Tom Jolliffe celebrates some of the most popular B-movie queens of the video era onward… Think of those legendary actresses of the last few decades. Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie… Big names, capable of selling a film themselves and a regular big screen fixture. As someone who grew up in the VHS […]
PM Entertainment and the Art of Rip-offs With Razzmatazz
Tom Jolliffe takes a look back at 90’s video action specialists PM Entertainment and a penchant for enjoyable knock offs… I’ve oft shared my fondness for the work of PM Entertainment, headed by Joseph Merhi and Richard Pepin. Their company were prolific through the 90’s in producing straight to cable/video movies (predominantly action) that seemed […]
Unsung Action Heroines Who Deserve the Spotlight
Marvelous Videos presents underappreciated action heroines… It’s a fact that men dominated the action genre of the 80s and 90s. Sure, occasionally you had some women stand out like Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor and Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, but studios were more prone to highlight their male counterparts in the marketing department. And […]
Tiger Claws II: The Lunar New Year Film to See
With Lunar New Year upon us, Tom Jolliffe looks back at an oddball straight-to-video opus set over Chinese New Year… We’re into the year of the Ox. Across the world many people have been celebrating the Lunar New Year, whether it’s their cultural norm, or whether they’ve been allured by a supermarket promotion to give […]
An Action Classic That Never Happened: William Friedkin directs Stallone and Rothrock in The Executioner
Tom Jolliffe dives back to a potential action classic that never got rolling. Sylvester Stallone as directed by William Friedkin, with Cynthia Rothrock also attached at one point… Let’s talks action. Let’s throw the name of an icon into the mix…Sylvester Stallone. The man who gave the world Rambo and Rocky. At a time during […]
Cynthia Rothrock: The First Lady of International Action
Tom Jolliffe takes a look at the career of action heroine Cynthia Rothrock… Western stars who have managed to break China and Hong Kong successfully are a rare breed. In fact there’s probably only one person who has found success as a major action star in China, as well as in the west. Some have […]
A 90’s Video Double Bill: Sabotage and Night Vision
Tom Jolliffe looks back at two well cast 90’s video thrillers, Sabotage and Night Vision… Many a 90’s straight to video special has been left cast asunder by time. Some left forever to remain as rare VHS copies, occasionally appearing on Ebay, or low resolution uploads on Youtube. Certain cult favourites do find their way […]
A Look Back at The Expendables Franchise (And a Look Forward…)
Ten years on from the release of the first movie, Tom Jolliffe looks back at the Expendables franchise and then looks at where it can go now (and who needs to join the crew)… When The Expendables was first announced in late 2009, my excitement levels went through the roof. Initially it was Sylvester Stallone, […]
90s Video Action Stars Part II – Jeff Wincott, Michael Dudikoff, Mark Dacascos and Cynthia Rothrock
Tom Jolliffe continues his look back at 90’s video action stars (read the first part here)… As I continue on with my 90’s action rampage, revisiting those VHS purveyors of fisticuffs and footicuffs (footicuffs?), I find myself already suffering brain degradation. Some films I revisit have blurred in my memory and re-watching only confirms what […]
Action ensemble Showdown in Manila gets a poster and trailer
Two posters and a trailer have arrived online for the upcoming action thriller Showdown in Manila, which sees Mark Dacascos directing a cast that includes Alexander Nevsky, Casper Van Dien, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Tia Carrere, Matthias Hues, Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock and Olivier Gruner; check them out here… Private detectives Nick (Alexander Nevsky) and […]