Earlier this year we reported about David “Bolo Jr.” Yeung‘s casting in the 80’s and 90’sMartial Arts tribute The Last Kumite but now we have something even better, the first trailer for the movie.
Released today via ComingSoon.net The Last Kumitetrailer promises everything from the deadly duels to the classic training montages with (almost) all the actors you remember from the old VHS rental days, actors like: Cynthia Rothrock (No Retreat, No Surrender 2), Billy Blanks (The Kings of Kickboxers), Matthias Hues (Dark Angel), Michel Qissi (Kickboxer) and Kurt McKinney (No Retreat, No Surrender).
And the hero Rivers is played by the German action star Mathis Landwehr (Lasko – Die Faust Gottes).
So, without further ado, let’s take a trip back down the memory lane and enjoy one Last Kumite:
The Last Kumite will be an action packed old school fighting movie in the style of Bloodsport, Kickboxer and No Retreat, No Surrender.
Directed by Ross W. Clarkson (Undisputed 2 & 3) movie will be starting a bevy of 80s and 90s Action Movie luminaries like Michel Qissi (Kickboxer), Abdel Qissi (The Quest), Cynthia Rothrock (No Retreat, No Surrender 2), Billy Blanks (The Kings of Kickboxers), Matthias Hues (Dark Angel) and even Kurt McKinney (No Retreat, No Surrender) making his action movie return.
The movie will be about Michael Rivers (Mathis Landwehr), who is a skilled martial artist and is forced to fight in an illegal fighting tournament in order to save his daughter.
Stunt coordinator is the German Martial Arts sensation Mike Moller(One Million K(l)icks).
And in the latest news they will be joined by none other than David Yeung aka Bolo Jr.– son of the original Bloodsport villain Tang Po (Bolo Yeung). Like his father before him David is a former bodybuilder and an excellentMartial Artist to boot! This casting couldn’t be more perfect for this movie and I really hope they use David‘s talents to the fullest extent.
Most of us learned the legend of the international Man of Mystery and renowned Ninja Master Frank Dux from Cannon Films‘s cult Martial Art- tournament movie Bloodsport. The movie supposedly draws on a real life stranger-than-fiction story of the aforementioned Shidoshi Frank W. Dux, founder of the American Ninja system Dux Ryu Ninjutsu. (I now it all sounds insane but that was quite the norm in the 80s.)
But who is this mysterious man really when he is not being played by young Jean Claude Van Damme? Like a Ninja that he is he would pop in an out of movies, sometimes just for a moment like in this film by Macedonian Martial Artist/ Politician Jorgo Ognenoviski– Invitation to Die(1995).
But you can almost never see him actually in action. Well in this short film we finally have the opportunity to see Mr. Dux play- more of less- himself. In Firefight (1983) we see him commanding a squad in Vietnam (something that’s been debated since he was in the Military from 1975 to 1981) consisting of John Scott Calough, Neil Davis, Seth Kaufman and even a future genre movie staple Brian Thompson (Cobra, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation)!
It features a rag-tag group of soldiers on a hilltop attacked by a large force of Vietcong, unable to get Medivac helicopter to help their wounded comrade.
Movie itself is more comical than dramatic, with both sides looking completely lost and disorganized at times. But I have to admit some of the explosion and helicopter scenes are surprisingly well done. (Interestingly they ended up being reused in Stryker’s War aka Thoe Shalt Not Kill…Except (1985) staring Bruce Campbell among others.)
Also you have to get a kick out off seeing Phillip Rhee and Simon Rhee (of Best of the Best fame) kicking ass with their Taekwondo kicks. It makes you want to root for the Vietcong.
Conclusion:Dux is much more impressive when played by Van Damme, but let’s be honest- most of us would gladly have JCVD play us in our life story.And this movie does have a bit of a historical value too ’cause while editing Firefight Sheldon Lettich met Mark DiSalle and the two of them adapted Frank Dux‘s story of his exploits in a secret Martial Arts tournament Kumite to script, giving birth to Cannon Film classic Bloodsport (1988) in the process.
According to the Ultimate BOLO YEUNG page the long- awaiteddocumentaryChinese Hercules- The Bolo Yeung Story will be finished in time for the Enter The Dragon50th anniversary on July, 2023!
