Home Video and Blockbuster Era Movies I've Watched (including my mini-reviews)

14/06/21
Low budget, cut-and-paste action crime movie. Directed by Godfrey Ho (as Charles Lee), written by AAV Creative Unit and produced by Joseph Lai for IFD Films and Arts. About ten or fifteen minutes are original footage from Hong Kong featuring Caucasian actors. The majority is reused footage from light hearted Taiwanese crime drama "You Huo" (1983). The two are connected by only two unconvincing interactions between characters. The reused film has hardly any action. The original footage is more entertaining with some fights and gun battles. Overall there's far from enough to enliven this dreary movie.

16/06/21
Also titled "Ninja Operation 5: Godfather the Master"
Low budget, cut-and-paste Ninjasploitation action crime movie. Directed by Joseph Lai with Godfrey Ho uncredited. And written by AAV Creative Unit and produced by Lai's IFD Films and Arts. About twenty minutes are original Hong Kong footage featuring Caucasian actors and starring Richard Harrison and the Ninja action. The majority is re-used footage from South Korean action crime drama "Godfather of Osaka" (1986) set in Japan. The two stories are barely connected at all and make no sense. I couldn't follow them at all. Harrison is a gang assassin here. Not enough Ninja action with no Ninja fight scenes until half way through and they are lacklustre. Only the big final fight is any good. The other film has a strong start with good martial arts fights. But both drag in pace after the opening scenes. Dubbing is abysmal and the soundtrack is bootlegged. Despite everything it had some entertainment value.

19/06/21
Also titled "American Force 4: Soldier Terminators".
Low budget, cut-and-paste Namsploitation style and Rambosploitation style action war movie. Directed by Godfrey Ho (as Charles Lee), written by AAV Creative Unit and produced by Joseph Lai for IFD Films and Arts. A few minutes are original footage presumably filmed in Hong Kong with no-name actors. The majority is re-used footage from an unidentified or unreleased action war drama from the Philippines. The two stories and plots are convoluted, make little sense and are hard to follow. The re-used footage includes too much drama which drags it down. But compensates with a few good gun battles and explosions. Original segments feature incredibly poor dialogue, acting and production values. Overall I enjoyed it for the low grade action war trash that it is.

26/06/21
Low budget, cut-and-paste horror thriller movie. Directed by Godfrey Ho, written by him, Stephen So and AAV Creative Unit and produced by Joseph Lai for his IFD Films and Arts. A few minutes of original footage shot in Hong Kong star Richard Harrison. Some footage is apparently re-used from "Majestic Thunderbolt" (1985). The majority is re-used from Korean/Taiwanese horror thriller "Grudge of the Sleepwalking Woman" (1984) also titled "Grudge of the Snake Woman". That story involves a women who turns into a snake monster. The original footage has a witch sending people to fight Richard Harrison for a ring. Neither story is connected or makes much sense. It's tedious and only recommended to fans of Bad and Weird Movies.

02/07/21
Low budget, cut-and-paste Ninjasploitation movie. Directed by Joseph Lai with Godfrey Ho uncredited. Written by AAV Creative Unit, Godfrey Ho and Stephen So (as Stephan Soul). Produced by Joseph Lai's IFD Films and Arts. It stars Richard Harrison as Ninja Master Gordon again in the Hong Kong shot original scenes. The majority is re-used footage from an unidentified or unreleased drama from, I think, Taiwan. That drama has nothing going for it. The original scenes with all the Caucasian Ninja fight scenes are entertaining with a good variety of Ninja weaponry. A little more Ninja footage than is often the case helps, but it's still a long way from enough. The English language dubbing is comical. The soundtrack probably includes some bootlegged tracks. The connections between the two films are tenuous and unconvincing. Good Ninja scenes are balanced out by a lacklustre donor film to make this dreary and average.

03/07/21
Low budget, cut-and-paste Ninjasploitation movie. Directed by Joseph Lai with Godfrey Ho uncredited. Written by AAV Creative Unit, Godfrey Ho and Stephen So (as Stephan Soul). Produced by Joseph Lai's IFD Films and Arts. It stars Richard Harrison as Ninja Master Gordon again in the Hong Kong shot original scenes. The majority is re-used footage from an unidentified or unreleased crime drama from, I think, Taiwan. That re-used footage is weak with only one or two martial arts fights scenes. And it's unconvincingly connected to the original footage. That original footage is quite brief and even that lacks Ninja content, instead spending time on Ninja Master Gordon doing detective work. The soundtrack is re-used from earlier films and bootlegged. The one good Ninja fight scene is right at the end. Not recommended.

