OPINIONS

12 SLAYS OF CHRISTMAS: Cathy And Christina’s List Of Non-Traditional Holiday Thrillers To Enjoy This Season!

Sleigh bells and reindeer and sappy Christmas wishes: It’s that time of year when Lifetime and Hallmark play holiday movies back to back, and although the actors change and the music may vary, the plot basically remains the same: if someone is bitter, they find happiness thanks to Christmas; if someone is single, they find love thanks to Christmas; and so on and so on and can we get some better viewing options? If you agree with the above rant, have we got a treat for you! A couple of us here at Film Combat Syndicate decided to put together a list of non-traditional Christmas movies you should watch this month. In no particular order, here are the films as stored in the gallery below, or simply scroll down if you’ve opened this article via Twitter. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993) What it’s about: Jack Skellington lives in Halloween Town […]

The Day The Doctor Saved My Holiday

Cathy LaFrance

You should always trust your doctor, right? My favorite doctor — and after my late husband’s 20-year battle with chronic illness, we knew lots of doctors — is Doctor Who. Yes, I’m a Whovian. And I do blame the dead husband for that. He knew more about the original series than I did, but we shared a deep love of the Doctor’s newest incarnations, from Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor through Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor. In the months leading up to my husband’s death in December 2016, we didn’t watch much Doctor Who, if any. His battle with lung disease culminated with excessive carbon dioxide robbing him of clear vision, among other things. With his passing on Christmas Eve Day, I didn’t even think about watching the Christmas special. I didn’t even remember that there was one. Three years later, I found myself in a new house with our two (tween) […]

The Unchosen: Screen Heroines We Think Fit The Demand

Christina Ortega

Recently SyFy’s Jessica Toomer released an article that focused on how making a female main character “the Chosen One” is problematic and if you take the time to read it, it makes a lot of sense. And not just because I’m a female. So we here at Film Combat Syndicate decided to write up a small list of female leads that get it right. What does it mean to get it right? We want to focus on heroines who may not have special dormant powers and do not have a kind of fate or destiny that carves who she is, but instead, highlights her “otherness” and underscores her struggle in the course of achieving something greater than herself. So, in no particular order, here’s what we came up with, including myself along with contributors Cathy LaFrance, Vance Ang, and this site’s founder and editor, Lee B. Golden III. NOTE: Make […]

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THE MANDALORIAN: Baby Yoda’s First Word

Cathy LaFrance

Parents are always excited to hear their child’s first word. Will it be “Mama”? “Dada”? Or maybe something completely unexpected? So tell me this, Mandalorian watchers: what will the Child’s first word be to parent-figure Mando? As a parent myself, as well as a world language teacher, these are my morning coffee thoughts as we work through Season 2 of Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian. Right now, fans of “Baby Yoda” (yeah, I like the moniker, even if Favreau hates it) love every coo and giggle from the big-eyed cutie pie. But eventually, it stands to reason that the Child will begin to talk. So what will it say? What will it sound like? I’m basically just a Star Wars movie fan, so don’t go all Extended Universe on me. But here’s my academic take. From a language perspective, the original Yoda speaks the English-like language known as “Galactic Basic” in […]

Your Next Reads: TELL-TALE HEART, THE SHINING, And A Few More Horror Titles For Your October

Christina Ortega

So, if you’ve been reading my previous articles, you should know by now that although I love all things horror, I do not actually get scared by the movies and shows I watch or the books I read. Writing an article like this is a bit tricky because not everyone gets scared by the same things. Are you afraid of clowns? Read or watch It. Are you scared of ghosts? Read The Haunting of Hill House or watch The Conjuring. By now you’re probably assuming that any book I put down on this list will really terrify you if I’m labeling it as a “scary” book to read. No. Well, maybe. Adding a novel to this list doesn’t necessarily mean that it legitimately scared me, but I’ll explain why I’ve added each item to this list as you read on. Ready? Here we go. •Heart-shaped Box by Joe Hill Rock […]

STRAW DOGS Retrospective: Sam Peckinpah’s Masterful Character Study On One Of Cinema’s Unlikeliest Heroes