After a long delay caused by COVID we are overjoyed to finally get confirmation that the documentary is back on track and on it’s way. You can check the page here for more updates as they come in.
In the other Bolo related newsJean-ClaudeVan Damme is preparing for his big Martial Arts movie swan songWhat’s My Name? and if the sources are to believed he is supposed to re-enact some of the biggest fights from his career like the ones with Bolo, Qissi and Lundgren (Bloodsport, Kickboxer and Universal Soldier).
Will this be enough to entice Mr. Yeung from his retirement for one last dance? I don’t know but I sure hope so. After all they say third time is the charm, and we already had them go at it in Bloodsport and Double Impact before. That would be a really great way to cap off both of their careers.
To anyone following our blog for any length of time it’s clear that beside watching strange B-movies we also spend a considerable portion of our time following cult directorAlbert Pyun‘s exploits. Just see Worse News: Albert Pyun strikes again (w/ Bad Ass Angels)! We did grow up in the 90s with stuff like Cyborg (Jean Claude Van Damme,Vincent Klyn ) and Nemesis ( Olivier Gruner, Brion James, Cary Tagawa) so it’s only natural.
But there’s another little gem of Pyun‘s career and this one doesn’t contain any Cyborgs whatsoever. You see in 1997 he directed an awesome John Woo meets Battle Royale (even before Battle Royale) style shoot-em-up called Mean Guns. With an impressive ensemble cast including the likes of Christopher Lambert (Highlander), Ice- T (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Thom Mathews (Friday The13th: Part 6) and Yuji Okumoto (Karate Kid 2) it was quite a treat to action aficionados everywhere. And even now years later it still has a considerable Cult following.
But, the story doesn’t end there– there’s a new addition to Mean Guns mythos with an Anthology Graphic Novel that acts as a prequel and helps flesh out some of the characters we know and love. And even better we have an exclusive interview with the writer Jeremy Frazier of Creamy Rat Studios who’ll share some insight into the process of making Mean Guns: Mistakes Have Been Made GN and what can we aspect from from the comic:
01. First things first, I would love to know more about your comicbook background. I actually have your Synthcore Dreams #01 right here, and it’s a great looking comic.
Thank you. I’m really proud of Synthcore Dreams. That one is a 30 band charity comic including Leaether Strip, Chemlab, Skrew and many more…comes with a CD. I’m working on the next issue now.
I also have… Meathook Massacre: First Hunt– A prequel for the movie series. Storming the Gates of Heaven– Official Rotting Christ comic Dave and Creamy– Comedy serial published in China. Electronic Saviors– Charity book that is a side story for Synthcore Dreams.
Then I have Mean Guns and a few other band projects being worked on.
02. So, I remember renting Mean Guns on VHS as a kid and enjoying it quite a bit. How did you initaly find that movie and what was your first reaction?
I was in Germany looking for something to watch. The cover stood out and once I saw Lambert I knew I had to rent it. We watched Mean Guns 3 times over the weekend. Rented it multiple times before we finally found a copy. First reaction? Amazing. So much violence, so little blood. Great dialogue and the soundtrack really set it apart.
One of the few scores I actually own. Got it signed by Riparetti too!
03. It would be interesting to know more about the process of getting the rights. How did you initially contact the director Albert Pyun and was he receptive to the idea of further exploring the Mean Guns world-in the form of a comic?
The rights process. I asked…just sent a message on Facebook to him. Pyun was receptive but I do have strict guidelines. It was an easy decision since Pyun was working on funding his new Cyborg film. I payed a very fair fee for 2 of the available properties.
04. Now, what is your favorite Mean Guns character or characters and how easy was it coming up with their back stories (beyond what we saw in movie).
The easy answer would be Moon (Ice-T) or Lou (Lambert), but I will say Hoss and Crow. In a movie with standout dialogue they do have the best. The actors look like they are genuinely enjoying the roles. I actually have something special planned with Crow (Thom Mathews).
Art by J.D. Santibanez
Back to the question! The cards with the character’s crimes are what made me want to write the comic. Those and a few random lines of dialogue gave me enough inspiration. I actually started with a no name character who only has about 1 minute of screen time. Start with a challenge.
05. If it’s OK, could you give as a little preview of the artwork (and say a few words about the artists involved) and tell us when and where can we expect to see Mean Guns on sale.
