lukem-52760

I love deep cave exploring films & underwater adventure flicks, my favourite is THE CAVE (2005).

I had been wanting to see this for a while, but i didn't know the movie cast one of the most bland, typical, leads ever!!! Rhys Wakefield.

Rhys Wakefield is horrendous, he's such a bland & boring & so typical actor it's painful to watch.

These typical Australian "Actors" or leading men are so bad, so bland & so the same it's ruining movies.

If you're blonde, muscular & have "Surf" style pretty-boy looks then you are guaranteed a movie career & to be the new Hot leading man. Hollywood has a conveyerbelt for these typical actors, we had the horrendous SAM WORTHINGTON given the lead role in James Cameron's Avatar, Funny thing is James Cameron is producer for this film lol, & then he was hot (totally bland) for a bit. Same for the horrendous JAI COURTNEY who was given numerous lead roles (Terminator Genissys, Suicide Squad, Die Hard 4) & yet he is one of the worst actors in cinema history. Even Chris Hemsworth is made by the same Conveyerbelt, but he's proven he's a damn good actor that can do it all, i like Chris lots.

These blonde, bland & wooden, soulless "actors" from Australia are ruining most movies. Fact.

Anyway this film has some suspense scenes & stuff but the blandness of the actors make you not care at all if they survive.

RIP to John Heard, this guy i always remembered from Home Alone 1&2 as i grew up watching those on video, also John was great in the fun 80's cult horror favourite C. H. U. D

Here John plays a weirdo prisoner who wants to be alone constantly & is in for murdering his wife. It's hard to feel anything for John's character because he's so shut away emotionally & comes accross very weird & arrogant. His inmate character keeps to himself & doesn't abide by the prison codes. His character is annoying because everything that happens is his own fault, because he SMOKES!!!

IF he didn't smoke none of the films events with him wouldn't have happened, see Smoking is bad for your health...FACT.

Anyway John's weirdo inmate borrows a box of smokes & later can't pay his debt back to the head of a prison gang, the guy you go to when you want something, & it gets out of hand.

This go-to-guy is named Chilly & is played superbly by the underrated Thomas G. Waites (The Warriors, The Thing, McBain) this guy was excellent in those old school films & his best performance is right here as prison inmate go-to-guy. There's a small role for James Remar who would go on to be one of The Warriors with Waites in the 1979 Cult Classic.

Chilly is a fair dude, if you owe him he will collect & he does use violence, but if your cool with him & pay on time then he's a friendly dude actually & likeable.

Thomas Waites had an intensity in his eyes & should've been a much bigger a actor in my opinion. Waites would've made a great Serpico (yes Pacino was excellent but seeing Waites here with his long hair & beard he looks every bit Serpico) & should've been cast in much more dramas & thriller's.

On The Yard is a well made gritty prison drama with bunch of odd-ball characters who shuffle about in prison doing inmate stuff. There's a little side story of some of Chilly's pals who are building a big air balloon to escape but that part feels abit out of place to be honest.

I loved the gorgeous saxophone music score throughout the movie, it had a sad softness to it that contrasts the gritty harshness of the prison.

At the heart of On The Yard is how rules & codes are life in prison & this story is about two inmates butting heads over something so trivial as a carton of cigarettes. Small things mean so much in a prison environment & that is played out well here. The refreshing thing about this prison film is there's no horrific rape scenes, i was happy about that as the story didn't need that sort of vile stuff included.

All in all, On The Yard is very well acted gritty, sometimes violent story of inmate life in a 1970's prison. A reminder: Do Not Smoke.

I would call CITY OF GOD the best gangster film I've ever seen. Miles ahead, & better, than overrated gang films such as Goodfellas (i found that film ridiculously overrated & boring) better than Casino (again boring & overrated) & City of God is better than Menace To Society & Boys N the Hood, in my opinion.

Also this movie is better than any Tarantino crime film, yep beats his Fiction & Dogs.

City of God is fantastically & ferociously directed for maximum impact, excitement & power. The cinematography is outstanding-all-time & the music is just awesome, with it's 70's funk flavour.

The cast of unknowns was a masterful move & to get powerhouse performances from non professionals was lightning in a bottle greatness.

Such memorable characters like "Knockout Ned" & Rocket & Lil' Z & Benny & The Tender Three & The Runts, i remember all these & I've only seen it once!!! That's how great the characters were & what an impact the story has on a viewer.

Yeah the story is the basic good kid growing up in the tough ghetto & trying to break free, but few have done it this mesmerising before.

I can't wait to watch it again!!!

The movie is full of very colourful characters that often you can't help but like. Yes there's still some that you hate (Lil, Z) but most are just innocent kids with no way out of their desperate situation & so turn to selling or using drugs. It ain't pretty but the film shows it how it is, with the good times & the bad times like in real life.

The City of God is the ghetto slum city & that place is a constant dark entity of a character too.

The film discovered a fantastic actress in Alice Braga, she went to be in I AM LEGEND with Will Smith & PREDATORS.

A Brazilian Masterworks of a Gang land drama/ thriller. The opening chicken chase is a superb sequence into a movie that is drenched in clever camera work, editing & back stories galore that all create a single full story structure of the city & its people.

The movie is extremely gritty, grimy & brutal, but with purpose & a pure cinematic visual style.

A coming of age story set in the darkest slum city of Rio.

From the deepest recesses of my movie obsessed mind I've always remembered the little Empire Pictures movie TROLL. Thank you Charles Band for producing these fun fantasy films of my childhood.

TROLL was a movie I've always known, or it feels like I always have, as it's a film we had on video when i was little. Troll always stayed with me because of how scary i thought the little Troll was back in my little years. I always remembered the Troll's magic ring & the glowing green light it had & the apartments full of forests & Puppet creatures lol, aaawww Nostalgia.

Troll was one of a bunch of rubbery creature features i grew up watching on video. I have such warm, fond memories of the old 80's rubbery monster flicks & i always loved them. We had Troll 1&2, Ghoulies 2, Ghoulies Go To College, Critters 1,2,3 & 4, Gremlins 1&2, Ghostbusters 1&2, The Gate, Puppet Master 1&2, Tremors, Poltergeist 1&2, Demonic Toys & more. I'm so glad i grew up on these types of weird, freaky & fun fantasy horror flicks.

So yeah i find comfort in these old B movies & the fun fantasy worlds they create, my comfort zone.

Troll is about the "Harry Potter" family (yes really) that have just moved into a tenement building in San Francisco. The apartment building has a bunch of odd characters that keep it interesting. The little girl of the Potter family in captured by a menacing Troll & keeps her in his forestry universe while he takes her place with magic. It's all very weird & fantastical, & lots of bizarre fun. Only the little girls big brother can see she's different & makes friends with one of the tenants, an old lady who lives in an awesome ancient looking apartment full of historic fantasy stuff. I remember Troll being very scary when i was tiny (probably shouldn't have watched it at a young age but i did, as i did many horror's) but now i see Troll as much more a fantasy adventure with comedy & some horror mixed in. The boy named Harry Potter Jr has to find his sister & save our world from the Troll. The little menace is turning each apartment into a fantastic world of little magical creatures (great fun Puppets) & wants to take over the whole complex. I could see the roots, ideas & story elements or the seed that helped create Del Toro's Hellboy: The Golden Army, come from Troll & it's bizarrely bad but fun, non-related sequel Troll 2 (NILBOG).

There's magical happenings going on in the apartment building & it's up to the boy & the ancient warrior princess of the old Troll world/universe to battle Torok the Troll & his army of creatures. Troll is very cheesy, corny & very 80's & that's awesome to me. Although probably low-budget the movie looks good, has decent production (the Apartment building & it's rooms look great) & a magical music score. The Puppets look awesome, slimy & rubbery & again, so of it's time the 80's. Thinking about it i love Troll & could watch it over & over.

A decent little cast with B movie regular, Michael Moriarty (The Stuff, Dark Tower) & Julia Louis- Dreyfus (Seinfeld, Christmas Vacation) & Phil Fondacaro (Ghoulies 2, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie) & June Lockhart (A fantastic veteran actress, & plays a great character in Troll as Miss St. Clair, A good witch with a rich history & back story, that could've been explored in a prequel or sequel.

