Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Excellent Deal on TALES OF AN ANCIENT EMPIRE!

If you order at AlbertPyunMovies.com today you can get what I think is one of the best DVD deals I've seen in ages.  You can pre-order the special edition of Tales and get the FIVE DISC version of Bulletface as well for $33.70!  Now, that is a HUGE discount spread across the two releases! 

Kevin Sorbo is feasting on this deal...and so should you.  Damn, that is one big leg o' lamb!  

If you have been following along at the official director's blog you have seen the images from Tales and heard some of the score-if not, you really should check it out.  But wait, there is more!!!  Tales slices, Bulletface punches and between these two sets Albert Pyun practically* *imagination required* makes you dinner, cleans your house and massages your tired tootsies as you watch the films. 

First up, the package for Tales includes a lot of interesting material!


"Tales of an Ancient Empire" Feature Film (of course)
Commentary by Director, Albert Pyun (this should be very interesting, Pyun does great, and really honest, commentary tracks)
Behind the Scenes: The Making of Tales Video Footage (the clips on the blog reveal just how much digital artistry is on show and really puts the scale of the film in perspective)
Soundtrack by Composer: Tony Riparetti (BoooooYah! Riparetti CDs, I want 'em all.)
Free Bonus: Albert Pyun's CYBORG Commentary (Very exciting, no studio cutting and I bet there are some fun tales of JCVD to be heard.)

TALES OF AN ANCIENT EMPIRE - Behind the Scenes #1 - Pre-Order Now from Albert Pyun on Vimeo.

Well, that sure is a lot, and the final packaging for the special edition should be very cool as well.  
Now, I'm already happy with my order, but you want more?  How about the 30 dollar release of Bulletface with 5 discs as a bonus??    I reviewed the items here.... BULLETFACE and LEFT FOR DEAD: INFERNO and the two CDs are worth the price of admission. Oh yeah, and you get killer commentary as well.  




Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Pyunan the Barbarian makes fantasy the way it should be made: The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982)

It was a long time since I last saw The Sword and the Sorcerer, and yesterday when walking home from work I found a cheap DVD, anamorphic widescreen and all, of Albert Pyun's classic at Record Hunter, the excellent store in Stockholm. So could I stop myself? No, absolutely not! 

The totally awesome Richard Lynch plays Cromwell, a very evil man that wants to crush the stoic and heroic King Richard. But to be able to defeat King Richard's soldiers he need something special, and that special is the ancient demon and sorcerer Xusia! So he wakes him up from his eternal sleep and makes him help out with killing all the soldiers of King Richard. He then throws Xusia from a cliff and think he's dead. After that he executes the king and queen, but the young son, Mikah, escapes, just leaving the daughter in Cromwell's dirty hands.

Many years later Cromwell is the ultimate evil king over the country, but Mikah (now played by Simon MacCorkindale) wants revenge. He hires Talon (Lee Horsley), an adventurer and mercenary who with his times of tough guys will help him overthrown King Cromwell and save the princess! But what no one knows is that Xusia is alive and planning his revenge too...

This was a blast. I didn't except it after so many years actually. The best thing was that it was a lot more mature than I expected. Sure, the overall story is like standard fairy tale, but it's also filled with darker themes, some very nice graphic gore and nudity. This was of course after Conan, a movie that also was more violent and controversial than people will remember, so this one is welcome in a genre that rapidly almost became a genre for children.

One of the strong parts of The Sword and the Sorcerer is the acting, because even a handsome movie without good acting can be terrible to watch. Here Richard Lynch makes one of his best performances ever, in the almost Shakespearian character of King Cromwell. Obviously not a happy man, even bitter and sad after he gets the power, but still having anxiety over the maybe not even existing threat of Xusia (it's like he's having bad conscience) and of course that he knows that Mikah is lurking somewhere out there trying to gather the people against him. His relationship with his closest man, Machelli (George Maharis - who is fantastic), is also very up and down, like they're married almost. Not the normal master and slave like in all of the other fantasy-flicks out there. Lee Horsley is excellent as Talon, a very likable and well written hero and the rest of the bunch ranges from great to good.