Vance Ang

It remains one of my favourite films, and made me a fan of Sam Peckinpah, prompting that sudden realisation as to why his work is so highly acclaimed in modern cinema. And yet it wasn’t his more famous ‘The Wild Bunch’ that courted my fascination with his work. Rather it was this psychological thriller from 1971 that made me pursue more of his catalogue, and fully realise the extent of his genius. Straw Dogs is an uncompromisingly violent tale of a meek American mathematician named David Sumner, played by the ever reliable, Dustin Hoffman. Sumner and his attractive wife Amy (played by Susan George) relocate to a sleepy English village, where Amy is originally from. Immediately, this sets up a conflict where the locals take a disliking to David and make no secret of their resentment of him. A class structure is established, pitting the more masculine yet boorish locals […]

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Happy 25th Anniversary, MORTAL KOMBAT

Lee B. Golden III

If you feel at like the first official teaser for Simon McQuoid’s Mortal Kombat is taking way, WAY longer than it should to arrive, you’re not alone. It’s been eight months since the film wrapped shooting in Australia, and you can’t help but imagine if we might have gotten one sooner had this terrible, horrible, no good, very VERY bad pandemic settled in. I’m thinking we would’ve. Frankly though, this takes nothing away from the conversation starter that was Paul W.S. Anderson’s 1995 endeavor from New Line Cinema, etching in the likes of Robin Shou (Liu Kang), Cary Tagawa (Shang Tsung), Christopher Lambert (Raiden), Bridgette Wilson (Sonya Blade), Linden Ashby (Johnny Cage), Chris Cassamassa (Scorpion), Talisa Soto (Kitana), François Petit (Sub-Zero), Trevor Goddard (Kano) and Keith Cooke (Reptile) into cinema history. That a feature adaptation was in the works was a total surprise for me, firstly seeing Ashby in a […]

ASIAN CINEMA AUDIBLES: Seven Movies That Relied On Music To Tell The Story

Nicole McCray

Music in the entertainment industry is used for more than just to set the mood for the audience, it becomes part of the film. Mostly it has been utilized as the backdrop to set a scene. However, musical scores are also used to tell more of the story, especially when there is no dialogue to push it forward. Sometimes producers and directors will even lean on the music within their films, instead of action or character development. Most of the time, Hollywood movies adequately depict the essence and have long been studied for their use of music in the appropriate times. But, what about Asian films? Everyone is familiar with some of the amazing Asian cinematic theme songs like the ones shown in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with it’s “Night Fight Theme Music” and winning the honor and Oscar for Best Original Score (and also no wonder that it spawned […]

BROKEN PATH: A Look Back At Koichi Sakamoto’s Lost Martial Arts Masterpiece

Michael Scott

What if I told you one of the most deliriously over-the-top martial arts movies ever was made in 2008 and nobody saw it? That’s the story with Broken Path, directed by Koichi Sakamoto and starring Power Rangers alum and voice-actor extraordinaire Johnny Yong Bosch. The movie is filled with wall-to-wall action and a simple but compelling story but for some reason to this day has seen no proper U.S. release. Broken Path opens with Bosch’s Jack living the country life on a remote ranch with his wife Lisa (Pamela Walworth) and their daughter Maddy (Lanie Taylor). Their idyllic life is shattered when the house comes under siege by a group of masked assailants, all of whom seem to have history with Jack. One of the assailants in particular, a man named Yoshi, (Dan Southworth) claims to want to help Jack. It turns out Jack has a past he’s never told […]

BAAGHI Review: Tiger Shroff is here to stay!!

Mike Garcia

Martial arts, insane stunts, comedy, romance, music… All this put together is Baaghi. The mix of genres that distinguish Indian movies makes this production madly enjoyable. The movie is a continue homage to different martial arts vintage classics, that comes from “36th shaolin chamber”, “snake on the eagle shadow” to modern classics as “ong bak” or even “The Raid“. They even added final credits outtakes as Jackie Chan films used to do. Maybe that lack of originality will never allow this flick to become a classic of the genre but that doesn´t mean that this movie is not crazily badass. Tiger Shroff establishes himself as an ultimate action hero, displaying fantastic martial arts skills and doing many crazy stunts. Fortunately for people who loves good martial arts scenes, here they are shot perfectly, with good camera angles in which you can appreciate the action and without stupid camera shaking movements […]

