tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1964740912324492072012-01-29T13:07:52.502-08:00I'm a huge fan of direct to video action, sci-fi, and horror. In this blog I review and discuss some of my favorites and not-so-favorites.Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.comBlogger8021100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-90320072757468673742012-01-27T17:48:00.000-08:002012-01-27T18:47:06.863-08:00

We're staring to exhaust our supply of Gary Daniels films. There are a few others available, and I plan on hitting them in the near future, but after that, it's either waiting for the pile of flicks he's done after 2009 to be released here in the States, or search around and see if some of the more obscure older ones pop up. But we got this one, so we might as well take advantage of it.Spoiler

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-50032343666100561642012-01-26T16:01:00.000-08:002012-01-26T17:18:47.974-08:00

I found this used on DVD at the bargain bin of our local record store. After my discount for spending my accrued frequent buyer points, the movie came out to: $.49. Even if this thing sucks-- and I have a good feeling it will-- fifty cents for a Lorenzo Lamas flick I haven't seen yet is worth it.Undercurrent is a pseudo-Neo Noir starring Lamas as some down-on-his-luck former cop going to see

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-774803573442130322012-01-25T16:29:00.000-08:002012-01-25T18:20:07.529-08:00

This is our 800th post, which isn't the biggest milestone, but it is on an even hundred, and worth celebrating I think. And what better flick to look at than one that, while it wasn't itself a DTV flick, launched the career of the man we've come to know of as the Babe Ruth of DTV, Dolph Lundgren. Even today, when most people think of Dolph, they think Ivan Drago-- though they often get the

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-68084159935067342422012-01-24T16:35:00.000-08:002012-01-24T18:54:09.727-08:00

I was trying to think when I first saw this listed on imdb. I want to say, almost as long as the DTVC has existed, this has been listed in various forms of development with rumored cast members added and dropped and whatnot. Then we were lucky enough to have the film's director, DTVC Hall of Famer Albert Pyun, come to us for feedback on things like the introduction, and keeping us up-to-date on

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-18373214127192962952012-01-20T17:26:00.000-08:002012-01-20T17:26:00.264-08:00

I came across this one while doing a search of Michael Madsen on Netflix Watch Instantly. It also had DTVC Hall of Famer David Carradine, which made it even more of a draw. I was a little nervous though, because I've seen these ones with guys like this in them before, and seen them go horribly wrong. Let's hope this one didn't.Road of No Return is about four hit men that are brought together

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-16451914970722930872012-01-19T16:27:00.000-08:002012-01-19T18:18:40.018-08:00

I don't remember where I first encountered this, how it first appeared on my radar. I think I was looking up something else, and this was suggested in addition, you know, the ol' "people who looked for this, also liked this" kind of thing. Anyway, all I needed to see was Gary Busey and Michael Paré, and I was sold.Warriors has Busey as a dude in a double-secret black ops group where all the

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-42410425857966633282012-01-17T16:17:00.000-08:002012-01-17T17:28:46.028-08:00

I saw the VHS cover shot of this flick on Tumblr a while back, and I knew I had to make it happen. Look at that Wings Hauser right there. How could I resist? Never miss an opportunity to get more Wings up here.The Carpenter is about a woman from the city who has had a nervous breakdown, so her hubby buys a fixer-upper out in the country for her and him to live in. While the crew working on it

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-25042534177419382582012-01-16T15:00:00.000-08:002012-01-16T17:04:49.158-08:00

When I saw that this movie was on Watch Instantly, I knew I had to have it. I'd been hearing a lot of great things, plus Magnet Releasing had already scored two winners with me in Rubber and Hobo with a Shotgun. This looked like a surefire hit, so let's see if it lived up to expectations.Tucker and Dale vs Evil follows two friends from the mountains of West Virginia, Tucker and Dale, who, after

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-59944569594899112012012-01-13T15:14:00.001-08:002012-01-14T06:06:43.942-08:00

This one has been on my radar for some time now. I must confess, I didn't play the games much in high school, mostly because the Neo-Geo machine at our arcade was near the back, and Mortal Kombat 2 was much more popular; and then Street Fighter II was much more popular among my friends as far as a home fighting game went. Keep that in mind as I go into this that it's one I didn't play much.