But of course, this is a very stunning visual movie too and Pyun really makes a lot of probably a quite low budget. It looks big, but still is still shot in a lot of interiors or in smaller outdoor areas, which I guess was a low budget necessity. Pyun also seem to have carefully chosen real buildings, indoors and outdoors, that has castle- or a middle ages-feeling to make it bigger and look more expensive, but just used small parts of these not to show any modern structures I guess. And it works very good. 

The gore surprised me. Some very nasty bits with a torn out heart, a head split open, impalings and blood-spurting. Way to go, I loved it! No splatter-movie of course, but it spiced up the movie a lot.

It think may of us could agree that The Sword and the Sorcerer is one of the best and entertaining fantasy-movies from the eighties, up there with Conan and The Princess Bride. They all three have very different styles, but if I was going to a deserted island this is the movie I would bring!

And for you who live in the US and Canada, go right to this page and pre-order Tales of an Ancient Empire. It will be available all over the world sooner or later, but for you who can - get it and support this sequel, now 28 years in the making! It's just a month or so until it finally will be released.. and I can't wait to see it!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Urban Trilogy-Thoughts, Ruminations and Recoil


I honestly can't count how many negative comments I've read about the "Urban Trilogy" of films released in 1999. I really can't, be it when someone mentions the musical career of Ice-T, the name Pyun, or even if you talk about Snoop Dogg appearing a film, these show up.  So, I thought it was time to strap on my Pyuniversal Soldier contamination suit and settle in for a few nights with Ice-T, Snoop Dog, Vincent Klyn, Silkk The Shocker, Big Punisher, Fat Joe and a whole lot of guys playing out Boyz In The Bratislava Badlands.  I watched the three films back to back and have the following thoughts...What follows may shock you as little as Ice-T saying "DIE YOU MOTHERFUCKER" 76596* (approximate) times between three films... or will it? 
Can I recommend you spend as much time with these as I have? Not in good conscience...but I can also say that if you read all this you just might find them worth a rent.  Two of the US discs contain Albert Pyun commentary-I listened to the first few minutes, and will review them separately.  I did not want to color what I'm writing now, because I just KNOW there have to be some crazy stories...a few of which appeared in little pieces in various blog posts at the official AP site.
So come with me...cue the music...bob ya' headz...simulated gunshot sound ...


The Films / The Line Up

Wrecking Crew-This one tells the story of three gangs all trapped in one little warehouse-they posture and talk a lot of shit...but someone is coming after them. A man called Menace and his Wrecking Crew have come to wipe out The 111, The Cartel and the...umm...other guys.  Frankly, I think they are all the same guys just swapping clothes or tossing on some rags to hide their faces.  But whatever.  We know the Wrecking Crew is serious because Ice-T looks pissed off as he watches TV and takes out his first target, DRA-MAN!  Snoop Dogg plays Dra-Man, but he doesn't because this is some documentary footage and then we get one scene that you'll see later on and is taken down by the Wrecking Crew.  Really, the gangs talk, fight, run into rooms and have mass melee battles of bullets and falling bodies... Ice-T almost rules the day, but lucky for us one gang leader, played by the sadly underused TJ Storm (and I don't mean underused here because you see him a lot!)...because Ice-T is really ready to take over the streets with the cops bankrolling the whole operation by accident. 
"If they can't handle YOU...how in the FUCK are they gonna handle ME??"
I also had to laugh when I was watching this, The Cartel goes all the way back to the first Ice-T album!




Corrupt-This flips the script a bit and casts Ice-T as the pimpatronic CORRUPT, a man that a bunch of wannabees try to rip off. BAD plan, and certainly don't try to rip off a thug that wants to get in to your sisters pants! That won't get you any special dispensation from a guy like Corrupt (or Ice-T!)  The plot wanders between the story of the sister and Corrupt, the younger brother in trouble and being hunted down and (yah!) TJ Storm as sister's boyfriend who finds out she is drinking deep of the Ice-T but doesn't know why.  Silkk The Shocker is probably a nice guy...but the best thing I can say for his performance is that he screams well when he gets stabbed WHILE HIDING IN A TRASH CAN!!  Another gun battle, the same one from Wrecking Crew, finishes up this tale.  I must say though...Ice-T has some great lines in this film, his use of the phrase "MY SEXY" for his female companions is awesome.  But...this is easily the least interesting of the films.



