Jade, Co-Starring Mark Dacascos

Jade is a one-woman case-study both supporting and undermining gun control policy. She has a visceral aversion to firearms, but she still piles up plenty of dead bodies. Guns don’t kill people. Jade kills people—a whole lot of people in James Bamford’s Jade, which releases this Tuesday on digital platforms.

Okay, the truth is Jade will eventually overcome her revulsion and start shooting her way out of trouble, because desperate situations demand desperate measures. Jade and her brother Brandon were orphans who were sucked into the gangs. Unfortunately, she cannot avenge his murder, because she accidentally killed him with a stray bullet. Hence, her no guns policy. Fortunately, that does not preclude a full range of cutting implements.

Jade wants to get out and leave town, but she still worries about Brandon’s girlfriend, Layla, especially when she learns the woman is pregnant with her niece or nephew. Unfortunately, Jade gets pulled back in when a soon to be dead member of her gang entrusts her with a MacGuffin that looks like an external hard drive. Frankly, nobody every fully explains what it is, but rival gang leader Tork wants it, so he will kill anyone he has to.

Basically, the film mostly consists of Jade hacking and slashing Tork’s henchmen. It is simple, but effective. Obviously, Bamford and co-screenwriters Lynn Colliar and Glenn Ennis conceived the film as an homage to blaxploitation films like Coffey. Although it is not slavishly imitative, the gritty and garish look definitely evokes the right vibe.  However, the writing is conspicuously spotty, especially considering the abundance of apparent non sequitur scenes. Plus, the obvious “twist” ending feels like an insult.

Nevertheless, the fighting impresses. Bamford and most of the supporting cast have extensive stunt performance experience which shows in the martial arts scenes. This is way rougher than a film like Black Dynamite. There is some brutal stuff in here could leave a mark on some less jaded viewers.

Batman: Soul of the Dragon

Happy Batman Day. The original Batman Day was celebrated on July 23^rd, to commemorate his Detective Comics debut, but it was subsequently moved to September, for marketing reasons. There have been many Batmans—Adam Westverse, Frank Miller’s Dark Knight, Matt Reeves’ The Batman, etc., so maybe there can be multiple Batman Days too. This Batman Day, fans can celebrate with the 1970’s martial arts Batman, who fights evil with a Richard Dragon who now looks amazingly like Bruce Lee, in Sam Liu’s Batman: Soul of the Dragon.

Before he became the Caped Crusader, Bruce Wayne trained under the mystical O’Sensei in his hidden Himalayan sanctuary. He studied with five other disciples, Dragon, Ben Turner (a.k.a. Bronze Tiger), Lady Shiva, Jade Nguyen, and Rip Jagger (a.k.a. Judomaster). (If you are wondering, DC’s Karate Kid, who predated the 1980s movies, exists in a far-future timeline.)

Obviously, when Wayne returned, he donned the Batman costume to instill fear in criminals’ hearts, while Dragon became a globe-trotting secret agent. Some of their fellow disciples made disappointing choices, like Lady Shiva, who now controls the Gotham Chinatown crime syndicate. However, she still guards their old master’s sword, which also serves as a key to unlock the portal to the dimension of Naga, the apocalyptic snake god.

Ominously, the leader of the Kobra cult wants to do exactly that, so Batman, Dragon, Lady Shiva, and Turner must band together again to stop them. Although he is the last to join them, Turner is most familiar with Kobra, having targeted their criminal operations for years.

Soul of the Dragon lovingly recreates the look and vibe of vintage 1970s martial arts films, first and foremost, by deliberately designing Dragon and Turner to resemble Bruce Lee and his Enter the Dragon co-star, Jim Kelly. While not slavishly imitative, composer Joachim Horsley’s soundtrack also clearly evokes the vibe of Lalo Schifrin’s classic theme as well.

For further authenticity, genre fans will happily recognize experienced on-screen martial artists Mark Dacascos, Michael Jai White, and Kelly Hu (Sammo Hung’s Martial Law) supplying the voices of Dragon, Turner, and Lady Shiva. (You can hear White’s enthusiasm for the subject matter and the films that inspired Jeremy Adams’ screenplay in all his scenes. He was also familiar with the character, having played him on a recurring basis on CW’s Arrow.) Just as fittingly, James Hong (Rush Hour, Kung Fu Panda) adds the appropriate sage crustiness as O’Sensei.

Blade of the 47 Ronin

It is pretty clear from this film, Samurai are far more skilled than ninjas. However, ninjas attack with superior numbers, like in the dozens or hundreds. Those ninjas hordes obey the commands of a witch who has targeted the descendants of the loyal samurai-turned-ronin, who avenged their lord back in the Edo era. It is about as loose as sequels get, but the hack-and-slash martial arts certainly entertains throughout Ron Yuan’s Blade of the 47 Ronin, which releases today on DVD and Netflix.