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-22947718204191920222012-01-12T18:30:00.000-08:002012-01-12T19:48:34.418-08:00

I came across this one on Watch Instantly, and have kept it on my radar until this week, when I finally decided to make it happen. The combination of Frank Zagarino and Joe Lara could be, if anything, at least a fun time-- though they could also be a boring slog too, you never know. Let's see what this spin of the roulette wheel yields. Also, our buddy Kenner at Movies in the Attic hit this

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-83336160939521316442012-01-11T16:38:00.000-08:002012-01-11T18:10:28.047-08:00

Though this movie had a theatrical run, and did pretty well for itself in 1988, grossing just shy of $3 million at the box office, it's always felt like it belonged on this site. It's a video store flick if I've ever seen one. On the other hand, while it's a video store mainstay, I don't remember either me or my friends really liking it, which is why I kept off it for a bit, and why it wasn't

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-60349442632261773232012-01-10T18:30:00.000-08:002012-01-10T19:56:46.552-08:00

We finish our look at the Toxic Avenger sequels, as forced by Netflix when I had to watch them all before they dumped them from Watch Instantly on the first of the year, with Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV. This is one I'm glad I fit in, because it looks like the Hulu one is the R rated version. I haven't watched that one, but I'm guessing it's the R rated one because it's 20 minutes

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-44895287603412490832012-01-06T14:45:00.000-08:002012-01-06T17:59:56.259-08:00

Sometimes it's a dilemma to figure out how to attack these movies in order to write a proper review. What to focus on, what to leave out, what themes I want to draw from. Take this film and the one before it, Toxic Avenger II. Knowing that much of this film was taken from the four hours of film that was shot for part 2, the question was, do I do them both together? do I do them both in

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-5750829966646373152012-01-05T16:32:00.000-08:002012-01-05T18:58:10.081-08:00

I've always had the long term goal of reviewing all of the Toxic Avenger flicks here at the DTVC, but when Netflix let me know they were dumping them all before the New Year, that long term goal became an immediate one. Turns out I didn't need to rush: all three of the sequels are on Hulu.Toxic Avenger II takes place five years after The Toxic Avenger. Tromaville is now completely safe and free

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-48092440131872810612012-01-04T18:09:00.000-08:002012-01-04T20:36:12.570-08:00

The imdb date on this Albert Pyun flick is a little misleading. 1992 was when it was released in Portugal (according to them), but the film was actually shot in 1989. I've read a few different accounts of the shooting online, but the common themes of all seem to be this: it was done over three days, in 1989, after the Cyborg shoot. Let's see how it turned out.Deceit follows Pyun mainstay

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-8468886695813940672012-01-03T17:48:00.000-08:002012-01-03T19:47:10.824-08:00

It's been almost a year since our last Miles O'Keeffe post, which is simply unacceptable. In fact, his meager 12 tags is among the lowest for DTVC inaugural Hall of Famers-- in fact, only Klaus Kinski is lower, and he's in more for embodying the spirit of what it means to be a great DTV actor than he is for his DTV filmography. This is an abomination. If someone were to ask me how much Keeffe

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-2266728355106425622011-12-30T16:49:00.000-08:002011-12-30T17:50:21.536-08:00

Those who follow us on the DTVC Facebook page (which you can do by either clicking on that link or hitting the Like button to your left) already know the story of why I didn't get this movie at the beginning of the week when it first came out. I'd planned on pre-ordering it from Amazon, but lost track of time (as has happened with a lot of other things this holiday season), and ended up ordering

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-14322427017316318472011-12-29T16:18:00.001-08:002011-12-29T17:34:24.420-08:00

Though this has an imdb date of 2005, the fact that it has almost the exact same cast as 2002's Power Elite means this was probably shot at the same time as that one. I know what you're thinking: "hey Matt, isn't it just as likely that both movies were shot in 2005, and it's Power Elite that was released three years before it was made, as opposed to SWAT: Warhead One being released 3 years after

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-83394382556755077842011-12-28T17:47:00.001-08:002011-12-28T19:05:18.508-08:00

This one has been on Watch Instantly for a while, and with Billy Blanks, Mako, and James Lew in the cast, it was near the top of my queue. It was just a matter of finding the right spot for it, and this week worked out. Now let's see if it was what I expected. Also, our buddy Ty at Comeuppance Reviews did this one, about a year ago.Balance of Power has Blanks as a guy in a poor urban

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-84220547242668996662011-12-27T16:09:00.000-08:002011-12-27T17:34:56.803-08:00

I had been meaning to watch this movie for a long time. I'm a huge Shakespeare fan, and a huge Troma fan, so this seemed like a perfect pairing. I remember seeing trailers for it on other Troma flicks I watched, with Motorhead's "Sacrifice" playing in the background, and thinking it looked pretty sweet, but for some reason or another I just never got around to it. Now Netflix, as they often do

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-25793831686696341392011-12-23T18:41:00.000-08:002011-12-23T19:35:18.614-08:00

It has been a while since I'd made it out to do some thrift shopping, but I went recently and dug through the VHS section to find some gems. It was a different world from the one I'd remembered, with many more mainstream films from local video stores after they'd closed, not the kind of stuff a guy who runs a blog about Direct to Video movies could use. But I did find this bad boy, and for .99,

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-58495174092543030692011-12-22T19:01:00.000-08:002011-12-22T20:39:43.363-08:00

I got hooked up with a Dutch DVD rip of both this and it's companion piece: SWAT: Warhead One. I was excited to get some more Olivier Gruner up, but not so excited to watch this, because I'd heard bad things and was a little leery. We have seen some great so-bad-it's-good efforts from Cine Excel before though, so there was a little hope.Power Elite is not the great sociological work by C.

