DropDeadFred posted a BLOG item 24 days ago

Review: Death Race 3: Inferno

I was a big fan of the remake of Death Race with Jason Statham, it was able to capture the essential plot of the original while amping it up for today's generation's expectations for violence.

When Death Race 2 came out, I did a blind buy out of pure curiosity and was pleasantly surprised. It was ballsy enough to try and do an origins story while capturing enough of the elements from the first one to please fans...and it worked. It had a strong enough story and added to the lore of the first one.

Then we come to Death Race 3: Inferno...I think the franchise has finally worn out it's welcome. Sure, there are cars armored up with weapons chasing each other, but we're seen that all before. The main plot element driving this one is that they've moved the race to the desert and started a franchise for television. It's not a strong enough story to warrant a third entry....the action isn't done very well and most of the chases and explosions are inferior to either of the first two movies so when all is said and done you wonder why they even bothered.

The casting pretty much retained everyone from the second movie, but the performances felt pretty much uninspired. Danny Trejo and Ving Rhames looked like they were going through the motions. Luke Gross continued to be decent as Frankenstein, but there just wasn't much for them to work with. It was almost as if they decided to let the race be the main driving force behind the movie and then didn't have the budget to improve the race more than the other films.

The only cool thing I have to say about this movie...and the only cool thing was that they used this movie to bridge Part 2 and Part 1 together. This movie carries on the story from Part 1 where Frankenstein is about to win his 5th race for freedom and then ends in a way (and I'm not spoiling anything) that it bridges into the opening of the original Death Race. That was sort of cool and at least gave me something to be happy about when the credits rolled.

Overall, if you enjoyed Death Race 2 then I'd recommend checking this one out....it's an inferior movie, but it's worth watching only if only to see how they do the Frankenstein character arc.

4/10

DropDeadFred posted a BLOG item 4 months ago

Hey, I Know Him!!! #11 - Tommy Flanagan

You want a piece of me? You ugly son of a bitch!

Tommy Flanagan was born in Glasgow, Scotland having a hard upbringing being one of five kids to a single mom. Flanagan is well known for a number of roles due to his instantly noticable facial scarring (Glasgow Grin). Flanagan received the scars in his 20's after being mugged on his way home from a DJ gig. He got his start in acting after joining fellow Scot Robert Carlyle's Raindog Theater Company, which is where Mel Gibson took notice of him. Over the years he's worked with a number of great directors including Ridley Scott, David Fincher, John Woo and Mel Gibson (who he notes as being one of his favorites).

Flanagan got his big screen debut alongside Mel Gibson in the memorable Braveheart. Cast as the character Morrison, he's probably best remembered as the man who got cock blocked on his wedding night when Lord Bottoms showed up and claimed Prima Nocte...which basically legally allowed him to bang Morrison's wife. Long story short, Morrison ends up to claim the rights of a husband and kills Bottoms...it's a pretty memorable role and one of the main ones I associate with him as an actor.

From here Flanagan landed a role in the epic turd The Saint alongside Razzie nominee Val Kilmer. Flanagan was cast in a minor role as "Scarface"...curious to know if they had that name in the original script or if they whittingly added it after he was cast. Either way he was mainly a background villain in this one playing second fiddle to Val Kilmer's aresenal of bad wigs.

Tommy's next on-screen appearance came in John Woo's Face/Off. Playing another henchman type role, Tommy was cast as one of Nicholas Cage's goons. This role is certainly one of those "Hey, I know him" type moments as it's one of his least memorable roles amongst the cast in this one.

Anyone remember Tommy in The Game? In a very memorable scene he plays a crazy cab driver, some might not recognize Flanagan as we get to see the back of his head for most of the scene. After Douglas enters his cab, the doors lock and Flanagan takes Douglas on one hell of a ride, breaking at least a half dozen traffic laws in the process. Flanagan finally jumps out of the moving cab leaving Douglas locked in the back. Douglas buckles in and goes sailing off into the river...Luckily for Michael he took a bath as I'm sure he'd be walking funny for the rest of the movie if he didn't.

From there Flanagan was cast as Cicero in the Ridley Scott epic Gladiator. Flanagan would probably best be remembered as Maximus's right hand man during the early scenes in the movie where Crowe is a general. Flanagan was the dude fetching Crowe's sword when he was taken under orders of Commodus. Cicero remained faithful throughout the movie, even being involved in the plan to help Maximus escape from slavery. How does Flanagan get paid for his loyalty? First we thing he's going to get hanged and then after being saved by Crowe at the last minute he takes two arrows to the chest...

I know there probably aren't many people out there that would go out of their way to watch Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle....but if you do, keep your eyes open for Flanagan as "Irish Henchman"....I don't know why they didn't cast him as "Scottish Henchman", but then again this movie isn't really one of those attention to detail type flicks is it?! Rocking a styling shorter haircut than we're used to seeing him with, he's instantly recognizable (thanks to those scars) in the limited screen time he has.

One of the bright spots in AVP (aside from the Aliens and Predators and the fact that it's a lot brighter than AVP: Requiem...literally) would be Flanagan's role as Mark Verheiden....not the same Mark Verheiden that authored the original Dark Horse comic books, but a mercenary named Mark Verheiden. Most remembered for taking one of the Predator's ceremonial guns when they enter the temple it makes him an instant target. Flanagan being a bit of a prick in this movie fails to help out people being attacked and finally meets his match when the floor falls out from under him and he falls breaking his legs. Ironically, there are a couple of Aliens at the bottom of the pit and while Flanagan does his best to stay alive, the next time we see him, he's got a facehugger strapped to his mug...

