A while ago, I posted a primer about what
direct-to-video martial arts films a newcomer to the subgenre might want to
watch first. I’ve since realized that those recommendations don’t really imbue
the reader with any means of making informed decisions beyond the list, so now,
I’ve come up with a set of tips regarding the subgenre in general. While many
of these suggestions are not without ample exceptions, I have done my best to
ensure that they match general perceptions and are not too biased.
To
choose a quality DTV martial arts flick, consider the following:
The time of release is important
Beware of films released during the home video slump – approximately 1999 thru 2006.
During this time, the smaller studios responsible for the action boom had
either gone out of business or been bought up by larger distributors. Studios
like Sony and Columbia TriStar were new to the low-budget game and tended to
focus on style over substance. Additionally, many of video’s stars had either
left the genre by this time (e.g. Jeff Wincott) or were stepping down from solo
careers to focus on supporting roles (e.g. Cynthia Rothrock).
Different studios make different movies
Not all studios that release DTV martial arts flicks specialize in them, but
there have been several that do. Knowing what to expect from such studios can
be helpful, so here’s a handful of the more prolific ones.
- PM Entertainment – Better-than-average
stories and production values, mixed with good (and occasionally great) action. - Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment – Strong
production values and so-so fight scenes. - Cine Excel Entertainment – Cheap-o productions,
often with dubbed audio. Tons of fight scenes of poor quality. - Voltage Pictures – Increasingly decent
productions starring current or ex- A-listers. Its founder publicly stated it
only produces B-movies to finance larger pictures. - Nu Image – Its 1992-1997 output ranged
from good to decent. 1998-2005 was very questionable. From then ‘til now, Isaac
Florentine’s productions have set the standard. - Millennium Films – A subsidiary of Nu
Image; see above.
Some guys are lovers
There are a few performers in the DTV market who are identified as “karate guys”
– usually because of past work – but don’t actually feature that much
hand-to-hand fighting in their movies. Primary offenders include Wesley Snipes
and Dolph Lundgren, along with post-2005 Lorenzo Lamas. Michael Dudikoff,
Olivier Gruner, and Steven Seagal have also had some pretty bare stretches.
Eastern Europe = blah
Low-budget filmmakers apparently find favorable
production conditions and a ready stunt community in nations like Bulgaria, but
this is also the place where many productions were shot during the dreaded
video slump. Filmmakers have had a much better time of it since the late 2000s,
but in addition to their unsatisfying action content, these colorless films are
depressing to look at.
MMA-themed movies suck
Again, filmmakers seem to be getting the hang of this nowadays, but mixed
martial arts have ironically fared much better in mainstream cinema than on DTV.
I blame a lot on this on the films of Hector Echavarria, a kickboxer-turned-filmmaker
who cornered the market with movies saturated by bad fight scenes and overhyped
cameos of professional fighters.
Ignore the reviews
Or rather, know to gauge others’ opinions. DTV fare
tends to generate reviews from two kinds of people: cult fans and casual
viewers who rarely watch non-mainstream pictures. This leads to a polarized set
of opinions, and it’s hard to know which to trust in any given case.
Personally, I used to ignore reviews completely, though the consequence has
been sitting through a lot of sludge. As far as reviewing hubs go, Rotten
Tomatoes tends to mirror popular consent, Amazon is where people go to write
positive reviews, and IMDb is the most nuanced of the three.
Yeah, I’m aware of the irony of that last
one, seeing as I write reviews, too. But keep in mind that we’re talking about
a subgenre that is still fairly marginalized. Whereas finding out what movies
you like in the mainstream is relatively easy, finding good low-budget martial
arts movies – some of them 30 years old by now – is like trying to find
treasure using an incomplete map. To that end, I hope this list is helpful.
B-Movie Dragons 