Small-time criminal Wah Dee (Andy Lau) is enlisted by his boss Trumpet (Tommy Wong) to be the getaway driver for a heist which, of course, goes completely wrong. Dee takes Jo Jo (Jacklyn Chien-Lien Wu) hostage but the bosses order her to be killed. Instead, they escape together and fall in love while being chased by the cops and the crooks.

Directed by Benny Chan and produced by Johnnie To and Ringo Lam, A Moment of Romance brings Hong Kong alive, both in its abandoned places and its neon-lit night, as two lovers from different worlds realize that perhaps they would be safer by leaving each other yet unable to do so.

This movie was so essential that Andy Lau got the nickname of his character from it, Wah Dee. It also has the kind of ending that you expect from the New Hollywood or the Hong Kong New Wave. It’s romantic at the very same time that it is heartbreaking.

A Moment of Romance II was released in 1993 featuring a new storyline. Benny Chan and Jacklyn Wu returned as director and lead actress respectively with Aaron Kwok as the male star A third and final installment, A Moment of Romance III, was released in 1996 with Johnnie To, producer of the first two films, directing and Lau and Wu being reunited.

Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings, the Radiance Films blu ray release has a 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative, as well as an archival audio interview with Benny Chan; In Love and Danger: HK Cinema Through A Moment of Romance, a new visual essay by critic and Asian cinema expert David Desser; commentary by Asian cinema expert Frank Djeng; newly translated English subtitles by Dylan Cheung; a trailer; a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow and a limited edition booklet featuring new writing on the iconic cast and crew by critic Sean Gilman and a profile of Benny Chan by Tony Williams, co-editor of Hong Kong Neo Noir. You can get it from MVD.

Some consider this the fifth film in the Mr. Vampire series. It stars Lam Ching-ying as Uncle Feng. Seeing as how he’s the hero — he’s also in the second and third movies in the Mr. Vampire films, as well as Vampire vs, Vampire and Encounters of the Spooky Kind II — you can figure out why this movie is tied to those films.

Uncle Feng is a retired policeman leading a quiet and beautiful life in Tung Ping Chau who still occasionally reports to his boss, Chief Inspector Ma (Wu Ma). His next door neighbor asks Feng to make the trip to Hong Kong to bring back the body of her daughter. She was a stewardess who the cops shot after she was accused of smuggling drugs. That’s when he learns the truth: she was already dead when the cops shot her, the thrall of a Japanese sorceress (Michiko Nishiwaki, Passionate Killing in the Dream, In the Line of Duty 3) who is killing others and enslaving them as undead workers for her drug business.

Feng has to team with a young cop, Sargent Yam (Wilson Yam), and find the secret altar of the Sorceress and stop her with his Taoist magic. Director Stephen Tung combines comedy, wild magic fights and martial arts into one incredibly entertaining film.

That said — there is one moment of near-cat abuse, so when you see a black cat on screen and you are easily upset by animals in danger, look away. It’s not comfortable watching a cat get nearly hung, even though one hopes it was well taken care of when the scene was over.

The last twenty minutes of this movie are completely out of control and as a fan of both Lam Ching-ying and Michiko Nishiwaki, I couldn’t help but be in a great mood after this was over. Just total fun and a great mix of modern cop action and traditional magic and martial arts.

As always, 88 Films has the best looking releases both on your shelf and in your blu ray player. Extras include a limited edition slipcase and double sided poster, audio commentary by Frank Djeng and Marc Walkow, an alternative Taiwanese cut with a different score, an interview with Tung Wei, an image gallery and a trailer. You can get it from MVD.

The Bonfire of the Vanities was a bestseller.

The movie, well, not so much.

It was a mess from the beginning.

Tom Wolfe’s book was identified with the excesses of the 80s.

The movie, well, pretty much the same thing.

The big problem is that the book doesn’t have a likable or even sympathetic character. It’s about Wall Street bond trader Sherman McCoy getting lost in the unfamiliar Bronx after sleeping with his mistress Maria Ruskin. On his way back to his safe home, he hits a young black man named Henry Lamb. British journalist Peter Fallow and black religious and political icon Reverend Bacon use the comatose boy for their own financial and personal reasons as McCoy struggles to save what’s left of his life.

Sherman McCoy should not be anyone that we like and he should not be played by Tom Hanks. Nor should Peter Fallow be Bruce Willis. And when the studio realized that there wasn’t a single heroic black character — Wolfe’s book had been derided for its racism many times — so they made Judge Kovitsky into Judge White and got Morgan Freeman to play him.

What’s even wilder is that De Palma allowed author Julie Salamon to follow him on the set and gave her unlimited access. Did he know that this would be a flop? Or was he excited to share the world of making films? Her book The Devil’s Candy goes deep to break down everything that went bad.

Oh the problems, from Melanie Griffith showing up with new breasts ruining a lot of continuity to Bruce Willis telling other actors how they should play their scenes, often at the expense of De Palma. But even though it was a rough shoot, the studio still thought it was going to be a hit. It tested well, it did better with reshoots and then it made $15 million on a $47 million budget.

Salamon told The Guardian that the book was the end of her movie critic career. “For me personally, writing about Bonfire really was the beginning of the end of my career as a film critic, because after spending the time, day in and day out for almost a year watching this process, I found it harder and harder to write negative film reviews.”

Leonard Maltin gave it a BOMB rating but hey, I’m sure that De Palma could not give a shit. He’s always maintained that he was making his version of the story and if you want the book, read the book. He owes up to the mistakes he made, but it certainly didn’t end his directing career.

EDITOR’S NOTE: You can read another review of this movie here.

I can’t even tell you how excited I was about Robot Jox in 1990. It seemed like it was in every issue of Starlog and I kept wondering, when would one of the video stores in my hometown get it? It seemed like a live action Transformers movie and according to director Stuart Gordon, that was the idea: “While there have been animated cartoons based on these giant robots, no one has ever attempted a live-action feature about them. It struck me that it was a natural fantasy for the big screen–and a terrific opportunity to take advantage of the special effects that are available today.”

Gordon worked with special effects artist David W. Allen to create test footage for the investors for this movie and that ended up becoming the opening title sequence. Initially budgeted at $7 million — it grew to $10 million — Robot Jox was the most expensive film Empire Pictures production.

Science fiction author Joe Haldeman wrote the story with Gordon but the two battled throughout. The writer wanted a serious movie about embattled soldiers and the director wanted a Cold War movie with big special effects. Even the title was debated, as Haldeman wanted The Mechanics and Gordon wanted Robojox.

Haldeman wrote that Gordon later recognized that the author was “writing a movie for adults that children can enjoy” while Gordon had been “directing a movie for children that adults can enjoy.”

Despite those issues and Empire’s bankruptcy causing delays, I still fondly remember this film, as when I finally got to see it, I really enjoyed it. Obviously, Guillermo del Toro did, as the way the robots are controlled and how the pilots are trained are so close to his Pacific Rim.

Only the American Market and the Russian Confederation have survived fifty years after a nuclear war. They decide all conflicts by having giant robots battle as robot jox control them. Alexander (Paul Koslo) is the villain and has murdered his last nine opponents thanks to a spy giving him special weak points. But now he comes up against another fighter who is at his tenth match — when robot jox can retire — Achilles (Gary Graham). Their battle will be for the rights to Alaska and there’s plenty of pressure.

Achilles trains while studying with robot designer Doc Matsumoto (Danny Kamekona, Sato from The Karate Kid Part II) and strategist Tex Conway (Michael Alldredge), the only robot jox to win all ten of his fights. There’s also an entire training center where new genetically engineered robot jox like Athena (Anne-Marie Johnson) are training to replace Achilles.

During the battle, Alexander goes wild and fires a weapon into the audience. Alexander tries to stop it but his mech crashes into the stands, killing three hundred or more of the fans. Shaken by this, he refuses to come back and fight again when the match is ruled a draw.

All sorts of chicanery ensures and Athena drugs Achilles, who comes back for that one big fight, and she gets decimated by Alexander. That leads to a second battle between Alexander and Achilles, who comes back. It even ends up in a one on one fistfight and after all the horror that the Russian pilot has visited on, well, the entire cast of this movie, they bump fists to show sportsmanship.

This was followed by Robot Wars and footage — Full Moon is big on recycling — is also in Crash and Burn.

In the world of Robot Jox, you never say “Good luck.” You say, “Crash and burn.”

I just want 15 year old me to know that in the future, I own this movie and we can watch it any time that we want.

Robot Jox is part of the Enter the Video Store — Empire of Screams box set. Extras include two archive audio commentaries (one with director Stuart Gordon and a second with associate effects director Paul Gentry, mechanical effects artist Mark Rappaport and stop-motion animator Paul Jessell), new interviews with Gary Graham and Anne-Marie Johnson as well as a new appreciation of stop motion animator David Allen, an archival interview with actor Paul Koslo, the original sales sheet and production notes, a trailer and image galleries, including behind-the-scenes stills courtesy of associate effects director Paul Gentry. You can get this set from MVD.