Three of the stories are drawn by J.D. Santibanez. Very talented artist from Ecuador. His 3 focus on Hoss, Crow, D and the unnamed character. One is by Zoran Jankovic… we wouldn’t be talking without him. His story is about Barbie and how she came to work for Moon. Jason Hehir is handling the shared past of Lou and Marcus. Robert January is working on Moon’s origin.
Art by Zoran Jankovic
I expect the book to be printed by May 2021. Half of the art is finished…all stories have been started. All depends on funding!
Since this interview was conducted, campaign for the comic has gone live, so if you want to support it, you can find it here: https://igg.me/at/NdzYvf8Cd4U/x/17885269#/
And for our previous interview with Albert Pyun himself, you can go right here.
Probably the most imposing bad guy in the history of Martial Arts cinema Yang Sze aka Bolo Yeung is finally getting his own documentary and we must say- it’s long overdue. From learning Kung Fu with different masters as a child to his competitive Bodybuilding years (he would go on hold a Mr. Hong Kong title for a whole decade) his story fits the “stranger than fiction” category easily. Not to mention the fact that he freakin’ swam from China to Hong Kong to escape Communism!!! Or the fact that he met Bruce Lee while filming WinstonCigarettescommercial (you just got to love the ’70s).
He stared (mostly as a villain) in over 100 movies raging from Shaw Brothers (The Heroic Ones, The Deadly Duo) to Golden Harvest (Enter The Dragon) to Bruceploitation (Clones of Bruce Lee, Dragon Lee Fights Again) to Van Damme films (Bloodsport, Double Impact) and even Jalal Merhi films (Tiger Claws 1 and 2, TC 2000). He even showed that he could be an awesome good guy/ wise mentor character in films such as Shootfighter1 and 2 (featuring Karate Kid/ Cobra Kai’s Billy Zabka).
Movie is being directed by Aziz Cem and Pavel Nyziak (who Bolo actually collaborated with on his final movie, the Kazakhstani produced The Whole World at Our Feet aka Diamond Cartel) and features exclusive interviews with the likes of Bob Wall, Richard Norton, Cynthia Rothrock, Matthias Hues, Coreena Everson, Cung Le and many, many others.
Now that Dark Horse Comics is again gearing up to co- produce and produce a fair amount of movie adaptation ( Jonas Akerland directed Polar is on Netflix as we speak with Hellboy reboot now in post- production) it’s as good time as any to look back at some of their early and lesser known adaptations.
Hope they do an animated Usagi Yojimbo next!
That means we’ll skip the usual suspects like Time Cop featuring Jean Claude Van Damme (a personal favorite of mine) and even the Barbwire with Pamela Anderson. No, I’m talking about one that seemingly erased from everyone’s collective memory but at the time hailed as start of a potential franchise, Virus (1999) featuring Jamie Lee Curtis!
Now, what’s a Virus, you may ask? Well, you’re in for a treat.
Story starts with a Russian science vessel in the middle of the ocean having performing some kind of a reading from a newly launched satellite. Unfortunately things get tough when some kind of a solar storm ( real Fantastic Four kind-of-shit) hits the satellite and it somehow transmits a weird purple lightning all the way to the ship. That can’t be good.
(slika munje ili nesto)
We jump forward in time and we’re with a motley crew of sailors chasing a lost ship that has a nice bounty on it’s sail. Unfortunately a typhoon has another plans for them. Losing a bounty, the almost lose their lives too but by a shear coincidents they end up on a abandoned Russian high-tech ship (that promises an even greater bounty).
That makes Captain (Donald Sutherland) very, very happy. Considering he was ready to blow his head off just minutes ago that’s an improvement. Now, there’s a catch- they can’t claim the vessel unless there’s no survivors so they go out to investigate (having no idea a small spider- robot is watching them). As we always know, that never ends well.
In fact a bizarre accident almost cripples a Maori crew member Hiko and brave Foster (Jamie Lee Curtis) runs like hell to save him. Baker (William Boldwin) suspect there’s someone else on board, who’s guilty of sinking the tug. He turns out to be right when a gas- mask wearing Russian attacks them. After they detain “him” it turns out to be a cute redhead scientist from the beginning. So say goodbye to all those millions, right Captain?