There seems to be a running theme here in Flannagan's work...his next role was as an Irish Mercenary (I wonder if it bothers him playing an Irishman all the time) in another comic book adaptation Sin City. In the story "A Big Fat Kill" Flanagan was cast as Brian, a mercenary who likes to blow things up. Flanagan was hired by the mob to track down Dwight and bring back Jackie-Boy's head. Flanagan almost completes the job before taking a katana compliments of Miho. Easy for him to get lost amongst all the talent in this one, but his role on screen is surely memorable.

Flanagan holds the honor of being one of the few actors that had a reoccuring role in both Smoking Aces 1 & 2. Being cast as Lazlo Soot, Flanagan portrayed a "Legendary" hitman who was a master of disguise. Sporting a bald look and rocking latex masks throughout. Flanagan has a great deal of screen time over the two movies and is one of the few characters that walks away alive when all is said and done...

Flanagan these days is best known for playing Filib "Chibs" Telford in Sons of Anarchy. Portraying the Sergeant-at-Arms for the motorcycle club (Chib is Scottish slang for Stab). Flanagan being one of the few foreign members of the club took center stage in Season 3 as the plot revolved around his IRA Roots and the plot moved to Ireland. Flanagan fits in fairly well within a cast made up entirely of character actors.

Where is he now?

Besides enjoying continued success on the F/X series Sons of Anarchy, Tommy is the spokesperson for the (awesome) Scottish soft drink Irn-Bru.

Flanagan and his wife also welcomed a new Daughter early last year and is working towards his dream of owning a fully functioning ranch.

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DropDeadFred posted a BLOG item 4 months ago

Review: Cheech & Chong's Hey Watch This

Saw this in the bargain bin at Wal Mart on Blu Ray and thought "Yeah, this is going to be great! Cheech and Chong Live and beind the scenes stuff". I had been on the fence about checking out their live show when they came through town a few years back, so being able to see the pre-recorded version was something I welcomed. Sometimes the thought of something is actually better than the reality...

For starters, the behind the scenes is less behind the scenes and more skit type comedy thrown together through the characters they portray and while most of it is eye rolling stuff it cleverly is used as a vice to tie together all of the skits on stage. Besides Cheech, Chong and Shelby the only behind the scenes person we really see is Jimmy Root, who is also acting along in the skits.

How was the comedy? Very Hit or Miss. The show opens with what appears to be a stand-up routine by Shelby Chong...who IMHO came off really forced and unnatural in her delivery. Some of the jokes were real groaners and didn't add much...especially when you're opening the show with this! Once Cheech and Chong come out they didn't disappoint. Delivering a mix of individual stand up with some of their classic skits updated for today's society most of which worked. Highlights clearly include my personal favorite - Mexican in Space also appearing were Blind Melon Chitlin, Earache my Eye, Born in East L.A. and a rendition of Up in Smoke. One of the biggest failures of the show clearly was the Ralph & Herbie sketch, who anyone familiar will understand when I say it was pretty sad seeing these two icons crawling around on their hands and knees at their age trying to pull this sketch off.

Special features included a nice little sitdown with Chong discussing his arrest and thoughts on today's legal system.

The Blu Ray was excellent in quality, but as far as content goes there isn't anything new that hasn't been seen or done before. It's certainly a disk for fans of the duo as all the material has been done before and better in it's original state. That being said, it was great to see these guys performing again and seeing this certainly makes me regret not seeing them live when I had the chance. Giving it a 7/10

DropDeadFred posted a BLOG item 5 months ago

Review: The Pact

I've been wanting to catch this one for quite some time now, saw it on Netflix the other day and found some time to get to it today.

Pretty decent little paranormal horror flick, that's very slow building and has some decent jumps throughout. One of those rare movies that really sucks you in and pulls jumps out of nowhere. Combines some great elements from past horror movies including dark figures, manipulated photos, random noises.

Plot is essentially a woman returns to her childhood home due to the death of her mother, strange things start happening in the home and the story unwinds into the solving of a bigger mystery.

This movie has a lot of decent things going in its favor. The directing is pretty well done and the story and effects are good enough that they keep your attention and maintain that suspension of disbelief. At times it does have a hard time trying to figure out what it wants to be. Haunted House, Murder Mystery, Family History, Missing Persons...just a mish mash of plot devices that may be a tad too much for one movie. The movie has a few loose ends and starts to falter a bit in the final act as the movie takes a turn that it very far from where it started out. It's almost as if they just had too many creative ideas to inject into a very simplistic storyline.

The cast did a great job in this one with nobody really being out of place. Clearly the movie is carried a lot by the two leads. I hadn't heard of Caity Lotz before, but she did a fine job as did Casper Van Dien (looking well worn with grey stubble) in his role as a cop.

All that being said, it's a fun ride and if you let the movie suck you in it does have some great moments. There are certainly better horror flicks out there in the same veign that are done better, but I felt that for this one being a B-movie it was a really lot better than I was expecting. Giving it a 6/10

DropDeadFred posted a BLOG item 5 months ago

Review: Steel Panther: British Invasion

Michael Starr says it best on this one - "There's a complaint form in the lobby, if anything we say or do tonight offends anyone you can go and fill out that form....roll it up real tight and stick it up your fucking ass!"