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TERMINATOR ZEN KILLER Review: Ninjas from the past fighting Terminators from the future, in the most bizarre and erotic adventure you could ever imagine

Mike Garcia

A rip off of Terminator in which some evil villain from the future sends a killer cyborg to the year 2009 to kill a nerd who is supposed to be makind´s only hope, but some lady from an ancient past who can see the future, decides to send a ninja to the year 2009, to protect the nerd and save the world… And that ninja was no other than the gorgeous Asami, whom 11 years ago was at the top of her reign as queen of V-cinema, kicking butts and saving the day from evil Cyborgs and boredom. Directed by Jiro Ishikawa, The film is a really low budget product with cheap special effects and low production values, in which they managed to make a very good looking product (if you are not very demanding, of course). However, the action scenes are very well made, being one of the strongest […]

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COMMANDO NINJA Review: Bringing back all the joys that made us love cinema

Mike Garcia

This crazy movie is an audiovisual love letter to 80’s cinema and all its mythology. An insane homage to Cannon films, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Van Damme, Mad Max and much more with Deloreans included, and references to the infamous IFD and their colorful ninja productions, containing a Richard Harrison’s clone, and his unforgettable Garfield´s phone, with he could communicate with Thailand mobsters from the past. Commando Ninja revolves around John Hunter, a Vietnam Green Beret Veteran, Half Commando, Half Ninja, whose daugher has been kidnapped by a secret Ninja organization leaded by a ruthless Central-America dictator, who wishes to rule the world, and will attempt doing it, traveling through time!! Pure madness wrapped in a parodic and comic tone, accompanied by a fantastic musical score that brings back the joys of the unforgettable soundtracks of all those films that marked an era and is paying tribute, that even today many […]

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Wolf Warrior I & II REVIEW: Wu Jing fights for the motherland for the sake of entertainment

Mike Garcia

Back in the 80’s, this type of movies were made by Americans with Chuck Norris or Sylvester Stallone as action heroes, but now the world has changed and that kind of badass war action films, loaded with cheap cinematic patriotism to highlight all the virtues of the action hero are made in China. Some of them are even produced by the goverment with propaganda purposes. Some are big blockbusters as Wolf Warriors, but others are just low budget productios with zero interest that surfaces in the VOD niche. Wolf Warriors is a military action thriller directed by Wu Jing himself, in which he played a Chinese special force soldier that is confronted by a group of dangerous foreign mercenaries who are hired to assassinate him by a vicious drug lord. 90 fast paced minutes of action fest with Wu Jing as action hero, supported by Nan Yu (The Expendables 2) […]

CHEN ZHEN, THE TOKYO FIGHT Review: An action fest with a desperate romance defying two rival nations.

Mike Garcia

In the chinese movie universe, their most important martial arts historical figures have become in part of their cultural folklore, reimagining their stories countless of times, turning them into superheroes and fictional characters that trascends the passage of time and have overshadowed the real men behind their legend. Is difficult to summarize how many times the story of Chen Zhen (which his real name was Liu Zhensheng) has been adpated into the screen, however, is undeniable that his more iconic incarnations has been the ones performed by Bruce Lee in “Fist of Fury” (1972) and Jet Li in “Fist of Legend” (1994) This new adventure of the character, could perfectly work as prequel of “Fist of Legend”, telling the story of Chen Zhen, when his Master Huo Yuanjia, (another icon in martial arts cinema) sent him to Japan to study engineering in Tokyo´s university, to bring back tho his motherland […]

THE BOURNE FRANCHISE: Revisiting A Durable Spy Thriller Saga From The Big To The Small Screen

Lee B. Golden III

I’ve never really covered the Bourne movies on The Action Elite. However, I figured during my recent downtime, I would binge them over a weekend and do a little retrospective including the original Bourne Identity from 1988 and the Prime series Treadstone. I go into spoilers here so if you haven’t seen any of these movies then best not to continue. The Bourne Identity (1988) An unconscious man is washed ashore on the beach of a small French village during a heavy storm. A retired doctor takes care of the unconscious stranger. When the mysterious man recovers, he can’t remember a thing. He does not know his name, he does not know where his flashback memories come from, and he does not know why the access code for an anonymous Swiss bank account is implanted in his thigh. As he seeks his own identity, things quickly become dangerous. There are […]

JIAN BING MAN Review: A superhero meta-comedy with a pancake superhero, a full star cast and Jean Claude Van Damme as final enemy.