04/07/21
Also titled "Ninja Kill" and "Official Exterminator - Kill for Love". Rest of the "Official Exterminator" series were directed by Phillip Ko.
Low budget, cut-and-paste action drama. Directed by Godfrey Ho (as Raymond Woo), written by AAV Creative Unit, Godfrey Ho (as Benny Ho) and Owen Lam and produced by Joseph Lai's IFD Films and Arts. Just a few minutes of original Hong Kong footage starring Mike Abbott, here undubbed with some of his natural Cornish accent. Majority is re-used footage from Taiwanese romantic drama "Kill for Love" (1982) starring Hsiao-Fen Lu. Very little action. First and only Ninja appearance is a brief fight scene at 70 mins in. Some gun play here and there. The fight scene at the end is sped up. Overall tedious and little to recommend.

10/07/21
Low budget, cut-and-paste action crime Ninjasploitation. Directed by Godfrey Ho (as Victor Sears). Written by Godfrey Ho (as Wilfred Scott). Produced by Tomas Tang for Filmark International Ltd. A relatively large quantity of original footage, about 20-30 mins., was shot in Hong Kong with a no-name cast. The majority is re-used footage from an unidentified or unreleased action crime drama from, I think, Thailand, but there are few clues. The story is mainly gang crime with occasional Ninja fight scenes in the original segments. More effort was put into this release than most others from Tomas Tang and Filmark. Far more original footage this time, but most of it is dialogue and crime drama. The re-used footage includes it's own martial arts fights scenes. The original Ninja fight scenes are silly but quite good. I admire the extra effort here, but it's too convoluted and still lacking in pace and action to recommend.

17/07/21
Low budget, cut-and-paste action crime thriller. Directed by Godfrey Ho (as Ralph Fillmore). Written by Edward Storm. Produced by Tomas Tang for Filmark International Ltd. Jackie Ma is the action director. This has a small amount of original Hong Kong footage, with only about 5 or 10 minutes. They kill of the Caucasian Rambo style character half-way through with the whole second half being re-used footage. The donor film is an unidentified, unreleased and unfinished Thai action crime thriller. The first 20 mins are quite promising with lots of gun fights and explosions. Story was nothing like the treasure-seeking Indiana Jones story I was hoping for, instead being gang crime and revenge. The story moves from Thailand to San Francisco after the first act. It does have some things going for it with a few decent action scenes. But it's so disjointed, inconsistently paced, hard to follow nonsense. Overall just below average.

18/07/21
Also titled "American Commando 4 - Dressed to Fire".
Directed by Godfrey Ho (as Charles Lee), story by AAV Creative Unit and produced by Joseph Lai for IFD Films and Arts. It stars Pierre Kirby in the approx. 20 mins. of original Hong Kong footage. Most of the movie is re-used footage from Taiwanese action crime drama "The Boy from the Dark Street" (1983). The story and plotlines mostly involve gang crime and revenge. Nothing I've not seen before. The original footage is unconvincingly connected and has Kirby getting into gun battles in ever scene. The Taiwanese film, apart from a stretch in the second act, does deliver martial arts fights breaking out regularly throughout. The quality of the re-used film comes survived the editing process, and the pace is good. But it's hard to follow, hard to care about and disjointed. And there's nothing "commando" about it. It's contemporary crime theme makes it better suited to being a "War City", "Official Exterminator" or "Warriors of America" title. Overall this was flawed by above average compared to what I've seen recently.

23/07/21
Also titled "Ninja of the Magnificence" and "American Ninja: The Magnificent".
Cut-and-paste Ninjasploitation movie directed by Godfrey Ho (as Charles Lee), written by AAV Creative Unit, George Chu and screenplay by Godfrey Ho (as Benny Ho). Produced by Joseph Lai for his IFD Films and Arts. It stars Pierre Kirby and Danny Raisebeck in the 15+ minutes of original Ninja action footage filmed in Hong Kong. The majority of this movie is re-used footage. IMDb and other reviews say this is from Korean film "Arahan" (1986), but I don't think that's the full picture because the cast names don't match up at all. Whatever the re-used source film is, it's a historical kung-fu action and revenge story filled with Ninjas and kung-fu action. One of the best possible choices from which to re-use footage for cut-and-paste Ninjasploitation. One of the best of this type. Entertaining Ninja trash and recommended.