Really fun special effects & a nice tone of magic & fantasy make Troll fun, easy entertainment that isn't scary lol.

The standout performance of Troll goes to the great little actor PHIL FONDACARO. This, yes very small actor has a very big heart & he gives a very sweet & touching performance as a professor (also plays Torok the Troll) that lives in the apartment & is very sick. This little guy was great in 80's movies & Empire Pictures used him again in the excellent GHOULIES 2 (1987) & stole the show there too. A little dude with a big heart that gave touching performances to his characters.

Anyway i really enjoy Troll, it's definitely a small film of it's time, the 80's but if you remember it from the better times on video then it will hold a special little place in your movie-loving-heart too.

First off I'm a Ghostbusters fan, I'm one of the originals from that era as i was born in 1984 (when Ghostbusters First came out) & the first movie i ever saw at the Cinema was Ghostbusters 2 in 1989 when i was 5 years old & that Cinema experience stayed with me all my life. I have major history with Ghostbusters, i also grew up watching the Real Ghostbusters animated series & then the excellent underrated Extreme Ghostbusters in the 90's. I had Ghostbusters 1&2 on video & growing up & watched them constantly i also had all the Real Ghostbusters toys. I'm a real proper Ghostbusters fan who literally grew up with the Ghostbusters.

Silly unpopular opinion is i absolutely loved the female lead 2016 Ghostbusters.

I saw the ladies Ghostbusters at the cinema with my wife & daughter & we loved it. The 2016 movie is a fantastic 8/10 in my opinion & that Ghostbusters I'm proud to say is my daughters Ghostbusters, a Ghostbusters for them & it was GREAT. The ladies were fantastic together & so funny. The gadgets & new proton packs were better than the originals in my opinion. Also the 2016 Ghostbusters remains the actually funniest of the whole franchise!!! Also the old 1970's Times Square big battle final action sequence is probably the best Ghostbusters action scene of the franchise. There's so much great stuff in the ladies version & the only reason it was hated was because of Misogynistic idiots. But hey i felt the 2016 Ghostbusters fingerprints on Frozen Empire like Ganine Melnitz small hand proton blaster is practically the same as used in the Ladies version!!!

Another unpopular opinion from me is i couldn't stand GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE!!! I had huge problems with it as it was like an indie film mixed with a kids Nickelodeon version of Ghostbusters. Also the awful Afterlife ruined the main characters. The fact the Ghostbusters fell apart because Egon (Harold Ramis) believed a new supernatural Apocalypse with Gozer returning was NOT believed by his buddies & other Ghostbusters is ridiculous!!! The fact that Egon stole Ghostbusters equipment & done a runner to live in a small desolate town is ridiculous. Why would the Ghostbusters, that have Been through Gozer & Vigo & the River of slime & Mr. Staypuft Marshmallow man & everything else would suddenly not believe in Egon Spengler is insulting to the characters & the fans. Also Afterlife ignored the fact Ghostbusters 2 even happened? Thankfully the Awesome FROZEN EMPIRE fixed most of these problems.

Anyway Afterlife was garbage in my opinion.

Ghostbusters: FROZEN EMPIRE was a real blast of creativity with the franchise, we had strong Nostalgia & our old team that are like old friends by now were given bigger roles, especially Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stantz (my all-time favorite Ghostbuster) he was a the heart of this superior sequel. I pretended that Afterlife didn't exist & this movie was simply the old Ghostbusters that have recruited a new younger team like the 90's Extreme Ghostbusters. Afterlife doesn't exist.

We're back in New York City where the Ghostbusters should be for FROZEN EMPIRE. This is a big fun popcorn blockbuster & for that it's on point.

Major shout out for letting us know that GHOSTBUSTERS 2 (my fave) did happen & is definitely Cannon (the awful Afterlife ignored it) by a news report at the beginning of this superior sequel that shows the Statue of Liberty walking!!! I had a huge smile. Still there's stuff that's not great like how they never seem to really give us character depth, we never know if the old gang have families or have wives or husbands or kids???? Do they all live near each other? Do they meet up regularly? No real insight at all with our beloved characters but to be honest even the old films never dug into the characters at all.

Paul Rudd was awesome & really is a perfect choice to be a new GHOSTBUSTER.

The kids/teens were really great & are very gifted actors & very likeable.

In fact the whole cast was great in their roles. It was nice seeing Walter Peck back again, this time as the Mayor of New York & still with a bone-to-pick with the Ghostbusters. Thank you William Atherton for returning for his iconic character, a good sport.

There's new faces that are all fun & likable in parts. The humour is actually funny but it's not over silly & the spooky factor is done in the style of Ghostbusters 1&2.

We have a new demonic spirit that is Unleashed from an ancient artifact that ends up in Ray's supernatural store. The creature is eventually Unleashed & New York City is frozen over & evil spirit are on the rampage. I loved the creepy look of Garakka the Ice Demon that has a nice backstory & mythology. I felt this Ghostbusters dug into rich old mythology & ancient cursed & possessed artifacts. Ghostbusters could go the Conjuring universe way if it wanted with each cursed artifact getting a spooky movie about it. The drath chill created by the evil Garraka is done fantastically with super special fx that turns a hot & sweaty New York summer into a new ice age. This new villain is fantastically scary & taken seriously. I got vibes of the Real Ghostbusters cartoon which was obviously an inspiration for this movie. Also a nice use of the original '84 music score scattered throughout the movie, a nice Nostalgic touch.

I loved how the movie went into proper horror territory towards the end that made film actually feel threatening.

There's amazing special effects throughout & lots of awesome ghosts & new fun technology & traps.

Ernie Hudson is great in a bigger role (finally) as Winston Zeddemore.

I was nice seeing Annie Potts as Ganine Melnitz back in action & as a Ghostbuster, i love her character.

It was actually Bill Murray as Venkman that had the smallest part but was nice when he's there. The old team are great on screen.

There's some very nice little touching moments sprinkled throughout like when Ray & Winston are talking about how old they are & how these are their golden years.

Also nice little cameos from classic ghosts like the Library Ghost & Slimer, both done beautifully. So glad Dan Aykroyd had a main part back as Ray Stantz, he's older as they all are but still has that big excited heart for all things supernatural.

There's a nice sweet warm touch of Nostalgia sprinkled throughout the movie that makes you smile.

FROZEN EMPIRE has heart & Nostalgia for us old school fans who grew up loving these movies & characters.

Ghostbusters were a huge part of our childhoods.

Gil Kenan was a great choice of director & I'm a fsn of his excellent animated horror fantasy comedy MONSTER HOUSE, it's a Halloween staple in my house. Also he did a decent & fun remake of POLTERGEIST, the guy is great at family friendly scares.

All in all i had a blast watching this new Ghostbusters movie, fun & full of heart.

FOR IVAN (Just beautiful) My Ratings of the franchise: Ghostbusters (1984) 10/10 Ghostbusters 2 (1989) 10/10 Ghostbusters: Answer The Call (2016) 8/10 Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) 2/10 Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) 8/10.

I grew up watching the classic original 1978 zombie epic DAWN OF THE DEAD, so i was so excited when i heard a remake was coming out. That was way back in 2004, twenty years ago!!!

So i saw the remake of Dawn of the Dead at the cinema & loved it.

This is the only movie i like that director Zack Snyder has made. Let's be honest Zack is a crappy director that relies too much on messy expensive CGI action scenes. Dawn of the Dead was a gritty, raw & ferocious Horror movie with little need for OTT CGI nonsense.

I was blown away by how cool this new version of Dawn of the Dead was, it's exciting, darkly funny & upgraded the Zombies to running ones which i much prefer to the silly shuffling ones that are easy to get away from. I loved the fact Dawn took note from how terrifying running Zombies can be after the success of the Masterpiece 28 DAYS LATER.

