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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Female Action Hero
Tom Jolliffe on female action heroes… With the impending UK release of Atomic Blonde, it now seems a good time to consider the female action hero. You may think this ‘phenomena’ only stretches back to around the time Sigourney Weaver donned a mecha-suit, but it goes back further. There has certainly been a significant rise […]
Movie Review – The Martial Arts Kid (2015)
The Martial Arts Kid, 2015. Directed by Michael Baumgarten. Starring Jansen Panettiere, Don Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock,Kathryn Newton and Matthew Ziff. SYNOPSIS: When misguided teen orphan, Robbie Oakes (Jansen Panettiere) gets in trouble with the law one too many times, his grandmother has little choice but to uproot him from Cleveland to Cocoa Beach to live […]