24/07/21
Also titled "Thunder Score".
Cut-and-paste Ninjasploitation and action crime drama movie directed by Godfrey Ho (as Philip Fraser). Screenplay by Godfrey Ho (as Andy Berlin) and dialogue by Bob West. Produced by Tomas Tang for Filmark International Ltd. Less than 10 mins. of original Ninja footage. Most comes from an unidentified or unreleased Thai action crime drama starring Sorapong Chatree. There's no real connection between the Ninjas fighting after a murder of a mining executive, and the Thai film where Sorapong Chatree goes to a small rural town to deal with the organised crime. Apart from the few Ninja scenes, most of the movie was boring. Only the last half an hour did a few good fiery gun battles take place. Ninja fight scenes are quite poor, but did include two daft moments of an exploding concertina weapon, and the black Ninja multiplying into many Ninjas. Overall this is a cheap and low-quality effort. Not recommended.

21/07/21
Also titled "Under Police Protection".
Hong Kong action crime drama B-movie. Directed and written by Godfrey Ho. Produced by George Lai. I think he's one of Joseph Lai's relatives, because he's credited in some of Lai's and Ho's earlier releases for IFD. But here it's for Grandwell Film Production who made four Hong Kong action B-movies with higher budgets and standards than their cut-and-paste releases. I watched the English language dub, cut by 9 mins. Story is about two female cops protecting a witness. Best action scene is near the start with an explosive gun battle, cars and motorbikes. Rest of the action is martial arts. Everyone does their own stunts which is good. Like their earlier films, familiar Caucasian actors appear, here in minor roles. Some of the action scenes look like bigger and better versions of what they aimed for before. It did dwell on drama and relationships too much though, with too many slow paced segments. The tone of some performances was also too goofy and comedic. The plot also becomes muddled by the end. Overall it's a good, early-modern Hong Kong action movie with too many problems to properly recommend.

18/09/21
Also titled "Angel's Mission" and "Born To Fight".
Hong Kong action crime drama B-movie directed by Godfrey Ho and Kin-sang Lee. Possibly cut-and-paste from an unidentified source film, but hard to be sure. Produced not by Godfrey Ho's regulars, but by Artview Investment Co. Ltd. It stars Yukari Ôshima (as Cynthia Luster) as Hing-tse, a Japanese Interpol agent in Hong Kong up against organised crime. Nothing unusual or original for these movies. There are some good martial arts and explosive gun battles and gunplay action scenes here and there. A lot of the acting is over-the-top. It's as hard to follow as most cut-and-paste films. The pace is also lacking with too many dull and confusing stretches. Apart from some good moments, overall not recommended.

25/09/21
Also titled "Zodiac America: The Super Master", "Zodiac Power: The Super Master", "Zombie Rivals", "Zombie Rival: The Super Ninja Master" and "Zombie Revival: Ninja Master".
Cut-and-paste Ninjasploitation, historical action-horror Kung Fu movie directed by Godfrey Ho (as Charles Lee). Written by AAV Creative Unit and Godfrey Ho (as Benny Ho) and produced by Joseph Lai for IFD Films and Arts Limited. Most of it is re-used footage from South Korean Kung Fu action-horror-comedy "The Undertaker in Sohwa Province (1983)" also titled The Undertaker in Sohwa Province". This stars Elton Chong who is inducted as an undertaker's apprentice, where the undertaker is a Kung Fu master who summons corpses to life as mindless warriors and who then trains Chong in Kung Fu to seek revenge. About 15 mins. is original footage starring Pierre Kirby as a Ninja in a simple good vs. evil Ninja story. The two are connected by cut together dialogue. The story is hard to follow nonsense. Acting in the original scenes is very poor, as are the Ninja fight scenes and comedy in the re-used scenes. Also no Ninjas fighting zombies. But the classic Kung Fu is good, and the setting was a welcome change. Overall not recommended.