Urban Menace-Hey now...this one is a horror film that takes the gangster milieu of the previous entries and casts the unbelievably tall Snoop Dogg as Caleb. A spirit out to kill the bangers that destroyed his church.  More running around the warehouse! Ice-T as an awesome narrator/social commentarian that rants in to the camera.  Hell, his ranting is perhaps the highest point in the films!  You'll be laughing with him and not at the gangsters that look like they just parked the Mystery Machine and are being chased around by Snoop Doggy Scooby Doo.  This one manages to work pretty well, whenever the situations pick up, Pyun zips around in post production and gives us some really fun moments that include lots of off screen screaming and digital ghost blips.  If you watch one, this is the one to go for.
"This is some crazy shit...like...some demon shit!!!"


Zee Perspectives-The Urban Trilogy hit from different angles

It's all about the bizness!  
I found this great quote from Ice-T... "You can't come out on a record dissing the system and be on a label that's connected to the system."  The mixture of Albert Pyun, Ice-T and what both were doing at the time created something utterly unique.  Ice-T and Filmwerks present these films, a real mixture of lo-tech artistry and the D.I.Y. of off label rap wrapped in to one package. A major element of the films is Ice-T bringing along his album The Seventh Deadly Sin along to push the movies along, garnering rap icons like Snoop Dogg and the somehow popular at the time Silkk The Shocker to pull in the video renters and ears for his work.  Shooting fast and cheap, Pyun is the DJ to Ice-Ts demented MC.  They shoot scenes that work like assets and samples and spread them around, remixing and slicing them apart.  Sure it looks cheap-not only was it shot on video (as good as HD would be in 1999)-but a mishap with Air France saw one of the two boxes of master mini-tapes LOST. So, using "dirty dupes" aka low rez tape to replace it, the scenes and sources were mixed around and hit with one of those balls out awful "film look" programs that were all the rage at the time.  Pyun has mastered HD video in my opinion, but these look ugly.  But in a way it again feels like a tapes out of the trunk affair.  You are buying direct from the camera...ugly and raw and it might just cause you to have a real bad trip, but it is what it is. 
And don't forget that you are dealing with DJ PyunOMATIC and his cyberbrainiac DJ Rippah Reddi!  But more on that later...

All three films fall in to the Zombie Lake school of respect for me.  You can say it sucks. You can call it worst movie evah!  You can do all that, but you know what? People in Turkey, Japan and all points in between BOUGHT this movie. Filmwerks is certainly Off Hollywood as much as Ice-T's Coroner Records was Off Sire/Big Labels.  Other rap labels tried to do this kind of project and they could not get anywhere outside of a tiny little wave of VHS tapes.  I was working in video shops as a buyer and we had all kinds of promo material from little rap labels in 1999-the only one that springs to mind (or that I can remember!) is the No Limits releases from Master P.  What he needed was Master Pyun and his head crushingly dedicated drive to distribute films as fast as Ice-T could recommend the act of getting butt naked and fucking. 


On the streets it is all about sales...Ice-T got his indy release on his own label into a ton of video stores, and I'd wager that these films turned a profit.  Sometimes we forget that exploitation films CAN be art, not that they have to be.  If they aren't making money, why are they being made?



The Stars...Capitalize to get Capital 
Snoop Dogg, Ice-T, Big Pun, Fat Joe...you know they are going to put rental dollars in the till. So, drag 'em around the world and let them shine.  Ice-T has skill in the acting arena, we know that. You might want to call him out for being a TV Cop, but I'm a fan of his music and don't watch cop shows. Snoop is pretty good as well, he seems to like playing the monster and is pretty damn big.  Not exactly scary looking, but big.  Now, those other two...Big Pun in a Big Pun T-Shirt reading off a cue card and only sounding excited when talk turns to Burger King says it all.  Silkk The Shocker doesn't fare much better, though he does get more screen time at least.   But there are some other stars worth mentioning for the Pyun fans.  Vincent Klynn makes a great rigor mortis face at one point, falling towards the camera!  TJ Storm does a tiny amount of Kung Fu!  Ernie Hudson Jr. tries...  But there is something for the rap fans and something for the Pyuniverse as well.


