on the ropes

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

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, […]

Review: Action Crime Drama, ON THE ROPES, Rebounds Right Down To The Final Round

Lee B. Golden III

ON THE ROPES: ‘Kill Order’ Director’s Latest Now Available On DVD And VOD

Lee B. Golden III

Industry stuntman and coordinator James Mark is finding his groove in the director’s chair since his sci-fi action debut, Kill Order. He’s back with a raft of heavy-hitters, burgeoning stars all their own with On The Ropes, featuring the very people that brought the stellar action and thrills in milestone German martial arts comedy, Plan B. Following the sudden death of their father, two brothers realize the greatest threat to their criminal empire might just be each other. A no holds barred battle for power ensues that threatens to destroy everything their old man built. On The Ropes stars Can Aydin, Phong Giang and Yoon Cha-Lee and is now available on DVD and VOD from Screen Media. I actually find it a bit troubling that this is getting such a quiet release. Plan B is also long overdue for a U.S. rollout as well apart from its avaiability overseas… Such […]

2X THE PROMISE: An Interview With KILL ORDER Director, Stunt Professional James Mark

Lee B. Golden III

Right near the launch of this news site, I had every intention of covering action cinema as closely and socially as I could with respect to the craft. For me, the work therein points straight to the people behind the magic – the very stunt professionals in the field shared by the likes of debut filmmaker James Mark in recent memory. Accordingly, was in 2013 that I first learned of Team 2X with respect to my own coverage. A look on their fanpage almost immediately revealed a crowdfunding campaign for an independent feature film stylized as a genuine sci-fi axtioner tweaked to echo the glory of films like The Raid and its sequel. Ambitious indeed, but provenly difficult as I learned in parallel with my own work in how to cover these kinds of projects and the tediousness and care it takes to do so. Any kind of reporting on […]

PLANNING INTO ACTION: An Interview With Actor And Stuntman, Phong Giang

Lee B. Golden III

Click here and you’ll be able to see just how far back I began lending lip service to one of the most anticipated martial arts film titles at the time prior to its ensuing title, Plan B: Scheiss Auf Plan A (click here to read our review). That was in 2015 and it certainly feels like forever looking back as far as then in covering German film and stunt troupe, Reel Deal Action, as much as I have been. It’s brought me in close throes of the biggest and best in the stunt industry, including Can Aydin who has been with the team as early as around 2012; it was later that year when I finally launched the Facebook page for this blog prior to officially writing for it. Aydin leads the cast along with prolific actor and dancer Eugene “U-Gin” Boateng, and fellow Reel Deal Action members Yoon Cha-Lee […]

OUR OWN ‘PLAN B’: An Evening With Reel Deal’s Can Aydin & Friends

Lee B. Golden III

Germans clearly have the neatest kept facial hair…whereas I am long overdue for a weedwacker. Geezus (From L to R: Can, Yavuz, myself and Engin) If you were to tell me I would have not one, but two awesome days in a row this week in my meet and greets with stunt and film. professionals, I might have looked at you funny (while secretly wondering where you get your powers of clairvoyance from). Apparently that ended up being the case this past week when the second of two events occurred with my Friday night reunion with German action director, actor and Reel Deal Action co-founder Can Aydin during his second of two trips this year to New York City. This evening came just short of two years after I first met him in 2015 with Hollywood fight coordinator Jojo Eusebio; Both were in town as Eusebio was working on Dave […]

THE DRAGON’S ALLY: An Interview With Alexandre Bailly

Lee B. Golden III

Well, this was a pretty wicked trip back in time. It was certainly a regular pit stop for my nightly enjoyment of independent action group, Z-Team in my regular bingeing of action shorts everynight as the online action community continued to bloom, and indeed, The Z-Team were pretty big for me, right next to Zero Gravity and The Stunt People. I was always fascinated by their quality of work in terms of action and storytelling, and I was certainly happy to see the likes of French actor and martial artist Alexandre Bailly among them. His participation in the 2007/2008 shortfilm, Brothers Forever, helped continue to signal a calling for the mainstream to pay attention and watch, much like other teams at the time – something that inspired me to start a freehostia.com account to get my own news site going and help discuss martial arts and action movies on a […]