Russian tries to run away but Curtis goes after her and cornered she tells her everything.She killed all electricity on the ship because machines were accessing everything and using the knowledge from the computers to hunt and destroy humans. And that was all before the times of the readily available Wi-fi Internet? (I somehow think that if they accesed the internet they would realize that we are all doomed and they would just leave us to self- destruct on our own).
In the meantime a couple of crew members are exploring the ship and they have a first real run- in with the machines but are still in denial of what’s really happening. They barely escape with their lives.
Do need feed the mechanical- spiders!
Now, on the other hand they find the ship’s original Captain Alexie, who’s been transformed into some kind of cybernetic monstrosity. Sutherland still refuses to believe in Aliens and tries to ignore everything. And then to make things even worse another storm hits as hard as the first one that got them here. To top it off a robotic skull attackes them at the same time!
(slika skull attack ili snimak)
They go down to the lower deck and they run into their colleague Sqeak, already transformed into a cyborg, with an even bigger robot right on his heels. Those that manage to escape try to make a contact with the Alien entity via the computer and explain themselves, but in a shocking twist it turns out they consider us a VIRUS, and we must be eradicated (can’t argue with that).
Captain Everton completely looses it and Curtis relieves him of his duties (by punching him square in the face). He seems confused and bewildered by that and being left behind decides to betray all of his crew. He types in that he is superior life- form and offers up his services to his new Robot overlords.
Crew decides that the only course of actions is to stop the ship before they hit a British Coast and spread the robot plague. Their plan was to flood the part of the ship with fuel and blow everything up but before they can get going a (newly) Cyborg Sutherland shows up!
Cyborg Sutherland- gone too soon!
Curtis gets into a Ripley from Alien mode but still barely survives. Russian girl gets caught and ends up sacrificing herself by shooting the gas bottles. Baker (Baldwin) and Curtis are only ones left alive but remaining robot is still after them. Trough all the fire they find an ejecting seat and finally escape while the rest of the ship explodes in a giant hail of fire.
Verdict: This movie had the bad luck to come out in ’99, the same year as The Matrix , movie that dealt with the evil machines much more elegantly.
But still, the highlight is unexplainable acting of Donald Suterland who isn’t doing the usual stuff like phoning it in or even overacting. No, his decisions are so off the wall that it will have you going “WTF?!” again and again and make you questing what the hell are you watching. And Cyborg Sutherland really deserves some kind of an award- I don’t think we’ll ever see anything like that again!
Trivia: Different than most of the movies on our blog, Virus actually had a fair bit of merchandising and tie- in content like a line of action figures, the Virus Collector Series and (Europe exclusive) Video Game -the Virus: It’s Aware for PlayStation 1.
Despite his ongoing health issues over the last couple of years Albert Pyun managed to finish his 54th film, a crazy mix of Star Wars, Dune, Cyborg, Mad Max and his trademark Kickboxing action with a help of excellent cinematographer Michael Su and a score by his long time collaborator Tony Rippareti. I’ll always have a soft spot for Pyun trademark Cyborg/ Kickboxing action and I hope this could be a bit of return to form of our old favorite.
It stars Brad Thornton, Ellie Church, Kelsey Carlisle, Paul Gunn, Clare Hoak, Tommie Vegas, Jennie Carroll, Ashley Campbell, Nathan Ferrier, Nick Rush, Fulvia Santoni and Cat Cakmis as Leah C6 and you can enjoy the new extended trailer right here!
’cause he’s finally done with cyborgs (Cyborg Nemesis) seemingly always present on our blog-Albert Pyun decided to return to his epic roots (Sword and the Sorcerer) in a 300 style retelling of Napoleon’s conquests starting Jean Claude freakin’ Van Damme!!! Now this is what I call news!
Sample page!
Since early 2000’s Pyun seemed satisfied to work on more experimental and almost zero budget films but now he finally decided to work on something more on the commercial side. Does he still got it? I don’t know but he even plans to film it in Bulgaria’s NU Boyana studios ( one of the largest European studios where they filmed 300: Rise of the Empire, Expendables 2 and 3). Van Damme still has a final saying and of course something like this is not easy to finance but for the sheer WTF factor- I would watch this in a heart beat!