I've been a fan of Steel Panther (the greatest 80's Metal band that never made it) for a few years now. When I heard they were releasing a concert disk I was pretty excited as I've watched them grow from obscure cover band Metal Skool which I discovered through Metal Sludge (Website) to a band that morphed into playing originals and being a novelty act that took themselves seriously and finally turning into a band that actually generating a solid fanbase and following that allowed them to do it full time. I didn't have much luck finding the disk in Canada probably due to the cover. To my surprise my wife was able to get me a copy for Christmas. I finally got around to watching it today and it certainly didn't disappoint...

Containing tracks entirely off their first album and shot in HD this disk was a riot. I understand it took over two years from the recording date for them to get the funding together to put it out. Combining a perfect blend of comedy and live performance. The 90 minute running time was perfectly paced and just long enough to keep it interesting without getting old...with enough shocker, old age, herpes, sex, big hair and dick jokes scattered throughout to keep the laughs going between songs.The band was in top form and demonstrate just how comfortable they are on the smaller stage. Satchel shows why he is one of the most underrated guitar players out there as he rips through solos clearly from the Paul Gilbert school of playing. Throw in Michael Starr who is a cross between a chunky Vince Neil and David Lee Roth. Lexxi Foxx with his hair flips, dumb comments and mirror gags and Stix who we don't really see that much except for the odd shocker into the camera and you have a pretty tight band that deserves more credit than they get.

Track list didn't let down including personal favorites Girl from Oklahoma, Asian Hooker, Death to all but Metal, Stripper Girl (I mean how can you not love lyrics like "I want to jam it in and out at a real fast pace till I squirt hot juicy all over your face) and Community Property. One of the things I enjoy most about this band is you can pick different 80's influences out in almost every single song's playing style from Extreme to Bon Jovi just total throwback and such a diverse background of influences...and how many other bands throw a few dozen inflatable dolls into the audience during a concert?!

The Blu Ray was shot in broadcast style HD (as opposed to film) with at least a dozen cameras. Video was prisitine and surprisingly well done for a band on this level. One of the better HD concert disks I've seen. I wsa also surprised to see how many females there were in the audience considering the content and music style...The special features also added to the experience as the 30 minute behind the scenes tour documentary gave some insight from the rabid British fans and commentary from the band (who you can tell are living these alter-egos as they never break character) just having a lot of fun with the 80's vibe and playing up the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle such as throwing a bag of cocain in your managers face because it's not fresh or saying that it's only legal if you do it on the tourbus. Also included in the special features was their performance from Donnington which includes some more up to date songs and Deleted scenes from the show...

Sure it's low brow humor and certainly not the most...or at all politically correct, but it's an 80's throwback niche band that has broken out into a broader audience without support from Radio or Television and is somewhat refreshing in today's music landscape. Glad I finally got my hands on this disk and regardless of what anyone says, I'm a fan for life and this Blu Ray will certainly get a lot of use. Giving it a 8/10 just because it's a bit dated with the song selection. I've waited so long for this one to get released and to get my hands on it and I was in no way disappointed. \\n/

DropDeadFred posted a BLOG item 5 months ago

Childhood Memories - The Toughest Man in the World

When I was a kid living in England, my parents always used to take us weekly to the video store. Every week my brother and I would run to the shelf and if it was in stock we'd grab "The Toughest Man in the World" starring Mr. T...there was that one week where I accidentally (or intentionally) grabbed D.C. Cab (which had Mr. T. on the cover, but was R so my parent's wouldn't let us see it) and my mom made me shut it off after 15 minutes because of the language...this was also my first introduction to New York cab drivers!...Once I moved to Canada I never had the chance to see The Toughest Man in the World again as it was probably a more obscure title that went out of print quickly.

Anyways, after Rocky III, D.C. Cab and the A-Team started to take off Mr T. did this made for TV movie called The Toughest Man in the World. I recently got my hands on a copy on Amazon for $0.01 plus $2.99 shipping...seemed like a steal for me to have a chance to re-live some childhood memories. It's amazing how there are certain movies you watch as a child and you remember key moments from them, but then there's space in between those moments that you have no recollection of. I also surprise myself from time to time on how my perspective of certain movies has changed over the years as life experiences are gained and I get older.

So I throw this DVD in yesterday, sure it wasn't the greatest quality and there were some hits throughout (almost looks like a transfer from the original Broadcast tapes), but that didn't matter...it was all about the memories. From the opening Mr T. rap I'm instantly thrown back into my living room in England where Mr T. teaches me through rap about what it's like to grow up on the mean streets of Chicago (with a heavy 80's keyboard vibe and background singers too!) pretty cheesy by today's standards, but I'm sure it was cool at some point right?!...At this point, I can see why my parents let me watch it. I mean, Mr T. has always taken a role model approach to youngsters and preached morals in most of his characters he's played (Remember, he even wanted to show Rocky's wife a good time because he thought she wasn't happy!). To my surprise, there were a lot of moments that were of adult nature and just done so subtle that kids wouldn't pick up on them.

For starters I cannot believe how stereotypical every single character is in this one, all of the kids in the movie that speak have a stereotype. My jaw also dropped yesterday when I realized that Billy's mom is a hooker...Not only that, but Billy also knows his mom is one and makes a comment about there being some stiff competition out there as she's getting older!!! I'm also almost positive that one of her clients was Dennis Farina. I can't find him credited anywhere with the role (he had 2 lines), but if it wasn't him then he's got a doppelganger running around out there somewhere...can't believe my parents let me watch this?! Again, it was done in a very subtle way so that it's not flat out stated There's also the fact that Mr T. character was a bouncer at a club in the movie....with women dancing....with poles on stage...sure they were fully clothed, but again I had a hard time yesterday believing that I had never realized this...Throughout there were also a bunch of little inuendo jokes that clearly no innocent child such as myself at the time would have picked up on, but as an adult I did find some of them funny and had a few "Ohhhh that's what he meant by that!" moments.

