Affinity, Starring Marko Zaror

It takes a strong mickey to knock out Marko Zaror, but there is a nasty drug going around Thailand’s dive bars. Of course, those are the only places the brooding former SEAL he plays would ever consider patronizing. He has a lot to forget, including the death if his brother, but he finds someone worth living and fighting for. Unfortunately, the same gang behind the super-potent compliancy-inducing drug has been hunting for Athena in Brandon Slagle’s Affinity, which releases today on VOD.

Bruno blamed himself when his brother died during a mission. The depressed drinking also went badly, when a gang of roofie-wielding criminals assumed he would be easy prey, but he came to in time to defend himself. His friends, Fitch, a former teammate, and Joe, a crusty expat, keep encouraging him to pull himself together. Bruno finally does exactly that when Athena washes up on his river dock.

She is clearly running from something, but the ex-SEAL agrees not to ask, as he nurses her back to health. Obviously, she has suppressed her tormented memories of a shadowy gang—and it hardly takes much cinematic intuition to figure out they are the same outfit behind Bruno’s boozy misadventure. In fact, the henchmen, led by the formidable Krieger soon re-abduct her, igniting a war with Bruno and Fitch, his reluctant backup.

Krieger’s boss not so shockingly turns out to be famous geneticist Dr. Kovalovski, who is up to some ridiculously crazy mad scientist business. Honest, it is hard to keep a straight face during the third act revelations (which many of the marketing descriptions perversely give away). For the most part, Affinity is a gritty exercise in Marko Zaror butt-kicking, but it has a truly wacky secret waiting to reveal itself—and wacky really is the most apt adjective.

Some fans might appreciate the twist, because it is certainly different. Regardless, Zaror does what he does best, early and often. He also gets rock solid support from Brahim Chab as his chief sparring partner, Krieger, and Brooke Ence as his comrade, Fitch. In fact, Affinity is notable for showcasing Ence’s first appearance outside DC-related properties (Wonder Woman, Justice League, and CW’s Black Lightning). She and Zaror make a good team—and she is largely spared the screenplay’s goofy excesses.

Prisoner of War, Starring Scott Adkins

In The Great Escape, Captain Virgil Hilts raced motorcycles before the War. Likewise, British Wing Commander James Wright studied martial arts according to the backstory of this film (starting with his youthful years in Hong Kong, if you were wondering). Both sports have timely wartime applications. However, there is no question putting his fist into the faces of the Japanese POW camp guards holds a special satisfaction for Wright. As a result, he doesn’t expect to live much longer, but he intends to go down swinging in Louis Mandylor’s Prisoner of War, which is now playing in theaters (and available on VOD).

We can tell from the prologue Wg Cdr. Wright will somehow survive—and he will not forget (or forgive) the treatment he received from camp commandant Ito. 1942 was a heck of a time to get shot down over Subic Bay, but obviously that was never Wright’s intention. Having enough of an idea of what awaits, Wright kills three Japanese soldiers trying to evade capture. Once apprehended, a junior Japanese officer orders his immediate beheading, but Wright also kills the execution party.

At this point, Ito develops an unhealthy interest in his prisoner. He hopes to humiliate Wright in his makeshift gladiatorial ring, but despite being outnumbered and facing unfair, unequal conditions, Wright keeps besting every Japanese soldier Ito throws at hm. However, he recognizes the situation is unsustainable. The prisoners have also heard rumors of the notorious death march, so they start hatching escape plans.

Essentially, Prisoner of War is like a martial arts remake of Unbroken. The trailer makes it look like Wright fights one cage-match after another, which slightly overstates the bloodsport aspects (even though they are certainly prevalent). Indeed, the themes of escape and survival with dignity are equally important.

Nevertheless, Adkins deserves tremendous credit for the fierceness of his performance. He is nothing less than spectacular in the fight sequences and there is a visceral physical intensity to his scenes enduring torture. He is sort of like the John Wick of the Greatest Generation, in the best way possible.

This is also the best work yet behind the camera for Mandylor (Adkins’ co-star in the wildly entertaining Debt Collector films). The camp and surrounding environment look convincingly oppressive, while the battle scenes are rendered with a fair degree of realism. Mandylor also nicely handles the stomach-churning cruelty inflicted on Allied POWs, often with a strategically panning camera, which spares viewers much of the gore while preserving the chilling emotional impact.