This Dawn is so much fun & has an ensemble cast of wacky characters that are all hiding out in a shopping mall. Sarah Polley as Ana steals the show, although Ving Rhaymes comes 2nd) a nurse who has to escape her way out of her suburban neighbourhood as it descends into chaos with a zombie invasion. The first 10 mins or so are ferociously bloody, intense as hell & exciting. The early 2000's Zombie films are some of the best of the genre with 28 Days Later & Resident Evil & Dawn of the Dead.

The action is exciting & suspenseful & edge-of-the-seat at times.

It's an exciting & thrilling wild ride as we follow this group of misfits as they try to survive a Zombie Apocalypse.

The greatest visual in this movie is when you actually see how many Zombies have surrounded the area when our group try to escape from the mall in battle ready trucks, there's hundreds & it's shockingly scary.

I first saw Showtime on video way back when it was first released to buy (on video) that was over 20 years ago. I liked Showtime then & laughed my ass-off but then just completely forgot about it for ages & ages until i started re-watching the buddy-cop genre again, as the buddy-cop genre is my favourite sub-genre of Cinema.

Now watching Showtime with fresh & older eyes as of now in 2024 i can honestly say that this gem of a movie is nearly a forgotten Classic.

No one ever mentioned Showtime like ever & yet it starred two of the biggest stars of Cinema History. Eddie Murphy is a childhood hero of mine i grew up watching him in the Beverly Hills Cop films & Trading Places & The Nutty Professor & Metro & so many more. By the 2000's Eddie Murphy had stepped into more family friendly films like Dr. Dolittle 2, The Haunted Mansion, I Spy, Pluto Nash, Meet Dave & more. Eddie's is a king of comedy & is absolutely hilarious in this buddy-cop action comedy gem.

Also we have the legendary titan & veteran Robert De Niro, the legend that gave us Masterpieces such as Taxi Driver & The Deer Hunter & Cape Fear & many, many more.

Also by the late 90's & early 2000's Robert De Niro himself had taken on more Comedy roles & family fun with hits like Analyze This & Meet The Parents & Meet The Fockers & Shark Tale, to name a few.

The teaming of Eddie Murphy & Robert De Niro is absolutely brilliant & is one of the greatest team ups of the buddy-cop genre.

Eddie Murphy stars as fast-talking, smooth & cocky LAPD Rookie officer Trey Sellers, a uniformed cop on the beat that is so a wannabe actor & gets a chance at a "Reality" TV show about Cops when he's partnered up with veteran no-nonsense grumpy LAPD Detective Mitch Preston (Robert De Niro) who is pretty much a modern day Dirty Harry type. The ridiculously beautiful Rene Russo (Lethal Weapon 3&4) plays the show's excited producer, Chase Rensi. Together the mismatched pair of cops are poised to big the next big hit reality-based show.

For Mitch it's an embarrassing nightmare but for Trey it's a dream come true & hilarious situations become the norm for the pair.

Honestly the chemistry is perfectly done, you can tell De Niro is loving it & Murphy is in his element bouncing off of the legend. These two legends of Cinema are so much fun together & the there's also a hilarious part for William Shatner playing himself!!!

Honestly Showtime is such a blast, such a fun ride & is deserving of Cult Classic status in my opinion.

Every buddy-cop cliché is sprinkled throughout the film in a very knowing & funny way. The cameras are everywhere & Murphy's Trey loves it & shows off & De Niro's Mitch has to go along with it all & he's so funny.

There's loads of action, shootouts & car chases & everything that makes a buddy-cop movie & buddy-cop movie is in Showtime.

A top notch exciting score by the great Alan Silvestri (Predator 1&2, Judgment Night, i, Robot, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? & many many more) & with gorgeous Cinematography & produced by WILL SMITH, all the ingredients are here & work perfectly to create a fun Action-packed cop comedy.

Daniel Radcliffe has come along way from his magical Harry Potter days & here gives his greatest performance (best I've seen him anyway) as nerdy FBI agent Nate Foster who is recruited to go deep undercover in the scary world of white supremacists to uncover future terrorist plans.

Imperium treads similar territory to The Departed & American History X, both excellent gritty films & Imperium felt like a nice mix of them both. Daniel Radcliffe is helped on the superb acting front by the always excellent Toni Collette who plays Nates superior FBI boss that chose him for this particular mission. Nate is picked because of his smarts he's super smart & quick thinking in situations & that helps him big time when he's undercover. Nate is always the smartest guy in the room & is an excellent FBI agent but this is his first time out in the field doing real dangerous work rather than doing it behind a computer screen sat at a desk.

Radcliffe really is excellent on screen & puts his all into his performance as he's constantly on edge & has to think quickly in many nerve-wracking moments. This is basically an undercover cop thriller that deals with real American problems of Neo-Nazi terrorist attacks & the gritty approach to the film feels even more real considering this is based on a true story.

Imperium doesn't show the constant vile racist action you would expect, it's not on the scarily seething scale of say American History X, this film concentrates more on the inner workings of the White supremacists groups. What was eye opening was the fact that most of the Neo-Nazi high up leaders are actually normal type family men without skinheads!!! I say "normal" because they are hidden in plain site as they're not streets thug skinheads who you can see coming a mile off oh no these are well respected, educated & unexpected. The evil of racism reaches high & goes to places that's unexpected & Nate is right in the middle of this bizarre Whites only society.

All the performances are top notch here & the film is tightly directed & filled with tension & a terrific moody score that compliments the movie.

I totally dug Imperium & could watch it over & over.

Daniel Radcliffe was truly excellent.

Toni Collette was equally excellent.

Imperium is a moody, suspenseful thriller that keeps you on the edge throughout.

Green Room was a big surprise, a small budget movie made with a passion for low-budget gritty & violent grindhouse cinema of the 70's & early 80's for its influence, & even some early 90's genre flicks.

A simple setup story about an indie rock group travelling around America trying to get any gigs they can anywhere they can. This leads the grungy rock group the "Aint-Rights" to an isolated club full of Nazi-skinheads & hostility. The Ain't-Rights are a decent bunch of early 20's rockers that consists of three guys & one girl & all very likeable characters. Anton Yelchin (Rest In Peace to an excellent actor) is excellent as Pat, the deep thinker of the band, dude was truly a great actor that could've gone on to do so much amazing work in movies (He did a lot in the time he had though) & the others of the band are all damn fine a actors that each deliver strong performances & as said are all likeable (which is very rare in ensemble films).

The Aint-Rights perform some songs in the dingy Nazi bar & after they head to the Green Room (a chillout waiting area for bands & staff) & walk in on a murder scene. From here the film gets extremely tense as our band teams up with a local girl to escape from the Green Room & get out the Club alive. The Nazi members want to Silence the band for what they've seen & so an intense battle of wits begins but who will out smart who? & will anyone survive the night.

A creepily in-control & cold as ice performance from Patrick Stewart as the main villain of the piece, he's excellent as the head leader of the Nazi movement, he controls everything that happens & waits patiently for his victims.

There's a slight feel of that 70's grit & grime here like say Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter's original) & other cult flicks of that type. Green Room is a survival Thriller that's a low-budget B-movie at heart & loved that about it. Great cinematography, especially the rich greens of the surrounding forests & the dark moody interiors of the dingy club. Think From Dusk Till Dawn (1995) but without Vampires, Killer Nazi nutters instead. Green Room fits in with genre films like Judgment Night (1993) & Trespass (1992), survival thriller's that take place over one night.

The standout star (& character: Amber ) of the movie was Imogen Poots, she's one bad-ass smart-thinking & cool character here, she's excellent.

Who will survive this night? There's plenty of blood-soaked realistic violence that's often shocking & ferocious. Each gun shot is impactful with special practical effects that are beautifully shot, violence never looked cooler. Green Room is grounded in its gritty realism that's totally helped by the superb practical effects.

Truly an exciting, thrilling late-night survival flick. This is one ultra-violent ulta-cool thriller.

I'm not a Kevin Smith fan & i Don't like his weird indie stoner comedies but i absolutely loved his anti-religious horror thriller RED STATE. But Kevin Smith is a smart dude & says it as it is & i totally respect him for that & what he pulled off here with a tiny budget is pure Awesomeness & he should be so proud of this movie. This is Kevin Smith putting a middle finger up to critics & haters & making something totally different & experimental in a way & it worked.

