Tubi is the video store of 2022. And it has a whole shelf of movies that star somewhat recognizable names in action and horror films that are actually pretty decent watches, like Bad Influence.

Lord of the Streets takes a basic story — embattled and down on his luck MMA trainer loses a bet and has to convince his student to throw a fight — and goes wild with it. If this was made thirty years ago, it would have Billy Blanks or Don “The Dragon” Wilson in it. Or maybe Matthias Hues.

Instead, we have Anthony Criss — Treach of Naughty by Nature — as Jason Dyson, a former fighter turned coach haunted by the man he killed in the ring. He’s alienated his wife and daughter and now thrown away the one good thing he had, his relationship with a fighter named Tre.

Anthony is down deep and goes lower, losing a hundred grand card game to the titular lord of the streets, Kane (former MMA fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson) and being forced to get Tre to throw a fight. He refuses and gets killed, Anthony’s daughter gets kidnapped and he must train a convict named Damon Stone (UFC star Khalil “The War Horse” Rountree Jr.) to fight five men in a row all in one night.

Meanwhile, Richard Grieco is Detective Kayes, a cop who wants to take down Kane by any means necessary.

If you like to spot MMA fighters in movies, this is the one for you, with roles for Raja “Da Clone” Jackson, Carrese “One Punch” Archer, Eddie Avakoff and most importantly Anderson “The Spider” Silva, the man who held the UFC Middleweight Championship for nearly seven years. He’s perhaps the best MMA fighter of all time.

Director and writer Jared Cohn also has made Stalker In the House, Shark Season, Swim and many more films. The strangest thing he does in this movie — spoiler warning — is spend time setting up characters as what we assume are the leads of the movie — it starts with how Damon was jailed in the first place — and then writing them off, sometimes even off screen.

Lord of the Streets feels like a Lorenzo Lamas action film enjoyed with pizza, beer and other substances. It’s like Cool Ranch Doritos — you wouldn’t brag it up as the best thing ever, but when you are sitting there, you get a craving and think, “How good are these Doritos? Pretty good.” and then just get on with your life.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Is it Cyberzone or Cyber Zone or Droid Gunner?

More to the point, is this Fred Olen Ray film a homage to Star Wars or Blade Runner?

Marc Singer is Jack Ford, an android hunter out to capture four robotic ladies of ill repute and bring them back to their owner, Mr. Reginald (Cal Bartlett). They’ve been taken by a smuggler named Hawks (Matthias Hues) and Reginald needs them back immediately.

It’s a movie that uses the robot suit from Star Hunter, spaceships from Battle Beyond the Stars, dialogue directly from Predator, an ending that references For a Few Dollars More, an appearance by Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, Robert Quarry playing Jabba the Hutt but named Chew’bah, a world where New Angeles is under water, and most importantly, finds a part for Brinke Stevens as a human/cat hybrid dancer named Kitten.

That’s more than enough.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Fred Olen Ray said, “I didn’t really know what an erotic thriller was when I did Inner Sanctum. I watched Wild Orchid — fast-forwarded through it, actually — to see what was expected of me.”

Made for $650,000 and a big success, well…Ray definitely knew what erotic thrillers were after this.

Jennifer Reed (Valerie Wildman, Neon City) should be happy with all her money, but you know how rich people are in these movies. She’s sure her insurance husband Baxter (Joseph Bottoms, Blind Date) is cheating on her, so she overdoes on pills, falls down the stairs and ends up in a wheelchair. Now, she’s even less happy because she has Tanya Roberts for a nurse, a woman who may have killed her last rich female patient and then married her husband and killed him too.

Jennifer has a million dollar policy on her life that doesn’t cover suicide. Actually, what insurance does in the first two years of the police? Someone is trying to kill her, whether its Tanya Roberts or the other woman that her husband really wants, played by Margaux Hemingway.

While Margaux Hemingway’s nudity and sex scenes were doubled by Michelle Bauer, Roberts choreographed her own sex scenes. And her scene Brett Baxter Clark — Nick the dick from Bachelor Party and Thomas the gardener from Young Lady Chatterley II no less — was too sexual for even the unrated version of the movie.

Director Fred Olen Ray said that he hated working with Roberts so much that he was depressed for a year and almost quit directing, he still made two more movies with her.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jennifer Upton is an American (non-werewolf) writer/editor in London. She currently works as a freelance ghostwriter of personal memoirs and writes for several blogs on topics as diverse as film history, punk rock, women’s issues, and international politics. For links to her work, please visit https://www.jennuptonwriter.com or send her a Tweet @Jennxldn

Inspired by Michael Cimino’s Year of the Dragon (1985), Armed Response features Vietnam vet Jim Roth (David Carradine) and his ex-cop dad (Burt) Lee Van Cleef going up against boss Tanaka and his Yakuza gang in L.A.’s Chinatown following the murder of Jim’s brothers in a plot to retrieve a valuable statue that Tanaka needs to appease the local Chinese Tong gang. 