Supposedly, this is a sequel to the disastrous Keanu Reeves version of The 47 Ronin, but feel free to pretend it is a sequel to the Kon Ichikawa or Kenji Mizoguchi adaptations, because the connection between films is tenuous, at best. In the present day, samurai clans operate in secret, based in Budapest, supposedly because it is a key juncture between East and West, but it also happens to be affordable to shoot there. The descendants of the 47 Ronin guard the magically divided half of a mythic sword that holds a fateful prophecy. The witches hold the other half, but Yurei, the most powerful warlock has gone rogue.

He thought he had killed all the Ronin’s descendants, but there was a secret progeny out there somewhere. Unfortunately, the punky, resentful Luna does not inspire much confidence. She has come to Budapest to sell her late, estranged father’s sword, which is obviously priceless. Luna is a pain, but virtuous Lord Shinshiro protects her anyway. That duty primarily falls to his Bugeisha (samurai warrior woman) Onami, who enlists help from her old confidant, Reo, a ronin, who was forced out of Shinshiro’s service due to a past disgrace.

Scholars of Japanese history and literature will probably be scandalized by the way Blade trades on the names of the 47 Ronin, which is fair enough. However, if you accept the film as its own stand-alone entity, it is pretty fun, admittedly in a meathead kind of way. Ron Yuan (the actor, not appearing in-front of the camera this time around) clearly understands how to frame a fight scene and he is not intimidated by a little blood splatter. The swordplay is often brutal, but it looks great.

Yuan also has the benefit of two major action stars, who still clearly have their stuff. Mark Dacascos is cool and commanding as Lord Shinshiro, while Dustin Nguyen is all kinds of steely playing Lord Nikko. Stylistically, his clan is very different from Shinshiro’s but they are allied in honor. They both have plenty of highly cinematic fight scenes, but Teresa Ting and Michael Moh (Bruce Lee in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) have even more. Their athleticism is impressive and they some appealing comrade-in-arms rapport going on.

Mark Dacascos is the Driver

Maybe you think electric cars are more environmentally friendly, but fossil fuels have one big advantage. They still burn after the zombie apocalypse wipes out human civilization. Driving is our protag’s’ job for his rag-tag community of survivors—and you will not find him behind the wheel of a Prius. Try BMW. He will have to do what he does best when human and zombie attacks threaten his daughter’s safety in Wych Kaosayananda’s The Driver, which releases today on DVD.

The community is a little peeved at the Driver, because he and his dirtbag partner Joe followed orders and drove a popular but larcenous thief to his death. Thanks to Joe, it was an ugly case of execution by zombie. Unfortunately, Joe has more jerkheel behavior in store from the Driver, when he sells out the community to a violent gang of marauders. Naturally, all the commotion attracts the zombies, who quickly overrun both sides of the fight. The Driver barely escapes with his car and his daughter Bree, but sadly, he is not unscathed.

With the clock ticking, The Driver gives Bree a crash course on survival skills. They desperately speed towards “Haven,” a rumored strong-post of civilization up north, even though he is not sure it truly exists. Along the way, they will have to deal with plenty of zombies and human scum.

Dacascos will always be known to many as “The Chairman” on Iron Chef, but after his recent high-profile turns in Wu Assassins and John Wick 3, he is primed for a career renaissance as an action star. Alas, it won’t start with The Driver, but it is not a total dead-loss. As the titular Driver, Dacascos shows much more range most critics and viewers probably expect from him, especially in his tender parental scenes with Bree, played by his likable real-life daughter Noelani. Plus, his action chops remain undiminished. Like his fellow 1990’s action star, Gary Daniels, Dacascos always had screen charisma and is still in terrific shape. Frankly, both of them should have been bigger stars during their peaks.

Maximum Impact: The FSB and the Secret Service, Working Together

You would think the U.S. Secret Service would more likely deal with the Russian Federal Protective Service (FSO) than the FSB, the cosmetically revamped successor to the KGB, if it were tasked with protecting a top secret summit in Moscow. However, the FSB needs more good press, so Russian D-minus-list action star Alexander Nevsky duly plays a FSB agent in his latest outing. This time, he gets to partner up with Kelly Hu, but she can’t redeem Andrzej Bartkowiak’s Maximum Impact (trailer here), which opens today in select theaters.

Maxim Kadurin is built like a tank, but he is actually a FSB computer jockey supporting the deceptively small of stature Andrei Durov, a.k.a. “The Hammer from Hell.” However, a concussion forces the agents to swap roles right before the arrival of the American Secretary of State for a double-secret gab session with his counterpart. However, Sec. Jacobs’ granddaughter Brittany manages to stowaway on the State Department plane, so she can rendezvous with her internet flirtation, a Russian boy band idol.

