Got a cool email from a gentleman informing me of a interesting slice of indie cinema. "Immortal kiss" rocks home video and VOD November 1st. Starring an old school "Bond Girl" named Trina Parks, I am curious,
Check this out! http://www.rapidheart.com/immortal-kiss-queen-of-the-night/
To all of my contacts in the North East--and to everyone, in Hawaii, my thoughts are with you with the upcoming Storm.
Watch for Fire with Fire, a cool new film staring Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis. Review will be coming!
More stuff in November as I rework Dan's Movie report.
Keep the fight.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Monday, October 1, 2012
October 2012 Movie News, Actress Krystal Vee New Film!
First up in the news actress Krystal Vee is currently in production on her new film The Sisters. Krystal portrays Nalin, a police officer in the Fukduk production. Also below, check out sexy Krystal with Danny Trejo on the dance floor from her twitter feed:
Actress and singer in band SeeVa Emily Kaiho has a live concert scheduled for Monday October 8th in Tokyo, Japan Check the FB official event link @ https://www.facebook.com/events/419289624798662/ The official site for the venue is http://www.guilty.ne.jp/
Linnea Quigley has a cool Grindhouse collection just in time for Halloween! Look out for the triple feature DVD release of Miss Linnea Quigley's GRINDHOUSE COLLECTION with cult faves NIGHTMARE SISTERS, DEADLY EMBRACE and MURDER WEAPON!
Speaking of Halloween, check out this wild and twisted film called Gut! The plot is: Family man Tom has seen something he can't forget, a mysterious video with an ugly secret that soon spreads into his daily life and threatens to dismantle everything around him. For more information check out the official site @ http://www.gutmovie.com/
Watch for Dan's Movie Report review soon!
This column will be ever expanding, keep it locked on Dan's Movie Report for info.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Guns, Girls And Gambling Movie Review
Not sure how to begin to tackle the mishmash of genres and movie styles that Guns, Girls and Gambling offers. The movie has a mix of Tarantino style humor mixed with violence, with double crosses like in The Sting. Throw in a group of Elvis impersonators, a stolen Hopi Indian Mask, Christian Slater, greedy sheriffs, a Swedish blonde assassin, a seemingly innocent girl next door, and blend together. In 90 minutes, ultimately what comes out, is an odd, eclectic, sardonic mix of Poe and Elvis inspired dialogue, interspersed with violence that is, Guns, Girls, and Gambling.
Guns, Girls and Gambling has one of those, watch the events unfold, then go back and witness what really happened timelines. GX3 as I will refer to it from this point forth opens with an older Elvis impersonator, portrayed by Gary Oldman, waiting for a bus in the middle of nowhere. The bus stops, and while the driver is out taking a link "The blond" assassin clad in black with two guns strapped to her back comes on the bus and shoots him, but the audience is not told why. The opening credits roll then Christian Slater, who does the narrative and plays one of the Elvis impersonators, appears. He is in the process of getting beaten, when the scene shifts to the past, to tell the whole story.
An ancient tribal mask is stolen from the chief's office at the local Indian Casino. The chief of course wants his mask back, and the rest of the film is a frantic search for all the Elvis impersonators, who were given a private suite next to the office. Christian Slater's John Smith character was the only one left in the casino the next day, they accuse him first.
Quite a tall tale, and a somewhat confusing story, on who does what, but as stated before GX3 delivers a decent mix of humor and action. There is a crazy cowboy, played by Jeff Fahey, who adds a western feel. Watch for just about every stereo type being mentioned and lampooned throughout the film.
Although Slater and Oldman do a good job with their characters, I particularly liked Helena Mattsson's work as "The Blonde". She plays her divisive assassin character to perfection, clad in black, complete with stiletto heels. Helena not only looks the part she sounds forceful, along with her devious smile.
One of the main problems I had with the GX3 was the retelling of the plot too many times, almost to pad the film, facilitating a full 90 minute run-time. Another issue is just too many main characters. I mean, 5 Elvis impersonators, 2 corrupt sheriffs, a chief, a cowboy, a girl next door, a "college kid", and a blonde assassin all vying for screen time makes it tough to develop the characters let alone, bother to care about all of them.
Not a bad effort from writer/director Michael Winnnick. Despite of the flaws, GX3 is an entertaining 90 minutes, and the ending, which I will not spoil, has a few interesting twists, that finally tie some of the loose ends together.
Overall I give Guns, Girls and Gambling a 6.5 out of 10 definitely worth a rent.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Super Cyclone Movie Review
As a writer and lover of under-ground, sometimes bad, campy movies, I can never understand why people rent movies from The Asylum and then bother to write about them trashing the fact that they are low quality, with bad acting etc. With miniscule budgets of around $200,000 or so, and two week shooting schedules, The Asylum manages to come up with a few amusing projects, don't expect high art, and disappointment will be minimized.
Another off-shoot of The Asylum is they provide an outlet for either upcoming actors or actresses, or ones who have done projects in the past to have an outlet to re-hone their skills. An example of upcoming person is actress Aurelia Scheppers who is in 11/11/11.