During the movie, there's a scene where they try and make Mr T look more badass to intimidate the competition including a very humorous scene where an old lady teaches T how to scowl. I remember this being a great moment in the movie when I was a kid with all the great stuff they came up with to intimidate...as an adult I wonder what the hell were they thinking? I mean, they add in the staple Mr T. earings which have some sort of dead animal tails involved...This was normal T fare as he wore stuff like that on The A-Team. Then they come up with some sort of leopard print trim sewn into a purple tanktop with an embroidered tiger on the front...if this was intimidation in the 80's we've come a long way!!!!

The parts I remembered going in was the stuff I was more interested in as a kid such as the fights (which were VERY A-Team style - Mr T. throws a lot of people around....tables, chairs, dumpsters, cardboard boxes...), the Mr T. scowls and one liners. There are a few moments where as an adult I see Mr T. was being a bit of a dick. I mean there's a scene where he's leaning up against a guy's limo and the guy asks him to stop leaning against his car because he's messing up his TV reception...What does Mr T. do?! He rips the antenna off the roof of the limo and throws it in the window with another witty one liner...this was hilarious to me as a kid, but as an adult I'm thinking what an asshole!...This of course causes another "fight" to break out (Mr T. throws someone OVER the Limo!). Moving along we come to the ending....I have a slight phobia of needles, so there's an ending scene I've always vividly remembered where six guys are holding T down and they're trying to stick him with this tranquilizer so he can't compete in the competition...this of course sets up yet another fight scene (I swear Mr T has like 9-10 fight scenes in this one where he throws people around) that rivals the bubble ending from BMX Bandits complete with Mr T dropping a wedding cake on some unconscious dude's face while he breaks character and starts snickering like a child.

Most of the time when you see more obscure movies you enjoyed as a kid, you see them as an adult and wonder "What was I thinking". Sometimes the magic is gone and you wish you hadn't re-watched it so you could hold onto those childhood memories intact. This is one of the few occasions for me where it had the opposite effect. While many who see this movie for the first time today would probably write it off as being completely stupid and crap, for me it accented my childhood memories and filled in the gaps I was missing and added some new material with adult eyes...one of the rare occasions where the movie is actually BETTER than I remember it being.

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DropDeadFred posted a BLOG item 7 months ago

Hey, I know him!!! #10 - Mark Rolston

What?...Is that a joke?

Mark Rolston was born in America and has made a career out of playing Military and Government type for the most part. Rolston got his start in acting attending school and performing in theaters in England before finally returning to the States with a theater role in Richard II, Rolston tried to make the transition into film appearing in a few minor projects including Revolution alongside Pacino and Sutherland. It was this movie that led to the role that I imagine most would associate with him.

Rolston's first major on-screen appearance came in James Cameron's Aliens. After meeting with Cameron, Rolston lied through his teeth to get the role beefing up his uncredited appearance in Revolution as if he was getting second billing behind Pacino. Cameron bought in and Rolston cast as Pvt. Drake, the character best remembered as being the smart gun partner of Vasquez. Rolston got some pretty decent screen time considering it was his first major project and while his lines probably aren't as memorable as others in the film, he did get some jabs taken at his appearance during the Marine introduction scene. Drake almost survived the first wave attack by the Aliens, but got held back a bit as he was clearly having too much fun shooting them. When he finally made it to the ride out of there, Vasquez shot an Alien at close range spraying acid all over Drake and well....he sort of got left behind.

The next movie I remember Rolston from off his resume would be Lethal Weapon 2. Rolston was cast as Hans, who is probably most remembered as taking part in the epic opening car chase scene, Rolston takes to the wheel while being chased by Murtaugh and Riggs and is clearly the main man responsible for Murtaugh beating the shit out of his wife's station wagon as it's recklessly led through streets and sidewalks. When Rolston crashes, he abandons the car which also leaves behind a boatload of Krugerrands...Rolston's boss wasn't too happy about this. Mental note: Whenever your boss calls you into a meeting and there's a plastic sheet on the floor. Don't go into the office...

Anyone remember Rolston from Robocop 2? He was cast as Officer Stef, he had very limited screen time and you probably would only notice him in a handfull of scenes as he's burried under body armor, but he did get to be a part of the final shoot out against Robo-Cain

The only thing I remember about Madonna's Body of Evidence from when I was a kid is that she's naked in it, I think that's the only reason someone would watch this flick....Rolston apparently is in this one somewhere as Detective Reese....

One of Rolston's more memorably roles was in The Shawshank Redeption where he was cast as Bogs Diamond. Being the presumed leader of The Sisters, Rolston gave Tim Robbin's character a "hard time" when he entered prison. Including, rendezvous in the shower, rapings, beatings and many other stereotypical prison type behaviors. Rolston's demise finally came when he forced Robbins into the projector booth during a film screening for a little mouth love...what did he get in return? A broken nose and eventually got beaten within an inch of his life by some of the guards. After this Rolston's character isn't seen as much, but he's left paralyzed for the rest of the movie...

