Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Undisputed III





Boyka is back. This time he is fighting in the first ever inter-prison tournament with one knee

Man, how have I never reviewed this one?  The amazing Scott Adkins returns as Boyka.  As you may recall In Undisputed II He got his knee destroyed.  Because of that he is not fighting in prison.  Hard to do that with a smashed knee.  So what does he do?  He kicks mattresses, and lifts buckets of dirty water with his bad leg.  That leads him to being recovered.  He enters the prisons ring and beats the crap out of there champion.  By doing this he earns himself a spot in a large underground fighting tournament.  Winner gets there freedom.

Well that’s the film, not in a nutshell, but as a whole.  Adkins is possibly the perfect specimen when it comes to action stars.  Built, agile, and can really fight.  The moves he can pull off are amazing, and defiantly not being done by anyone here in the US.  The fight scenes are amazing, and that’s the sell point of these films.  This actually rivals Bloodsport when it comes to tournament fight scenes, and in the final fight blows it away.

If you dig action look no further.  This film will not disappoint.

 

Overall 3 out of 5 stars.

Grunt: The Wrestling Movie!


Ok, first I have to start off by saying, I love this film.  It’s a mocumentray about A pro wrestler named Mad Dog Joe DeCurso.  See 10 years ago during a 20 man over the top rope battle royal Mad Dog got his opponent in a Hangman, which in wrestling speak is having the guys head twisted between the top and middle rope.  Mad Dog takes a run at him to deliver the big boot and kicks the guys head off.  As murder is illegal he is disqualified.  Unfortunately his opponents legs never touched the floor so he won.  Too bad he’s dead.  After this Mad Dog goes into depression and disappears.  Many think he jumped off a bridge and committed suicide.  But wait now a masked wrestler has entered the scene, named, The Mask.  His moves are very similar, almost identical to Mad Dog.

 Enter Leslie Uggams, a director making a documentary about Mad Dog.  He hooks up with Dr Tweed, president of the Mask is Mad Dog Fan Club.  They drive around interviewing various wrestlers, and managers.  All of which are played by real pro wrestlers.  Adrian Street even does the music for the film.  What follows is a hilarious end up of documentaries and wrestling, that culminates during a 20 man battle royal to finally crown a new champion.  Hilarious dialogue, and tons of wrestling matches intertwined make for a hell of a film.  You don’t need to be a pro wrestling fan to like this but it will help.  I saw it back when it came out in 1985.  It is still funny to me to this day.

 Overall 4 out of 5 Stars!

The Last Stand!




The leader of a drug cartel busts out of a courthouse and speeds to the Mexican border, where the only thing in his path is a sheriff and his inexperienced staff

Arnold is back, and he’s bringing Luis Guzman and Johnny Knoxville with him.  Arnold plays a former LA cop who has settled into a nice quiet town as the acting sheriff.  The town is small, so small 90% of it leaves to go to another town for a football game.  Arnold stays behind to keep the peace.  A joke as there is nothing going on.  Well except for the fact a notorious drug lord has just broken out of prison and is heading to Mexico.  He breaks out under Forrest Whitakers watch, which is not hard to do considering that lazy eye he has.  Anyway, wouldn’t you know it, the last town he and his murdering posse have to cross through is Arnolds.  Arnold finds out he’s coming and deputizes a few local folk, one of whom is local gun museum owner Johnny Knoxville and they set out to stop the guy.

 This is truly a throwback film of the 80’s.  Low plot, cheesy action, one liners, the works.  It’s  a lot of fun.  Nice amount of blood too.  In one scene when Arnold and his team are arming up Luis Guzman picks up Arnolds old Conan Sword.  I enjoyed the nice short run time, as movies like this don’t need to be very long.  Unfortunately the films does have one major flaw.  The end fight scene, not because of Arnold, but more so the bad guy.  It’s very anti-climactic.  But not enough to crash the film like Die Hard 3 did.

 Overall I highly recommend this.  It’s fun.  You don’t need to be a fan of Arnold to enjoy this, just a fan of action.
 
Overall 3 out of 5 Stars!

Parker




A thief with a unique code of professional ethics is double-crossed by his crew and left for dead. Assuming a new disguise and forming an unlikely alliance with a woman on the inside, he looks to hijack the score of the crew's latest heist.

he man, the myth, the legend, Jason Statham stars as Parker.  A thief with a heart of gold.  Really, it’s based on a book.  I know that because I saw that somewhere.  I didn’t read it.  Don’t want to.  Anyway the Statham is friends with old drunk Nick Notice.  Who does a convincing job of acting sober in this film.  He hooks Parker up with a crew led by the always great Michael Chiklis.  They rob a fair ground, and then decide to take Parkers share.  But as Parker is played by Statham, he aint having that.  After a very nice fight scene that takes place in a moving car Parker is left for dead.  Luckily and old farm couple finds him and nurses him back to health.

 That leads us to Palm Beach, where Parker is all healed up and out for revenge.  He meets a realtor played by the insanely gorgeous J-Lo and with her help they go after the gang that doubles crossed him.  Statham takes out all the guys and gets his money.  That’s not a spoiler, it’s a fact.  Statham is the man.  He shoots lots of people in the face, and beats quite a few up as well.  The 2 hour run time is a bit much.  It moves very slow in parts. 

 The Furor, Mel Gibson that is played this same character in Payback, which as much as it pains me to say, is a better film.  It actually makes a nice double feature.  I still recommend watching this, as it has Statham and Chiklis.

 Overall 2 out of 5 Stars!