In Super Cyclone, TV veteran's Ming Na and Nicholas Turturro are the leads. Sultry Ming-Na plays Dr. Jenna Sparks, and Turturro plays Travis Verdon. The film is directed by Liz Adams who also directed another disaster style film for The Asylum called Air Collision Check review @ http://dansmoviereport.blogspot.com/2012/04/air-collision-movie-review.html
By upping the quality a bit on the CGI the Asylum have managed to create a new niche for themselves in disaster films in 2012. Is this studio quality, the answer is a definite no, but, Super Cyclone is translatable to TV, thus a natural market for SYFY channel type stuff.
A short film description of Super Cyclone not to "spoil" anything: Dr. Sparks warns everyone of the oncoming situation even though they are powerless to stop it. An outlying oil rig provides one of backdrops to the action and headstrong military are brought in to attempt to control the situation. Some odd science ensues, including releasing a massive amount of nitrogen to super-cool the storm to sap it of energy. Apparently this storm was man-made, when an oil rig drilled too deep, let that be a lesson to all men out there never, drill to deep, haha! Man-made efforts to stop the man-made storm. Everyone tries frantically to escape, in typical disaster style. Explosions, high waves and winds ensue, I am assuming my readers get the picture.
Ming-Na is enjoyable to watch, even in this Asylum effort. She has an expressive face, natural beauty and a strong speaking voice. Even though she has made her mark on TV in shows like Stargate SGU and E.R., Ming-Na has not starred in many feature films since playing Chun-Li in the ill conceived 1993 Street Fighter film.
As for the acting on Super Cyclone, not the worst Asylum has to offer, but I kind of wish there were more realistic emotions from most of the characters involved. Not just upon eminent doom type shots, but throughout the film, sometimes characters had just a blank stare kind of look, also at other times they were overacting, almost screaming their lines. The short shooting schedule on The Asylum films often don't allow for many re-shoots, Super Cyclone looks like a plethora of one-take shots.
Overall, I say Super Cyclone is worth a rent, yeah a bit ridiculous, but fun. The CGI and action make for a somewhat decent movie night rental, I rate the film a 5 out of 10. The first link below is for the Amazon instant video:
Link to purchase the film: (Some sources have it for as little as 8 dollars)
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Naked Soldier Movie Review (Hong Kong)
A bit of history about the "Naked" series story-line, no this is not a porn film ha, in fact, ironically the first film was released in 1992, Naked Killer, check IMDB link http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109412/ The film starred a slinky and violent, feline-like lady named Chingmy Yau. In 2002 a new film Naked Killer was released, effectively launching the career of Maggie Q, and marked one of the final films of HK actress Almen Wong. Fast forward to 2012 Naked Soldier marks a return of sorts to classic late 80s early 90s martial arts chop-socky with a few salacious undertones. I happen to enjoy movies of this type, so before a myriad of negative anonymous comments are posted, read up on other films of this type and draw your own conclusions.
Naked Soldier is a story of revenge and follows the entire series premise is loosely based on the concept of sultry girls programmed at a young age to reject all, and train to become hired killers. By the time the ladies are adults, they are refined sexy and most of the "kills" are either call girl style or sneak up and attack.
Naked Soldier opens in 1995 with Sammo Hung as a Police inspector CK Long solving a big drug case. Shortly after the case is broadcast on TV, during a family celebration a team of assassins merge on his house and murder his entire family. Long escapes, wounded from the blast. His daughter, is kidnapped and brainwashed, to think the only family she has ever known is Madam Rose's sniper organization.
Fast forward 15 years, the greying Long returns to the force and is once again back collaring drug organizations and his daughter, portrayed by the sexy Jennifer Tse, becomes a ruthless assassin named Phoenix. She is sent one a mission to killer her father.
Although there is some dialogue this Wong Jing film, like most of his earlier films, Naked Soldier is about the action. The fight scenes are tight and very well choreographed, the highlight being the originality. There are several weapon types used, including sai, swords, knives, some cleverly concealed ones, and a towel? Yes a towel! Naked Soldier first in the art of towel-fu haha! The ladies are of course in on the action. Phoenix and Selina, portrayed by a platinum blond Ankie Beilke, have quite a memorable one in the final portion of the film, full of peril on all sides.
Unlike the first two the sexuality in Naked soldier is downplayed except for a scene where there is the towel fu, because it is filmed in a hot tub. Pushing the sexuality a bit to the back allows more time for story and action. Sammo is solid and actually his brand of humor the script even pokes fun at his heaviness. Watch for actor Andy On. Andy had his HK film Debut in Black Mask 2.
Lighting, camera work and scenery are all well thought out, and intersperse seamlessly into the production of Naked Soldier. Many shot angles are used, above, below, and around the fights, offering a cool perspective on them. Some slow-mo some fast action, Naked Soldier mixes things up to keep things different. This is only Jenn Tse's third film, and overall I think she does a decent job with the acting and the action, she has room to improve of course, and I look forward to witnessing the progression. Her brother is HK film veteran Nicholas Tse.
Overall I really like Naked Soldier, and recommend it as a must buy for martial arts film fans. I rate the film an 8 out of 10. The film is currently available in HK, hopefully a US release date.
Check out the official Website @ http://www.nakedsoldier-movie.com/
Facebook @
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Naked-Soldier%E7%B5%95%E8%89%B2%E6%AD%A6%E5%99%A8/223579017652430
Jennifer Tse Official Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/JennTseTingTing
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