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Now On Netflix: Shinsuke Sato’s ALICE IN BORDERLAND Delivers Exhilirating Action Sci-Fi With Chilling Effect

Standing at eight episodes in total with close to an hour for each, it’s difficult to get past the need for a more brisk pace in dialogue and story delivery when it comes to episodic dramas. With Shinsuke Sato’s Alice In Borderland, it certainly helps that this one is an action-packed stimulant from a filmmaker credited for some of the most ample, worthwhile successes in action direction. From the first episode onward, manga author Haro Aso’s own titular work is the basis for this story as we meet Ryohei Arisu, (Kento Yamazaki), a gaming addict and overall slacker. When he’s not wasting away at the controls to the chagrin of his much more successful, albeit judgemental brother and father, he escapes from under their microscope to hang out with friends Karube and Chota. After getting chewed out by his family and thrown out, Arisu convenes with his friends at the […]

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EVERYTHING ‘MANDALORIAN’: Part I – A Look Back On Season One

Cathy LaFrance

So unless you’ve been living under a rock, or (GASP!) you don’t like Star Wars, you know that the hottest property in our favorite galaxy far, far away is The Mandalorian, a spin-off series chronicling the adventures of armored bounty hunter “Mando” Din Djarin and his ward, Grogu. Yes, Grogu. You know, The Child? Baby Yoda? Yeah, that one. The finale to season two dropped Dec. 18, so now we have time to parce the fine details provided us and ponder the future of our beloved, beskar-clad Dad and his crew before season three arrives at some point in 2021. For those who don’t have access to Disney+ (I have kids. Of course I have Disney+), allow me to offer you a primer on The Mandalorian, seasons 1 and 2 before we get to the heavy lifting. THE BASICS: The Mandalorian hearkens back the feel of what the original Star Wars: A New Hope movie […]

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Now On Tubi: Coming-Of-Age Crime Drama BEAT Is A Full-Throttle Hit That Still Breaks Even

Lee B. Golden III

If at any given time prior to the new millenium you told me I’d be following my way down a rabbit hole of obscure Asian films, I would’ve been positively thrilled. It’s a reasonable enough trajectory considering by the late 90s I had grown weary of being a targeted consumer in a market for the same films by the same actors. Hence why you’d frequently see me in the Asian cinema section of the video store in the late 90s. Well into the new millennium my interests eventually landed me in a book store near Herald Square where I eventually became the owner of a number of Korean DVD imports, many of which were Region 3-locked and wouldn’t have been watchable were it not for my player’s All-Region functionality. Among the load I bought from that store upon my visits back then included a DVD copy of Kim Sung-su’s 1997 […]

Now On Tubi: Action Crime Thriller ON THE ROPES Rebounds Right Down To The Final Round [Reprint]

Lee B. Golden III

The last six years have been some of the more eventful for German stunt trio Can Aydin, Phong Giang and Yoon Cha-Lee. Working and operating under their Reel Deal Action banner, the compilation of independent projects they’ve done next to the numerous stunt credits they share on major studio titles are a testament to become something much more than a run-of-the-mill indie label. 20th Century Fox’s 2017 German theatrical release of Plan B: Scheiss Auf Plan A, for all intents and purposes, was a cornerstone of their progress in attempting to bring genuine acting and screenfighting talent to the big screen for martial arts action fans. The genre still tends to prove difficult to take, however, but that doesn’t change the fact that a film like Plan B has an audience, and for that matter, our aforementioned trio of burgeoning action stars. That knowledge is also shared by James Mark, […]