I have a soft spot in my heart for the Best of the Best movies, the first one was great, the second one was so bad it's good (See: Eric Roberts Crying drinking game) and by the time the third one came out it was clearly Philip Rhee's series. Using the subtitle "No Turning Back" this was fitting as we see Rhee takes on a gang of white supremacist skinheads in a small town. This includes plentiful of decent fight scenes for Rhee including at one point while being dressed as a clown (complete with big clown shoes) all while Gina Gershon hangs on his arm as the love interest. Rolston has a role in this one as Donnie Hansen, the leader of the white supremacist group. Not only does he get tons of screen time including a great knife fight at the end of the movie, but he is really the only serious thing about this entire flick. He outshines everyone in the acting department and delivers some seething racial toned dialogue throughout. Clearly a role I associate with him more, but you'd have to have seen this flick to appreciate the job he does...

Rolston got to be a part of the Schwarzenegger classic Eraser...Arnie, Williams, Cromwell, Coburn, Bad CGI Alligators, Gay bars and Mark Rolston. Rolston's appearance is brief and less than memorable as he appears as a vice to even the odds in the ending shootout as an associate of Tony Two-toes, he helps Arnie clear Williams and stop a shipment of rail guns leaving the shipyard. In 1996, not only did Rolston appear alongside Schwarzenegger, but he also appeared briefly with Stallone. Back in the day when Stallone was winding down his first run as box office action superstar, he released Daylight. A decent little action drama that Viggo Mortensen steals many scenes in. Rolston had a part in this one as Chief Wilson, the EMS Chief who replaced Stallone when he was dismissed from his former job...for most it's a small forgettable role for Rolston.

Rolston had a decent support role in the movie Hard Rain. I'm not sure if it was in his contract, but Rolston rocks one hefty looking moustache in this one. Not only does this movie contain Randy Quaid doing his best Cousin Eddie impersonation in a serious role, but also has one of the worst flooding sound stage sets I've ever seen in my life. Rolston plays a police officer on Quaid's force who lets greed get the better of him. It's a decent supporting role and the fact that half of the cast (Yeah you Slater, Quaid and Driver!) are so over the top makes Rolston a grounded bright spot in this mindless popcorn flick.

While Chris Tucker clearly stole a lot of the scenes in Rush Hour, Mark Rolston was along for the ride and actually had a decent role. Being cast as Agent Warren Russ, the Agent taking over negotiations for the kidnapping. Rolston delivered a straight no B.S. performance while conforming to the standard mold of "By the book" agent. As Tucker and Chan bumble their way through the movie, Rolston always seems to be there following procedures and telling them how they're screwing up, only to offer Carter a position on the F.B.I. at the end of the movie...it's a role that's been done many times before in many other movies, but a memorable one for Rolston in this one.

The Departed was a great movie with a great cast. Rolston was also a part of the mix in this one. Cast as Timothy Delahunt, Rolston plays a mobster of lower intelligence who is a key element to the whole "Who's the rat?" storyline. Rolston could possibly (but is never confirmed for sure) be another undercover Boston police officer as it's left open after his death. Still a memorable character that could have easily gotten lost amongst all the A-List talent involved in this one...

Anyone remember Rolston in a couple of the Saw movies? Rolston was cast in both Saw V and Saw VI as Agent Erickson, the FBI Agent assigned to the Jigsaw case. Rolston serves as providing the only real glimmer of hope for the viewer in regards to the police force cracking the case through the two later installments in the franchise. Unfortunately Rolston does his job to well and gets a little too close to the truth. Not only gets his jugular slashed wide open (if that wasn't enough, this is Saw remember!), but then gets doused in gasoline and set on fire...

Where is he now?

Mark Rolston has apparently been filling his time with a heavy mix of small film roles, Television appearance and voice over work. Including playing Lex Luthor in the Young Justice animated T.V. Series and lending his voice to the recent Halo 4.

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DropDeadFred posted a BLOG item 9 months ago

Hey, I know him!!! #9 - Marshall Bell

Kuato's a mutant....so don't get upset when you see him.

Marshall Bell started acting in high school, after getting tired of being told he wasn't good enough he gave it up....for 20 years. During that time Bell was riding horses and herding cattle at a ranch in Montana, later moving into a career in speech therapy. It was his marriage to acclaimed (and three time Oscar Winner) costume designer Melina Canonero that got him his start in film. As she became friends with actors so did Bell and from there he was able to make connections in the industry...This in turn eventually led to him getting his first film role.

Marshall Bell got his start in film appearing in the movie Birdy, his performance is overshadowed by the fact that this is a movie that sees a mentally unstable Nicholas Cage rocking some funky hair and dressing up as a bird as he tries to become one...yeah....Bell has a ton of entries like this one in his resume so I'm only really going to cover the ones that I've seen or associate with him...

Bell's first appearance in film that I associate with him is playing Coach Schneider in A Nightmare on Elm Steet 2: Freddy's Revenge. Most remembers as the macho jock coach who apparently likes to frequent S&M clubs in his spare time. He spends the day picking on his students. Keruger ends up making short work of Bell, but not before tying him up with skipping ropes, hanging him in the showers, ripping his clothes off and giving him a few friendly slaps on the ass with a towel....before slashing him to death. Gotta ask, were the slaps on the ass really necessary?!..Yes they were, because it gave another reason for Jesse to let out one of his infamous girly screams. (Note: Bell endured 5 hours worth of makeup for that scene and it had to be done in one take).

The following year, Bell landed a role in the Stephen King adaptation Stand By Me. Having only a small role in the movie, Bell was cast as Mr. Lachance. Playing the father to Wil Whaton's character Bell tries to give his son some quality advice to stay away from his thief and two theeb friends. Bell is probably most remembered for visiting Gordie's dream s and delivering the line "It should have been you Gordie" at Gordie's borthers funeral. Either way, it's a role that I remember him for...

Many may remember Bell from Ivan Reitman's Twins. Bell was cast as Webster, a simple man. Nobody's ever seen his face, he's owed five million dollars, he's got his driving gloves but no car. Not afraid to bust a cap (literally) at strangers he spends most of the movie trailing DeVito and Arnie as they deliver the stolen car. Unfortunatly for Bell, he didn't know what the third rule in a crisis situation was....as he got burried under a mass of chain....heavy!

Anyone who's seen Arnie's Total Recall will remember Bell as George, leader of the mutant brigade on Mars. George is all normal looking until he pops his shirt open and reveals the Martian resistance leader Kuato. A creature that looks like it could have been a member of the Garbage Pail Kids, Kuato reads Arnie's mind as a plot vice to tell us that there are actually reactors on Mars that will make air breathable....One of the more creative characters in the movie...too bad Benny busted in and took him out with a shot to the head...the stomach....the head. (Note: Kuato took 15 puppeteers to be brought to life, all of which had to fit around Bell during shooting )

Not a movie, but worth visiting is Bell's appearance in Tales from the Crypt. Bell appeared in the pilot and probably one of the more infamous episode entitled "...and all through the house". With a plot involving a wife offing her husband before being pursued by a satanic axe wielding Santa Claus. Good times all around! Bell has the honor of being the husband the gets offed. Not only does he take a firepoker to the head, but he holds the title of being the first person to be killed in the Tales from the Crypt series.

Is Airheads a great movie?! It's debatable, it sure has a solid cast. I was getting into Metal in High School when it came out so I ceratainly remember Bell from this one. Bell was cast as Carl Mace the leader of the assault team that tries to end the hostage crisis at the radio station. Probably most remembered as outing Brendan Fraiser as "Chester" and trying to publically discredit him in front of his followers...didn't work.

Anyone remember Bell from Starship Troopers? He was cast as General Owen (rejoining Verhoeven and Ironside from Total Recall), the man in charge of the Whiskey outpost. Playing a chickenshit character, Bell hides himself in a locker during the assault on the outpost and standsby as one of his troops has his brain sucked out right in front of him. Bell stays there hidden until the Roughnecks arrive, being a bit mentally unstable from the whole brain sucking thing Bell is rescued. When the bugs come back Bell drops to his knees and pleads to be killed....SPLAT. He gets his wish as a Hopper bug gets killed and nails him.

Anyone want to hear one of the strangest Irish accents ever commited to film? Then get your hands on 1998's Virus where Donald Sutherland delivers!!! Bell also appears in this one as J.W. Woods Jr. Wood's character is a bit of a coward in this one and spends most of the movie fully armed, but running away from robots. He ends up getting killed by Squeaky after he turns into a Cyborg...Virus, a perfect example of how a cast and effects can't get you by alone without a half decent script!

Some other movies I associate with Bell, but probably not beefy enough roles to really go into any detail would be....playing a District Attorney in Identity, as Warden Marshall Krutch in Capote, an Admiral in Rescue Dawn, Principal Rocker in Hamlet 2 and a brief appearance in The Rum Diary as Donovan. Despite what you think about him as an actor, he does have a decent collection of supporting well known roles.

Where is he now?

Bell currently lives in L.A. with his wife and is keeping busy in the B-movie market churning out a few straight to video appearances per year. He also had a re-occuring role as United States' founding father Alexander Hamilton in a number of commercial for Citizen Bank.
Bell is also pretty active on the convention circuit doing signings and photo ops for fans...

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DropDeadFred posted a BLOG item 10 months ago

Hey, I know him!!! #8 - Tom Noonan

Bogus....

Tom Noonan has made a career out of playing the creepy, aqward, menacing type personality. Standing at 6' 6" and always having an intimidating presence Noonan has made a career out of playing memorable characters on film. While not always recognizable, his roles are most of the time pretty memorable...

Noonan got his start in the film industry with minor roles in some decent, but not so mainstream movies. After graduating from Yale's acting school he founded Paradise Theater and got his start like most actors on stage in theater and eventually started auditioning for film...

Noonan got his start in the flick Gloria. Noonan auditioned for the job because he wanted to meet John Cassavettes, he didn't read the script going in as he was auditioning for "2nd Guy". During the audition process he was told by the casting director not to talk to John and ignore him at all costs as he was going for an imposing thug type personality. The soon as Noonan walked in he ran up to Cassavettes and started telling him how much he loved his work and how he'd love to work with him. Apparently the casting director lost it and tried to drag Noonan out...either way, Noonan was offered the role before he made it home and became one of his first on-screen roles.

One of Noonan's lesser known earlier flicks is Wolfen. A classic Gregory Hines (rocking one hell of an afro!) flick, yet still a typical Werewolf horror flick that had Noonan cast in a minor role as a Zoologist who examines hairs found at the scene of the murders and can't pin them on any known species of wolf...He doesn't last very long and gets knocked off in Central Park. It's a forgettable movie, but one of those few movies out there where Noonan is sprounting some hair on top...

The first memorable role that I associate with Noonan is that of Francis Dollarhyde or The Tooth Fairy in Michael Mann's Manhunter. Playing a creepy psychotic serial killer and spending most of the movie stalking families and preying on a blind woman, Noonan delivered an incredible performance that I personally prefer over the Fiennes Red Dragon portrayal. Noonan was just able to bring that extra level is uneasiness to the character portraying an inner battle going on with his emotionless stares and line delivery that gave him some of the best lines in the movie. Mann did a good job of creating tension on set by making Noonan fly seperatly from other actors in the movie and assigned two production assistants to walk in front and behind him to ensure no other cast members would meet or interact with him off-screen. The character was solely Noonan's creation with very little direction from Michael Mann. Noonan also demonstrated some decent on-screen chemistry with William Petersen....Unfortunatly, nobody fucks with Grissom and gets away with it, Noonan's character is killed in a climatic ending shootout.