Made low-budget gritty, ferocious & darkly funny, Smith finally made a movie really worth checking out.

I'm an Atheist so i loved all the undertones of religion causing chaos & how evil breeds within it.

Red State is about three horny American teens meeting up with an older lady through Internet chats & end up captured in a church compound full of religious fanatics.

Felt like a mix of Eli Roth's Hostel & a police thriller & with the ferocious frantic camera movements used in 28 Days Later & it's sequel & used extremely well to create a panicked state.

Veteran character actor legend MICHAEL PARKS gives the performance of his Career here as a psycho preacher hellbent on delivering holy justice to his victims. Parks is outstanding & Oscar worthy here. What a blistering, outrageous & hilarious performance by Parks!!!

Equally the great John Goodman packs a powerhouse performance as a ATF officer who lays seige to the religious compound with orders to kill all inside.

Two powerhouse performances that lift the film to a higher level of Cinema quality that defies its small budget.

Red State is better than most major studio Big Budget films!!!

All performances are top notch, intense & powerful, everyone is so game to deliver a power punch of a film.

Yep with it's gritty cinematography, no music score, blood-soaked action & a quality mix of Horror & Police Thriller Red State delivers.

Action, shocks, dark humour & knockout performances made Red State a cult survival Thriller.

I've enjoyed The Expendables films so far, the first two being the best, & part 3 being fairly good but we really didn't need a new younger team.

Anyway the really BAD with Expendables 4 is the whole damn THING!!!

IF it wasn't for the always great Jason Statham Expendables 4 would be unwatchable!!!

Statham was always the most likeable of all the Expendables & was always my favourite so the one good thing this scrappy franchise film did was focus on Statham's Christmas character for a majority of the movie.

Statham was great on screen once again & seemed to be the ONLY actor giving a damn about his character or giving an little bit of depth.

When Barney (Stallone) was "Killed" off no one gave a damn, none of The Expendables really cared that their long time friend & leader had died, the whole thing was emotionless?

ONLY Statham seemed to really be bothered by his buddies death.

Most of the Expendables from the previous films are missing?

We got an annoying & pointless new Expendable that is supposed to be the son of Banderas's non-stop talking character from part 3. He's a terrible new addition & adds NOTHING.

The worst actress in cinema history Megan Fox joins the team & is ONLY here because some people think she's hot but she isn't unless you like really orange looking Aliens.

The Awesome addition of rapper actor 50 Cent is completely wasted & does nothing. 50 Cent was so perfect for the franchise & they wasted him? He should've Been the main new focus & a new team member but nope, they cared for about the sickly horrendous actress Megan Fox!!! Gutted for 50

The villain is Iko Uwais & he's good for the little he has but is wasted. Tony Jaa is decent for the little he has to do but again is wasted.

Dolph Lundgren looked fed-up & they gave him a scraggy scarecrow wig? Bizarre!!!!

This was not a well directed film.

Expendables 4 felt weird & so Bizarre, thankfully Statham was there to completely save the film. Statham singlehandedly saved Expendables 4.

The legendary Andy Garcia is totally wasted.

The cinematography or c.g.i looks like a cheap video game.

JASON STATHAM kept me watching & his scenes are good but the dialogue is so bad & forced, there is no chemistry except the little bits with Statham & Stallone.

I can't hate the film because there's bits & pieces that are good or fun, i liked the bit where Statham beats down a cocky YouTube'er brat & the whole big boat main action scenes where Statham is there to rescue his crappy team is very good. This movie was made with today's stupid culture in mind as we get (as said) cocky YouTube idiots & we get silly people at a party all sucking on pathetic Vapes & we get a scene where the terrible Megan Fox just gets home from the gym, all stuff that's totally the "now" that's fashionable & is our stupid culture craze. The Gym, Vapes & YouTube influencer lol its all here in this bizarre mess of an action film.

Thank goodness for the dependable Expendable STATHAM!!!

I'm a big fan of Director Joe Carnahan & have been since his brilliant gritty cop thriller debut NARC.

I'm also a fan of hard-ass tough guy actor Frank Grillo & have been since his explosive leading hard-ass performance in the best Purge film ever: The Purge: Anarchy.

But this film was garbage it really was in my opinion.

Mel Gibson was crap & just played the same bad guy role he played in Expendables 3 & Machete Kills.

The time travel, Groundhog Day type angle was just very, very annoying & ruined the film in my opinion.

The film just got very tedious & it kept trying to be funny but it wasn't funny at all.

Joe Carnahan & Frank Grillo did a much better team up with the outstanding winter survival Thriller THE GREY & the underrated COPSHOP.

YEP just wasn't a movie for me i just didn't enjoy this one at all.

I love direct-to-video B-movies that used to stock up the shelves in video stores everywhere back in the 90's, especially the Awesome beautiful Blockbuster video store.

Billy Blanks was a star of the low-budget action B movie genre that consisted of mainly martial arts stuff & kickboxing.

Billy Blanks in his prime during the 90's was like a seriously shredded Wesley Snipes type & with a tough hood thugged out voice similar to 50 Cent. Blanks was ripped-to-shreds & was a professional ass-kicker that moved into movies & i think he was a decent actor with a tough screen presence but always seemed like a good-hearted guy.

I've discovered & loved many of Blanks low-budget action flicks such as: Talons of the Eagle, Back in Action, Tough & Deadly, TC-2000, Expect No Mercy & Hidden Dragon, i consider those films real fun entertaining gems. Again, i love 90's direct-to-video Action B-movies.

I love Billy Blanks work with Roddy Piper best (Back in Action & Tough & Deadly) they really had a fun chemistry that felt similar to 48 Hrs, Lethal Weapon & Tango & Cash.

Hidden Tiger is definitely a damn good 90's, at times cheesy, action-packed martial arts flick with a top Billy Blanks performance.

Blanks plays a good-hearted, peaceful guy named Nico that teaches local kids to defend themselves & learn respect at his training Karate/Kung-fu/Martial arts type Dojo Centre. Nico is like a father figure as well as the instructor, to the local street kids that live life hard in their hood & Nico wants to teach them something other than how to sell drugs or be in a gang.

I really liked the Nico character & of course Billy played him really well with his natural charisma & screen presence.

The story kicks off with a dark blast when one of Nico's troubled teens gets shot by the local Mafia because Nico refused to pay the thugs for protection. This leads a hurt & vengeful Nico to be trained even better as a fighter by an old mystical warriors trainer played by the always great MAKO (An Eye For An Eye, TMNT, Silent Assassins) & he wants Nico to become the ultimate warrior that can compete in the crime syndicates brutal Death Match fights that they bet on. If Nico defeats the Crime Boss's champion fighter then his gambling empire will fall.

I loved the story of good men taking a stand against a crime syndicate & Nico having to fight dirty in the underworld fight circuit. There's humour mixed in & plenty of awesome fights sequences & training montage stuff. This is a typical low-budget 90's martial arts movie but with a bit more heart & two really great stars of the low-budget genre (Billy Blanks & Mako) Also Hidden Tiger is filmed well with a decent, at times a little cheesy, score that all encapsulated its era, early 90's & i love it. You can never get those wonderful times again so it's nice, comforting & a boost of Nostalgia when i revisit these types of films.

ALSO this was the last of lead starring roles for Billy Blanks as from here he got bit-parts in a mix of stuff both films & t.v. So there's a litter sadness when you think about like that, & such a shame because Blanks should've been a bigger action star in my opinion. I like Blanks as much as say Snipes or The Rock or Diesel for example. What could've been? Maybe a cool team up with Statham or something along those lines. Just a shame because Billy Blanks was alot better than most of today's action stars & he was just as good as those action stars during his hey day in the 90's.

Anyway i will always enjoy revisiting Blanks films.

"PULSE" was a film i remember catching always on t.v in the middle of the night & never from the beginning but i always watched what i could of it.

Yep back in the 90's i would often catch Pulse nearly half way through or so but always liked what i saw & always remembered it.

You cannot beat old school 80's movies from any genre, but Horror was mind blowing because of the use of practical effects that seemed like real movie magic.

