up to the full workout – we all start somewhere.
You aren’t adding weight like you would be in the gym, but you can still track your progress. If you could do 5 perfect push-ups today, do 6 in your next workout. Track the number of sets it takes you each time to hit your total reps, and watch as the number of sets goes down over time.
Here is your workout:
Pushups
Beginner: 25 Reps
Advanced: 50 Reps
Dips between chairs
Beginner: 20 Reps
Advanced: 50 Reps
Row between chairs
Beginner: 30 Reps
Advanced: 50 Reps
Sit-ups
Beginner: 30 Reps
Advanced: 100 Reps
Bent-leg raises
Beginner: 25 Reps
Advanced: 50 Reps
Bent-over twists
Beginner: 25 Reps
Advanced: 50 Reps
Knee bends (squats)
Beginner: 25 Reps
Advanced: 50-70 Reps
Calf raises
Beginner: 25 Reps
Advanced: 50 Reps
Chin-ups
Beginner: 10 Reps
Advanced: 30 Reps
We’ll get through this together, and hopefully, we’ll all emerge in a few weeks fitter than ever. Let’s do this.
Edit: please don’t use your money to give me awards! My after-school program is providing meals to their families, give them the money instead. www.afterschoolallstars.org
Here are some of our top Ultimate Action movie picks for March 2020.
It’s officially time get your stream on o’clock here at the Ultimate Action Movie Club! If you’re stuck inside and feeling blue, then there’s only one thing that can instantly guarantee a pick-me-up. And that’s a heavy dose of ultimate action!
And Netflix is still the world leaders in online streaming. Whether it’s on your laptop, your phone or any of your streaming devices like your smart TV, Roku, Amazon Fire stick, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, TiVO or anything else. We have some of the best action movie selections that are full of great, mind-numbing ultimate action!
Gotta start off with our man Scott Adkins. He’s basically the ultimate reincarnation of Jean-Claude Van Damme (not that he’s dead, but from where his career peaked in the 1980s/01990s). It’s a fascinating lens to watch how Adkins has taken the lead for a new generation of action stars, and this British beat-’em-up by the up-and-coming director Jesse V. Johnson fits the bill. Watch it here!
From action movie future to action movie past, Dirty Harry is probably the best example of a prototypical action star of the golden era (1980s and 1990s, read more about it here). Clint Eastwood is also the fitting star to transverse the 1960s western genre into the bounty hunter lawman cop – now in a suit – but still brandishing a Smith & Wesson. And Dirty Harry remains as the tentpole for a hugely successful and absolutely ultimate franchise. Watch it here!
While Netflix might leave you searching a bit more for classic action titles than some of the other streaming apps, their international programmers have done a great job of tracking down and snagging some of the best up-and-coming action stars from all across the globe. Take this under-the-radar Vietnamese actioner starring Ngo Thanh Van (who made a brief appearance in The Last Jedi) as an ultimate example of some kick-ass entertainment worthy of your time. Watch it here!
We also have to explore some of the best and biggest action blockbusters of our time. James Bond, not sure if you’re heard of him or not, but he’s this English gentleman / spy who likes to sip martinis and kick plenty of ass. At least by the 90s he was, and Pierce Brosnan’s GoldenEye might be the most kick-butt of the entire franchise, fitting perfectly in a top the box office during the heights of ultimate action. Watch it here!
Another Scott Adkins feature, Triple Threat might have been the littlest known mega-actioner of the past decade. Adkins is one small piece in a very ultimate action movie star cast also including Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Tiger Chen, Michael Jai White, Michael Bisping and Jeeja Yanin. Yeah, it slaps. Once again with Jesse V. Johnson at the helm we get so much ultimate action movie fights and sequences that you can watch it 10 times in a row (trust us, we have). Watch it here!
Netflix you’ve done it again! While we’re still waiting on the platform to drop the latest installment, Donnie Yen’s career defining performance as the legendary “Ip Man” (the famous grandmaster who trained Bruce Lee) is one of the best feats of martial arts cinema for our generation. Now is the perfect time to catch up on the trilogy before diving into the (hopefully) continuing saga. Watch it here!
It’s with great pride that we get to present a Quentin Tarantino movie as an “ultimate” action flick. You could make some great arguments for Reservoir Dogs and some of his other stylized creations to be action, but his cross-genre-isms make it hard to say, “yeah that’s definitely an action movie”. Uma Thurman in Kill Bill though, delivers enough hits, long and extremely well choreographed fight sequences and just badass-ness to warrant a UAMC viewing. Watch it here!
As mentioned above as a star of Triple Threat, Iko Uwais is fast rising as one of – if not the de facto – biggest action movie stars on the planet. And before he blows up any bigger (since apparently pairing with Mark Wahlberg in Mile 22 didn’t quite do it for him), you have to trace back through his roots and watch where it all started. Discovered by Gareth Evans, who eventually launched him with The Raid films, Merantau is actually their first feature together. Watch it here!
This one goes out to all those who might need a little reassurance than, especially in the world of big budget blockbuster action, that the good guys win and everything works out in the end. While more of a disaster film, Outbreak is a sneaky action classic. It has some very ultimate sequences with two great stars – Dustin Hoffman and Cuba Gooding Jr. – together fighting one of the deadliest forces known to mankind. Watch it here!
Finally, going to leave you with one more Iko Uwais banger to tide you over until our next list. I actually caught this at Fantastic Fest back in 2018 and this Indonesian action thriller is just another example that the ultimate action movie tradition of the 80s and 90s in America wasn’t lost, it was just picked up overseas to continue the rich tradition of smart, fast and very ultimate action. Watch it here!
Just to keep the list going, here are some additional UAMC-approved actioners to dive into at night (or heck, even to kickstart your morning). Check them out below:
