Brake

BRAKE-2012-A man named Jeremy (Stephen Dorff) is trapped in a glass coffin in the dark. The only light is from some red numbers counting down. Every time they hit zero something strange happens. He talks to another guy named Henry on a radio. He seems to be on a truck and moving from place to place. I like this TWILIGHT ZONE inspired suspense tale enough but I felt it's resolution and far fetched twist ending easy to figure out. Pot bellied Tom Berenger  shows up at the end. The director Gabe Torres had previously directed episodes of TV shows I never heard of.

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This Stinks

ALIEN RAIDERS-2008-A group of idiots invade a convenience store and hold several customers hostage. Their leader says they are looking for a certain individual who is infected with something. They have a "spotter" who can tell who's infected but he's killed. So instead they have to do some experiments to find the infected one (this includes cutting off fingers). Later a resurrected dead person start killing everyone. Another spotter tries to explain things but by then my brain was too numb to care. There's not one likable character in this talky, too dark science fiction tale whose typical twist ending drives home the point that this was a complete waste of time not only for the audience but for the filmmakers too! The director Ben Rock also made a fake documentary about "the Blair Witch".

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Bad Farm

ALBINO FARM-2009-Four morons (2 guys, 2 girls) are on a road trip checking out "rural America" for a school project. After meeting a dwarf scrapping roadkill off the pavement they get a flat but have no spare. In the town of Shiloh they meet some weird locals like a waitress with deformed hands and an old lady nursing a mutant baby. They hear a story about a place called The Albino Farm where it turns out cannibalistic, murderous mutants reside. One couple is killed. Something happens to the other couple but believe it or not it was so dark I didn't understand what was going on in this stupid HP Lovecraft inspired HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES rip-off! Pro-wrestler Chris Jericho is in it. And it took two directors to make it! Go figure....

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More Martial Arts

THE EIGHT ESCORTS-1979-Drama and comedy mix in this period piece Kung-Fu adventure. An "escort service" must deliver some "precious goods" to a bride to be. The "escort" owner is killed and his daughters and some martial arts cronies take over the business. It's mostly talky and boring but the violent finale is good! 

It features Wai-Man Chan (CHINESE HERCU-LES), Danny Lee (THE KILLER), Mien Fang (5 FINGERS OF DEATH) and Lily Li (SHATTER). Director Hsueh Li Pao also made BLOOD TREASURY FIGHT.

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Pre-Super Reeves

TEAR GAS SQUAD-1940-Druggist Joe McCabe (pre-Superman George Reeves) captures gangster Rocks Dawson. Joe's brother is a nightclub singer named Tommy McCabe (Dennis Morgan) who impersonates a singing cop in his act. He really doesn't like policemen but manages to win over a woman, Jerry Sullivan (Gloria Dickson) who's whole male family are police officers (Edgar Buchanan plays one of them). John Payne (MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET) is Morrissey, another policeman who becomes a rival to Tommy for Jerry's affections. McCade joins the police training school (where future Perry White John Hamilton is the police commissioner) to impress Jerry. He becomes leader of the Police Glee Club but after punching out Morrissey he's drummed out of the force. When brother Joe is killed for revenge Tommy wants back in. When Morrisey is taken hostage by a gang tear gas comes into play...sort of. Tommy rescues Morrisey and together they arrest the gang. Tear gas really doesn't have much to do with it except maybe all the songs caused a lot of gas and tears?? Who knows? It just got my attention because Reeves was in it. Mary Gordon is Jerry's mother and Frank Wilcox and Ben Weldon (a future frequent guest villain on TV's Superman) have small roles.

Lead actress Gloria Dickson had a promising career hampered by alcoholism. In 1945 she died in a house fire at age 28,

Director Terry Morse also made BRITISH INTELLIGENCE (with Karloff), FOG ISLAND and UNKNOWN WORLD. He also edited many films.

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Cowboy Musical

TERROR OF TINY TOWN-1938-Everyone's favorite little peoples western begins with a narrator addressing the audience.

Billy Curtis is the cheerful hero Buck Lawson. He battles cattle rustler Bat Haines ("Litte Billy" Rhodes), a really mean guy who's trying to cause a range war between Buck's father (John Bambury) and another rancher named Tex Preston (Billy Platt). The highlight for me are the very bizarre musical numbers but it has all the elements of a regular low budget western: shoot outs, runaway stagecoach, crooked sheriff, hired gunslingers, outrageous make-up, bad acting, chiched script. The funniest character is Tex's German cook. Buck (who sings and plays guitar) falls in love with Tex's niece (Yvonne Moray) to complicate matters. Later Haines kills Tex and Buck is blamed. He's almost lynched but Haines' neglected girlfriend (Nita Krebs) clears him. In the climax Buck and Hanes duke it out in a cabin while dynamite burns in the basement.

Some of the cast would appear in THE WIZARD OF OZ the next year.

TERROR was directed by San Newfield who typically made 15 other features in 1938!

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Jackie Chan

THE INVINCIBLE FIGHTER:THE JACKIE CHAN STORY-1996?-A narrator tells us about Jacky (Jackie) Chan (born Chan Yuen Long) becoming the new Bruce Lee, a Kung-Fu international star. The movie highlights 10 movies featuring Chan. The narrator also explains about the 18 fighting styles and weapons used. Then scenes from "CUB TIGER FROM KWANTUNG, SPIRITUAL KUNG-FU, THE FEARLESS HYENA and others (mostly directed by Wei Lo) are shown with the narrator explaining some of the action. The sub-titles have lots of mistakes and are sometimes out of sync with the action. Also a scene that's suppose to depict Chan's training is actually a scene from a movie!

Despite all that it's worth seeing for the stunts and styles especially if you're a Jackie Chan fan. I'm not sure of the year it was made or who directed. It recently came out on DVD.

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