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-91532934717471524792011-12-21T19:19:00.000-08:002011-12-21T20:14:14.621-08:00

I had been waiting for this one to come to Netflix on DVD for a while, but it was stuck in the old "Saved" queue. Then it found its way on Watch Instantly, but I kept pushing it back for other things. Anyway, now we're here, finally making it happen. Let's see if it was worth the wait.Supreme Champion has UFC fighter Stephan "American Psycho" Bonnar (though on the cover he looks like Nate "The

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-77816101873103384642011-12-20T16:37:00.000-08:002011-12-20T17:36:31.687-08:00

What we got here is a Stage 6 production of a S.W.A.T. DTV sequel set in Detroit, and it's on Watch Instantly. It's got everything I could need, right? Plus it's got Giancarlo Esposito and DTVC favorite Robert Patrick. Why then am I so apprehensive?...S.W.A.T.: Fire Fight has Gabriel Macht as one of the best SWAT team leaders in the country, leading his team in the always violent LA. He's

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-46470363203678322072011-12-15T16:14:00.000-08:002011-12-15T17:16:43.706-08:00

Because we currently have one more Jeff Wincott tag than we do David Bradley tags, we're doing this review of Expect to Die in order to even things up. It's directed and stars Jalal Merhi, and has DTVC favorite Evan Lurie, aka one of the coolest guys ever. Bradley and Lurie? Even Merhi can't screw this up, can he?Expect to Die has Bradley as a genius computer programmer that has created the

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-73459474712894869942011-12-09T19:31:00.000-08:002011-12-09T20:38:11.137-08:00

This was a suggestion on the Facebook page from one of the readers, and if you don't know, that's the place to go to make requests or suggestions for things you've checked out recently that you want to bring to my attention, or personal favorites that you'd like me to review. What made this suggestion even better was the fact that Netflix has it on Watch Instantly-- always a plus.Final

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-24769954402358763522011-12-08T16:00:00.000-08:002011-12-08T16:38:58.068-08:00

A friend hooked me up with this from a rip off of a Czech VHS. How sweet is that? Always on the lookout for more Richard Norton and more AIP flicks, I was looking forward to making this bad boy happen. Let's see how it went.Return of the Kickfighter is something of a 'Namsploitation about a group of soldiers that bury some gold at the end of the war, and 15 years later a Viet Cong soldier who

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-19257104059465107412011-12-06T16:45:00.000-08:002011-12-06T17:43:11.042-08:00

Anyone who's been rocking with us for a little while knows that I try to keep the amount of tags for Jeff Wincott and David Bradley roughly the same, just because I do, and last week we did two Wincott flicks in the two Universal Soldier sequels, so now it's time to balance out the scale with a Bradley flick. Even though Wincott wasn't a star in either film, that's not how tags work, two

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-58198710566439172462011-12-05T17:23:00.000-08:002011-12-05T18:41:45.562-08:00

This has been on my radar for some time, back as far as when I still had the DVD service from Netflix. They never sent it to me, keeping it relegated in Very Long Wait limbo-- which was a big reason why I dumped their DVD service, everything I wanted was in some kind of wait limbo, so my one DVD at a time plan was essentially a weekly spin at the roulette wheel. Long story short, it's now on

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-84535127228594692802011-12-02T17:05:00.001-08:002011-12-02T18:17:15.947-08:00

If you haven't read my Universal Soldiers II post yet, that one gives the back story about how we got here with me reviewing these two films. It's not like it's a very interesting story, but that's it. Considering I don't want to repeat myself, I thought I'd talk about something else in this opening paragraph. I think I'm going to get sushi with my friends tomorrow night, and I may fork over

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-65726692551629883212011-11-30T16:49:00.000-08:002011-11-30T17:57:36.136-08:00

I'm not sure why, but these two Universal Soldier made for The Movie Channel sequels are some of the most requested at the DTVC. I'd always kind of just stuck them aside, figuring I'd get to them eventually. Unfortunately, Netflix decided they were going to put my feet to the fire by letting me know that they were taking both movies off of Watch Instantly, and I knew I'd never bother getting

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-75016348815688000752011-11-29T16:15:00.000-08:002011-11-29T16:58:05.205-08:00

It's always good to get another Wings Hauser flick in, and this one, which is both directed by and stars the man, is a PM Entertainment flick as well, so I figured I would be in good hands. When it comes to great Wings, our friend Ty at Comeuppance Reviews is no stranger either, and you can click on the link to see his review of this as well.Living to Die has Wings as a former cop living in

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-76163230639750300682011-11-28T13:25:00.000-08:002011-11-28T15:39:16.367-08:00

I came across this on Watch Instantly, and thought the idea of a biker flick with Casper Van Dien, William Forsythe, Patrick Muldoon, and Branscombe Richmond sounded pretty good. On the other hand, I've seen enough of these movies to know that that combination could go horribly wrong-- in fact, there was probably a better chance that it'll go wrong--, but I figured I'd give it a shot and see how

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-41976034202076721302011-11-25T15:39:00.000-08:002011-11-25T16:53:53.151-08:00

I don't remember when I first saw The Toxic Avenger. I couldn't have been that old though, late middle school maybe. This is one I've been meaning to do for sometime, and I considered doing it as a milestone post, but figured why wait, we got it now, let's fire it up and make it happen.The Toxic Avenger takes place in Tromaville, NJ, a New York suburb that has the distinction of being the toxic

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-45601698463352597542011-11-23T14:41:00.000-08:002011-11-23T17:51:39.565-08:00

I'm not sure if there's another movie that I've had more requests for than this one. And I'm not sure why I haven't gotten to it until now. It's probably the fact that, outside of the director, Isaac Florentine, the only name in this is Marshall Teague, whose only claim to fame is getting his throat ripped out by Patrick Swayze in Road House. Whatever the reason, we're here now, so let's see

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-30623431222794735212011-11-22T15:07:00.000-08:002011-11-22T17:13:18.108-08:00

For Halloween week of 2010, I had planned to do this movie along with Bloody Birthday and Schizoid, but when those other two movies got almost no response, I scrapped Puppet Master and went with the Lorenzo Lamas flick Body Rock instead. At this stage of the game though, I think I have more horror fans than I did then, so now is probably a better time to give this one a look. Let's see how it

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-55284843114371002102011-11-21T14:57:00.000-08:002011-11-21T16:33:49.685-08:00

It was in the comments section of the Death Wish V review that our friend Mr. Kenner at Movies in the Attic threw down the gauntlet, saying I was too squeamish, and that's why I didn't care for that one. I figured it was time to put up or shut up. And what better flick than The Exterminator, which is one of those ones that a guy like me with a site like mine should've covered by now. It's kind

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-7988294588150980682011-11-18T16:39:00.001-08:002011-11-18T18:14:26.569-08:00

This one was brought to my attention by a reader via the Facebook page, which, if you don't already Like the Direct to Video Connoisseur on Facebook, it's a great place to get updates on what we're planning on doing, and to contact me with general comments and inquiries-- like recommendations or mentions of movies you think I should check out. Before we get started, I also want to mention that

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-20998574857615622342011-11-17T17:14:00.000-08:002011-11-17T20:25:28.207-08:00

Like most kids my age, I ran from this movie as quick as I could when it came out. Vanilla Ice was well past his shelf life, even for a 12-year-old. I'd moved on to Grunge and Gangster Rap, and Vanilla Ice and Hammer and Poison and whoever else were old news. Of course, as I grew older and wiser, I at least realized that I never should've turned my back on Poison, but I also gained a better

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-47970665764760235962011-11-15T17:46:00.000-08:002011-11-15T18:47:51.375-08:00

Recently I got a mention on Twitter from Moe Porne at Drunk on VHS, telling me that a great flick called Las Vegas Bloodbath was on the same DVD set that had Hip Hop Locos. Based on how right he and his Daily Grindhouse Podcast partner Doug Tilley were on how bad Hip Hop Locos would be-- which made it perfect for our Halloween outside the box posts, because it was very scary!-- I trusted their

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-19913050160583345942011-11-14T16:34:00.000-08:002011-11-14T18:49:04.767-08:00

This is one I've been wanting to do for a while now, and was excited when I finally got my hands on it. It's another Albert Pyun flick from the mid-80s, has a great cast, and looks like a great time. If it's half as good as Dangerously Close was, we should be happy.Down Twisted is about a famous, priceless artifact that is stolen and replaced with a replica. The problem is, as it's being

Direct to Video Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02310858965138247572noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196474091232449207.post-31554387061154560692011-11-11T18:24:00.000-08:002011-11-11T19:40:16.216-08:00

So here we are at the end of the Death Wish series. Like part four before it, this one was given to us on VHS from our friend Kenner at Movies in the Attic, and you can go there to see what he thinks of all the Death Wish movies. Let's see how things wrapped up.Death Wish V is the only one in the series to use a Roman numeral in the title, and stars our man Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey, this

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I noticed it had been about six months since I'd done an Olivier Gruner flick, and this is one I'd actually seen almost ten years ago, so I figured I'd go with it. As luck would have it, only a few days before, our buddy Simon from Down Under at Explosive Action hit this one too, so you can go over there and check out his take-- also, I hotlinked your cover photo, so hopefully that's okay.Mars