We already covered one of the “crown jewels” of Loren Avedon’s career King of the Kickboxers but it’s time to take a closer look at the movie that propelled him to his short- lived B movie stardom. After launching his career with Corey Yuen’s “classic” “No Retreat No Surrender II” (remember- the first one introduced the world to the awesomeness of Van Damme and his incredible splits) he continued his rise thru the ranks with the sequel. Now, this sequel is mostly a sequel in name only- having completely different tone, and abandoning previous “Tournament”setting for more urban of a urban Kickboxing meets Spy Thriller style.
This dude cracks me up!
Films starts with a fitting quote from Mao Tse Tung of course fallowed by a terrorist action by bunch of ridiculous mustached idiots.Their plan comes undone when one of the hostages turns out to be CIA agent Casey Alexander, man whose kickboxing skills are only overshadowed only by his over the top facial expressions (ala Erik Roberts). He kills the bad guys and gets the girl (there’s always a girl there somewhere). In the meantime his younger brother Willis beating up some noobs.It turns out those are his students and he is just “preparing them for the street”. I am always shocked and amazed by complete lack of charisma and acting ability by this man! Anyway he is called by his father on his birthday party/ family reunion and he reluctantly agrees.
Mao said it best…
He arrives at the birthday in an old Volkswagen Beetle and ripped up jeans with some Communist insignia. Hmm… I’m wondering if the Chinese director is trying to tell us something here. Anyways, kudos for sneaking in thing like that in something that is an American production. He then menages to get into an argument with his rich CIA brother and quickly leaves. After the party’s over a new party begins as the old man faces bunch of assassins who look like Ninja Bee Gees in his very home and he even menages to kill one of them.Unfortunately he menages to die by flying out of the window like a freakin’ cannonball in one of the many hilarious highlights of this movie. His killer is devious Franko,a man that can be best described as am albino mulleted mongoloid.
Avedon returns home but it’s already too late, his father’s carcass is floating in the family pool. He then has a dramatic, tearful scene with his older brother and I painfully realize that his Keith Vitally is just as terrible actor as Avedon himself, hell maybe even more so! Next thing we see is a funeral and the FBI brother who gets a tap on his back via one of his superiors with words like “he was my partner and my best friend”. We momentarily realize that this man was in fact responsible for the murder… yeah cliches galore in this one!
Avedon journeys to Hawaii to have his revenge and his brother tries to track him down (unfortunately it seems CIA didn’t train him enough cause he fails miserably). First thing Avedon does is find a local dojo and gets into the fight with the friends Martial Artist he has here (how convenient). After blowing some steam they use their prowess and also their acting skill to get Avedon into a gang that they suspect is responsible for the murder. The less said about the way they manage to do that- the better. He ends up being rapidly inducted into the gang with his first mission to… KILL HIS BROTHER! No, I am not making this shit up.
After a disastrous “fake” subduing of his brother, the boss finally figures thing out (he’s no the head of operation for nothing) and starts torturing the brothers and the random girl the older brothers is having sex with when he’s in Hawaii (how conveniant). After being electrocuted the devious plan of CIA agent and Albino dude is finally clear, they want to use Avedon to kidnap the Ambassador of Mozambique and make a diversion which they’ll later use to FUCKIN’ BLOW UP THE PRESIDENT WITH A BAZOOKAA! These men aren’t thinking small.
Of course they have a hiccup in their plan and that’s older brother Casey freeing himself and threatening their whole plan.Then finally two brothers team up and put all the evil folks thru their Martial Art blender. It’s also fun to note that the Lowe, the director desperately tried to tone down his usual sensibilities and make fight scenes a bit more in American Karate/ Kicboxing style opposed to over the place Chinese Wire- Fu but it’s like he said “fuck it” in this last scene and went over… and out.
Notice the joyful death of Franko, the albino killer!
Verdict: Director Lucas Lo shows everything that was wrong in Hong Kong cinematography of the 80’s/ 90’s in one place. And Avedon- well he proves why he was never propelled to the stardom of his dreaded nemessis Jean Claude Van Damme.
Trivia: Same director and lead actor had another team up not long after and that resulted in probably the most over the top Martial Arts film of all times- King of the Kickboxers. If you missed it- you enjoy the review here.
PS Loren is having a comeback of sorts these days acting in Frank Caruso’s vehicle Risk Factor and the movies seems like something you can watch straight after NR NS III without spiking a beat.
This dude cracks me up!
Worsemovies 