Lee B. Golden III

About Lee B. Golden III

https://mediumblue-gerbil-491410.hostingersite.com

Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!

Posts by Lee Golden:

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FANTASIA XXVI: SHIN ULTRAMAN, PSYCHOTIC WOMEN, ‘Cult’ Heroes And Many More In The Second Wave For The 2022 Edition!

Lee B. Golden III

Welp, it’s about that time now with the first wave out of the way and now the official second wave of titles to be hosted for the 26th Fantasia International Film Festival, inclusive of another round of diverse and unique films and some key spectacular thrillers. The announcement firstly hails Severin Films’s Kier-La Janisse for her contributions to film and literary work of more than two decades and then some, and a spotlight on queer cinema with the works of Rita Baghdadi, Eduardo Casanova, Tara Thorne and others. You also get KC Carthew’s Polaris which has a nice read; Shinji Higuchi’s Shin Ultraman gets included; Franklin Ritch’s World Premiere of internet vigilante thriller The Artifice Girl; Aya Ashina boxing drama starrer Red Shoes; Shinzo Katayama’s serial killer thriller Missing; Jesse Cooke Thomas’s hot new Cult Hero; Lenin M. Sivam’s small town dramatic thriller The Protector; South Korean gangbuster crime hit […]

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THE PRINCESS Slays Her Way Out Of A Castle In The Official Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Director Le-Van Kiet is officially making his crossover to the West in firm fashion with The Princess, and with a trailer that suits itself excellently following his previous hustle, Vietnam’s 2019 one-woman army actioner Furie. The Princess crowns actress Joey King as the lead for the subversive new tale from Kiet about a young Princess who defies gender-norms as she throws her full weight into the fray, fighting her way out of an unwanted marriage to save her kingdom. An action-packed fight to the death set in a fairy tale world, “The Princess” is directed by Le-Van Kiet (“Furie”) and stars Emmy Award® nominee Joey King (“The Act,” “The Kissing Booth”) as a beautiful, strong-willed princess who refuses to wed the cruel sociopath to whom she is betrothed, and is kidnapped and locked in a remote tower of her father’s castle. With her scorned, vindictive suitor intent on taking her […]

THE PREY: THE LEGEND OF KARNOCTUS Review: A Gory Creature Feature Like You’ve Always Seen

Lee B. Golden III

In a film market that never runs short of horror films, The Prey: The Legend Of Karnoctus has found its footing. Directed by Eric Hensman and Matthew Hensman who co-wrote the pic with Gustavo Sainz de la Peña, the film was a crowdfunded effort that’s now managed to make its landing with a story packed with the usual things you would expect in a film ripe with military action and overused plot twists, all applied with minimal effort to help draw our attention to the spectacle of an elusive creature eating its way through our would-be heroes. The crux of the story finds a wayward troupe of soldiers caught in a violent ambush and trapped in a desert cave with the only immediate exit collapsed from an explosion. And in their company? A pair of gold-hunting mercs named Tagger (Nick Chinlund) and Reid (Kevin Grevioux) who’ve just robbed an armed […]

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BREAKOUT BROTHERS 3: Catch The Trailer For The Third Installment Of Mak Ho Pong’s Hit Crime Franchise

Lee B. Golden III

Mak Ho Pong’s jailhouse trilogy which began with Breakout Brothers in 2020 now comes to ahead with its third installment. Its mix cast of new and returning characters includes Patrick Tam, Louis Cheung, Adam Pak and Justin Cheung along with Ron Ng and Kenny Wong, and Moses Chan. Ex-Warden Tang is sent to prison because of corruption whereas Jun is sent back for a jail sentence because of the failure of breakout. Jun tempts Tang to help another breakout as Tang is so familiar with the structure of the prison, both get a commitment immediately. They even plant Big Roller in order to have a successfully breakout out. However, Jun finds out Tang plays a trick on him so that Jun is forced to turns his coat to Big Roller, Mak and even the new Warden Ma to disclose Tang’s conspiracy for their safe. Breakout Brothers 3 is already playing […]

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DOUBLE THREAT Review: Danielle C. Ryan Thrills In An Offbeat Romantic Road Actioner That Fizzles

Lee B. Golden III

I kept wondering at first when I last heard the name of Danielle C. Ryan upon learning about her new film, Double Threat. It definitely wasn’t The Cat In The Hat, so I looked her up briefly and noticed her screen credit in John Lyde’s 2016 prison thriller, Riot, with Matthew Reese and Dolph Lundgren. It was a film I certainly enjoyed in part due to Ryan’s performance caliber from acting and action standpoints, so looking at her latest joint from director Shane Stanley, her return to the genre makes clear sense. Going forward though, what’s a little less understandable is the level of mediocrity the script undertakes at times. We meet Natasha (Ryan), a woman who apparently has a little more bark in her bite than most people realize, including and especially Jimmy (Matthew Lawrence), an unsuspecting family law forensic accountant en route to release his late brother’s ashes […]