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This had three names and three names only that I needed to see. First, DTVC Hall of Famer Cynthia Rothrock. That alone will get a movie to the top of my radar. Then there's DTVC favorite Loren Avedon. Always up to see him in something. And finally, this was directed by Godfrey Ho (credited as Godfrey Hall). That should be enough to at least see what this is all about, right?Manhattan Chase

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When Couch Cutter came to me after my Hip Hop Locos post to see if I wanted to write reviews for them, my first thought was, I've been meaning to see Red State, but it seems too mainstream for the DTVC, so maybe it'll fit there. After we agreed on me doing that one, I looked it up imdb and saw that it barely cleared $1 mill at the box office, making it prime DTVC fodder, and the fact that there

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It has finally happened, I am now getting around to the last of the VHSs Mr. Kenner at Movies in the Attic sent me over a year ago. I know, it has taken forever, but it's what happens when I get submissions, especially multiple movie submissions, some are looked at right away, and some are lost in the shuffle. But we're here, it's better late than never, and I appreciate him sending me these,

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This was the final movie of October's Netflix Bad Movie Night, which usually means for the East Coasters like me, it's a struggle to stay awake. I was ready this time though, unlike the last time when I fell asleep for the exceptional Dance of the Dead, I had hit some coffee, and there was no early Arsenal game that morning, so I had been able to sleep in. The question is, would this one be

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I've been meaning to do this one for a while now. We're talking a film with DTVC Hall of Famer David Carradine, directed by Deadly Prey's David Prior, and produced by Action International Pictures (AIP). It just seemed too good to be true, but other things bumped it down the priority list. We're finally here now though, so let's see how it went. Also, our buddy Ty at Comeuppance Reviews did

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Through the magic of Twitter, I have been introduced to a lot of B-movie podcasts, and one of the ones I've been listening to is run by Moe Porne at Drunk on VHS (link is to the iTunes page of his pod-- our friend Ty at Comeuppance Reviews often makes an appearance too). He also writes for a site called Daily Grindhouse, and in a podcast with a fellow Daily Grindhouse writer, Doug Tilley, they

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Last month on our friend Mr. Gable's site, Mr. Gable's Reality, his buddy Alcohol Paul wrote a review on this movie, and the first thought I had was "man, that looks scary." And then I thought "hey, if it's so scary, maybe I should watch it for Halloween and see just how scary it is", and that's how we got here. I decided to make it the first of a two-part Halloween set of posts, in an attempt

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This movie has been the subject of much vituperative discussion. Just a look at our friend Kenner's Movies in the Attic review of the Death Wish series, and you'll see he has this as Bronson's worst ever. Ouch! And in the comments section to Death Wish, it was nearly unanimous, of all the sequels, two was the worst. Let's see if it lived up to the hype.Death Wish 2 picks up six years or so

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This movie was the second of three for October's edition of the Netflix Bad Movie Night, and let's just say it didn't have it's work cut out for it, because the film before it, Die You Zombie Bastards!, hurt immensely. One-Eyed Monster could've been based on a 1000-page L. Ron Hubbard novel, and it still would've looked promising compared to Die You Zombie Bastards! Fortunately it wasn't based

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We've hit another milestone here at the DTVC, 750 posts, and in honor of that, I saved one of my all time favorites to review, Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. I actually saw this one later on in my B-movie watching career, finding it with a buddy at our local video store in 2000. Not only did we quickly attach two VCRs together to make ourselves a copy because we enjoyed it so much, a couple years

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I came across this while looking for movies for my collaboration with The Film Connoisseur (link is to that post) for Halloween. I couldn't believe that a John Carpenter film had only a limited European release, and a DTV release here in the States. A John Carpenter flick should be a big deal, not fly in under the radar. (Also, if you've seen this and you comment and give away the ending-- or

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Obviously this is not a DTV flick, though back when I did my Wild Card posts at the end of the week, this would've been one, because, while it isn't DTV, it had a huge influence on DTV bad actioners, even if very few ever truly capture what this one was going for. Anyway, even though we don't have the Wild Card post anymore in practice, I wanted to look at this one because our friend Kenner at

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I got this along with City of Fear. We're making our way through the Gary Daniels DTV filmography, and these are some that I probably should've done a while ago, but they slipped through the cracks. Also, this is Gary Daniels's 37th tag, meaning he now has the most all time of any actor, surpassing Dolph Lundgren. It's like Hank Aaron passing Babe Ruth for most home runs-- only Dolph is still

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I had planned to do another Daniel Bernhardt flick in this spot, but Netflix was removing this from Watch Instantly, and I figured I wouldn't be getting to it any other way, so I didn't want to miss this chance. Should I have passed it up though? We'll see.Global Effect takes place in South Africa, where a nasty virus has popped up, killing all 85 members of a small village. After the area has

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This was a another film that I came in contact with through our friend Francisco at The Film Connoisseur, with whom I am doing a collaboration with for the month of October. We're looking at supernatural films, me from the DTV angle, and while this was released theatrically in foreign markets, it was DTV here in the States. It intrigued me, because it was directed by Jaume Balagueró, the man