03/10/21
Also titled "Counter Destroyer" and "Robo Vampire 3: Counter Destroy".
Cut-and-paste Ninjasploitation action horror directed by Godfrey Ho (as Edgar Jere). Written by Godfrey Ho (as Roger Markham) and produced by Tomas Tang for Filmark International Ltd. At least half is original footage from Hong Kong. This is where the Caucasian cast, Ninjas and vampires are. The other half is filler from an unidentified or unreleased Thai action crime drama starring Sorapong Chatree. The story involves a woman going to a house to finish writing a script, but the house is haunted. The reused footage is loosely connected with a PI and police investigating supposed film company rivals trying to stop the production through murder. There's so little of that film remaining, it makes no sense. The Thai film includes some fights and a shoot-out between boats. The best of the original segments included a fight involving (I think) the fictional film producers, who turns into a Ninja to fight a zombie and some Asian hopping vampires. In the final ten minutes, he turns into home-made fancy dress rip-off Robocop to fight more vampires. This is mostly very silly and seems to be aware of that fact. I could only enjoy it ironically by laughing at it. Only recommended as a good Bad Movie.

08/10/21
Also titled "American Force 5: Mission Dynamo" and "Aerolite Force 5: Mission Dynamo".
Cut-and-paste Namsploitation action-war movie directed by Godfrey Ho (as Charles Lee), written by AAV Creative Unit and Godfrey Ho (as Alton Cheung) and produced by Joseph Lai for IFD Films and Arts. Mike Abbott is the only cast name I recognise from the original segments. Sorapong Chatree stars in the reused footage which must be an unidentified or unreleased Thai. It's the third movie from this team to be set Kampuchea for some reason. The reused Thai film is clearly not a Vietnam war film and not even set in the same era. The story is unfathomable nonsense about American army deserters seeking revenge for death and Communist supporting terrorists and guerrillas. I couldn't follow or make sense of anything happening on screen. The pace drops here and there, but it's mostly pretty good. The best action comes from the reused footage. Besides the blast-em-up jungle based gun battles, there are a few fights from the Thai footage and martial arts fights from the original scenes. Overall, badly made, trashy nonsense, but I half enjoyed it.

09/10/21
Also titled "Metallic Fury".
Cut-and-paste Ninjasploitation Kung Fu action movie. Directed by Godfrey Ho (as Charles Lee), written by AAV Creative Unit and Godfrey Ho (as Benny Ho) and produced by Joseph Lai for IFD Films and Arts. About twenty mins. is original footage from Hong Kong starring Pierre Kirby. Majority is reused footage from an unidentified or unreleased, historical Kung Fu movie, currently misidentified on IMDb. Both new and reused segments have similar stories of revenge. Ninja scenes are average at best. Reused film is of of far higher production values and quality. Lots of great Kung Fu fight scenes, most with wire-work. Difference in quality is jarring though. Bootlegged soundtrack and weird use of Dracula theme. Overall, excellent historical Kung Fu marred by low quality Ninja scenes.

16/10/21
Cut-and-paste Ninjasploitation action crime movie. Directed by Godfrey Ho (as Willace Chan), written by Godfrey Ho (as Kurt Spielberg) and produced by Tomas Tang for Filmark International Ltd. Tao Chiang (as Tony Kong) is the action director, and it stars Paulo Tocha, Louis Roth and Eric Neff. Different to what I was expecting. Very little, if any, reused footage here, and hard to know what is and isn't reused. Most or all is original Hong Kong footage. Story and plotlines are still convoluted, disjointed and hard to follow. Good amount of martial arts and Ninja fight scenes. Many of them entertainingly silly. Best included flame throwing Sai three-pronged dagger, a spinning head and exploding Ninja at the end, plus the usual Ninja smoke and magic. There was even a car chase, though it wasn't very good. Overall enjoyably bad Ninja nonsense.

23/10/21
Cut-and-paste action-horror monster movie. Directed by Godfrey Ho (as Charles Lee), story and script by AAV Creative Unit and Godfrey Ho (as Benny Ho) and produced by Joseph Lai for his IFD Films and Arts. The original scenes, about 15 mins. star Pierre Kirby. The majority is reused footage from Taiwanese monster movie "Da she wang" (1984) also titled "King of Snakes". Story involves terrorists stealing a growth formula which makes a young child's pet snake grow into a monster. Far too much of it is dull drama following the little girl and her pet snake, and on the crime drama elements. Too little time is spent in the original scenes. There are couple of gun fights and fights here and there, but not enough. The monster scenes, with scale model miniatures, are good, but they're only for a short time at the end of the film. Not recommended.