Jigoku is a samurai outlaw with a bounty on his head that Zatoichi, Cyrano de Bergerac and Yuri the Pistol is out to collect. Except she’s the one who nearly catches him. And then he falls in love with her. And he has a bigger thing than saving his head on his mind. He’s looking for a golden sword that’s inside a cave. It’s more than a weapon. It’s the key to Zipang, the city of gold ruled by the love-hating Golden King, who has a woman trapped in an ice cave. And her lover has been released when the sword was freed. And oh yeah, there’s also an army of blue ninjas who want to steal the golden sword.

If you’re confused, don’t worry. Zipang packs a lot in a short time. And then throws in lots more.

Have you ever played Kabuki: Quantum Fighter on the old NES? Then you know this movie, even if you didn’t know it, because it was the Americanized tie-in game for a movie that would never be released in the West.

As he kills nearly 150 people (146, if you want to know), Jigoku discusses his nine swords, even if we don’t see all of them. He’s got a samurai sword, a sword that shoots its blade, one that has two blades, a really long samurai sword and even one with a spinning top on it.

Director and writer Kaizô Hayashi also made To Sleep As to Dream, another movie that is just as delightfully strange as this. Sure, you can watch this as a swords versus ninjas treasure hunting movie, but there are deep themes inside, like wondering what love is and the dangers of only caring for things. Also, for some reason, everyone looks like they’re wearing street fashion and we have no idea where in time or space this is all happening.

This is a film with human-sized kites, ninjas with high tech goggles, mechanical claws and guns, as well as monsters, a friendly baby elephant, a samurai who knows how to use a rocket launcher and so much joy in every frame that you just can’t believe it’s happening.

I read a review on Letterboxd where someone said it was too long and kind of boring and I wonder why that person hates magic so much.

You can download this from the Internet Archive.

Before the internet, geeks like me read the Comics Buyer’s Guide Magazine — I devoured every tabloid-sized issue — and learned what new books were worth reading. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, created originally as a joke sketch of a turtle with nunchucks by Kevin Eastman and named “teenage mutant” by Peter Laird, was a black and white comic packed with violence that hit the cultural zeitgeist of the late 80s. It hit all the trends of comics, like the teenage angst of X-Men and Teen Titans along with the ninjas of Daredevil. In fact, the same canister of radioactive material that gave Matt Murdock his radar sense is what turned four baby turtles into Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello and Raphael.

Who knew that a few years later, they’d be the biggest cartoon and toy around?

In 1990, the movie came out and yes, it has a lot of the kid elements of the cartoon like the love of pizza, April O’Neil (Judith Hoag) being a reporter and how Michaelangelo behaves like a surfer dude. But so much of the film comes directly from the first issue of the comic. And it has martial arts in its soul, as it was produced by Golden Harvest.

Every major studio turned down distributing it, including Walt Disney Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Universal Pictures, MGM/UA, Orion Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros. before New Line took a chance. It paid off, as its $32 million was the second highest opening weekend at the time — behind Batman — and ended up being the ninth biggest movie of 1990.

The complicated turtle costumes took 18 weeks each to be created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Henson said that the creatures were the most advanced that he had ever worked on. But they work — you really start to believe in the characters more than you do in the later CGI efforts.

The film begins with the four Turtles — Leonardo (Brian Tochi, Revenge of the Nerds, Police Academy 3 and 4), Raphael (Josh Pais), Donatello (pop culture force Corey Feldman) and Michelangelo (Robbie Rist, Cousin Oliver) — working for the sewers and the shadows to protect New York City — but actually North Carolina — and saving the life of April.

Leo is closest to their sensei Splinter (former Elmo Kevin Clash), Don is the inventor, Mike is the partier and Raph is filled with rage, which finds him battling street vigilante Casey Jones (Elias Koteas).

Above I just listed the voices, but it took so many talents to bring the characters to life.

Inside the Leonardo suit was David Forman, an Olympic tumbler and stuntman, with Martin P. Robinson controlling the face. He is also Mr. Snuffleupagus and designed, built and played Audrey II for Little Shop of Horrors. Leif Tilden was Donatello; he also performed several characters on Henson’s Dinosaurs show. He was supplemented by Ernie Reyes Jr. for martial arts scenes, skateboarder Reggie Barnes for skate scenes and facial movements by David Rudman. Michaelangelo was Broadway performer Michelan Sisti with facial movements by Mak Wilson. Raphael was the only Turtle performed by his voice actor, Josh Pais, with David Greenaway doing the facial animation and Kenn Troum did the fighting scenes. Splinter was puppeteered by Clash, who also did his voice, with Rickey Boyd did the face animation and movement was assisted by Robert Tygner.