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When I heard that the great Charles Napier passed away, a bunch of potential movies for a tribute post popped into my head, but none of them felt quite right, because they featured Napier in his usual supporting role. That just wouldn't cut it here. Then I thought of Deep Space, which also just happened to be on Watch Instantly. Now this will do.Deep Space is a Fred Olen Ray directed piece

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In inducting PM Entertainment and Art Camacho to the DTVC Hall of Fame in 2011, I liked the idea of this movie, because it was directed by Camacho, it's PM Entertainment, and it features DTVC Hall of Famer Gary Daniels. This felt like it could be everything that you'd want in an induction post. Let's see if I'm right. Also, our buddy Kenner at Movies in the Attic hit this one too.Recoil has

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This is it, this is Martin Kove's Hall of Fame induction post. Like many Hall of Famers before him, he has a lot of movies where he only played a small part, but as we'll see in a film like this, he's plenty capable of carrying the lead too, which is the mark of a true DTVC Hall of Fame actor. So without further ado... by the way, this has been covered before by Kenner at Movies in the Attic

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For those that have Liked the DTVC on Facebook (and if you haven't, the link is over to your left), you've been following the ongoing saga of my trying to get my hands on this movie since it was released over a month ago-- and if you haven't, you've been bugging me and wondering why I haven't gotten to it yet. Netflix, whose DVD service has declined considerably over the past couple months, has

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I first came across this movie at Barnes and Noble with my friend in the summer of 2001. That was a summer filled with trips to record stores, book stores, comic book stores, and the local truck stop to play Galaga. The summer ended with a trip to San Diego, so don't think we did nothing-- though to say becoming a Galaga expert and finding awesome film gems like this is doing nothing is a tad

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I got this Gary Daniels flick with another of his recently, and I'm not sure why I went with this one over the other one, but I did. I'm a sucker for Canuxploitation flicks shot in Bulgaria I guess. Also, this is Daniels's 35th tag, putting him one behind Dolph for most all time by an actor. I do have four Dolph movies from the big screen I could go to if I needed to keep him ahead, but really

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This is one I've been meaning to do for a long time, having not seen it in forever, and not knowing until I started this blog that it was an Albert Pyun film. Sometime in the mid-2000s I saw the video for the Smithereens "Blood and Roses", complete with the movie footage in it-- there's a version that doesn't have the movie footage-- and I really wanted to see this again, and just never got

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For the month of October, our friend Francisco over at The Film Connoisseur is doing a Halloween theme centered on supernatural films, and wanted to know if I wouldn't mind looking at that horror subgenre from the DTV angle. I said sure, but as I haven't reviewed too many before-- and many of the ones I have reviewed weren't that great-- I asked if he had some suggestions that I could take a

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It's time to roll up our sleeves and get a little Dirty with Cuba Gooding Jr. Netflix was dumping this from Watch Instantly (along with a ton of others on October 1, 2011-- they just keep upping the prices and lowering the quality, don't they?), and considering I have to pay more for only one DVD a month now, I needed to get this done on Watch Instantly and not waste a DVD slot if at all

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This movie was the opener for September's Netflix Bad Movie Night, which as I've mentioned in the past, is organized in part by our buddies at Mr. Gable's Reality, Guts and Grog Reviews, and Morbidementia, and is a lot of fun. I was having problems with my twitter feed at the time, and wasn't paying as good attention to this as I should have, but it seemed really cool. Still, I gave it a

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This movie has been long overdue, considering I did Trancers over six months ago. I should've had them all reviewed by now, forget just being on part 2. But we can't go back and fix it-- actually we can, I can just mess with the dates of the posts and make it look like I did them months ago, but I'd never do that--, so I'll just do my best to get them done as quickly as possible from here on in

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As I'm sure you know, many movies come across my radar, and more often than not, I totally forget about them. That's what happened here, because a few months ago, I read the review of this by our buddy Ty at Comeuppance Reviews, and thought, man I need more Gary Busey on here, I'll have to check that out. Then I totally forgot about it, and few weeks ago I'm looking for some Gary Busey, see

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Usually, when I do a post, I try not to mention the posts that came directly before it, because on some levels I want each review to stand on its own, especially if someone stumbles upon them later on down the road in the archives. I made an exception here though, because this post is the last one in a week that had some really awesome films: Pink Chiquitas, Dead Man Walking, and Dance of the

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This was the third of three movies featured in September's Netflix Bad Movie Night, which as I've mentioned before, is run by our friends at Mr. Gable's Reality, and Guts and Grog Reviews, Morbidementia. I have to confess, because this was the last one, and it started at midnight here on the East Coast, I kind of fell asleep for a chunk of the middle. I know, I suck, but it was a busy weekend,