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THE MODERATOR Takes Aim With A Vengeance This July

Lee B. Golden III

Saban Films and Paramount Pictures are pairing up to release The Moderator, the new action thriller from debut director Zhor Fassi-Fihri. Jonathan McConnell penned the script with Hicham Hajji, who reunites once more with actor Gary Dourdan following their previous thriller, Redemption Day. Dourdan joins lead actress Irma Lake who plays a covert assassin who decides to take justice into her own hands when the murder of her friends goes unsolved. Discovering the crimes were just the latest in a long streak of sadistic murders by an underground crime syndicate, she will take no prisoners in her blood-soaked mission for revenge as she hunts them down, one target at a time. The film also stars Robert Knepper and will release in select theaters, On Demand and Digital beginning July 29.

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News Briefs: MADAME WEB Adds Cast; DC Actress Crosses To Marvel; HUNGER GAMES Prequel Finds Lead; ‘Kombat’ Director Boards OMEGA

Lee B. Golden III

• Isabella Merced is joining the cast of Sony’s latest Marvel adaptation, Madame Web. Casting details are unknown but she joins Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney and Celeste O’Connor, with S.J. Clarkson tapped to direct. (Deadline) • The Suicide Squad star Daniela Melchior will have a small role in the recently-wrapped Guardians Of The Galaxy: Vol. 3 from director James Gunn. She is additionally set to appear in Fast X opposite the Vin Diesel-led roster with Louis Leterrier at the helm. (Deadline, Collider) • Rachel Zegler is Lionsgate’s choice for The Hunger Games prequel/spinoff, The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes. She will play Lucy Gray Baird, joining actor Tom Blyth who will play a younger Coriolanus Snow, among other characters based on the Suzanne Collins-penned novels. The film is dated for November 17, 2023. (Deadline) • Mortal Kombat director Simon McQuoid will shepherd sci-fi thriller, Omega, for Sony. Blair […]

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THE MAN FROM TORONTO: Kevin Hart Role Plays His Way Into Hitman Hijinks In The Official Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

If you can’t help but feel like Netflix is banking on the success of Rawson Marshall Thurber’s Central Intelligence and Tim Story’s Ride Along movies, you’re not alone. At any rate, you get what you get with the official trailer for Patrick Hughes’s The Man From Toronto which arrives on the streamer June 24 and stars Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson. A case of mistaken identity forces a bumbling entrepreneur to team up with a notorious assassin known as The Man from Toronto in hopes of staying alive. It’s worth noting Hughes’s strengths here as he’s already shown himself to be a capable action/comedy filmmaker with The Expendables 3, as well as The Hitman’s Bodyguard and its sequel. He’s also directing a reimagining for The Raid at some point after this so maybe there’s some value in checking this one out. Fingers crossed!

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BLACK SITE Promo Teases First Look At John Balazs’ New Action Thriller Shortfilm

Lee B. Golden III

I still have high hopes for director John Balazs after seeing his exemplary shortfilm work and ultimately proving himself in the feature film arena with his 2019 debut crime drama, Rage. His latest outing returns him once more to the shortfilm arena with Black Site, rejoined by his Rage star, Matt Theo, with actors Amelie Mendoza, Cassie Bethdart, Zoran Bravo and Marcus Merkoski rounding out the cast. Two remaining members of a special ops team must survive being hunted by Russian soldiers in order to make it to an extraction point. The mission, steal a vaccine that’s been withheld from the rest of the world. If you’ve seen his previous works like Night Shift starring Adele Elasmar, or his previous award-winner, Dancer, which is on deck for feature development as we speak, then you already have a good idea of what you’re in for with Black Site. If not and […]

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OVERLOOK V: Five Titles You Should Check Out For This Year’s Festivities!

Lee B. Golden III

The fifth Overlook Film Festival is just around the corner ahead of its June 2 kick-off and the full-line up is still available with more information at the website on how to participate. In the meantime, there are at least five titles that fans should look forward to in our curtain raiser below, including Phil Tippet’s long-awaited dystopian sci-fi magnum opus, Mad God, which is coming soon to AMC’s Shudder. Read on! MAD GOD Phil Tippet | 2021 | USA | 84 min Legendary animator and VFX wizard Phil Tippett makes his long awaited feature directorial debut with a stop-motion, Miltonesque fever dream that follows an assassin into a labyrinthian city full of monster and creeps. SALOUM Jean Luc Herbulot | 2021 | Senegal | 84 min When a group of mercenaries transporting both a fugitive and a bounty they stole find themselves stranded in a remote region of Senegal, they […]