We might remix it and split it and in the end David Z might just like it a little bit!

But we are in the Pyuniverse aren't we...and the Urban Trilogy features some completely Pyunomized Moments.  Sure, the images are flat when they come out of that video camera.  The performances are what they are.  But once the films were taken in to the Filmwerks digital studio some VERY strange things happened.  Some were strange cool, others strange bad and some were just bizarre.  Look for indoor lightning effects, some bizarre fire gags that are all superimposed to varying degrees (I did like Ice-T walking in to a group of guys covered in jelly and complaining that he had a rash from "some trick he picked up" before he burns everyone down)...and crazy editing and effects that set this film out of Bratislava. Out of the Urban Renewal hellhole and firmly in to some bizarre Prison Planet in the Pyuniverse where Ice-T is the baddest motherfucker of all.  


The biggest success of the films is in something that is important in many Pyun films, the input of Tony Ripparetti-here cast as DJ Rippah Reddi (yeah, I'm sticking with that!).  He contributes some interesting bridges while mixing all kinds of songs from Ice-T's Seventh Deadly Sin and some other tunes.  For a 1999 release, these all have that hardcore rap with piano riffs that tend towards the horrorcore offerings of Gravediggaz-though no disrespect to Ice-T, but no way does he come close to an album like Niggamortis / Six Feet Deep.  Between the music constantly shifting and shit talking, Riparetti uses his skills to give the images a life they could not have had in less capable hands. The synthetic environment created in post production makes the films unique. They shift from being a late 90s riff on Blaxsploitation films and Iceberg Slim tales and become otherworldly at times-and Riparetti is largely responsible for keeping the aural atmosphere thick and fast paced, even when the films are crawling from point A to point A 1/2 to point B.  Digital explosions and mixed music are possibly the films highlight.  
But the coolest part, to me, is the credits. Yep, you know it may be a backhanded compliment to call credits the most interesting part of a film-but these are wild.  Perfectly set in an animated world of shifting grafitti, hip hop music and groovy fonts, I just love them.  If Ice-T wanted a promo piece for his album and label, these were exactly that.  These sequences sent me looking not only to get a Seventh Deadly Sin CD, but to find some of the other music in the films!  The actors reprise sections make each and every participant look like a star. And hey, if you add all the credits up from the three films, you have almost as much running time as Corrupt!!  

So, are these great films? No. Are they great Albert Pyun films? No.  But are they interesting? Yes they are... a remnant of a time in music, a time in independent film, a time in technology, a time in marketing and a time in the kind of films that could pop in a consumer driven market hungry for entertainment.  The Urban Trilogy will live on, from Japanese re-titlings to Turkish VCDs sold for pennies.  The US DVDs from Sterling aren't bad at all, though I could only load Wrecking Crew to get screengrabs for some reason. The soundtracks are in 5.1 and 2.0, there are two commentary tracks...actors, director and even isolated music.  Pretty damn sweet. 

Hearty Pyuniverse Travelers may want to dip in to these films and feel a very peculiar funk-the type that you might want to cover yourself in jelly after feeling.  Just be sure to bring your digital flamethrower!!  More Urban Trilogy coming with commentary thoughts soon!


Pyun gets Blu'd...in France!

This is a BluRay edition of the Max Havoc films coming out of Germany and available at Amazon.de right here.  I can't say that the first film really wowed me, but I believe this is the first PyunRay film!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Radioactive Dreams Review


Radioactive Dreams
(1985/USA/Mexico)

‘‘I bet there’s nothing but love sick dolls out there’’



Two post nuke private dicks seek fun loving future chicks in this after the bomb blast from the past.