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When I first envisioned the DTVC, over four years and 725 posts ago, it was this kind of movie I had in mind. A Wings Hauser flick co-starring Brion James and the guy from Re-Animator-- back then, we didn't call him Jeffrey Combs, just "the guy from Re-Animator." At that time, my friends and I were on a big Wings Hauser kick, and we'd find all kinds of flicks of his on VHS and have viewing

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This one was a recommendation from our buddy Tromeric at Guts and Grog Reviews, and it was a definite had me at hello. He hit the wall on the Facebook page with not only a mention of the movie and why he liked it, but he also included the link to the imdb page. It was all right there, too good to ignore. Now, on the other hand, we've had plenty of requests/recommendations in the past that

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I wasn't sure what to expect from this one, but I liked that it had Mark Dacascos, and I liked that he was reunited with Kadeem Hardison, whom he was great with in Drive. If this ends up being half the movie Drive was, we'll be in pretty good shape.Instinct to Kill has Tim Abell as a psychopathic police detective, who splits time away from the force between being a serial killer and an abusive

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This is one of those ones that I figured would be painful, but I knew I had to do it because it featured DTVC Hall of Famer Gary Daniels. Plus, it was on Watch Instantly, which made it very accessible. We'll see what happens, and if the movie's a stinker, we'll see if I can do my job as a reviewer and make this post entertaining.Dark Secrets takes place in England, where Gary Daniels and his

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This film was brought to my radar through a Tumblr site, Rise, which you can check out here. Really cool stuff there, especially some great pics from 80s flicks and TV shows. They posted a covershot from Split Second (not the one I used here), and I thought it was pretty sweet and reblogged it. I also realized that A) I needed to get some more Rutger Hauer up here, and B) I'd never seen this

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This just sounds awesome, right? DTVC favorite Jeff Wincott in a flick titled When the Bullet Hits the Bone? How can you go wrong, right? But if there's anything we've learned in our 4-plus years of posting reviews at the DTVC, what sounds awesome can just as easily be not.When the Bullet Hits the Bone has nothing to do with the Golden Earring song "Twilight Zone", but rather has Wincott as a

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It was time to get a little David Bradley up on the DTVC again, and this one also starred Frank Zagarino, so I thought, what the hell. That, and I got this from a friend on VHS, had an open slot here, and figured I'd go for it. I can always go to David Bradley in a pinch.Blood Warriors has native Texan David Bradley playing a Marine from Texas who finds himself in jail. His ol' Marine buddy

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I'd been meaning to make this one happen for a long time, and I'm not sure what has kept me from it. This was a video store classic, that gross, cult, 80s horror flick with tons of blood and gore, and some stop-animation that left a little to be desired-- but we thought it was great for that reason. They don't make 'em like this anymore for one reason or another, and that's too bad.Basket Case

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I think we sometimes forget that The Asylum didn't invent the rip-off (or for those late to the party, SyFy). The rip-off has been a part of the movie industry for as long as there's been a movie industry. And in the 80s and 90s, Italian director Bruno Mattei made it into an art form. With this one, he even had the audacity to label it Jaws V, as if it were a sequel as opposed to a rip-off--

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I know what you're thinking: "Poirier, you're like 725 posts and over four years into this blog, and this is your first Troma flick? What's wrong with you?" Honestly, I don't know. I wanted to wait on them initially, because most of them I see more as independent films than DTV-- Surf Nazis Must Die for instance screened at Cannes. Then you may remember in 2010 the readers voted to do Hong

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This looked like a pretty sweet deal, especially considering it featured the Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire of DTV action, DTVC Hall of Famers Cynthia Rothrock and Richard Norton. Always good to get films in with this pair. Took a while to get, but a friend hooked me up with a VHS, which was very nice of him. Fight to Win has George Chung as Ryan, a cocky kid with major martial arts skills

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I figured it was probably time to get more Lorenzo Lamas on this blog, so here we are. I'd been waiting on this one because it's on Hulu, and I'm not a big fan of Hulu as far as this kind of thing goes, i.e. watching a movie for a blog. It's hard to capture images, because there's a "Buffering" logo that remains on the screen during a pause, meaning I have to do a moving print screen and hope

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This is one I've been wanting to check out for some time. Directed by DTVC Hall of Famer Albert Pyun, it was automatically on my radar, but then I saw some images of it on the Internet that looked really cool. It went to the back burner after I did a few other Pyun flicks, Bransmasher, Sword and the Sorcerer, and Blast. Now we're here though, so let's get to it. Vicious Lips takes place in

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Our buddy from down under over at Explosive Action sent us this, so we thank him for that. You can also read his review of it here. Final Equinox features Martin Kove and Vincent Klyn, which on the surface looks sweet, but stars Joe Lara, which definitely throws up red flags. Let's see how it went. Final Equinox takes place "in the not too distant future" (like next Sunday AD, perhaps?),