A young boy goes to stay with his father & his father's girlfriend in a lovely Los Angeles suburbs where all the houses are nice big beautiful Looking places of comfort. But there's a sinister paranormal or extraterrestrial pulse that has travelled through electricity into the family home. The young boy David, starts to notice all the weird happenings in his dad's high-tech home & of course his father Bill doesn't believe him until things start to get more & more serious. All performances are very good for this type of fun 80's horror thriller. Cliff De Young is decent as the dad that just can't believe there's something sinister out to hurt his family. Cliff De Young was a good choice because he's such an ordinary Looking guy & so can play a hard working suburban father easily. I loved the family house it's so 80's & so cozy & the cinematographer lit it perfectly. The house is a character as we never see the evil pulse entity thingy, we just see electronic equipment going haywire & becoming dangerous & it's done so well that it works fine that we don't actually see a monster.

There's a fun cautionary tale to Pulse that is basically about relying to much on high-tech stuff (abit like the futuristic Tom Selleck sci-fi thriller RUNWAY,1984) but that film was more about actual Robots rather than electric equipment & appliances but similar still in nature of the fear of a high-tech futuristic world. Pulse felt similar in spirit to Maximum Overdrive (1986) with it's otherworldly signal travelling through electricity & infecting electrical equipment. The 80's did all best & made these films so full of excitement & fun.

Joey Lawrence as David (Bills son) & Roxanne Hart as Ellen (Bills wife) are great.

The big house is used perfectly to feel menacing & as a huge threat. I totally enjoyed this film as i love cozy suburban horror fun & Pulse fits in with the likes of Poltergeist & The 'Burbs for an example. The music is an awesome pure 80's expected horror score & film has a nice easy relaxing vibe to it.

I love 80's horror movies & sci-fi stuff & that's exactly what Pulse is & it works. Pulse is old school 80's fun horror filmmaking through & through & because of all its nice little qualities it makes it a nice time capsule of 80's Los Angeles 'burbs & for its time, high-tech household gadgets.

There's definitely a comforting Nostalgic feel to Pulse that makes you long for those good old past times again & makes you want to watch it again.

Watching Seagal's brutal, bone-crunching explosive debut in 2023 felt fresh & gave me a new respect for such an excellent movie.

I grew up watching & loving Steven Seagal films, especially a video boxset i had that contained 3 of his absolute best: Nico aka Above the Law, Hard to Kill & Out for Justice.

I also had Marked For Death, Under Siege & The Glimmer Man on video way back in the 90's & I've always claimed that his 1991 vigilante cop thriller OUT FOR JUSTICE as my absolute favourite Seagal film, Or Marked For Death (1990) i love both, But, as of 2023 having re-watched his brilliant debut movie NICO, i gotta admit that this is as great a movie!!! It's hard to pick a favourite because i love Nico, Out For Justice, Marked For Death & Hard to Kill, Seagal's Early movies were action staples of my childhood. Under Siege is great too.

We get a good backstory for our brutal movie hero Nico, he was a good-hearted soldier during the horrific war in Vietnam & became a specialist for the CIA, before leaving that murky world behind to enter a new murky world as a cop. Back home in America Nico is a tough-as-hell cop in a drug infested Chicago.

Since coming home in the 80's Chicago is a city on the verge of exploding with gang violence, thugs & drugs. Nico uncovers a connection between the CIA & the drugs lords of the streets, Nico is like a bloodhound on the case & will stop at nothing to expose them.

Nico is a guy that does it his way with a fist & a gun. Seagal gives a fantastic performance as young hot headed & short-tempered Nico. Still angry at what he witnessed in Vietnam he doesn't have any mercy for the scum he comes accross & i love it. Watching Nico with fresh 2023 eyes i can honest say that the then young Seagal gave such an explosive performance for a first film. Seagal's acting was solid, he was believable & seemed so fresh amongst the action stars of the 70's & 80's. Seagal looked totally different from the regular action stars, he's very tall, very lean & had that cool slick back black hair & dressed like an ultra-cool street cop. Seagal definitely gave the performance of his Career in Above the Law as Nico, his ego wasn't a big distracting problem at that moment in time, that came as his fame grew. Steven Seagal was Unleashed on movie goers back in the late 80's & pretty much exploded accross screens with Above the Law, an action movie that ranks as one of the best of the genre.

There's someone great about those early Seagal films, there's a real sense of time & place & are nice for Nostalgia of a better time & when movies were better.

Nico has a beautiful wife (a young Sharon Stone) a baby & a close family & his trusty partner Jackson, played perfectly by cult cinema legend PAM GRIER. The beautiful Pam Grier holds her own as Dolores Jackson, teamed up with the wild & loose cannon Nico as he wages war on Chicago's criminal underworld of drugs. Pam Grier is so likeable as Jackson, a cop that is as tough & fearless as Nico except she has control. Grier was perfect to balance Seagal's explosive Nico character & Jackson is the best character in the film after Nico. For the big bad villain we get B-movie bad guy regular Henry Silva in a very sadistic & evil role of ex-nam soldier turned drug kingpin, who Nico desperately wants to hurt.

The action is explosive, brutal & bloody with Seagal beating the shiznit out of anybody in his way & it's a blood-soaked good time.

From the Awesome clothing/fashion of the 80's to the excellent jazzy music score & gritty vibrant cinematography, Nico aka: Above the Law is top cop action thriller stuff, easy 10/10 in my opinion. Say what you will of Seagal now but back in his early years he was the best, a brutal specialist martial arts warrior who seemed the most deadly out of all the old school action stars!!! I always thought Seagal was the most brutal of the action stars & laughed so hard at how brutally he beat his enemies up, he really was fantastic to watch & with his short-fuse temper & savage mouth of street tough attitude. I love early Seagal films & consider his: Above the Law, Hard to Kill, Marked For Death & Out for Justice as all-time action Classic's, some of the greatest of the action thriller genre.

Nico deserves it's place up there with the Dirty Harry's & Lethal Weapons & many, many more great cop films.

Steven Seagal is excellent, fresh & savage in this blistering action thriller from the beautiful 80's.

Charles Bronson was a legendary tough guy actor from the good old days of kick-ass Cinema, & he's excellent here in director Michael Winners cop thriller.

Sandwiched between Michael Winners The Mechanic & Death Wish there was his other not ever mentioned, The Stone Killer. Michael Winner directed Bronson in many great & gritty action thriller films & along with the very first Death Wish (1974) & the crazy good-time violent fantasy Death Wish 3 (1985), his Stone Killer is possibly his best Bronson collaboration, or atleast right next to the first Death Wish.

As of now, in the seriously dark & Depressing times of 2023, watching 1973's The Stone Killer feels almost comforting with it's no tech world & no nonsense vigilante cops that do what needs to be done & seeing a old face of movie justice: Charles Bronson, i was definitely comforted by the simpler times of it's decade the 1970's.

In a world like ours now as of 2023, we need no nonsense tough justice fighters like Bronson's hard cop Lou Vescari, a Detective that plays by his own rules in Dirty Harry fashion, & fears no one. Bronson plays the part perfectly & created one of his best characters in my opinion. There's definitely a lovely feeling watching old 70's & 80's action stars taking out the evil scum of the world. There's something so nice about watching the likes of Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris, Roy Scheider, Gene Hackman, Clint Eastwood, Stallone, Schwarzenegger & others tearing through gritty places & shooting up street scum as they deal out death to those that deserve it. Its a rewarding watching experience because in real life we're powerless & the law protects the evil scum but in the movie world we get to witness the blood thirsty vengeance we all want.

The Stone Killer is a cracking 70's cop thriller that feels like it's made in the mould of an old noir Detective film.

Bronson is Detective Vascari, a New York City hard-ass that gets in serous trouble with his superiors, the newspapers & the city for gunning down a teenage thug that pulled a gun of him. Just another day in the bleak violent city but its enough for Bronson's cop to move to another dark, bleak & violent city: Los Angeles. Bronson is between New York & LA throughout the movie as he goes about trying to solve a crime & stop old mafioso boss Vescari, played by the great Martin Belsam (Death Wish 3, The Delta Force) from his planned revenge plot that would slaughter mob bosses from all over America. There's alot going on in Stone Killer but it all comes together fine in the end for a thrilling action-packed showdown. There's plenty of recognisable faces from other 70's films, especially from Bronson films & the music score is very cool.