Out of over a dozen films made in the 1980s, this is overall the best that Fred Olen Ray made during those “up-and-coming” years. Not only is the cast good (with Carradine and Van Cleef, you can’t go wrong), but the story is more gripping than many of his other efforts. When another Roth brother (Brent Huff) is kidnapped and killed, you just know there’s gonna be an ass-whoopin’ on the way. Box ticked. 

The lighting and compositions achieved by DP Paul Elliott (who later worked with the Coen brothers) with Ray are far and away superior to many of the films that came after. Not to take anything away from cinematographer Gary Graver, who later served as Ray’s main guy, producing faster, more cost-effective results. But on this film, they took the time to wet the streets down to get the neon reflections. It adds to the mood of the film (along with a good musical score), and achieves the nearly impossible feat of portraying L.A.’s Chinatown as far bigger than it is in real life. These are the things that can elevate any film in the low and mid-range budget to a higher plane. 

Of course, this IS a Fred Olen Ray film, so we do get Michelle Bauer as a stripper wiggling around in the background of an entire dramatic scene, Michael Berryman as a fortune-cookie crushing thug, Ross Hagen as a double-crossing scumbag and a cameo from Roger Corman regular Dick Miller. 

The stunts are pretty good, too. So good, one poor stuntman had to be airlifted from the location at Vasquez Rocks to a hospital. Ray has stated, “In the finished film, you can clearly see a cloud swirling around behind Ross as he hurries to get his dialogue out. It’s the cloud of dust being kicked up by the emergency helicopter blades as it idled just out of frame.”  

Ray has asserted this was the film that ended his “era of want.” The one that pushed his standing as a filmmaker and his paychecks to the next level. Of all his ‘80s films, audiences will likely remember him for Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, but Armed Response is the one Ray should be proudest of. 

Jeffrey Schenck has 220 — maybe more in the time it took me to write this — production credits on IMDB, including Panic In the Skies, Honeymoon with Mom and Ice Spiders. He wrote the story for this, which was developed into a screenplay by Michael Ciminera (Jersey Shore Shark Attack) and Richard Gnolfo (The Dog Who Saved Easter). It was directed by Fred Olen Ray and fits into his Lifetime style of directing.

Julie Manning (Bianca Lawson, Save the Last Dance) has finally divorced her abusive husband Sam (Neil Jackson, The King’s Man) and is moving on with her life, selling the dream home he made for them. Until it goes off the market, she’s living there and supervising Tyler (Brendan Fehr, Roswell) as he fixes it up. But someone seems to be breaking in and stalking her with hidden webcams. Is it Sam, Tyler or someone else? Is it her boss Rick (Paul Johansson)? The intern (Daniel Booko) with a grudge? Maybe police detective Morrison (Costas Mandylor, who played a cop in just about every Saw movie) can help figure it out.

Seeing as how Julie’s ex used to lock her in closets, you can bet that PTSD is going to come back before the end of the movie.

You can watch this on Tubi.

You know, there’s lots to love in this goofy little movie, from Angelique Pettyjohn being a psychic used to bring objects out of another dimension to a monster played by director Fred Olen Ray’s seven-year-old son Christopher to Aldo Ray playing a general and songs by Johnny Legend. It’s a rubber suit monster romp that really has no interest in being anything else which you have to respect.

This was released as Space Gremlins in other countries and I love that name.

Psychic Materialization, drugs, monsters, busty psychics, the military industrial complex, bad computer graphics, a comedy relief hobo in love with the E.T. poster he’s found and a shock ending that mixes blood, boobs and beasts all at once — you know that Biohazard isn’t good for you but have you ever huffed paint? Let me tell you, it’s cheap and it hurts your head for days and you know that you’ll be slowed down for a few minutes, probably unable to stand and then you realize that you’re doing way more than smoking or drinking, you’re messing with your brain for life because that rag or bottle you’re sneaking smells out of makes you forget things, sometimes for so long that you never remember them again.

Over four decades, Don “The Dragon” Wilson won eleven world titles that included the IKF, WKA, KICK, ISKA, STAR and the PKO titles, defeating some of the most famous names in the sport of kickboxing, including Branko Cikatic, James Warring, Dennis Alexio and Maurice Smith. He turned that fame into a career in the kind of direct to video movies that exist in the lower rungs of the action hero world. This isn’t a knock on Wilson; I just break action heroes up accordingly and in order:

God tier: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone

Challenging for God tier: Chuck Norris, Jean Claude Van Dam

VHS — and coincidentally often Cannon Films — stars: Michael Dudikoff, Sho Kosugi, Dolph Lundgren

Not exclusively action, yet makes great action: Kurt Russell, Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Patrick Swayze

Asian superstars: Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and his clones

And, as always, Charles Bronson.