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McBain just looks like a winner, with Christopher Walken, Steve James, and Michael Ironside. The question is, will it fulfill it's too sweet potential. There's only one way to find out, so without further ado. McBain has Walken as a 'Nam POW who is still in captivity even after the war has just been declared over. As luck would have it, a small troop battalion on their way out spots the POW

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I keep wanting to call this Tactical Assault, the fighter pilot flick starring Robert Patrick and DTVC Hall of Famer Rutger Hauer. This is not that, it's Tactical Force, a new actioner starring Stone Cold Steve Austin and DTVC favorite Michael Jai White. It took me a while to get it from Netflix, but it's here finally, so let's see how it did. Tactical Force has Austin as the head of a SWAT

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This was the second of three movies that we watched during the Netflix Bad Movie Night, hosted by fellow bloggers at Mr. Gable's Reality, Guts and Grog Reviews, and Morbidimentia. We've already looked at the first movie from that night, Monster Dog, starring Alice Cooper, and you can check out that post for more details on what the Netflix Bad Movie Night is all about. Mom is about an elderly

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It's taken me a little while to get my hands on this one and complete the No Retreat, No Surrender series (see also part 1 and part 2), but we've got it, so let's do it. Our friend Karl at Fist of the B-List has also done this one, so you should check that out too. No Retreat, No Surrender 3 doesn't have anything to do with part 2, it just has Loren Avedon. Avedon plays a rebellious younger

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Because Marvel can't copyright Norse mythology, the door was left open for The Asylum in conjunction with the SyFy channel to trade on the big screen adaptation of the Marvel version of Thor. I had originally wanted to go with a joke about how I thought this was called "Almaty Thor", and wanted to know what this Kazakh version of Thor was all about, but I already used that joke on Twitter. I

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This movie was the first of three that we watched during last Saturday's Neflix Bad Movie night, which was organized by fellow bloggers at Mr. Gables Reality, Morbidementia, and Guts and Grog Reviews. It was a great time, where a bunch of us watched three movies on Netflix Watch Instantly and tweeted about it to each other. Keep an eye on their sites, and/or my Twitter feed and Facebook page

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In a quest to get more Cynthia Rothrock on the DTVC, we find ourselves here with American Tigers. If you go to her imdb page, this is actually listed under the "Self" section, because she plays herself in it. How bad could it be though? It stars Sam Jones, Donald Gibb, and Joe Estevez-- okay, let me rephrase that, how bad can this be? American Tigers has Sam Jones as a Major Sergeant that's

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I didn't exactly what to expect with this movie, but I definitely knew what not to expect, and that was mercy. I think it's good that they let us know that going in though, that way if I do get some mercy, it was totally unexpected and refreshing. This was also reviewed over at Cool Target Action Reviews if you want to get a second opinion. Expect No Mercy has Wolf Larson as an extremely

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I've wanted to do an Elvis Presley movie ever since I started the DTVC, and I figured Double Trouble would be as good a place to start as any... oh wait, that's not Elvis, those are two dudes with enormous pecs and even more enormous ape drapes. Hey, you know what? This might be pretty good too... Double Trouble follows the Paul brothers, one of whom is an LA detective that wears the same LA

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How could this not be intriguing? Gary Daniels in a vampire flick, as a vampire? Not only that, but we have Gar from the syndicated TV version of Beastmaster, which was one of my favorite guilty pleasures ever. Then you throw in Matthias Hues, Martin Kove, and Costas Mandylor? How can this go wrong? Kiss of the Vampire is about a vampire (Gar) who is really powerful, but would rather be

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A Jeff Wincott movie always seems like a good idea, right? That was the thinking behind watching this one, the more Wincott, the better. Our friends at Comeuppance Reviews and Explosive Action have both covered this as well, if you're looking for a second and third opinion. Fatal Combat is a forced to fight movie about a professor who teaches the peace first warrior philosophy, Jeff Wincott,

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This is not the easiest find, which is too bad, because it's chock full of great names. If you like your Albert Pyun films filled with Pyun Mainstays, this is the movie for you. One of the difficult things about tracking down a copy, is its name makes it ambiguous in search engines. Plus there's an Eddie Griffin movie of the same name that came out later. I was fortunate enough to have a

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This is the second of two Strike Commando films sent to me by our buddy from Down Under over at Explosive Action (link to his double feature review of both films), so we thank him again for that. I watched it the first time with a buddy while we were house sitting over a year ago, so that just shows you what my To Watch list looks like when something like this can be lost in the shuffle for so

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I've been meaning to review this one for a long time now. I mean, look at that cover. And that title. And it's starring Reb Brown! It's like a trifecta of awesome. Finally, a buddy managed to hook me up with a copy, and here we are. Let's hope it lived up to expectations.Yor, the Hunter from the Future has DTVC favorite Reb Brown as Yor, a mysterious cave man who appears among other

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