DOUBLE DRAGON: A BLAST FROM THE PAST

Back in the 90s video games were still popular in arcades and home video systems were just taking off. Noticing the popularity of the games as well as the fact that they were siphoning off money that once headed their way, movie studios began making feature films based on the games kids were playing. The thing was that the movies weren’t great, most were kitschy at best and then majority were forgotten not long after they made their way to video at the time. Now those kids who were brought up popping quarter after quarter into those machines and flocking to see those movies are looking back with fondness at the time and looking for those movies on disc. DOUBLE DRAGON is one of those making its way to disc now.

The movie tells the story of an ancient symbol, a medallion broken in half with two dragons on it. One represented the soul and the other the physical aspects of the world. Joined together they wield incredible power. To insure this never happened the two pieces were split apart and secreted in different locations. But today men still seek the medallion pieces with the hope of taking control of that power.

In the near future (at least when the movie came out) the world has changed. As with most movies at the time we now live in an apocalyptic world strewn with garbage on the streets, an ineffective police system that only covers the streets during daylight hours and gangs running the streets at night. Not average gangs by today’s standards but flamboyant gangs featuring Mohawk hairstyles, clown makeup and more.

Koga Shuko (Robert Patrick) is a crime lord in search of the Double Dragon. He finds one half, the soul half, and it provides him with the power to change into shadow form. But to have complete power he needs the other half. He sends his henchmen out to find the missing half of the medallion.

Billy (Scott Wolf) and Jimmy Lee (Mark Dacascos) are two young men living off of fight matches where they use their martial arts skills. Billy is the more hot headed or the pair, quick to act and get them in trouble. Jimmy on the other hand thinks things through and plan a strategy. Both are being raised by Satori (Julia Nickson), an ex-archeologist who was close to their father.

One night coming home after dark the duo is accosted by a gang led by Abobo, a steroid fueled Mohawk wearing gang leader who chases them, eventually catching up with them. As he is about to take them down the pair is rescued by the Power Corp, another gang that’s intent on restoring law and order led by Marian (Alyssa Milano) who happens to be the daughter of the police chief. She also happens to be someone Billy has a crush on.

Abobo tells Koga that the boys have the second half of the medallion. Koga rewards him with a dose of super steroids and along with his henchmen they set out to retrieve the much sought after trinket. Arriving at the abandoned theater where they are hidden a back and forth fight takes place with the duo getting out in time but with Satori being caught in the explosion that takes down their home.

Koga assembles the gangs and unites them, instructing them to find and bring the brothers to him or at least let him know where they are. Seeking the help of Power Corp the brothers, along with Marian, decide to bring the fight to Koga rather than wait to see what transpires. But will they be enough to take on this evil genius, unite the medallion and save the world?

The movie is played for camp from start to finish. Best of all is Patrick as Koga with so many over the top scenes that he steals the film. And that’s saying something with the martial arts skills of Dacascos on display. But even Wolf, who in the extras notes he had no training ahead of time, comes off well in the fight sequences and provides comic relief. And Milano was just at that stage where she was changing from pre-teen princess to young adult here. All work well together to give the story life.

MVD is releasing this film as part of their MVD Video Rewind collection. That’s great news for fans because the film had only been available as an expensive import for some time now. Here we not only get the release on blu-ray but in the best shape possible with plenty of extras. Those include a new documentary “The Making of Double Dragon” that includes interviews with Wolf, Dacascos, writers Peter Gould & Michael Davis and producer Don Murphy, a new featurette “Don Murphy: Portrait of a Producer”, an archival making of featurette, a behind the scenes featurette, the pilot episode of the 1993 animated series (coming soon from MVD as well), a storyboard gallery, press and behind the scenes photos, TV spots, the VHS home video trailer, the original theatrical trailer, a collectible mini-poster and reversible sleeve artwork.

If you grew up with this film and it brings back fond memories for you then take advantage of the fact it’s being released in such a fantastic offering like this one from MVD. You won’t regret it.

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INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS: GOT BLOOD?

How could a movie with a title like this be anything but fun for any gore loving horror fan? And that cover/poster artwork for the film? It has to be great, right? Well yes and no. The movie is a lot of fun and it does show tremendous potential. But to be honest the end result isn’t that fantastic. Which is what makes this movie so much fun. This is one of those movies you put on during a party so people will stand around and think what the heck are we watching.

The story for the most part is fairly simple. Centuries ago druids known as the Sangroids were driven underground and not allowed to worship with their blood cult ceremonies. Now they’ve shown up again in upstate New York in a small rural community with plans to resume their practices and take over the world.

To do so they need blood and their henchmen are bib overall wearing hicks, or at least what New Yorkers would assume are hicks, who fumble the simple jobs they’re assigned. These ghoulish goofs kidnap victims and take them to a shack where they hook them up to a pump and drain the blood from them, replacing it with a substance that causes the blood output to increase.

When the first victim shows up at the local morgue the man in charge, Dr. Anderson, notices what is going on. It wasn’t the wounds that cause the person to die but they seemed to be exploding from within due to the increase in blood. Putting a sample in a jar he watches as it grows overnight and shows it to his assistant Don Tucker (who happens to also be his daughter’s boyfriend).

