The fourth movie in the Wishmaster series, this movie somehow finds romance in the world of the djinn, as he (played by John Novak, same as the third movie, which was shot in the same 16 days as this movie) falls for Lisa Burnley (Tara Spencer-Nairn), who has been living with her paraplegic boyfriend Sam (Jason Thompson). As he spirals into depression, she’s left without any love life, constantly verbally abused by the man she was once so close to.

He also thinks she’s having an affair with their lawyer Steven Verdel (Michael Trucco), who is trying to get a settlement from Sam’s accident. Steven tries to give her a red jewel and, yes, that’s the Wishmaster’s prison. He escapes, kills the lawyer and takes over his body and starts that affair, all while healing Sam and trying to remove him from Lisa’s life.

As the djinn keeps tricking Lisa into making wishes — the other djinn are anxious, it’s been four movies and they haven’t had the chance to take over our world — he finds himself wanting Lisa. He goes through a journey of romantic discovery, asking humans — well, before he kills them — to explain the ways of love to him. He and Lisa do end up having sex — demonic hands covered in goo reach for her, which is a nice touch — but she realizes she doesn’t love him. She just misses physical contact.

The djinn flips out and forces her to make her wish. He transforms her home into a maze and tells her she has a choice: become his wife and second in command when the djinn race takes over our planet or be cast down to Hell. Oh yeah — there’s also a Hunter (Victor Webster) from a whole other sect that hunts the djinn and those that it grants wishes to.

Between the romantic 90s alt rock and female empowerment ending — which costs both suitors their lies — this Wishmaster movies strays from the formula in a way that actually works. Director Chris Angel and writer John Benjamin Martin take this into Cinemax After Dark territory, which is a wild place to go after a series that started basically as an FX showcase. You know, I love it.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Captain Donnie Yan (Donnie Yen) and Madam Rachel Yeung Lai-ching (Cynthia Khan) are on the trail of cocaine dealers. When she goes off script and gets found by a dockworker named Luk Wan-ting (Yuen Yat-chor) who thinks that she’s an illegal immigrant. He feels bad for her and gives her money and a place to say. As Donnie stays after the criminals, she learns that Luk’s brother Ming (Liu Kai-chi) is being  attacked by criminals that he owes money to. The two fight off the gang and when her cover’s blown, Rachel gets back on the case. At the same time, their partner Peter Woods gets shotgun blasted by the real boss behind all of the drug deals is a CIA officer named Mr. Robinson.

I’ve just explained about the first ten minutes or so of this dense film, one that builds tension and then goes as wild as any of the other movies in this series.

Luk Wan-Ting is a witness to that murder and gets framed for it. He escapes the police and a killer, which sends our heroes after him. She thinks he’s innocent based on their past history and he thinks that he’s not, so we have some tension between our supercops. In fact, things get even tenser when they start to wonder which cops they can trust and decide to hide out with Luk and attempt to get him to testify.

The final fights in this film — once the plot is solved and we can, as they say, get to the fireworks factory — are incredible. The battle between the CIA agent (Michael Woods) and Yen on top of a building has more action than every movie that will come out of Hollywood this year. There’s also a great battle between Khan and karate champion Farlie Ruth Kordica that has the two falling from huge heights and kicking each other repeatedly. Also: if you like glass being broken — I do — this movie will give you all the shattering and smashing of glass that you can handle.

Director Yuen Woo-ping is a name you should already know but if you don’t, he’s the director of Drunken Master, Tiger Cage, Iron Monkey and so many more movies. He also was the fight choreographer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Fist of Legend, Black Mask, the second and third Matrix and Kill Bill 1 and 2. Seeing his name means that you’re about to have your mind absolutely blown.

88 Films’ In the Line of Duty Series includes 1985’s Yes, Madam!, 1986’s Royal Warriors, 1988’s In the Line of Duty 3 and 1989’s In the Line of Duty 4. This film is available in Cantonese and two different English dubs and extras like a commentary by F.J. DeSanto, an interview with Donnie Yen and trailers. There’s also a gorgeous book and posters for each movie. You can buy the set from MVD.

Rachel Yeung (Cynthia Khan) wants to be a tough policewoman, but her uncle (Paul Chun) is her superior and he keeps her out of the line of fire. When a fashion show is interrupted by two thieves working for the Red Army — Nakamura Genji (Stuart Ong) and Michiko Nishiwaki (Michiko Nishiwaki) — and nearly the entire audience is killed, including the partner of Inspector Otaka (Hiroshi Fukioka), his path of revenge brings the two together. She’s an incredible martial artist; he’s a cop that refuses to follow the rules, causing damage to everything around him in his obsessive quest for justice.

In 79 minutes, we get near non-stop death and destruction, an evil couple who really love each other even though he’s dying from an inoperable disease and two closing fights: Otaka battling Genji with pipes and hooks and Rachel fighting both Nishiwaki and her henchman (Dick Wei).