The Flood: Gators Attack

Alligator really does taste a bit like chicken. It is chewier, but delicious when prepared well. Unfortunately, gators think people also taste like chicken and they are bigger, faster, and hungrier. During a hurricane-flash flood, an isolated group of cops and convicts find themselves on the menu in Brandon Slagle’s The Flood, which opens Friday in New York.

A Katrina-like storm is surging around Sheriff Jo Newman’s station, so she reluctantly agrees to put up a detoured prison transport for the night. That means Rafe Calderon’s plans also change. His gang’s former getaway driver, Russell Cody was convicted of the cop-killings during their last job, but not before he hid the money.

Cody is less than thrilled to see his old comrades, but everyone will have to work together when a pack of angry alligators swims into the flooded station. Of course, they won’t, but Cody consistently throws his chips in with Sheriff Newman, rather than Calderon’s crew or his fellow convicts.

The Flood is sort of Rio Bravo with gators, which is a reasonably promising premise to start with. Slagle certainly does not over-complicate it. It is a crying shame the soundtrack totally lacks any jazz, blues, or zydeco selections, but it still feels like a Louisiana kind of film—even though it was shot abroad, presumably for economic reasons.

Casper Van Dien, Nicky Whelan, and Louis Mandylor are all pros at this kind of unfussy action filmmaking by now, so they credibly get down to business as Cody, Newman, and Calderon. As in Slagle’s Battle for Saipan, Eoin O’Brien is the surprise standout, doing a not-half-bad Cajun accent as the other reasonable prisoner, “Big Jim” Pruett.

As Good as Dead, Written by and Starring Michael Jai White

I'm not in the business of advising drug cartels, but generally speaking, when an old enemy like Michael Jai White goes off the grid, I’d let him stay vanished. Instead, they go out looking for him for him where he is hiding-out south of the border in R. Ellis Frazier’s As Good as Dead, written by its star, Michael Jai White, which is now available on VOD.

Bryant, a former cop and DEA agent, busted a drug-running and human-trafficking ring run by corrupt copper Sonny Kilbane. Even though Kilbane is currently in prison, he had his thugs go after Bryant and his wife, so he cut ties and disappeared down to Mexico. He now works anonymously as a surveyor (a nice detail), whose desert workout routines inspire straight-and-narrow Oscar, who is bullied by his soon-to-be-paroled brother Hector’s fellow gang members.

Much to his surprise, Bryant agrees to tutor Oscar in his distinctive Muay Thai-ish style of martial arts. When the Mexican teen unleashes his sensei’s moves at an underground steel cage match, some cell phone footage goes viral. Naturally, Kilbane sends a team of assassins after Oscar, hoping to find Bryant. Unfortunately for them, they will—but more hit squads will follow.

The basic premise is pretty familiar to VOD action fans, but As Good as Dead has two things going for it—and they are both Michael Jai White. As an action star, he still has all his chops and looks just as chiseled as ever. He also wrote some surprisingly clever lines, especially when he and Hector riff on action movies. It is too bad there isn’t more of this attitude, because it really helps elevate the film.

Renegades, Co-Starring Lee Majors and Patsy Kensit

These retired mercs fancy themselves the old-timer version of “The Wild Geese,” which is saying something, considering how haggard the hard-living Richard Burton and Richard Harris looked in that 1978 movie. The crusty old Londoners are probably twenty years older, but they look healthier. That is fortunate, because they will have some work cut out for them in Daniel Zirilli’s Renegades, which releases tomorrow on VOD.

Maj. Carver just moved his former subordinate Burton off the streets and into his home, because the veteran officer never leaves one of his men behind. Carver is pretty American-sounding, but his daughter is all British. Judy Carver was even elected a local councilor. In representing her district, she made trouble with the cops for Anthony Goram’ criminal outfit. Carver intended to warn off the interloping foreign (from parts undefined) gangster, but his thugs killed the Major instead.

Obviously, Burton and Carver’s old comrades (and fellow support group members) Peck, Woody, and Harris do not take kindly to that, so they round up all the weapons they can scrounge (including a crossbow) to take the fight to Goram. They do a pretty good job of it, especially since Inspector Moore (who is investigating their mayhem) has to call in favors from her CIA contact (a cameo appearance for Michael Pare) to figure out what is going on.