30/10/21
Cut-and-past action fantasy horror movie. Directed by Godfrey Ho (as Ted Kingsbrook), written by Godfrey Ho (as Leo Beckman) and produced by Tomas Tang for Filmark International Ltd. It has just a few minutes of original Hong Kong footage, mostly involving Chinese hopping vampires and small number of Caucasian actors. The majority is reused footage from Thai fantasy horror "Kraithong 2" (1985) also titled "Krai Thong 2". That stars Sorapong Chatree in a story about people being transformed into man-eating crocodiles that attack a small Thai fishing village. The first half is unintentionally and ironically very funny and entertaining. Nearly every scene involves unconvincing crocodiles attacking and killing people. Most other scenes involve hopping vampires, other action and weirdness. The second half is a little less fun, as it spends more time in the realm of sorcery and fantasy. There are many plot holes, it hard to follow and it all makes little sense. Overall, I enjoyed it ironically.

06/11/21
Also titled "Angel Enforcers".
Hong Kong, martial arts, action crime drama B-movie. The second film directed by Godfrey Ho (as Chi-mou Ho) for Grandwell Film Production in 1989. Most of the cast is local including Phillip Ko and Moon Lee, but there was a minor role for Mike Abbott. The story starts off being about a stolen diamond and our female police heroes, but it devolves into hard to convoluted sub-plots of organised crime and revenge. There are at least a good spread of martial arts fight scenes, gun play and battles and stunts. It's sometimes hard to follow but overall I enjoyed this. Recommended to fans of 1990's style, contemporary Hong Kong martial arts movies.

14/11/21
Also titled "Catman in Lethal Track".
Cut-and-paste superhero action exploitation movie. Directed by Godfrey Ho (as Alton Cheung), story by AAV Creative Unit and Godfrey Ho (as Alton Cheung) and produced by Joseph Lai for IFD Films and Arts. It stars Jonathan Isgar as the Catman in the brief original scenes from Hong Kong. Majority is reused footage from an unidentified Thai action movie starring Sorapong Chatree. The plot lines are baffling. The two films are barely connected and lack any interaction between characters. The Thai film does have some good moments with gun battles, fight scenes and a motocross bike rider. The original scenes have some entertainingly silly scenes and some fights and battles. But it fails to live up to it's potential. There are far too few of those scenes, and it leans too heavily on the reused footage. Overall has some good moments but not enough of them.

20/11/21
Also titled "Catman in Boxer's Blow".
Cut-and-paste superhero action exploitation movie. Directed by Godfrey Ho (as Alton Cheung), story by AAV Creative Unit and Godfrey Ho (as Chris Lam) and produced by Joseph Lai for IFD Films and Arts. It stars Jonathan Isgar as the Catman in the very brief original scenes from Hong Kong. Majority is reused footage from Thai action film '7 Phra Kan' (1983). Sorapong Chatree is credited by mistake because he doesn't appear. Story is something about Cheever's replacement as top bad guy, and a Thai woman with a nuclear bomb starter. The Thai segments include a lot of the best martial arts fights and a few gun battles. There's so little original footage here, and what there is, isn't particularly good. It takes 48 mins for Catman to make his first appearance, followed by his other appearance at the end. Instead of fixing the problems with the first film, this instead makes most things much worse. Not recommended.

04/12/21
Also titled "Ninja Phantom Heroes U.S.A." and "Ninja Empire" which is what I intended to watch, but watched this by accident.
Cut-and-paste Ninjasploitation action crime movie directed by Godfrey Ho (as Bruce Lambert). Written by Godfrey Ho (as Duncean Bauer) and produced by Tomas Tang for Filmark International Ltd. It stars Danny Raisebeck and Jonathan Isgar in the few minutes of original Hong Kong footage. The majority is reused footage from Hong Kong action crime drama, "Struggle for Leader" (1983). Very confusing as to which version is which film. In the 1 hours 18 minute version I watched, there was no real connection between the new and reused film footage. The reused film was mostly dull with characters and plot lines I didn't care about. But it was enlivened by some martial arts fights and a good scene involving a motorcycle gang chasing and attacking a protagonist driving a Ford Cortina. The original Ninja footage was fairly unremarkable. The cut I watched ended abruptly during the final fight. The 1 hour 19 minute version extends it with some wire work and Ninja frisbees. Overall, I can't recommend this humdrum effort.