The Stone Killer has plenty of cool car chases, shootouts, punches & fun dialogue, it's a great Bronson film that fits in with his other cult classic cop thrillers like: 10 To Midnight & Murphy's Law.

Navy SEALS is an Awesome, old-school action-packed thriller with a theme so relevant still- TERRORISM!!!

This Awesome, sometimes a little cheesy (but hey IT'S 80's early 90's) action thriller is about two buddies that work together as tough, hard-assed Navy SEALS that are after Arab terrorists (pretty much nothing has changed here in 2023) who have stolen Lethal nuclear weapons. Our two main specialists are CHARLIE SHEEN & MICHAEL BIEHN, with the late-great BILL PAXTON in a smaller role as one of their team, a sniper.

People forget how good Sheen was back in the day, back in the 80's & 90's Sheen was one of the best leading men in comedies & action thriller's. I've been a Sheen fan since his excellent performance in Clint Eastwood's underrated action cop thriller, THE ROOKIE (1990) also Sheen is Awesome in RED DAWN, HOT SHOTS 1&2, TERMINAL VELOCITY, SHADOW CONSPIRACY, THE ARRIVAL, MEN AT WORK, PLATOON, NO CODE OF CONDUCT & More. Here Sheen plays a cocky & fearless Daredevil of soldier (i saw a template in his performance/character of Jeremy Renner's in the excellent THE HURT LOCKER years later) Sheen is awesome once again & brings an exciting dangerous edge to his adrenalin junkie Navy Seals specialist.

Sheen's commander/leader is played by the excellent & underrated Michael Biehn, a guy i grew up watching from his iconic role as HICKS in Aliens & of course from Terminator. Biehn is great as the team leader as he has a real serious presence & a strong look. Both Sheen & Biehn give excellent heroic performances, this is miles above the crappy homo-erotic overrated "Top Gun" i hate that film.

Also the late-great Bill Paxton (Aliens, Predator 2, Trespass, Twister) stars as the teams super-sniper, & again he's an actor i grew up watching & loving in anything.

Our SEAL team of elite soldiers are after Arab terrorists & that leads them to the heavily war-torn & extremely dangerous Beirut. This film has great rescue scenes, great shootouts, great buddy chemistry, great bloody action & a heroic heart beat that thumps throughout the movie. Sheen really is on great form as the dangerous Daredevil of the team that likes to push it too close-to-the-edge.

The music is perfectly 80's, it's heroic, smaltzy & exciting.

The action is fast, Furious & bloody, the 3rd act big action sequence in Beirut is so exciting & thrilling.

The theme of extremists & foreign terrorists is all too real & still extremely relevant, so the film will always be a gem of an action-thriller that's steeped in real-world darkness. Middle East terrorists have nuclear weapons & the Seal team are dispatched to find them & secure the situation, this is a top-notch military action film full of suspense & kick-ass moments.

I loved NAVY SEALS & it seems to be a forgotten film, but it should be a cult classic atleast!!!

In these extremely dark & savage times of 2023, these movie heroes & heroics mean more to me than ever before. It's comforting watching good-hearted heroes taking out evil terrorist scum. Also watch the excellent RED DAWN for a nice double bill.

The trio of stars make the movie even more exciting with Sheen, Biehn & Paxton as American heroes.

I loved "SOLO" & have wanted to see it since the 90's when it came out & i saw the cool looking cover, & read that one of my favourite actors of all-time was in: WILLIAM SADLER.

SOLO is like others of that awesome action sci-fi thriller genre with greats like: kurt Russell's SOLDIER & Van Damme's UNIVERSAL SOLDIER. The good news is Solo was exactly what i expected it to be & was worth finally tracking it down & watching it.

I love 90's movies & love 90's sci-fi action thriller's & Solo is one of my new favourites of the genre.

Mario Van Peebles (New Jack City, Jaws: The Revenge, Posse, Gunmen, Crazy Six) is a fine action star & a very good director too, & here he gets to play a Terminator type of character. Van Peebles plays Solo a specially designed super-soldier made for combat & precise strategic assaults on enemies.

Solo was designed by science wizard, a very young Adrian Brody (Predators) & he made him with a sense of morals & so Solo begins to think for himself & make decisions on what he thinks is right. There's a feel of Robocop here & abit of Terminator & definitely some Universal Soldier & a hint of Predator (with the tropical jungle setting) & Solo is a damn good movie to fit in with those I've mentioned.

Solo fails a mission because he thought about his actions & decided not to kill innocent people & therefore is gonna be decommissioned until he escapes the military compound & crashes into a latin American jungle.

Solo befriends the jungles small village peasants & helps them fight back against their enemies. Whilst Solo begins to find his humanity & meaning, he is being hunted down by the Armys most ruthless Soldier Col. Frank Madden (an excellent WILLIAM SADLER) who wants to destroy Solo & bring forward a new cyborg built in his own likeness.

William Sadler is wonderful in his ruthless & evil role & we know Sadler can play ruthless & evil to perfection, just look at his brilliant villain performance in DIE HARD 2.

SADLER is a favourite of mine & I've loved him in stuff since Die Hard 2 (the best one) & Trespass & Tales from the Crypt present: Demon Knight & other stuff. Sadler is a gem of an actor that is great in anything & i check out films just because he's in it.

Solo is a kick-ass sci-fi action adventure thriller full of cool battles, fun moments & two awesome actors facing off together (Peebles vs Sadler) I liked the music (pure 90's) & i loved the hot tropical jungle setting (like Predator & Congo) & i loved the ancient temple base that Solo hides out in, it's very well designed by the production team.

Solo is a top notch 90's action movie & anyone who loves this stuff should check it out!!!

Solo is a good character that could've continued in more movies, more adventures & a franchise as its left wide-open for his character at the end. I would've like more films of Solo.

I really liked Mario Van Peebles in this emotionless cyborg role, its actually very difficult to play this part because he has to constantly act Not out of breath or seem exhausted after his many action scenes. Big thumbs up to Peebles for pulling it off like a pro.

Kathryn Bigelow is an outstanding director that has blessed us with greats such as Point Break, Blue Steel, Near Dark, Zero Dark Thirty & more. Kathryn is a powerhouse movie maker that puts realistic grounded characters at the centre of her creative chaos.

She's a wonderful, visually powerful movie-maker that really specialises in gritty, sweaty, pulsing suspense.

The Hurt Locker is a military Thriller full of explosive action & deep characteristics.

The great, kinda underrated Jeremy Renner gives a blistering performance as a hot-shot, renegade & dangerously fearless bomb disposal expert called Sergeant Will James who is a man who thrives on being so close to the edge with everything he does. Renner plays Will like how Lethal Weapons Martin Riggs would be if he was in Iraq as a bomb disposal expert!!!

Renner is superb in this crazy, raw & very powerful role that is definitely one of his best. Renner is helped out by a well rounded cast of with Anthonie Mackie (in a great role of intensity & emotion) & Brian Geraghty (great role) & Evangelline Lilly, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse & Guy Pearce. A powerhouse cast.

Will gets closer to the edge, close to danger & his small but loyal team follow him in fear as the heat is on & the territory of war-torn Iraq is burning up.

There's powerful character moments & truly gritty & explosive action sequences that are terrifying. The movie is a Thriller made totally, totally realistic & also makes you hate those Rag heads, suicidal bombing cowards even more!!!

The Hurt Locker truly sizzles with it's suspense & sun-baked setting & tension, a masterclass of stunning, nerve-shredding suspense.

Jeremy Renner is a favourite actor of mine, i love the dude as Hawkeye from the MCU, i prefer him to all the other Avengers. I loved him in the extremely underrated fantasy adventure flick, Hansel & Gretal Witch Hunters & he made the best Bourne film of the lot (yes he's better than Matt Damon) with his Bourne Legacy film & he stole the show in 28 Weeks Later. Also Renner was top notch in Ben Affleck's Crime Thriller, The Town & he was outstanding in the cracking Conspiracy Thriller, Kill the Messenger. Renner gave an Oscar worthy performance in the dark & haunting crime thriller, Wind River.

