VIDEO CONFIDENTIAL

Saturday, September 1, 2012

The Jaguar Dies! Martial Arts Legend Joe Lewis Passes Away at Age 68

The always outspoken and controversial Joe Lewis is dead. He will always be remembered for his massive contributions to full-contact karate, his friendship with Bruce Lee and, hopefully, not his erratic film career.

http://frontrowfights.com/2012/08/kickboxing-pioneer-joe-lewis-dead-at-68/
http://www.fightingmaster.com/legends/lewis/joe_lewis.htm

I saw both of these films in the theater upon their first-run release. They were sort of... okay.

More Bruce Le! By Popular Demand!

Here are some more Bruce Le flyers for his early 90's productions. I've also included a slightly revised review for COMFORT WOMEN which originally appeared in VC #17 (March 1993).

COMFORT WOMEN (1992- Hong Kong)

D: Bruce Le (Huang King Lung). Set in 1936, this action drama exposes the horrors of the comfort women- Chinese and Korean women abducted by the Japanese oppressors and forced into a life of prostitution to service the military elite. A female Japanese reporter, Akiyama Tomi (Lily Lee), is a staunch supporter of the Japanese war effort until she discovers the covert Comfort Houses. She goes undercover (Emmanuelle style!) to investigate but is discovered, captured and forced into sexual service by the military brass. A sympathetic Japanese military liaison (a rather suave Bruce Le) becomes romantically attracted to Akiyama and eventually gets up the nerve to take on the evil, face the brute General Kawasaki and invade the whore house of horrors to rescue the V.D. ridden reporter. For a few tense moments, the film veers into MEN BEHIND THE SUN terrain and we glimpse some graphic torture. Although the film is mainly focused on the heart-breaking human drama, a good amount of screen time is thankfully devoted to exploiting the sexual and violent aspects of the sordid subject matter. You'll find the usual staples associated with the war/prison genres- whippings, nudity, rape, autopsies, battle scenes and kung-fu- all handled with a certain amount of flair and taste! There's even an intense accidental incestuous encounter that results in an explosive double-suicide pact! The film's tag-line says it all! Around the time of this film's release (and probably the inspiration for its creation), the Japanese government publicly admitted to the existence of the Comfort Women for the first time. A really solid and polished effort from one of the 70's clone icons of Bruceploitation. The film was originally reviewed on Hong Kong laser disc boasting a nice letter-boxed transfer in Chinese with English subtitles.

70's-80's FLASHBACK! Bruce Le and his clonies! The mother of all Bruceploitation films!

I still maintain that if Linda Lee, the real Bruce Lee's widow, ever collected a fraction of the royalties and money owed her for the illegitimate use of her husband's name and image on films, merchandise, businesses, music, etc., she would be one of the richest persons in the history of our planet!

More Le and Li!

This is so wrong! Usually the real Bruce Lee is used illegally to advertise 'fake' Bruce Lee movies. Here, we have Lee's legit major studio classic with an image of vicious clone Dragon Lee! What were they thinking? I love it when people mention that Bruce Lee probably made more movies than anyone in film history (he made 3-1/2 kung fu films!) or ask if I ever saw the film where Lee fights guys in gorilla suits!

I'll have one take out order of JKD pork!

Here Comes The Sun! Remembering Sun Video

Do you remember the old Sun Video label? I had very few of these titles on beta or VHS and it was rare to find them. I usually came across them in used sections. The covers always sported original poster or ad mat art.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Hammer Scores Go Vinyl!

Soon the legendary Hammer music scores will violate vinyl LP (remember them?) on the appropriately named Death Waltz label! The first release is James Bernard's killer score for THE DEVIL RIDES OUT (aka DEVIL'S BRIDE). Check out the new amazing cover art! The second release will be TWINS OF EVIL!
http://www.deathwaltzrecordingcompany.com/hammer-films-death-waltz-announce-partnership/

One of the first (if not the first) Hammer music releases on CD. Here's my copy autographed by the maestro himself, composer James Bernard, during one of his few or rare convention appearances in the states in the early 90's.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

REVIEW: The Expendables 2 (2012-U.S.A.)

Lionsgate. D: Simon West. An improvement on the first installment, THE EXPENDABLES 2 is a fun, lightweight, big-screen action/adventure that re-unites Sylvester Stallone with his fellow 80's-present action icons. New to the mix are Cannon Films' action gods Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme while Jet Li is reduced to a cameo this time out.

After an impressive action-packed pre-credit sequence featuring a surprise rescue, Church (Bruce Willis) makes an unwelcome visit and demands a 'favor' from Ross (Stallone). This time Ross' team (Jason Statham, Dolph Lungren, UFC's Randy Couture, footballer Terry Crews and Liam Wemsworth) must reluctantly take a woman along, (Nan Yu of SPEED RACER), setting of a chain reaction of silly sexist gags, on a mission to stop a plutonium deal that will empower terrorists. The mission turns tragic when soon-to-be married pretty boy Hemsworth (HUNGER GAMES) is taken hostage and tragically snuffed out by the greasy villain, Vilain (Van Damme), a ruthless trader in plutonium. For Stallone and his steroid-fueled team, the mission becomes personal and revenge is the flimsy excuse to unleash industrial-strength mega-quantities of CG blood, mayhem and mass destruction. The near apocalyptic climax is spear-headed by the trio of Stallone, Willis and ex-governator Arnold Schwarzenegger wildly trading off firepower, inside jokes and insults .

There is a nice a balance between big-scale stunts and explosions and nicely choreographed hand-to-hand combat. The standout fight scene features Statham (THE TRANSPORTER and CRANK series) taking on a slew of thugs in a church. Li also has a nice but brief fight in a kitchen using pots and pans!

The satisfying finale is a mano-a-mano death duel between Sly and Van Damme, although die-hard action fans would have paid handsomely to see Jet and Jean-Claude go at it. Scott Adkins, a veteran of Hollywood and Hong Kong action films (ACCIDENTAL SPY, BLACK MASK 2, THE MEDALLION) makes a suitably sinister henchman for Van Damme and gets to shine in a few sequences. Chuck Norris makes at least two cameos and provides comic relief without getting physical and exerting himself.

Director Simon West (THE MECHANIC, CON AIR) does a competent, precise job at keeping things loud and brisk so there is little time to dwell on the spare DIRTY DOZEN inspired script. Shot on film on mostly Bulgarian locations, the production has a haphazard visual style with lots of digital tampering such as pixilated blow ups and zoom ins.

Between Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis, Norris and Van Damme, it looks like a sizeable chunk of the film's production budget went to expensive Cuban cigars and oil drums of hair dye (excluding Willis, of course)!

On a side note, Jackie Chan recently expressed a desire to join the team but was unavailable this time due to his commitment to his own epic CHINESE ZODIAC due out late this year. Let's hope he's on board for number 3!