ATTACK ON FINLAND: Catch The Explosive Official Trailer For The New Finnish Action Thriller

Lee B. Golden III

8 Ball and Naked Harbour director Aku Louhimies is back with new action thriller, Attack On Finland. Louhimes directs from a screenplay by Jari Olavi Rantala with a cast that lists Jasper Pääkkönen, Nanna Blondell, Sverrir Gudnason, Cathy Belton, Nika Savolainen, Pertti Sveholm, Juhan Ulfsak, Zijad Gracic, Miodrag Stojanović, and Dragomir Mrsic. Attack on Finland is an action-thriller based on a bestselling novel “6/12” by Ilkka Remes. Finland’s Independence Day celebration on December 6 is crudely interrupted by an attack to the Presidential Residence. A set of distinguished guests are taken as hostages. Security service officer Max Tanner is set as the negotiator of the hostage crisis. Tanner must make bold and even painful decisions to figure out who is behind the attack. After all, there are not only human lives to protect – but the future of Europe as a whole. Attack On Finland opens On Demand and in theaters […]

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THE KILLER: Jang Hyuk Is The Man In Black In The Newest Poster

Lee B. Golden III

Basic black is pretty much the main theme here in what we now see with the newest official poster for Choi Jae-hoon’s new film, The Killer (dubbed regionally as The Killer: A Girl Who Deserves To Die). The film, which stars Jang Hyuk and is based on a novel by Bang Jin-ho, was recently acquired by Wide Lens Pictures for its U.S. release to coincide with its July release in South Korean theaters. Hyuk plays a retired hitman forced back into his former trade when, after being charged with the care of his wife’s friend’s daughter with the two on a trip to Jeju Island, the young girl is suddenly kidnapped by a trafficking ring. The film marks a reunion between Hyuk and Choi who previously paired on period actioner, The Swordsman. Also starring are martial arts star Bruce Khan (Revenger), and actress Lee Seo-young (SomeAir), along witb Lee Seung-joon (Vanishing), Bang Eun-jung (Twenty […]

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SAVAGE DOG, PREMAN, BABY ASSASSINS And More As Well Go USA And Hi-YAH! Announce More Titles To Its Summer Rollout

Lee B. Golden III

Well Go USA has announced three more titles to its Hi-YAH! roster via social media this week with Isaac Florentine’s Close Range and White Elephant helmer Jesse V. Johnson’s Savage Dog. The announcement also includes footage from Johnson’s ensemble actioner, Triple Threat, as well as Randolph Zaini’s 2021 crime drama, Preman, and the previously announced Fantastic Fest favorite, Baby Assassins from director Yûgo Sakamoto. Florentine, recently in headlines for XYZ Films’ representation of his recently-completed mercenary thriller, Hounds Of War starring Frank Grillo, directs Adkins in Close Range who plays an ex-soldier who must protect his family from an evil cartel and a corrupt sheriff. In Johnson’s Savage Dog, Adkins is joined by Cung Le and Marko Zaror for a story set in 1950s Indochina where a former boxer due for release from prison seeks retribution against its evil warden and its criminal outfit. Zaini’s Preman premiered at Seattle International […]

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FROST: Chill Out With A Raft Of First Stills From Brandon Slagle’s New Thriller

Lee B. Golden III

First look stills are now making the rounds for Frost, the new thriller from director Brandon Slagle (Crossbreed, Attack Of The Unknown). Cleopatra Entertainment is announcing picture wrap following a 2020 Winter shoot on location in the San Bernardino mountains in southern California, with an October 11 release following its forthcoming festival run. Slagle directs from a screenplay storied by James Cullen Bressack penned by Robert Thompson. The film stars Vernon Wells (Mad Max II: The Road Warrior, Commando), Devanny Pinn (The Dawn, Crossbreed) and Venus DeMilo Thomas (Life, Sister Sister), and tells the story of a young woman and her estranged father who have to fight to survive after being stranded on a remote mountainside during a winter storm. Bressack recently wrapped production on upcoming Glen Danzig film Death Rider In The House Of Vampires. A full motion picture soundtrack for Frost is scheduled for both the CD and […]

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TIGER’S TRIGGER Unleashes Korean Kung Fu Cinema Legends In The First Teaser

Lee B. Golden III

Three years after stirring the pot with a round of set photos from their new independent action thriller, Tiger’s Trigger, we now have a first look teaser that samples the latest goings-on of kung fu cinema stalwarts Cassanova Wong (Enter The Invincible Hero, City Ninja) and Won Jin (Operation Scorpio, “My Name”). The film is directed by Lee Gang-wook and while we don’t have any further information about the project, the teaser certainly reassures the fans their pending fanservice. City On Fire first reported on the teaser on Monday.