Renner makes a movie better fact.

Jim Caviezel is one of Hollywood's most underrated & undervalued stars, he's great to excellent in pretty much anything!!!

I love him in Unknown, Deja Vu, Long Weekend, Transit, Highwaymen & Outlander best, but he has done lots more cool stuff.

Caviezel is excellent in this lean mean road slasher, serial killer thriller that has hints of Mad Max, Duel, Breakdown, Joy Ride aka: Road Kill & of course, the directors own 80's cult classic The Hitcher. I actually like his Highwaymen more than his Hitcher, but that's my opinion.

Tarantino tried to do this type of road serial killer flick his Death Proof, but it wasn't very good at all & Highwaymen drove all over it.

Jim Caviezel plays a man haunted by his past, his wife was run down in the road by a serial killer that uses his car as his murder weapon. Caviezel gives a very weary & obsessive performance that comes through in his hurt eyes. Caviezel plays Rennie Cray & has been tracking the car killer for years & has a backstory full of vengeance that goes right back to that tragic day his wife was brutally murdered. Caviezel plays a hurt, jaded hero very well & comes across like a modern day Mad Max & he's so cool. Caviezel is on the hunt for vengeance & will not be stopped by anyone.

Thr supporting cast are excellent with Rhona Mitra as the car killer's next potential victim, Mitra is a damn good actress & very underrated in my opinion, she's excellent in Doomsday. Caviezel teams up with Mitra's terrified Molly to lure out the road killer played by a seriously demented Colm Feore as Fargo.

Fargo is a sadistic sicko serial killer that is so badly damaged by car accidents that he's lost most of his limbs & is made-up of mechanical parts, prosthetics, straps & harnesses to keep him going. His body & car are now one & his uses his car as an extension of his body- he's a killing machine.

The other great character of this suspenseful cat-and-mouse road thriller is a crash investigator played brilliantly by Frankie Faison, a character actor that has turned up in many awesome films & is a scene stealer here.

The cinematography is gorgeous, dusty back roads & lonely highways are the setting for this road warrior gem of a thriller, & there's a sharp gritty look that helps with the brutal car smash sequences.

Highwaymen is a good, cat-&-mouse chase thriller with a group of excellent actors & top notch performances.

Earth Alien aka: Endangered Species is a very cheap direct-to-video flick starring B-movie veteran Eric Roberts (the dude has been in so many cheap B-movie flicks he's up there with Danny Trejo as a king of B-movies). Eric Roberts, who can be great in certain stuff like The Specialist, The Dark Knight, Best of the Best, stars here as a typical B-movie cop that does things his way & has a mouth on him, very basic B-movie cop but he does it so well. Roberts is actually fun in his basic role, it's not a great acting part & it doesn't need to be, he couldn't just "rang it in" but i think he had some fun or atleast he came across that way.

Roberts is on the case of a local serial killer but ends up coming accross another deadly killer, a human hunter from outta space. In the city (not sure what city?) It's winter but the streets are heating up when an alien hunter starts killing physically fit people for trophies (there's a hint of Predator, Terminator, Species, Dark Angel & the directors own low-budget sci-fi gem from 1990 The Peacemaker, starring Robert Davi & Robert Forster) you see the alien hunter slaughters his way through gyms for his perfect specimen targets & so were treated to some gorgeous gratuitous nudity from gorgeous big boobed ladies!!! One blond at the beginning that is killed in a gym shower is stunning with huge boobs & a perfect body. That blond is so hot that throughout the beginning of the film all the cops keep mentioning her, how a perfect 10 she was & basically how hot she is & that banter was very funny & felt natural because she really was something special.

Eric Roberts is the main cop investigating the gym murders with another cop colleague that he buts heads with, Another b flick great John Rhys-Davis, in a funny role here as a heavy-set cop with an attitude & fun banter.

There's another character after the alien hunter too, another alien that's been tracking him from their home planet & he's played by the Awesome Arnold Vosloo (Hard Target, The Mummy) as Warden, he has cool alien gadgets & weapons & he's pretty cool actually for a role that he barely speaks but gets to do action & lots of chase sequences.

There's actually a pretty cool backstory of the alien invaders, some are hunters that have hunted & killed many species over centuries & they were cool jackets that are bulletproof because it's made from extremely tough Dinosaur skin. These alien hunters killed Dinosaurs!!!

See how cool is that little detail. I couldn't help but really enjoy Alien Earth, especially when Eric Roberts "what the hell is going on" cop teams up with Arnold Vosloos calm & calculated space cop!!! Good low-budget entertainment in a very cheap 'n' cheerful way (like a very, very cheap Alien Nation at times)

The cast is very good & there's a natural banter charm with them all, even Eric Roberts police Captain (Tony Lo Bianco) is fun as he has his office is like a jungle lol so full of plants to de-stress himself, Therefore fun little touches like this scattered throughout this fun little sci-fi thriller. There is stuff to enjoy if you like B-movies or any of its stars.

Yes Earth Alien is cheap & tacky, yes it's abit basic at times, yes there's big tits to spice things up when it drags a little & yes no one has to really "Act" hard at all but to me it's an enjoyably fun cops vs aliens flick. If you like B-movies then you should enjoy this one.

Also the CGI effects are obviously cheaply done but hey Its a cheap flick that went straight to the shelves of your Blockbuster video stores & i like that about it.

A Decent musical score by Harry Manfredini (Friday the 13th, House) is a bonus for this flick.

Also Eric Roberts blond wife in this is sexy as hell, big tits!!!

There's an erotic thriller feel to this & then it flips into a cops hunting aliens flick, good late-night entertainment if you as me!!!

Directed by KEVIN S. TENNEY (a B-movie favorite of cult cinema, he made the 80's Night of the Demons, Witchboard, Witchtrap, The Cellar) but the one I'm a big fan of is his PEACEMAKER, another cops vs aliens sci-fi action thriller.

Dark Descent is basically an underwater version of the 1981's Sean Connery lead sci-fi thriller OUTLAND that is set in space. Outland is excellent & my favourite Connery film by far, also it was directed by cult movie director Peter Hyams, so all good in my opinion.

2002's low-budget B-movie version of Outland has taken a very similar story, but not a total copy, & set it at the bottom of the Ocean in a claustrophobic mining base where the workers are going crazy & killing themselves & other's.

In the officer of law role, just like Sean Connery, is the nearly always likeable Dean Cain (Dragon Fighter, BOA, Superman 90's series) as the good guy & Marshall of the underwater base. Dean plays a good part & is very likeable & actually creates a character you want to survive.

Dean Cain never made it "Big" as in a Blockbuster action star & it's a shame because he's really good & very likeable & better than most of todays leading men action stars!!! Cain made a full career as a B-movie actor & that's fine, he's been around for ages & had stocked up the video rental shelves of Blockbuster for years back in the good old days. Although Cain is a direct-to-video actor that doesn't mean he's not good, because he is good on screen & i like him in Dark Descent best.

I love B-movies & especially sci-fi ones made on small budgets but with a good heart & story behind it & that's what this has. The fx are cheap early 2000's CGI (adds to it's early 2000's charm) for the underwater & sci-fi stuff, such as the underwater futuristic compound base, but the rest of it inside the interiors is very well done & looks really cool. Dark Descent is a sci-fi mystery thriller with bursts of action sprinkled throughout, but i like its chill vibe & watching Dean wondering around the corridors of the big compound. A very good B-movie in my opinion anyway.

There's a level of suspense as Dean's Anxiety fueled Marshall Will Murdock is trying to investigate these bizarre suicidal deaths as well as having a bunch of thugs on their way to murder him for revenge for a previous matter (you'll see in the beginning of the film) & the setting is claustrophobic & has a dark sci-fi look to it.

Also stars Scott Wiper (A Better Way To Die) as Murdocks wimpy partner Niles.