Bodies go missing, blood continues to grow, the locals hang out in what appears to be the only bar in town and with the sheriff away his deputy spends more time keeping a watch on a bar stool than he does the town. It’s all done in the goofiest yet loving way possible, a movie made by people who wanted to make movies but who had no money to do so let alone vast amounts of talent. But in spite of that there are some decent performances among the many bad ones.

The effects are pretty much high school play quality. The sets are people’s home. And the leader of the Sangroids presents one of the hammiest performances that will have you laughing like crazy. But these things combine to form the charm of the movie. There is no way you can take it seriously and that’s the point. It’s no wonder that the film found a fan base that became a cult of their own, seeking out the movie at midnight shows and drive-ins.

Severin has done an amazing job with this film presenting it in the best possible edition to date with plenty of extras on hand. My first viewing of the film was years ago with a low rent copy that made the film almost unbearable to watch. Severin’s version, scanned from the original negative for the first time ever, makes this film look better than I’ve ever seen it. The extras include an audio commentary track with director Ed Adlum and actress Ortrum Tippel moderated by Kier-La Janisse (author of HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN), “Nothing You’d Show You Mom” a featurette about Ed Adlum and his life, “Harvesting the Dead” an interview with actor Jack Neubeck, “Painful Memories” an interview with cinematographer Frederick Elmes and the original trailer for the film.

For a movie made for just $24,000 where actors were reportedly paid with six packs of beer the odds are that Severin spent more to present the film as it is seen here as well as the extras. They’re offering it in such great condition that it makes it watchable. For horror fans this is a must have. For everyone else it’s worth it just to have a good laugh. 

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DIVIDE AND CONQUER-THE TRUE STORY OF ROGER AILES: BUT IS IT?

The world is fueled by politics these days, perhaps more so than in the history of this country. What’s even more frightening is that there is little room for middle ground these days and more and more people have chosen one side or the other. Even scarier is the fact that the press has revealed themselves in recent years to be more one sided politically than they exposed themselves to be in the past. But even in stating that opinion there is controversy with one side claiming I’m right and the other saying I’m wrong and that they are merely reporting the news. History would say otherwise.

Which brings us to this film, DIVIDE AND CONQUER THE TRUE STORY OF ROGER AILES. The documentary from A&E (owned by Disney/ABC) attempts to paint a portrait of a man who knew how to manipulate people toward his own cause and beliefs. Those were right leaning conservative ideas. It follows his life starting with his childhood, moving quickly on to his time working with Richard Nixon and on through his years helping other Presidents get elected. Then he moves on to something even bigger, the creation of Fox News.

Along the way incidents of alleged sexual misconduct followed Ailes. From his producing days while working on THE MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW to his time at Fox, Ailes was supposed to have hit on nearly every female employee that worked for him. He had affairs with his aides and was married three times. It was this last bout of accusations that led to his being ousted from the behemoth he had created and made the number one news channel in the country.

So how is the movie? Confusing, infuriating, interesting and leaving at least myself with more questions than answers. Those who find Ailes to be the devil will no doubt adore the movie and not put it in perspective, finding it a film that justifies their beliefs not so much about the man but Fox News itself. The channel takes a lot of hits in the film. But that’s what makes the film so confusing.

In a world filled with # metoo stories the movies takes numerous shots at Fox while ignoring the myriad of other networks suffering the same stories. We get to hear about Ailes and host Bill O’Reilly while nothing is said of Charlie Rose (seen in clips here), Matt Lauer or several other network execs who’ve gone through the same process and been ousted as well. While the movie is about Ailes, why focus solely on him and not discuss the entire movement that led to this juncture?

The movie also tries to have it both ways with claims that Ailes wasn’t all that smart in one sentence and then claiming he was Machiavellian in the next, creating a news channel based completely on political beliefs without any value as a news source. Either his a genius or an idiot but the film tries to claim that he was both at the same time. Huh?

It also fails to discuss the fact that the channel does have a news division kept apart from its commentary programming which fills most of its air time. And it paints those commentary shows as extremist propaganda, again ignoring the fact that channels such as MSNBC and CNN both do the exact same thing but coming from a different political point of view. How does one complain about a channel doing this but then never discuss the fact that all major news channels these days have followed suit? And perhaps that’s the biggest thing about Ailes that they fail to discuss, the fact that his channel pushed the others into coming out and doing the same thing in an attempt to win back ratings.

Along these same lines they claim that he was shaping the country in one sentence and a few minutes later they say that he was tapped into what America wanted. These two concepts cannot exist at the same time. Either he made the entire country that watches the channel and makes it number one in ratings believe as he did or they believed that way to begin with and finally found a channel to watch that they agreed with.

Through it all and wrapping up the story being told here we have his sexual escapades, his telling potential stars that they need to sleep with him to get ahead. Every man or woman who does something like this immediately raises the creep factor a hundred fold. Ailes falls into that category with the claims made against him that were settled out of court. But then as I stated earlier this was a pattern found in all of the entertainment and news world if one is to judge by the accusations, indictments and firings throughout the industry.

While the movie is interesting it is so far one sided that at times the interviewers can be heard posing the questions to those speaking so that they get the response they hoped for rather than a straight answer from the mouth of those talking. It becomes a hit job intended to portray Ailes, Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch and Fox News in the most negative light while ignoring the fact that more has taken place at other networks. Fox News used to use the phrase “fair and balanced”. It would be nice to see a documentary that applies that to the topic they choose to feature. 

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