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HANSAN: EMERGENCE OF DRAGON Debuts First Trailer For Kim Han-Min’s ‘Roaring Currents’ Prequel

Lee B. Golden III

Eight years after inaugurating his Yi Sun-shin trilogy with The Admiral: Roaring Currents, director Kim Han-min is back once more with its equally ambitious successor, Hansan: Emergence Of Dragon, which opens in Korea this July from Lotte Cultureworks. Choi Min-sik portrayed the lead in the previous film which became South Korea’s highest all-time earner of the box office during its 2014 run. The new prequel now hands the mantle to actor Park Hae-il (Park Chan-wook’s Best Director-winning Cannes 2022 premiere, Decision To Leave), with a story set five years earlier against the backdrop of the Battle Of Hansan between Korean and Japanese fleets. In 1592, admiral Yi Sun-sin falls into a crisis but rises again with his last secret weapon, the Turtle Ship. The legend of the invincible fleet begins ? Hansan, Emergence of Dragon! The film also stars Byun Yo-han (The Book Of Fish, “Mr. Sunshine”) and Ahn Sung-ki […]

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AIMEE: A Soldier’s War On Human Trafficking Begins In The Official Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Five years since making headway with an award-winning shortfilm on the same premise, stunt multi-hyphenate and filmmaker Lee Whittaker (stunt credits on “Kickin’ It”, Vishwaroopam 1 & 2, Baahubali 1 & 2, Agent Game) is out to make a strong case for his feature directing debut with rescue actioner, Aimee. The film stars Jamie M. Timmons in the title role with award-winning German-American actress Jet Jandreau (The Trail) playing her armed forces sister on a mission to cast a damning spotlight on an ongoing crisis on American soil. Returning from Afghanistan, Jessica, a Spec OPS Marine, finds herself in a war she never imagined and discovers middle America suburbia has changed when her thirteen year old sister, Aimee, is abducted by sex traffickers. Aimee was filmed just before the pandemic set in, and as it stands, Whittaker and his team managed to finish post-production as of last week with an […]

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MAJOR Celebrates The Man Who Was More Than A Soldier In The Official Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Only director Sashi Kiran Tikka’s second feature, the new Hindi/Telugu biopictoral action drama, Major, already enjoyed a limited local release in India as of last week. The film, which chronicles the life and times of late Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan in the years leading up to “Operation Black Tornado”, in which he sacrificed himself while saving lives during the deadly 2008 terrorist attacks in South Mumbai. Major reunites Tikka with actor Adivi Sesh following their previous pairing on Tikka’s 2018 action pic, Goodachari. The film also stars Saiee Manjrekar, Sobhita Dhulipala, Prakash Raj, Revathi and Saaho actor Murali Sharma, and opens worldwide from June 3, with action direction by Naba whose credits also include Goodachari and Saliesh Kolanu’s Hit and upcoming sequel, Hit: The Second Case in which Sesh also stars.

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NIKAMMA: Abhimanyu Dasani Goes From Zero To Hero In The Official Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Abhimanyu Dasani continues to garner fan favor in the few years since breaking out with Vasan Bala’s The Man Who Feels No Pain and switching it up with last year’s romcom, Meenakshi Sundareshwar. He’s back this month for the upcoming release of his newest action venture, Nikamma, and he’s joined by none other than Heropanti and Baaghi director Sabbir Khan. Nikamma is a remake of a 2017 Telugu action comedy, Middle Class Abbayi, this time with Dassani starring opposite Khamoshh… Khauff Ki Raat star Shilpa Shetty, along with Samir Soni and Shirley Setia. There’s no official synopsis, but if you’re new to things here then the trailer shows enough: A loser who falls in love and it eventually leads to a whole lotta song and dance, and some extraordinary ass-kicking with fight sequences designed by Anl Arasu (Naam Hai Akira, Kaththi) and Sunil Rodrigues (The Warrior Queen Of Jhansi, Extraction). […]

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DMZ Review: Dystopian US War Drama Sets The Stage For A Transformative And Convicting Tale Of Love

Lee B. Golden III

I first caught HBO Max series DMZ back in April and meant to write about it then, but finally managed to revisit it over the weekend. I have to admit though, that the show is only as long as one hour for all four episodes is one of its more inviting aspects. I never read the DC Vertigo comic, and so I don’t know if that is due to duration or simply Robert Patino’s own liberties in creating the series. Nevertheless, the show is certainly solid in its format. Rosario Dawson leads the cast opposite Benjamin Bratt, and along with Hoon Lee, Freddie Miares and Jordan Preston with episodes directed by Ava DuVernay and Ernest Dickerson – neither of whom are strangers to television – and penned by Patino along with Westworld and Mad Men vet Carly Wray, and by the comic’s original authors Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli for […]