I totally dig Dark Descent as it's such a fun late-night movie with a great lead in Dean Cain as a very likeable character with his Will Murdock.

I remember lovingly The Relic on video back in the 90's, i got my copy from Woolworths (loved that store) & watched it loads of times.

The Difinitive Tom Sizemore movie.

The Relic is a movie that definitely doesn't get the love it so deserves!!! It's a fantastic Horror Thriller directed by the excellent Peter Hyams (Timecop, Sudden Death, End of Days, Running Scared) & with special creature creation & FX by the legendary Stan Winston (Predator, Aliens, Jurassic Park, PumpkinHead, Terminator), i mean those two greats of Cinema working together is enough to get me excited. Really beautifully done special effects in the 90's & my fave monster movies from then are Mimic, Deep Blue Sea & The Relic.

Movie Marvel Stan Winston really created something special with the Mythical monster in this fright flick. A beautiful mix of real practical special effects & CGI, really Stan Winstons creatures are works of art & this one is one of his best.

The Relic is also the best movie by tough guy actor Tom Sizemore, sadly who is no longer with us, in my opinion he's never been better & got a rare lead good guy role as no-nonsense Chicago Detective D'Agusto, a very memorable character & performance. Detective D'Agusto is investigating a brutal splatter-fest of a murder in a huge Museum where something is hunting. The Relic is full of well paced suspense & thrilling moments of horror, basically a perfectly done creature feature B-movie made on a nice luxurious budget. The 90's was a great time for big budget studio monster movies, we had the likes of Anaconda, Deep Blue Sea, Deep Rising, Mimic, Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park: The Lost World, Congo, Godzilla & The Relic.

Sizemore is helped by an equally excellent performance from Penelope Ann Miller (The Shadow, Kindergarten Cop) as Dr. Margo Green an anthropologist of the museum. Both actors work nicely together & both put in serious & believable performances.

Linda Hunt is a great actress & is good here as another Doctor of the museum & is good friends with Penelope Ann Millers Dr. Margo which is nice because they were both teachers in Ivan Reitman's Classic Kindergarten Cop (1990), so a nice little reunion.

I loved the huge Museum setting as it makes for a spooky place after dark when it's all locked up & there's something in there on the prowl for victims. The cinematography is gorgeous, it's dark, spooky & the Museum has an old ancient gothic look inside that's full of artifacts.

Tom Sizemore really has never been better in my opinion as he is right here as superstitious & fiery Chicago Detective Vincent D'Agusto & just his luck the museum is opening a new Superstitious exhibition right in the middle of his murder investigation.

The Relic really is excellent with top performances from all, great suspenseful music, gorgeously dark cinematography, a fantastically different setting with the Museum & a truly fantastic movie monster.

The first Starship Troopers is a true sci-fi cult classic & a huge film to me growing up in the 90's.

Paul Veerhoven created a superb action-packed Sci-fi thriller full of cool stuff like the Troopers armour, guns & awesome monstrous alien bugs. Starship Troopers was everything a teenage boy would want in a film & it gave us Johnny Rico, one of the best movie characters of the sci-fi genre.

Starship Troopers 3: Marauder is a well made, decent budgeted direct-to-video sequel. The 2nd film made by special movie fx wizard Phil Tippett was very good & very underrated in my opinion, but part 3 brought back our hero: Johnny Rico played wonderfully by B-movie star Casper Van Dien. Yeah Marauder is not as good as Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation.

Marauder is pure B-movie fun with a new mission for our Starship Troopers, this time its a rescue mission on another Bug infested planet & Rico & his team have to use a new weapons technology called "Marauder" big robotic suits of armour (created with decent CGI considering it's small bud decent budget.

This time there's abit of love triangle between Rico, Captain Lola Beck (a strong kick-ass & sexy performance by Jolene Blalock & a new leader & friend of Johnny.

The special effects are great & the action is well done & the bugs are awesome with some new kinds too.

But we don't get alot of Rico, he's a supporting character but should've been the main character!!! Still, Casper Van Dien is great once again as our 90's space hero & this time hes Col. Johnny Rico with his own team to command. Casper is a great B-movie star & his signature character of his entire career is Rico, so good to have him back.

There's corruption within the federation & betrayal & a look at Religion & how it's looked at in these futuristic times. There's plenty of sly satire like the original but obviously not done as good & the Religion stuff goes on abit too long (i hate Religion, its the cause of hatred, wars & mass murder, & there is no "God") but here it's played on for satire & silliness.

Captain Lola Beck & some others crash on another Bug planet & are left wondering it's desert landscape with bugs on their trail & it's up to Rico & his team to rescue them. There's a massive leader brain bug that is brilliantly brought to life with practical & CGI effects, a truly memorable movie monster.

So yeah Marauder is a decent sci-fi action thriller made with a lot of creativity with it's decent budget & a very good cinematography, just needed a little more Rico.

I liked the first film in this fantasy series, the one with Jason Statham & Ron Perlman, it was fun & full of action & made a solid 7/10 impression on me.

Director Uwe Boll is ridiculously hated on & is said to be one of the worst directors of all-time, that's just stupid. Every Director has made some crappy duds, even the "Big" ones!!!

Anyway i like some of Uwe's movies & one of them is this one, In The Name Of The King: Two Worlds. This is hardly big heavy stuff like "Lord of the Rings" & i like it more for that. Two Worlds is a more fun, easy-watching piece of fantasy Escapism than any of the way, way over long Rings movies. Yes they're made better & have huge budgets but that doesn't mean their a fun watch. No, Two Worlds is a pure B-movie, it's a lower budget production & stars a B-movie action star with Dolph Lundgren & it's decent.

I've always liked Dolph Lundgren, the guy made some cult Classic's i grew up with like Masters of the Universe, Universal Soldier & Showdown In Little Tokyo. Also Dolph has made some absolute underrated greats like his 80's, The Punisher & Dark Angel & Red Scorpion. Dolph has always been there as an action great but was never as big as Schwarzenegger, Stallone or Van Damme. It's strange, over time I've liked Dolph probably more than Schwarzenegger & Stallone, yes i like them all but I've warmed for to Dolph & Van Damme as I've gotten older. One of my favourite later-day Dolph offerings is "Battle of the Damned" its another B-movie bit of Brilliance.

I think Dolph is a good man in real life & comes across grounded & humble without a big ego, unlike some of the other big action stars.

Anyway, Dolph Lundgren is good fun on screen as Granger, an ex special forces soldier with a tortured past, he survived a battle but his men didn't.

Dolph puts in a pretty damn good performance in this flick, he plays washed-up, fed up & tired very well. Granger is living a quiet life as a Karate coach for kids & lives in a quiet suburban home until his peaceful existence is shattered when he arrives home & is attacked by medieval assassins & is transported through a magical portal back to medieval times. Granger finds out he has a Mythical prophecy to fulfil & is sent on a quest that is full of magic, violence & deceit. What's fun about Dolph's performance is he plays it straightforward as a guy in a land & time he doesn't know at all. For most of the film Granger is just exhausted, he's tired & just wants to sleep & deal with saving the world tomorrow lol, a real fun performance & character.

A new king played by B-movie actor Lochlyn Munroe, in a Cheesy role that reminded me of Ben Stillers character in Dodgeball, who has some tricks up his sleeve for Granger.

As said Granger is a good character to root for & Dolph plays him with ease, charm & sarcastic one-liners, typical action hero stuff.

No one can complain about the look of this flick because the scenery & cinematography is top notch. The film is gloomy looking, chilly-cold & wet, very cold for the character's as they search through forests & fight in the chill of winter weather. You can see the actors breath all the time & that adds to coldness on screen & the real conditions that their in. As said, the film looks great.

The music score is fine too & there's a cool Dragon that is created by very well done CGI.

Surprisingly the whole movie looks damn good considering it's small budget, but Uwe Boll pulled it off nicely so well done.

Two Worlds is a well made fantasy adventure B flick with a decent story, some very good dialogue & a fun Dolph Lundgren that really put in a good performance!!!

Definitely a very underrated little movie.

If you like B-movies like i do then give it a try!!!

An easy-watching late-night B-movie.