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Force: Five

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It took a long time for Bruce Lee to get “discovered” in the U.S. By the time Enter the Dragon turned him into a phenomenon, he was already gone, leaving behind opportunistic producers eager to wring out his legacy and a handful of celebrity students to carry on his techniques. Chuck Norris might be the most famous of the bunch, but Joe Lewis was arguably the most formidable. A karate champion and early evangelist of American kickboxing, Lewis clearly had his eye on replicating his mentor’s big screen success. Instead, his debut, Jaguar Lives! (1979) found more fame years later on MST3K than it did in theaters. It’s follow-up, Force: Five (1981) is still a clumsy martial-arts mishmash stitched together from TV-grade stunt work and flat performances…but it’s aged to the point where an audiences can laugh with it rather than at it. Recruited to rescue a senator’s daughter from a drug-smuggling cult leader, Jim Martin (Lewis) gathers his own team of superfriends (including karat...
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The Japanese Godfather Trilogy

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When it comes to films that reveal the inner workings of mafia crime families, The Godfather (1972) was far from the first of its kind. As far back as New York Confidential (1955), screenwriters were laying the groundwork for power-hungry dons, resentful daughters, stoic hitmen and crooked politicians. So the Japanese Godfather Trilogy  (1977 – 1978) isn’t exactly breaking new ground, merely shifting the setting to a new locale and reinforcing the adage that absolute power corrupts absolutely. As head of the Nakajima group, Sakura (Shin Saburi) understands a brutal truth of the modern era: a business that isn’t growing is already dying. So he pushes his second in command, Tatsumi (Koji Tsuruta) to expand the yakuza empire into legitimate territory, crossing paths with political figures who all want a piece of the pie…but whose morals are even lower than the criminals they publicly condemn. In part two, Ambition , Matsugae (Hiroki Matsukata) carries on with the campaign, ope...
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Double Impact

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Actors are a bit…self-involved. That’s not exactly breaking news. So for a particular breed of thespian, playing opposite themselves is probably quite a kick. Which might explain why Jean-Claude Van Damme has arranged that very scenario three times in three different movies: Double Impact (1991), Maximum Risk (1996) and Replicant (2001). In retrospect, probably not the best idea for an actor who needs all the help he can get to emote convincingly. But it can still be awful fun to watch, especially his inaugural adventure as Chad and Alex, twins separated at birth who reunite to save their father’s legacy in the aforementioned Double Impact . Raised in L.A., Chad is a happy-go-lucky womanizer who discovers his parents were murdered by a triad in Hong Kong where his twin, Alex, has been slumming for the past 20-plus years. This odd couple is brought together by Frank (Geoffrey Lewis), the former family bodyguard, in search of hard evidence to implicate the murderers responsi...
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Iphigenia

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If your knowledge of Greek history is limited to Ray Harryhausen films and some half-remembered high school Honors English, then Michael Cacoyannis’ Iphigenia (1977), based on the play by Euripides, might seem above your pay grade. But there’s a reason these mythological tales have such staying power; they’re often built around universal truths, political drama and emotional baggage that’s all too familiar even in the modern era. Minus the stop motion monsters, of course. Despite its resemblance to Clash of the Titans , there are no krakens unleashed in this story of King Agamemnon, ruler of Argos, who’s duped into sacrificing his daughter, Iphigenia, in order to appease the gods and raise the winds that will send his ships to Troy. Iphigenia’s mother, Queen Clytemnestra, rages for her doomed daughter’s plight, enlisting the help of Achilles to convince his fellow soldiers of the tragedy in the making. But in a world of weak, petty men beholden to their positions of power, women –...
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Excalibur 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

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Just as science-fiction cinema was never the same after 2001: A Space Odyssey , modern fantasy films owe a huge creative debt to John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981). Gritty and glorious, this retelling of the Arthur and the knights of the round table was a far cry from the stagey antics of Camelot or even the fantastic mythological adventures crafted by Ray Harryhausen. This felt real! A muddy, bloody medieval slog through the dark ages with a dose of authentic magic for good measure. Orphaned at birth and raised in anonymity, Arthur (Nigel Terry) pulls the sword from the stone and reveals himself as the once and future king…albeit a horribly unprepared one. That’s where Merlin (Nicol Williamson) comes in, schooling the young squire in the ways of proper politics to unite the land. But a bitter love triangle develops between his wife, Guinevere, and most trusted knight, Lancelot, opening the door for an incestual coup d’etat fueled by black magic and family drama. Starring a who’s ...
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The Visitor

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In the annals of WTF film history, few films make a more vivid impression than The Visitor (1978), an Italian-produced horror-sci-fi oddity that manages to rip off movies as disparate as The Omen, The Exorcist, Close Encounters , The Fury and the psychedelic oeuvre of Alejandro Jodorowsky. Add in an all-star cast of old Hollywood icons, some Chariots of the Gods mythology and a child actor with a southern accent as thick as a plate full of chicken ‘n waffles and you’ve got one must-see hot-mess of a movie! Pursuing the progeny of an evil alien entity, Jerzy (John Huston) finds his next target in the heart of Atlanta. Katy (Paige Conner) is a bad-seed with a bad attitude, using her telekinetic powers to torture her mother (Joanne Nail), housekeeper (Shely Winters) and the cop (Glenn Ford) investing a shooting at her birthday party. Her prospective stepdad (Lance Henriksen) coddles this behavior at the behest of a mysterious cabal (led by Mel Ferrer) determined to utilize Katy’s powe...
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Westworld 4K UHD

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While he’s better known as one of the most popular novelists of the past two decades, the late Michael Crichton was a small entertainment industry unto himself. His accomplishments include literary successes like The Andromeda Strain and Congo , director of the hit mid-70s medical thriller Coma , and the producer behind TV’s longtime juggernaut ER . But it’s Jurassic Park that bestowed upon him the same sort of immortality as his genetically-cloned dinosaur creations. As all-encompassing as the book and film became to worldwide popular culture, it was really just a second draft of one of Crichton’s earlier ideas, which he also directed in 1973: Westworld . Delos is the amusement park of the future. Visitors, paying $1000 per night, arrive via hovercraft and are shuttled off to the world of their choice - Medieval World, Roman World or West World – to enjoy a completely authentic experience. This is made possible through high-tech robots indistinguishable from actual human bein...
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