Mike Garcia

Da Peng is a popular Chinese comedian, who had a successful web series on the Chinese internet called “Diors Man”, who had his moment of glory when Conan O’Brien accused him of plagiarism on his show, and for a few months, the two were throwing fun gibes to each other from their respective shows. For this crazy meta-comedy, he became an orchestra man, being the screenwriter, the main actor, and debuted as a director in a major film, surrounding himself of the best of the chinese entertainment industry. The plot of the film revolves around his own persona, basically playing himself, a popular internet comedian, who in order to buy a ten million engagement ring of ten million for his fiancée, accepts the offer of a triad´s leader to shoot a movie, unfortunately, Da Peng gets involved in a scandal where in addition to losing his shame, he loses the […]

DECO TRUCK GAL NAMI SAGA Review: Carrying The Legacy Of Trucker Yaro, In A Thrilling Journey With Redemption As Final Destination

Mike Garcia

Deco Truck gal Nami (Hideo Jojo), is a 4 movies series from 2008 to 2012, strongly influenced by Trucker Yaro (Noribumi Suzuki) a 10 film series that were produced by Toei from 1975 to 1979, and starred by the legendary Bunta Sugawara, in the role of Momojiro, a truck driver who in each movie falls in love with a different woman, while lives crazy adventures in the road and always ends with a broken heart. Trucker Yaro original poster (1975) Deco Truck Gal Nami carries the legacy of Noribumi Suzuki´s creation in essence and style, following a same patterns of truck chases, action and adventures on the road, including numerous homages and even fanservice for fans of the original movies, having in every installment a cameo of an actor that resembles to Bunta Sugawara playing Momojiro. However, the storylines between both sagas are completely different, introducing a female version […]

RED SWORD (2012) Review: The Red Hood Tale That They’ve Never Told You

Mike Garcia

A long time ago, there was a tribe of werewolves that had no women. Throughout history, these desperate werewolves have attacked and raped human females as a way to continue their species, but werewolves have a terrible legend that every hundred years, on a night of the red moon, a girl will be born, destined to destroy the werewolf tribe. The red hood tale that you would never tell to your children, passed through the filter of the political incorrectness of Japanese V-cinema, in a twisted tale directed by Naoyuki Tomomatsu, that turns the lovely and innocent Red Hood into an avenger, slasher of rapist werewolves, that carries a katana instead of a basket. An explosive bizarre twisted cocktail of action, horror and erotism, in which Asami portrays the character as an angel of death and justice, that fights her way through, under the excellent action direction of Shigeki Hayase […]

FIST OF LEGEND (2019) Review: The Making Of A Hero

Mike Garcia

Prequel to the Chen Zhen played by Jet Li, in the essential 1994 classic that shares the same title in English with this production, that tells the story about the early adventures of Chen Zhen in Japan, during his days as student in the university of Tokyo, giving us an insight look of the beginning of his love relationship with the Japanese girl who gave him so many headaches in Jet Li’s “Fist of Legend” and making him, once again, the banner of the rights of the Chinese people against the evil Japanese empire, whom are again the villains in a plot loaded with that stale nationalism that looks so good in this type of movies and that positions the audience next to the hero. The little expressive, but brilliant martial artist, Tiger Xu, is in charge on this occasion of embodying the character, relying his performance on his terrific […]

NEZHA CONQUERS THE DRAGON KING Review: Changing Destiny Fantasy Fable

Mike Garcia

Nezha kills a dragon to save a young lady, provoking the rage of the snake spirit, who vows to kill Nezha and avenge the dragon, setting the world on fire, forcing Nezha to make a big sacrifice in order to save the innocent ones, letting in the hands of the girl he saved from the dragon, the key to save the world, for which she would have to pay an ultimate price. A different and more mature approach of the story, that shows Nezha as a teenager instead of a child, like in previous versions. A fantasy martial arts tale, full of action and romance, in which our hero must deal with the responsibility of having been choosen to learn the path of immortality in a world of mortals. A story that explores the limits of love, and how far, people who has fall into that treacherous trap, are willing […]