That is pretty much all there is to Renegades, which wouldn’t be so bad, if Zirilli’s direction were smoother. His strictly dramatic scenes have an awkwardness that must embarrass his experienced cast, especially the great Lee Majors, who brings a gravitas to the film that it doesn’t deserve, as the Major. As Judy Carver, Patsy Kensit (from Lethal Weapon 2 and Angels and Insects) is stuck in several dull scenes opposite Nick Moran’s impassive Burton that must have been a chore for them to plod through.

Battle for Saipan

Five Americans were awarded the Medal of Honor for their service at Saipan, all of them posthumously. A campaign was launched to upgrade Guy Gabaldon’s Navy Cross to the MOH, which still continues after his death. Such valor testifies to the battle’s high stakes and brutal conditions endured by tens of thousands of American soldiers, including my grandfather. The attack on an American field hospital in this film is fictional, but it is consistent with the Imperial army’s scorched earth “banzai” charge. A handful of soldiers and medical personnel must stand against several Japanese platoons in screenwriter-director Brandon Slagle’s Battle for Saipan, which opens tomorrow.

Like Gabaldon (who was raised in a Japanese-speaking family), Maj. William Porter speaks some of the local lingo, but it is never explained how he picked it up. Regardless, he overhears plans of an attack on the nearby U.S. Army field hospital while dodging a Japanese patrol. He finds a rag-tag facility lacking proper supplies for the many patients they have. Porter even brought another—the only other survivor of his scouting party. Vic, the lead surgeon, never expected to fight, but he completed basic like any other serviceman, so he and Porter will have to spearhead their defense.

There are a few reasonably colorful characters in the hospital, particularly, the demoted commanding officer, Gen. Jake Carroll, but the narrative still boils down to: the Japanese attack and the Americans defend. It is simple, unfussy, and pretty effective for what it is. This is hardly Hell to Eternity (based on Gabaldon’s story), but lead thesp Casper Van Dien bears some resemblance to Jeffrey Hunter.

Bring Him Back Dead: Louis Mandylor Hunts Gary Daniels

Miss Manners should have had a column explaining how rude it is to keep your gang waiting a long time for their split of the loot. It might have helped mean old Trent. Instead, he keeps his band of armed robbers impatiently holed-up in his cabin while one of them slowly bleeds all over the couch. That allows too much time for complications in Mark Savage’s Bring Him Back Dead, which releases today on VOD.

It was supposed to be an easy score, but the erratic Killian started shooting the guards. Alex nearly killed him himself when they reached the cabin—and Trent sort of regrets stopping him when he arrived. Poor Geoff took a slug in the gut, but he might just be immortal considering how long he keeps moaning on death’s door. Of course, his condition puts everyone on edge when Trent tells them they all have to chill for a few hours, until his buyer arrives.

Alex has other ideas. He knocks everyone out with drugged whiskey, so he can take off with all the loot (he has a more pressing need for it). However, he did not count on Trent’s ex-junkie daughter Lisa coming with him, as a somewhat reluctant accomplice. Of course, he did not knock them out for long, so the hunt is soon on.

BHBD is a grungy but efficient caper-gone-bad movie, but if it had been released in the early 1990s, some critics probably would have hailed it as an indie landmark (not that anyone is saying it is). The best thing going for it is Gary Daniels, who is still in terrific shape. Frankly, it is hard to believe Louis Mandylor’s Trent could go toe-to-toe with him, when you compare their respective physiques, even given Alex’s serious bow-and-arrow wound.

Hell Hath No Fury, Featuring Mandylor, Vandenberg, and Bernhardt

People forget Germany first occupied France was during WWI—that’s why the front line was in France. Those who collaborated the first time faced reprisals that they repaid with interest during the National Socialist occupation. Many in turn faced similar or worse humiliation after the Allied liberation, like Marie Dujardin, the former mistress of a high-ranking SS officer. Ironically, Dujardin was in fact a resistance mole, but she has nobody left to vouch for her. However, she has knowledge of a secret stash of gold that is definitely worth something in Jesse V. Johnson’s Hell Hath No Fury, which opens this Friday in Los Angeles.

When we meet Dujardin, she is cooing romantically with the ruthless Von Bruckner. Yet, when their car is ambushed by the resistance, she claims to be on their side. He manages to take care of his would-be executioners, but she gets the drop on him. Or so she thought—those darned glancing face shots. She left him for dead, but she really left him facially scarred.

