Well, I don’t know about you guys, but my weekend was another laid back one this summer. I haven’t been to the movies in a while and mostly due to work, but I have plenty of anime and film at home to keep me company, and that courtesy also extends to any number of the usual action shorts and stunt talents I find on the web.
Thus, we now engage another installation of The Hit List, and the first of the bunch brings us the usual playlist ripe with stunt reels to enjoy beginning with Jesse Liskola who has caught my attention in a few good projects over the past year or so, including Mikko Lopponen’s 2015 winter revenge thriller, Eliza. His demo reel is just below and followed by a slate of stunt and training reels from Christopher Troy, Anthony Hoang, Lon Gowan, Katie Kramer, Skylar Mowatt, Martin Wan and tricker Clément Gibilisco. The last reel comes courtesy of stunt coordinator Danny Maze, accompanied with a montage of films and television shows he’s worked on, as well as music videos for artists like Eminem and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
Enjoy!
There isn’t much for promotional material, but we do have something really stellar to look forward to thanks to director James Poirier. His latest upcoming project, Relapse is well on the way with an official trailer and release with action actors Gabriel Caste and Dre Swain starring as two former black ops soldiers who set out to retrieve one of their own from captivity.
You’ll learn a lot more about this project in my forthcoming review along with an unveiling of the trailer soon enough, but a teaser can be viewed online as of a few days ago to help whet the appetite some. Nick Apostolides and James Logan also star.
And now we move onto some great fight bits from the interwebs, with a trio of Tokusatsu indie gems from filmmaker Bueno, Red Sun and Suzaku. These are terrific set ups with great suits and some very cool graphics to boot and on top of Bueno’s cult success with the 2014 limited indie Toku release, Gun Caliber and its upcoming sequel, Strega, it really speaks to his credentials as someone with a show of his own dedicated to teaching people how to make their own Toku.
Following that is the latest from Flawless Films with Jake Wick, a nifty little John Wick fan short to take in ahead of Lionsgate’s upcoming sequel, a cool new Harley Quinn/Bruce Wayne fan fight featuring Ilyana Eberhardt and Brad Irish, and Devin White’s latest hilarious contribution to Star War fandom, The Fool Awakens, with EMC Monkeys’ own Tony Sre!
Now it’s time to finish things off with some cool new longer-form action gems, and the first pair will take you into full geek territory with Gary Scullion and Nick Acott, three years in the making with their sci-fi comedy sequel, Prop Wars: Prop Harder – a Mexican stand off between three superfans using props from any number of cult sci-fi classics of yesteryear and recent from Mjolnir and Star Lord’s blasters, to good old (or new)-fashioned light sabers.
The first installment from 2013 starts things off following the sequel so that you’re nice and caught up in case you’re new to Sneaky Zebra and their small, growing fan base.
Next to that is the latest action comedy short by Vietnamese-Aussie actress and martial artist Maria Tran who has been a delight to follow with projects like Roger Corman’s Fist Of The Dragon and Adrian Castro’s 80’s homage HK film trailer-only projects like Tiger Cop 1 & 2, and their award-winning 2014 short, Hit Girls with actress JuJu Chan.
Tran has since returned this summer opposite Chan and alongside actor and martial artist Xin Wuku for her latest directorial gig, Hong Kong Shogun, telling of an international P.I. and her rookie partner as they set out to look for their titular villain…but not before crossing paths with a few stumbles. By far, the best part takes place midway through the action with a brilliant set up between Tran and Chan which highlights just how shamelessly fun and fantastic Tran is at writing comedy. It’s entirely dubbed but that won’t take away much from the enjoyment of it.
Next to last is the newest from the folks over at Bat In The Sun with their newest fan battle, Nightwing vs. The Winter Soldier featuring Aaron Schoenke and John Hennigan. Be sure to follow their channel pages to learn more about them and how you can vote for the winner of each of their upcoming fantasy fights.
Last but far from least, we turn once again to actress and stuntwoman Ilyana Eberhardt who is someone I’ve covered a few times here in the Hit List column. Aside from film and TV, her services can also be seen rendered as a live stunt show performer for the Six Flags attraction, Legends Of The West: A Stunt Spectacular, alongside Quentin Ross, Brad Irish and Timothy Johnson.
Look at almost any stunt reel that I’ve shared in previous Hit Lists and you’ll notice similar bits with stunt performers working on various Wild West-themed live shows. I’ve never been to Six Flags or shows like these so I’m pretty thankful someone went through the trouble of taping this particular show and sharing it with the rest of the online viewing public. As fast and non-stop as everything is, you can really see the amount of work, training and dexterity it takes to help make shows come to life while these performers keep up with each other. It’s not easy, and as you can imagine between the stunts and the comedy, timing is everything and these guys execute it to a T.
You can learn more about the show by clicking here, otherwise, enjoy the playlist below!