Saved from the nuclear explosion by their guardians Spade Chandler (George Kennedy) and Dash Hammer (Don Murray), pre teen friends Philip Chandler (John Stockwell) and Marlowe Hammer (Michael Dudikoff) spend fifteen years locked away in a protective underground shelter. 2010 April 1st, all fools day indeed, the friends emerge from their protective incarceration as young men. Self educated over the elapsed period of time, fed on a diet of old detective movies and dance themed music, as collected by their two dads. Free to explore a strange new environment they set off into the desolated landscape, behind the wheel of an American open topped classic car. They’re hungry for a good time and girls, as well as an answer to why their two custodians left them alone to survive, and if indeed the two men are in fact their fathers at all !?. Its gumshoes to the floor futuristic fun and holocaust hi-jinks, as Philip and Marlowe are free from ‘The Big Sleep’ exiled from the real world, and primed to detect a new life for themselves. For their dads then, ‘the world that they hated … was the world they wanted’.

Back in 1996 during the nuclear war every nuclear missile was launched, except for one !. In order to fire that missile requires two special keys. Whoever now possesses the two keys would control the most powerful weapon in the world. Ruler above all others in this now radioactive wasteland. Unfortunately for the survivors of this laid to waste landscape the keys are in the possession of a couple of Dicks. And they don’t even know that they have them !.

As soon as Phil and Marlowe put rubber to the rubble they are beset by Mad Max extras, marauding the wastelands for anything and anyone that comes into their cross hairs. The two nuke newbies rescue a feisty maiden in distress. Miles Archer (Lisa Blount), fending off mutants and leading the way for the future of feminist freedom fighters, deftly deploying a fist to Marlowe’s chin. They strive to rescue Miles, but who is going to save them from her !?. She takes advantage of a distraction and slips away, but their paths are destined to cross again in the very near future. The boys have double trouble to contend with as motorcycle riding crazies, sporting florescent pink fright wigs to cover their follicle free scalps, bring mass mayhem. These beyond thunder dome heads don’t need another hero to contend with, so ensues an Action packed chase, backed by a pumping Eighties music soundtrack.

As if slap heads and psycho sisters aren’t enough to contend with, on their first day trip out since kindergarten, Philip and Marlowe are held up by The Disco Mutants !. Two pint sized wannabe Tony ‘Scarface’ Montana, white suited, foul mouthed, hand gun bearing punks, who are boy handling another seemingly maiden in distress, Rusty Mars.

Marlowe and Phil catch the knee high nukes unawares and team up with Rusty, who shows them the way to Edge City. She warns them that they need to be within the city confines before dark, as after night fall the myriad of mutants come out to feast !. Learning a little about each other Rusty divulges that she knows of the boys fathers, and that both Hammer and Chandler are still alive !. Phil and Marlowe, more than ever, wish to seek them out and Edge City may just have the answers they are looking for.

Playing out like a futuristic metaphorical version of Abbott and Costello meet the mutant warriors of the wasteland, Radioactive Dreams works its cheaply made charm a treat.

Stockwell and Dudikoff are perfectly cast in the leads, and the supporting players join in on the fun act, clearly enjoying themselves along the way. Director Albert Pyun chimes in on the Post Apocalyptic movie with an obvious love for the genre, ladling post nuke nuances galore atop his own playful popcorn flick. All involved are evidently buoyed by the brilliant banality of this neat little idiosyncratic, Action packed, Comedy crammed, Sci-Fi slamboree. Ahead of its time, and a precocious piece of mid Eighties weirdness, that has lost none of its charm or infectiousness with age. This is indeed now a Cult movie that deserves its pantheon upon the shiny media of DVD. Made available to all, both familiar and seeking the pure escapism of this fantastical flick for the first time, properly rendered in its full unadulterated form and rightfully scoped format.