That leads to a nasty reunion when she leads three American GI’s and Major Maitland, their Kelly’s Heroes-style officer to the cemetery, where she tells them she hid Von Bruckner’s gold. He wants it too—and he is marching their way with all the SS troops still loyal to him.

HHNF is not exactly a love letter to the “Greatest Generation.” Technically, Dujardin is not exactly a stereotypical “woman scorned” either. However, Johnson, the prolific action director, stages some nifty battle sequences. Stuff gets blown-up and Germans get killed many satisfactory ways, but Johnson always keeps it all clean and legible on-screen.

He also has the benefit of a gritty, experienced cast, including Louis Mandylor, who certainly knows his way around a Johnson set (including the Debt Collector movies and maybe half a dozen others). Timothy V. Murphy is a real standout for the grizzled swagger and snarling attitude he brings as the working-class sergeant.

The Debt Collectors: Scott Adkins is Back in Business

Whenever an anti-hero gets talked into doing “one last job,” it is always a mistake. In this case, it is really three last jobs, making it three times worse. Frankly, French knows it is a bad idea to get back in the collections business, but he has been really scuffling since the last film, so he lets his old partner Sue talk him into an ill-advised trifecta in Jesse V. Johnson’s The Debt Collectors, which releases this Friday on VOD.

Things were looking dicey for French at the end of The Debt Collector [singular] and even worse for Sue, but somehow, they both pulled through. Their old boss Big Tommy told them to lie low after their fatal shootout with Barbosa, the gangster, so it is ironic he now wants them to collect Barbosa’s old debts—too ironic. In fact, they are being set up by Barbosa’s vengeful brother, but it will take the knuckleheads a while to figure it out.

Of course, the three collections are particularly hard cases. One of them is played by Vernon Wells (a fan favorite from The Road Warrior and Commando), so you know he must be tough. Basically, Johnson and co-screenwriter Stu Small follow the successful formula they established in the first film: French and Sue (but mostly French) bash away at the vigs’ henchmen, taking a good pounding themselves, until the debtors finally pay up. However, there is probably a greater sense of danger this time around.

Arguably, the first outing had a lighter tone, which is why we would even compare it to a lot of Elmore Leonard films, including Get Shorty. The new (plural) installment is a bit heavier, but Scott Adkins and Louis Mandylor still have terrific bickering-bantering-brawling buddy chemistry, as French and Sue, respectively. Obviously, Adkins has all kinds of moves and muscle, while Mandylor looks like grizzled gristle personified.

Self-Quarantine Viewing: The Mercenary

It is a terrible idea to leave a soldier-for-hire like Maxx for dead. His former comrades-in-arms do it twice. They are fortunate the first time, because a brave parish priest convinces the human weapon to renounce violence, but the bad guys are perversely determined to keep poking the bear. Sooner or later, Maxx is bound to start doing what he does best in Jesse V. Johnson’s The Mercenary, which is now available on DVD and VOD.

Eventually, the Islamist outrage industry will start protesting this film, because the opening action sequence features Maxx liquidating dozens of terrorists in a Mosque, which doesn’t seem to trouble the film in the least. It certainly shouldn’t trouble viewers either, but the world is insane. Things get a bit dicey on the next gig their team-leader LeClerc accepts from a Latin American drug cartel. When one of his colleagues tries to have his way with a village woman, Maxx intervenes, but almost gets killed for his efforts.

Kindly Father Elias nurses Maxx back to health and guides him back to the path of the righteous. Unfortunately, LeClerc and his mercs have taken over the local drug trade. Periodically, they abduct villagers to labor in their meth factories. At first, Maxx merely trains the villagers in self-defense, but when LeClerc learns he is still alive, all bets are off.

So, any questions? Nobody is likely to confuse The Mercenary with art cinema, but it is definitely a competent, self-aware direct-to-DVD action movie. Johnson is one of the best in the business at staging action on-screen (see for instance: Avengement, Debt Collector, and Accident Man). Former French Foreign Legion paratrooper Dominiquie Vandenberg does not have the star power of Johnson’s frequent protag, Scott Adkins, but as a former competitor in Thailand’s “Iron Circles,” he clearly has the skills, the physicality, and the street cred for a bad cat like Maxx. After watching The Mercenary, we’re frankly keen to see more of him.