Wilson comes in at the tier of guys trying to break into the upper echelons, like Reb Brown, Brent Huff, Lorenzo Lamas, Ron Marchini, Billy Blanks and…The Dragon.

It’s interesting that this film combines Bollywood locations and actors with Wilson’s kicking style. He plays Interpol agent Kyle Connors, a man who travels the whole way to Istanpol to track down the killer of his partner.

The first American film to be made in India, this was also released as Operation Cobra and in Telugu as Secret Agent 786. R. Madhavan, who played Ravi, has gone on to be a huge star in seven different languages, which his big breakthrough being the romance movie Alaipayuthey.

If you pay attention to the guns in this movie, you’ll notice that most of them are wooden or plastic. That’s because of India’s tight gun control laws. When guns are shot, that effect was made by wiring each gun with miniature explosives.

Rick Hill, who is one of the bad guys in this, was also a direct to video action star, appearing in Class of 1999 II: The Substitute, Dune Warriors, The Devastator and as the Deathstalker in Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans. And wow — Jillian Kesner from two of my favorite weirdo karate movies ever — Raw Force and Firecracker — is in this too!

Don is pretty much James Bond in this — thanks to The Video Vacuum — with “a kingpin with a wild child daughter who falls for the hero (like On Her Majesty’s Secret Service), the hero performing a fake-out assassination (like The Living Daylights), the hero’s best friend faking his own death and becoming the main villain (like GoldenEye), and big fight scenes that take place in Indian marketplaces (like Octopussy).”

Check out that site — I’ve learned a lot from reading it.

If anything, watch this movie to see Ray, his wife and Gary Graver all have minor roles. And if you don’t love this movie after The Dragon finds a snake in his bed, these movies aren’t for you.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Also known as Genie in a String Bikini and The Erotic Dreams of Jeannie, this is the movie you’d assume it is: a sexy I Dream of Jeannie with Nicole Sheridan as Barbara Eden, basically.

I mean, it’s literally the exact same set-up as the first episodes of the show but the story is told by the same crew Fred Olen Ray used for his mid-2000s softcore films, folks like Evan Stone, Voodoo, Beverly Lynne, Danielle Petty and Dolorian.

The genie does not wear a bikini.

I’m astounded that this movie came out in a time when the internet was around and actual porn was not hard to find. I mean, you could watch actual sex instead of the lead-up and frottage that this movie gives you.

Perhaps there’s a bigger audience for an I Dream of Jeannie parody than I could ever imagine.

You can watch this on Tubi with most of the lovemaking edited out.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jennifer Upton is an American (non-werewolf) writer/editor in London. She currently works as a freelance ghostwriter of personal memoirs and writes for several blogs on topics as diverse as film history, punk rock, women’s issues, and international politics. For links to her work, please visit https://www.jennuptonwriter.com or send her a Tweet @Jennxldn

I had forgotten there was once a time in America’s film and TV history where filmmakers loved to use songs that sounded like “In the Air Tonight.” The 1980s. Era of big hair and New Wave music where everyone’s life revolved around working out at the gym and/or the degree of coolness of one’s mode of transportation. Cyclone brought me back to those days instantly. Ahhh…smell that Aqua Net! Fresh off The Fall Guy, Heather Thomas stars as tough L.A. motorcycle chick Teri Marshall, who against all the known laws of physics, is NOT dating a heavy metal musician. Her boyfriend Rick (Jeffrey Combs) is a scientist in the midst of developing a special, new motorcycle – The Cyclone – that, once fitted with a “transformer” can shoot lasers and small rockets and run without a re-fill for years. Best of all, it comes with a matching laser gun helmet.  Gnarly. After Rick is assassinated at a nightclub, it’s up to Teri to keep the Cyclone and the transformer from falling into the wrong hands. 

This film is what I refer to as a “middler.” Among films of its type, I’ve seen better and I’ve seen worse films. Where it excels is in the casting. Although director Fred Olen Ray originally had Linda Blair in mind for the lead, Thomas carries the film well, spewing out lines like “Up your ass!” and “You’re as plastic as your tits!” with verve. The supporting cast includes a pre-Oscar-winning Martin Landau, Martine Beswicke, and Robert Quarry as agents, although in the final twist, it’s not necessarily America they’re working for. Stuntman/actor Dar Robinson (who sadly died on his very next film) and Dawn Wildsmith (Ray’s wife at the time) make convincing assassins and Troy Donahue, Russ Tamblyn and The Bowery Boys’ Huntz Hall appear in extended cameos. Everyone does a good job.  

There are some pretty nifty car chases and stunts, too including the shearing off of the top of a station wagon, turning it into a convertible that continues the pursuit of Teri on the bike. Although the pace drags in spots, the idea, double-crosses and plot twists are good enough to bring the film to a satisfying conclusion. Overall, it’s one of the slickest of Ray’s films from this era firmly rooted in the time it was made.