With our detective duo seeking out their wayfaring custodial parents, Rusty naively leads them into a set up that has Phil fighting off the advances of a flesh craving cannibal cult, hungry for him and the keys that he unwittingly holds about his person. It’s time for the hardy boys to drop Nancy Drew, throw the cannibals a bone to pick and get out of dodge. Easier said than done when all of the city gangs are honing in on the opportunity to lay claim to the nuclear devices ignition, along with the bordering regions bounty hunters too. Time for some Mack Sennett like chase sequences, including one great moment of sheer out of nowhere brilliance. A Godzilla like mutant creature rises up out of a sewer, to within nose distance of Marlowe’s startled face, in a viewing whoop and holler moment of tape rewind necessity. This is sheer ‘B’ movie brilliance. Less of a Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller - C.H.U.D (1984) and more of a Rodent Agitated Terminator - R.A.T (Soon to be in development). One great big dirty rat that even a machine gun blazing James Cagney would have to high tail it from. Anyone familiar with another cult classic, Hell Comes To Frog Town (1988) will find this just as infectiously ‘ribbeting’.

Wizened up and readied for the fray come the final quarter of the movie, both Phil and Marlowe take a stand. Kitted out in sharp suits, and sporting side arms, the two cut a pose torn from the front dust jacket of a retro detective novel. They’re prepped and primed for Action. Here’s looking at you kids !.

Phil’s wanton moll Rusty, having seen the error of her ways, pleads with them, ‘‘They’ll kill you Phil !’’ to which Phil retorts, ‘‘Yea, I’d like to see them try !’’. Classic delivery.

It’s showdown at the dilapidated labouring warehouse, where the only thing that works now are the gangs and dealers. Its out with the old and in with the new as Phil and Marlowe learn the truth behind the past with their pa’s. Miles Archer spits her voluptuous venom, and the boys get to say hello to their little friends the Disco Mutants, as the diddy duo join the party, all seeking to have control of the nuclear missile keys. A brilliant all Action climax to end proceedings on a high note, leaving just enough time to tie up loose ends, and Phil to finish his talk over monologue that pops up occasionally throughout the movie. He’s a decent guy, and even though his gal done him wrong you just know that Phil will get to nail Rusty !.

Before your smile of viewing satisfaction can even think of resting, after nigh on ninety minutes of blissful diversity, you get to click your heels like Dorothy and toe tap to the end credits. Marlowe shows Phil his dance moves, and together the two of them do the post nuke shuffle in a feel good factor song and dance routine to close the curtain on this Cult classic. The boys are back together, and even in this nuclear wasteland they’ll never fallout !.

Movie Rating: 7/10
Review Paul Cooke / Source UK PAL VHS
Radioactive Dreams (1985)
Director Albert Pyun
With John Stockwell, Michael Dudikoff, Lisa Blount,
George Kennedy, Don Murray & Michelle Little

Friday, March 26, 2010

Urban Trilogy US DVD Artwork

Watching these films and then reading the box is making me wonder what movie the marketing people watched!  But...hey, the look really nice on a shelf!  DRA-MAN forever!!!


Laserdisc-O-Rama

Time for even more Laserdisc Jackets!  Ah, the glory years of 12 Inch Discs, sure you had to flip them, but these jackets are fantastic...

The Panorama LD from Hong Kong...this movie was rated Category III?  Wow.

Widescreen Ravenhawk!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

A tall glass of Ice-T with a Pyunamatic Twist

I started watching The Urban Trilogy films last night-and this song features prominently in CORRUPT.  Nobody plays Ice-T like Ice-T, and this is a cool video.  I Always Wanted To Be A Ho from the Ice-T classic album 7th DEADLY SIN.  Also featured in CORRUPT is Don't Hate The Playa which had me smiling to see it in a film...just a great track.

I Always Wanted To Be A Ho ... An Ice-T / Albert Pyun Streetsterpiece


And here is Don't Hate The Playa...one of my favorite Ice-T songs!

Nemesis series on DVD

From the Albert Pyun films fangroup on Facebook we have this AWESOME set of Nemesis boxset scans.  I wanted one of these SO badly...  Thanks to the original scanner!


Wednesday, March 24, 2010

TALES OF AN ANCIENT EMPIRE Pre-Orders are now being taken!

You can now order the limited edition of TALES OF AN ANCIENT EMPIRE via AlbertPyunMovies.com.  More details soon, but this sure looks intriguing!

Kickboxer 4 - The Aggressor...Faux Po!



