tara macken

THE HIT LIST: June 10, 2019

The Hit List has taken a pretty interesting turn of late now that I actually get to host some video files on behalf of creators. It’s a blessing and I’m real thankful to those of you investing in my own YouTube channel to share your craft. You’ll see a bit of that later, while we begin with the usual raft of demo reels from some of today’s top and emerging talent in stunts and action performance. Up first is someone who rightly deserves the proliferation he’s gotten since throwing down in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Mission: Impossible – Fallout. His name is Liang Yang and his reel is up first followed by reels featuring Aaron D. Alexander, Jennifer Mitchell, Diego Ramiro, Eric C. Sun, Taylor Krasne, Danny Rivera, A.J. Gagliardi, Lauren Nguyen, Ben Tardif, Patrick Dunham, Bronte Coluccio, Jon Beal, Daniel Pera, Michelle Fisichella, Phillip Wainwright, Oliver Gough, […]

Small Scale Action Thriller, INTENSIVE CARE, Crafts A Fitting Experiment With A Killer Star In The Making

Lee B. Golden III

From reading the premise of his 2013 short, Covetous, you can sort of get why the female-led revenge narrative might stick with director Jared Bentley just a few years later. I haven’t had that conversation with him to understand first hand his mindset on the matter, but by all accounts, he’s followed suit since then with his first feature outing, Intensive Care, and to ample effect, with the casting of one Tara Macken whose veracity in acting could one day easily match the caliber she’s increased in a well-over-a-decade-long career in stunts. Having done a fair amount of acting through bit roles for feature-length, short form and TV projects, Macken exudes the kind of promise relatively seen from a number of stuntwomen through the decades; You can point to Sophia Crawford, who went from stunt performing in Hong Kong to doubling Sarah Michelle Gellar for the rigorous action scenes in […]

THE HIT LIST: April 16, 2018

Lee B. Golden III

I’m pondering taking next weekend off for the Hit List. As it stands I have a few screeners that need screening and reviewing and I haven’t at all had the time for them. Plus, a little extra time for myself would be spiffy. L to R (top): Adele Elasmar, Marrese Crump, Amber Lamarca, Troy Butler, Amy Johnston L to R (bottom): Noel Schefflin, Monique Ganderton, John Wood, Niahlah Hope, Timothy Eulich Of course, all that could change depending on the content of the coming week and if it’s too good to hold back, you can expect another entry online stunts and hits. For now, its the 16th of April and back hand-springing in her element is stuntwoman Niahlah Hope for the inaugural reel of this week’s stunt playlist. Rounding it all out are reels by Max Laferriere, Thaddeus McQueen, John Wood, Amber Lamarca, Ivan Kasnyov, Nakamura Koji, Bryan Dodds, Beni […]

THE HIT LIST: March 26, 2018

Lee B. Golden III

This week’s Hit List has opened my eyes to a few gems I am strongly curious about, and I hope to learn more in the nearest future after this. L to R (top): Monica Lopez, Kay Sodderman, Carrie Bernans, Felix King, Tara Macken L to R: François Girard, Heather Wake, Taz Garcia, Lisa Connell, Marlon Perrier Skipping further fluff, let’s get it on this week with a fantastic playlist stunt and action reels headlined by a raft of rising talents in Niko Bogucki, Isaac Rivera and ginger beauty, actress Heather Wake, followed by feats from Yavuz Topuz, TeamOneTake’s own Hector Soria, Jasmine Wright, Joe Bagtas, Nozawa Yutaka, Jackie Gerhardy, Film Combat Syndicate favorite Adam Brashaw, Katoh Kohji, Amy Schumacher, Bryan Dodds, Marlon Perrier, Carrie Bernans, Kyle Sodderman, and a delightful drone parkour collab from Storm Freerun and The Motus Projects. Up next in promotional gems are just a this week, […]

THE HIT LIST: August 7, 2017

Lee B. Golden III

My weekend was good! Well… not terrible anyway. Atomic Blonde was on my agenda and I stand by my last words in that piece as we now approach a new week with another installment of The Hit List. As always, a nifty amalgam some of today’s top and talented stunt performers is how we start things and we begin with a major contribution a la Vimeo with Boyka: Undisputed co-star, actor and martial artist Brahim Achabbakhe. Malin Kirjonen takes the lead this week in our Youtube playlist just beneath with Nathan Barris following, as well as stunt players Daniel Stevens, Hayden Lam, Diandra Stoddard, Darren Holmquist, Mark Miscione, Tien Hoang, Kami Bruder, Maggie MacDonald, Jay Greene, Kyro Wavebourne, Yavuz Topuz, Darren Bailey (click here to view it), and Vlad Rimburg with a fantastic highlight reel showcasing the brutal action of Ali Abbas Zafar’s multi-award winning MMA thriller, Sultan! Promotional gems come to […]

Reel Time: TARA MACKEN (2014)

Lee B. Golden III

Photo Credit: James Lew, editing by @adoubleleye Back in 2012, long before I began acclimating myself in the stunt community via social networking and not yet learning who actress and stuntwoman Tara Macken was at the time, I got the chance to see director Gary Ross’s theatrical adaptation of the YA novel, The Hunger Games. It was a film that I thoroughly enjoyed and one I am glad to have seen as that particular franchise progresses its next three films, with Macken also credited in its latest sequel, Catching Fire. It is also a film I was happy to experience as an unforeseen precursor to starting my site and ultimately meeting Macken online, whose growing body of work can now be seen in her latest action reel now available on her YouTube channel in the embed below. Namely drawing her inspiration from characters such as Angelina Jolie’s lead role in […]