The following year, Noonan landed a role in a movie that I imagine most of MFC has seen. His size and physical features led him to be cast as Frankenstein in The Monster Squad. Most remembered as being revived by Dracula to join his army of monsters, and then going off on his own and eventually helping the kids after befriending Phoebe, Noonan was able to turn the classic monster into a creature with a wide range of emotion using only facial expressions and very little dialogue. Noonan appeared to have fun with the role including snapping pictures of topless hot chicks, learning to say "Bogus" and finally being the one responsible for taking out Dracula at the end....Noonan admits that he had only seen bits and pieces of the movie up until he was invited to a DVD release party back in 2007. Up until then, he had no idea how much of a cult following the movie had. This role also led to him being offered a part in the vampire flick Near Dark, which he turned down....

After a few straight to video flicks, Noonan returned to the big screen in the big budget seqel Robocop 2. Cast as the druglord with a god complex Cain, and eventually being the man turned into "Robocop 2" Noonan was able to do a bit more traditional acting in the first half of the movie before he's killed and turned into a drug addicted cyborg. After getting revenge on his old accomplaces including throwing his girlfriend around like a ragdoll, he gives Robocop a good run for his money before being overpowered...Robocop proceeds to rip his brain out and smashed to the ground....too bad they killed the momentum of this one with Robocop 3!!!

Noonan's next big appearance on the big screen came as an axe wielding psycho as The Ripper in the Schwarzenegger classic The Last Action Hero. After killing Arnies kid back in Jack Slater III, The Ripper is brough back to life by Mr. Benedict and the golden ticket so that he can return to kill Slater in real life....I guess if you haven't seen the movie, that would make absolutely no sense at all...so I'd recomend you get on that!!! Anyways, Noonan kidnaps Danny and tries to repeat history. In a memorable scene, Arnie ducks out of the way of a spinning axe in slow motion before doing away with Noonan via electrocution...This movie also led to Noonan having his first action figure! Noonan also plays himself in the movie at the premier of Jack Slater IV, which is very out of character as A. he doesn't attend premiers and B. He's being interviewed as if he's a movie star...which he admits himself, he isn't.

After doing a few more straight to video gems, Noonan reteamed with Micheal Mann in Heat as Kelso. Rocking a pretty impressive beard, Noonan was the man responsible for capturing information transmitted over the airwaves and turns them into heist jobs. Noonan gets to deliver one of the more memorable monologues in the movie and is the man who sets up the Heist jobs for De Niro's character. It's not as memorable role as some of his previous work, but it's certainly one of those "I know that guy!" moments...

One of Noonan's less memorable roles on the big screen was in the box office turd The Astronaut's Wife. Noonan had a small role as Jackson McLaren who is the head of the space division at NASA. While playing the role in a sort of sinister light, his character doesn't really lead anywhere and the performance is wasted due to the crappy script. However, his portrayal is clearly a bright spot in a dull movie...

Another decent appearance for Noonan was in the Jack Nicholson flick The Pledge. Noonan was cast as Gary Jackson a man who we are led to believe is a pedophile and a killer throughout the entire movie. Anyone who's seen this one knows how it plays out...The movie was apparently so rushed to get done because the same people fronting the money also put up fundage for Battlefield Earth. We all know what happened to that one and as a result there was added pressure on Penn to get the movie out and under-budget. Some of the ending shots that were to be done with Nicholson that cleared up Noonan's character and some of the confusion were cut as there was added pressure to be done ahead of schedule and under budget (Thanks Travolta!!!). Noonan apparently had fans coming up to him all the time after the movies release and he'd have to explain the ending to them as they had it all wrong...

From there Noonan has appeared in numerous Television shows and a number of straight to video flicks that the general population probably hasn't seen. The only role i've seen him in out of this pack is The House of the Devil which was a nice retro horror flick and I believe has gained a bit of a cult following.... Noonan plays Mr. Ulman, a creepy older gentleman who puts an out of a babysitter and insists that the girl who applies for the job show up on a certain night...Obviously he has more planned for her than simple babysitting, I won't give it away...but it is called House of the Devil for a reason. This one is one of those better if you see it type flicks...

From here Noonan landed his re-occuring 2 year stint on the FX series Damages and then went on to be cast in the AMC series Hell on Wheels...

Where is he now?

Noonan is a very private person, he has a son and a daughter from his previous marriage to Karen Young.

He enjoys writing and has written numerous plays and scripts that have developed into plays/movies. He won an award at Sundance in 1994 for his flick "What Happened was..." which he wrote, directed and starred in.

Noonan has recently finished up Season 2 of Hell on Wheels and has starred in two independant shorts being released later this year.

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DropDeadFred posted a BLOG item 10 months ago

Hey, I know him!!! #7 - Ralf Moeller

Hey ice head...you got a visitor!

Ralf Moeller spent his early years in competetive swimming and started bodybuilding at the age of 17. Moeller eventually started competed and at the age of 25 won the German Bodybuilding Championship title in 1984. His list of friends and associates in Hollywood is a who's who list of action stars and I'm surprised he hasn't appeared in one of the Expendables flicks due to his close ties to Schwarzenegger.