"David Sloan was responsible for her death...he will be punished...the THAI WAY!"

Kickboxer 4 brings Sasha Mitchell back as David Sloan, the teacher, fighter, brother of original Kickboxer guy JCVD and all around fella that will kick you in the neck if you piss him off in a martial arts tournament.  But this isn't going to just be a kickfighting tournament film...oh no!
Well, it is.  But there is a twist. I skipped part 3 (no Pyun?) but now Sloan is in jail after being framed by Tong Po, who is not in 3 and was a bloody mess at the end of 2 and we skip ahead a few years.  David is now a changed man-and he is ready to be the titular AGGRESSOR in a quest to beat up Tong Po again.  Bonus!  Senorita Sloan has been in the tongs of Tong Po as a captive!  Luckily a pal sets him up to bring down Tong Po via infiltrating his yearly Bloodsport Kickboxer Spectacularrrrrrr....rrrrr...rrr. 
Toss in a helpful ex-student / DEA agent (what??) and some naked ladies and the fighting just tops everything off.  We have the cute girl kickboxer element, the misunderstood lady / sensual slave of Tong Po and his crew element, a higher quotient of very sweaty T and A and male A to keep all things equal and enough fighting to keep me happy. 
Plus, you have Tong Po hopping up and down like a baby that just discovered farting while he is watching the combatants-that is awesome!



Kickboxer 4 is not as polished up as part 2, but it varies from the other film enough to be interesting.  The only drawbacks this time are in small matters. First, Sasha Mitchell was fine in part 2 as the streetwise teacher that cares for his students type, but this role as hardened by prison and fueled by vengeance leaves his acting chops vulnerable to a swift kick in the nuts.  It just doesn't work, I'm glad however that he never picks up a machine gun and starts leaping around, that would have been way to much.  So, with that problem firmly in place we go to the biggest issue.


FAUX PO!  Michel Qissi brought a very unique look and feel to his barely used but fondly remembered by fight film fans character.  Without him, we get a dude in make-up that looks sort of like Tong Po and is fine at acting menacing and taking punches without flinching. But...I know Tong Po.  And this is no Po. NO PO! 
I actually said that out loud during the film.  Sad.  Honestly, Kamel Krifa ain't bad...but...NO PO!  Luckily, Nicholas Guest rocks out on his part and lifts the baddies up.  Also, I liked Michelle Krasnoo a lot. She had some great moves and can do a mean "tilts head back and says "fuck you" move too. 


Now, what is really important is the fighting, and that is spot on. Not only do we have the tournament scenes that feature a nice variety of fighters using stuff like Capoeira moves, but two of the Machado brothers are on hand dishing out wicked looking armbars and rolls in to chokes (which Mitchell does near the end of the film as well...), but there is a kickass barroom fight that follows my maxim of BREAK GLASS...IMPRESS VIEWER to the hilt.  It breaks down in to a big melee fight and even that holds up. So, you go to a movie called KICKBOXER 4 - THE AGGRESSOR and expect REMAINS OF THE DAY, you get let down... but if you want a lot of ass kicking and tournament fighting, consider your Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii to be yelping YAAAAAAAA before it is over.  Not a classic, but a few good doses of Pyunishment and Pyugilism are on show. 


Tong Po slips away at the end by the way, but not for Kickboxer 5.  At one point I had to laugh when I saw a fighter wearing a shirt that said DACASCOS, when Mark Dacascos would be the star of the next Kickboxer film! 
Life is strange in the PYUNIVERSE.



"Kill Sloan or you all die!!"
 

Amazing, another Pyun-blog from Pyunzil (that's Brazil, if you get it) ;)

Yes, Radioactive Dreams is another blog dedicated to the work, art and life of Albert Pyun. It's in Portuguese so it's a good complement to The Pyuniverse.

Behind the blog is Osvaldo Neto and Ronald Perrone, and they started with some lovely VHS-covers that they promised I could publish here too. It makes my inside warm and fuzzy to see how Pyun gets more and more recognition out there!

So enjoy and keep an eye on these Pyuniversal Soldiers directly from Brazil!