The Turtles are in battle against a ninja clan known as The Foot — Daredevil fought The Hand — which is led by Oroku Saki, known as the Shredder (James Saito), the man who killed Splinter’s master Tatsu. Yes, the “radical rat” used to watch his master do karate and picked it up. When he found the four mutated baby turtles in the sewer, he saved them and taught them how to become ninja.

The Foot Clan has some major actors in its employ. Look for Sam Rockwell as an unmasked member and Skeet Ulrich and Scott Wolf under hoods.

In the UK and Germany, this movie was known as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and the violence is toned down. Also, Mike’s nunchaku aren’t shown, as that weapon always gets censored. The German version goes even further to add cartoon sound effects to all of the fight scenes.

This was directed by Steve Barron (who also made Electric Dreams, Coneheads and the music videos for “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson, “Take On Me” by a-ha and “Don’t You Want Me” by The Human League) and written by Bobby Herbeck, who had the original idea of making the movie, and Todd W. Langen, who did a Page One rewrite of the original script.

Sally Menke, who edited all of Quentin Tarantino’s movies until her death in 2010, was the original editor of this film, removed by Golden Harvest who didn’t like her work. Weird, huh?

Trust me, I was a big fan. I bought every single Playmates toy, had all the comics and watched every episode of the show, but my heart was in the original black and white comics. That’s why I love the first film, because while made kid-friendly, it still has so much of that look and feel.

Bonus: Here is some artwork I did based on this movie.

VIDEO ARCHIVES NOTES: This movie was discussed on the April 18, 2023 episode of the Video Archives podcast and can be found on their site here. 

Colonel Jack Knowles (Roy Scheider) is a tough soldier awarded for his bravery in Vietnam.

Colonel Valachev (Jürgen Prochnow) is the same way, but on the other side of the West German-Czechoslovakia border.

These two men are an asset at war but a liability in peacetime.

They may just drag everyone into World War 3.

Based on the Einstein quote, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones,” this movie finds Knowles butting heads with his superiors Lieutenant Colonel Clark (Tim Reid) and General Hackworth (Harry Dean Stanton) when he isn’t getting blind drunk — on J&B no less and no, this is not a giallo — when he isn’t crossing the border and sabotaging Russian bases.

By the end, the two men battle in hand-to-hand combat on a frozen lake with their countries’ armies on both sides ready to unleash mutually assured destruction. The fight was so realistic that Scheider cracked one of his ribs and Prochnow popped out his knee.

The Fourth War was directed by John Frankenheimer from a script by Kenneth Ross, both of whom were anti-war, and hated the name given to the film as well as other possible titles like Game of Honor and Face Off.

This is the second Scheider and Frankenheimer film for Cannon after 52 Pick-Up. It’s funny because when you hear the storyline — an American soldier and his Russian counterpart yearn for war as they stare at one another across the border — you could imagine that as a Cannon movie this should star Stallone and Lundgren — if it were a higher budget option — or Chuck Norris and Richard Lynch — if it were a regular Cannon budget. I could go on and dream Cannon cast this further, such as Bronson and Wings Hauser or Michael Dudikoff and Billy Drago.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Directed by John Carl Buechler, who did the special effects for the Ghoulies series and also directed Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood and Cellar Dweller, this has the ghoulies being called to a college by Professor Ragnar (Kevin McCarthy, who never ever phones it in; he’s out of control in this) when he uses a Satanic comic book. He’s angry that all his students care about is a prank war and decides to destroy them, even becoming a human-sized ghoulie at the end.

This has Matthew Labyorteaux’s brother Patrick, Kane Hodder, Griffin O’Neal, Eva La Rue (Natalia Boa Vista from CSI: Miami), Hope Marie Carlton (Taryn from the Andy Sidaris movies), Jason Scott Lee and an early role for Matthew Lillard. It feels like when the Toxic Avenger went from absolute insanity to being a cartoon. If you were around for 80s made for video movies, well, you know the ride. Even Freddy got a doll.

I don’t like that the ghoulies can talk. We don’t need that.

Then again, I do like the one with the backward baseball cap and kind of wish that these movies were bigger than they are so I could have an action figure of him.

You can watch this on Tubi.