When Kadurin foils an assassination attempt, the shticky pack of fedora wearing villains fall back on an improvised plan B: kidnapping the granddaughter. Since the two airheaded kids are weirdly competent at avoiding detection, it leads to much certainty regarding her status and safety. Fearing the worst, Kadurin and Secret Service Agent Kate Desmond to find and secure the wayward granddaughter before their bosses know she is missing.

Nevsky might be well-connected in Russia (he also represents the country in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association), but his films just are not catching on anywhere else. To be fair, Showdown in Manila is not terrible, but Black Rose was just a lifeless mess. He is not totally unlikable on-screen, but comedy is clearly a challenge for him. That is a real problem, because the jokes and gags are much higher in Impact’s mix than it was for his prior films.

Kelly Hu gets to do a lot of kick-boxing to the extent of almost eclipsing Nevsky as the film’s primary action lead. On the other hand, she has to suffer the indignity of a bleach blond bowl-cut disguise. However, that is nothing compared to humiliating shtick forced on Mark Dacascos, playing Tony Lin, a former Z-list TV star now fronting the gang of mercenaries. However, there is plenty of additional embarrassment to go around, including Tom Arnold playing a senior Secret Service agent obsessed with his prostate and Bai Ling as Scanlon, the over-sexed Under-Secretary for Security. Only Eric Roberts seems to glide through unfazed as Sec. Jacobs.

Take it from someone who appreciates a scrappy B-movie: this is just a bad film. It is more like an employment project for Nevsky’s contacts than something anyone should actually watch. As a cinematographer, Bartkowiak shot classics like The Verdict and Prizzi’s Honor, but his work as a director has been less auspicious. Yet, in this case, most of the creative decisions were most likely out of his control. Not recommended, Maximum Impact opens somewhere today (9/28) and hits VOD next Tuesday (10/2).

Mark Dacascos’s Showdown in Manila

Maybe Trump shouldn’t have asked for so many encores from Duterte, the Mindinaoan Fog. Ordinarily, you would think when an American FBI agent is gunned down on the beach of the Philippines’ most exclusive tourist hotels, the cops would be slightly keyed up to catch the killers. Unfortunately, his widow will have to retain the services of an unlikely private investigator, Russian Nick Peyton, a former Manila copper and his American sex addict partner, Charlie Benz, in Mark Dacascos’s Showdown in Manila (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in Los Angeles.

How did a Russian stiff like Peyton get on the Manila force in the first place? Apparently, it was his fast-and-loose approach to due process and that kind of stuff. These days, he mainly works divorce cases and his partner Benz causes them. Mark Wells’ new widow is a bit frustrated with the local cops. Everyone knows he was gunned down by the notorious drug lord Aldric Cole and his men. She can even whip up a portrait of him, since she is a former police sketch artist.

The problem isn’t identifying Cole, it’s finding him. Fortunately, Peyton will be able to track him down by laying a beating on several of his known associates. While they are at it, Peyton and Cole will also rescue Kiki, a lapsed recovering teen addict they both seem to take a creepy fatherly interest in.

Thank Heavens, Cynthia Rothrock, Don “The Dragon” Lee, and Olivier Gruner all show up to save the film’s bacon when it is time to launch an assault on Cole’s jungle hideout-meth lab. They are also old colleagues from the Manila SWAT team, or whatever. In any case, when they are shooting the living the snot out of Cole’s men, Showdown is pure 1980s gold.

Unfortunately, it takes about an hour to get to that point. Still, Alexander Nevsky (the actor, not the Thirteenth Century Russian Prince) and Casper Van Dien are tolerably chummy as Peyton and Benz. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Matthias Hues chew plenty of scenery as Cole and his chief henchman, Dorn. Philippine teen idol Hazel Faith Dela Cruz has some screen presence, but as Kiki, she looks totally out of place in this ostensibly gritty story. Of course, Rothrock, Lee, and Gruner do their thing as Haines, Dillon, and Ford, basically the cavalry. However, Dacascos kills himself off too early as Wells, because he definitely still has the moves. As a bonus, that really is Tia Carrere as Mrs. Wells.

Dacascos helms the big action scenes with the sort of lucid professionalism fans prefer. We’ll take the clarity of Isaac Florentine over the shaky-cam of Paul Greenglass every time. Everybody seems to enjoy the big smack down with Rothrock and company, like a sort of mini-b-movie Expendables featurette, for good reason. Indeed, a little less talking, a little less Nevsky, a little more action, and a little more Dacascos and this film would have really been getting somewhere. Worth catching on VOD as a nostalgia trip, Showdown in Manila opens tomorrow (1/19) in LA, at the Laemmle Music Hall.