Cynthia Khan may not be Michelle Yeoh, but she works really hard in this. She was a dancer before becoming an actor and her athleticism comes in handy, even if she’s doubled in the final fight. Man, I could watch as many of these movies as they chose to make.

88 Films’ In the Line of Duty Series includes 1985’s Yes, Madam!, 1986’s Royal Warriors, 1988’s In the Line of Duty 3 and 1989’s In the Line of Duty 4. This film is available in Cantonese and two different English dubs and extras like a commentary by Frank Djeng and Michael Worth, an interview with John Sham by Frederic Ambroisine and trailers. There’s also a gorgeous book and posters for each movie. You can buy the set from MVD.

Directed by David Chung and written by Kan-Cheung Tsang, the second film in the In the Line of Duty series finds officer Michelle Yip (Michelle Yeoh) coming back to Hong Kong from a trip to Japan. Highjackers attempt to take the plane, but she stops them along with a security guard named Michael Wong (Michael Wong) and Interpol agent Peter Yamamoto (Hiroyuki Sanada). The bad news? Well, now they’re being targeted by the other members of the same mob family for revenge.

This movie blows away any action movie made yesterday or today, featuring an incredible nightclub assault, so much glass being broken I was wondering if it was sponsored by PPG, Michael’s family being wiped out by a car bomb, chase scenes that make you retroactively worry for the safety of everyone involved and an ending where Yip drives a futuristic tank into a trap laid by the big bad with him holding the body of her boyfriend on a crane.

In the Line of Duty 2 is filled with non-stop mayhem and violence, a downbeat tone and Yeoh embracing the opportunity to be the lead.

88 Films’ In the Line of Duty Series includes 1985’s Yes, Madam!, 1986’s Royal Warriors, 1988’s In the Line of Duty 3 and 1989’s In the Line of Duty 4. This film is available in Cantonese and two different English dubs and extras like new subtitles, commentary by Jong Kong film expert Frank Djeng, missing inserts and trailers. There’s also a gorgeous book and posters for each movie. You can buy the set from MVD.

Diana Collins (A.J. Cook, Criminal Minds) has accidentally unleashed the djinn, who is now played by John Novak. His first movie is to grant the wish of Professor Joel Barash (Sean’s son Jason Connery) and give him a deadly threeway that fulfills two of the needs of the direct to video sequel: blood and boobs.

The djinn wants Diana to be the one to make three wishes and unleash his djinn brothers on the world. Her first wish is given when the djinn makes her friend Anne (Daniella Evangelista) puke her guts out. Instead of watching her friend be in pain, Diana wishes for an end to her suffering.

Her second wish is for the power of St. Michael the Archangel — is he the patron saint of fighting djinn? — and her boyfriend Greg (Tobias Mehler) jumps in the way and becomes St. Michael, who gets all sorts of wild powers like being able to slice off demon hands.

Directed by Chris Angel (who also made the sequels The Fear: Resurrection and Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy Fulfilled) and written by Alex Wright (who directed and wrote The First 9 1/2 Weeks, which is also 9 1/2 Weeks 3 and that would be 66 days x 3 = 198 days; unsurprisingly Malcolm McDowell is in the cast) and credits Peter Atkins (who also knows sequels, as he was the writer of Hellraiser II, Hellraiser III and Hellraiser Bloodline) for the characters he created in the first Wishmaster, this was supposed to have Divoff in the cast as the djinn.

He loved the series so much that he wrote the Y2Ksploitation Wishmaster: The Third Millennium, which started with an American warship getting hit by a Chinese missile and the UN being attacked by demons. When Divoff gave his script to the producers, they turned it down, as it would have been too expensive. When he read Alex Wright’s script, he quit the series.

This film and the fourth were made in 16 days. They took a weekend day off though.

You can watch this on Tubi.

The American sequel/remake of Plaga Zombie not only has the blessing Pablo Parés and Hernán Sáez, but they helped Garry Medeiros (who co-wroe the script with Cheryl LePan and Walter Rivero) to direct the movie. Instead of Bill Johnson, John West and Max Giggs, the American heroes are Nash Walker (Corey Spencer), Sam Samson (Matthew Hill), and Manny Distefano (Ben Tolosa) along with a mercenary named Kobra Guevara (Walter Rivero). But seeing as how Sam worships the wrestling of John West, there’s a good chance he’ll show up.

Twnety years after the events of the original trilogy, aliens rppear in New England where they introduce a new virus in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The government follows the same plans as Argentina, as they detach the city from the U.S. and send it floating into the ocean.

If you’ve seen the original films, there isn’t much here that will surprise you. That said, it has a total rainbow wave of zombies in color, shape, size and blood hue. It’s also unafraid to have shocking levels of gore, which makes me happy, because I was worried that it would back off a bit. Nope.

Writer and director Garry Mederios discovered the Plaga Zombie series after watching the Fangoria released DVD. He loved the movies so much that he contacted the filmmakers via e-mail and they became friends. He jokingly suggested making an American-based Plaga Zombie film and FARSA, who made the originals, loved the idea.

I’m here for another if they decide to make it.

You can watch this on Tubi.