Moeller's big screen debut came in the Van Damme Sci-fi classic Cyborg as the character Brick Bardo. Bardo was one of Fender's henchmen (the guy with the glazed eyes and the 80's shades). Moeller had a decent chunk of screen time, but after being ambushed in the sewer meets his demise at the hands of JCVD. Of course, most people know that Cyborg was the result of a sequel to Masters of the Universe and a live action Spider-Man flick being in the works and both were scrapped as Cannon films was facing financial troubles...the result was the production work being evolved into Cyborg (a $500K Masterpiece!). Ironically, Moeller has a bit of a resemblance to Beast Man with the hairstyle and wardrove, but doesn't sound like him....all of Moeller's lines were dubbed due to his thick German accent.

Moeller's next big screen appearance came alongside.....Jean Claude Van-Damme in yet another Sci-Fi Classic, Universal Soldier. Playing the role of "GR76" Moeller held his own with JCVD and Dolph as one of the tactical Unisol units. Moeller was Dolph's right hand man as they went rogue and off the deep end. During the final chase scene Moeller and Dolph thought they had Van Damme nailed as they tried to push his uverturned bus off the edge of a cliff...too bad Van Damme popper up, plugged Moeller full of bullets causing him to collapse at the wheel and drive off the cliff. Dolph somehow survived, Moeller didn't...They're dropping like flies!!!

One of my all time favorite Martial Arts B-Movies would be Best of the Best 2 starring...Ralf Moeller. Moeller was cast as the main villain Brakus. Not only did the man pound the crap out of Chris Penn, but he also had to put up with Eric Robert's insistent blubbering and Wayne Newton's schticky dialogue. Either way, Brakus was a bad ass. During the final fight with Tommy Lee (not the drummer) Brakus finally gets his ass kicked and his life is spared, that is until he tries to blindside Lee and ends up getting his neck broken.....if you haven't seen it, check it out. Make sure you have a bottle of your favorite drink and take a shot whenever Robert's sheds a tear, you'll be feeling pretty happy about an hour in....

After appearing in The Viking Tales (German), Moeller went on to appear in the epic classic Batman and Robin. Moeller landed the role of a prison guard at Arkham Asylum. In a blink and you'll miss him role, Moeller got to rock an eyepatch and deliver such oscar worthy dialogue as "Hey Ice Head..." and shared screen time with both Arnie and Uma...after his 10 seconds of fame, Moeller got one planted on him by Uma Thurman and died...

After a few straight to video films, Moeller landed the starring role in Conan: The Adventurer....Remember that one?! Not many do, it was cancelled after a season. I hear it was big in Germany (so is Hasselhoff). Moeller was a pretty decent fit physically for the role and the wardrobe and props were identical to the movies, but the character was just so different from the one portrayed in movies that fans were pretty divided. Toned down for T.V. this version of Conan was a very compasionate, kind, sympathetic and upbeat...a nicer Barbarian.

If anything positive came out of the Conan series it would be the skills Moeller learned for the role. Moeller's size, strength and sword handling skills did lead him to get a supporting role as Hagen in Ridley Scott's Gladiator. In Moeller's biggest screen appearance to date, he played alongside Crowe as the man responsible for evaluating the fighting talent of incoming slaves and eventuall joining Maximus' army of Galdiators. After many impressive battles in the arena Hagen get drilled with 6 or 7 arrows in the final battle for freedom and dies.

A few guest appearances on TV Shows and some more German language films and Moeller returned to the big screen as Thorak alongside Duane "The Rock" Johnson in The Scorpion King. Thorak was the bad guy match up for The Rock and eventually leads a bunch of troops to try and take down The Rock. As we all know, you can't beat The Rock...Duane held his own thanks to a sandstorm and picked off Thorak's men one by one, but not before Thorak stabbed him in the leg with a scorpion venom drenched arrow which eventually led to The Rock becomming The Scorpion King...

From here Moeller's career took a bit of a downturn, in some less memorable roles Moeller went on to star as a beer guzzling German in the drinking competition movie Beerfest. In a rather unusual turn for Moeller, he was cast in the kids flick Ozzie. Playing a goon named Tank, Moeller was responsible for kidnapping the talking, farting, burping plush Koala bear for his boss who wants to clone the bear and sell them as talking pets. Moeller bumbles along as he's seen riding a kid's bicycle, taking pies to the face and assaulted numerous times in a direct Home Alone ending rip off... hilarity ensues...Moeller also l landed a pretty large role in the movie Pathfinder. However, he spent a majority of the movie burried under a horned helmet, so you probably couldn't tell it's him....

For some unknown reason, maybe the German roots, maybe the need for work or maybe he likes boxing....Moeller went on to appear in a number of Uwe Boll movies. Seed, Postal, Alone in the Dark II & Far Cry....Unfortunatly, I've seen all of them and I can say that most are really not that great...i think Postal might have been the only marginally decent one thanks to J.K. Simmons....

Moeller's last big-screen appearance came in the love it or hate it flick The Tourist. Moeller played Jail Bird Lunt and received little screen time.....

Where is he now?

Moeller is rumored to be returning to the big screen in a movie called Active Shooter next year, he currently resides in California with his wife and two daughters.

Moeller has been involved in a number of humanitarian projects including providing and delivering fitness equipment to troops in Afghanistan as well as starting a project Stateside to help children with troubled backgrounds. Moeller has also launched his own line of cologne....for real men.

In his spare time he is a motorcycle enthusiast and loves techno, he's collaborated on numerous projects with the German group E Nomine. He's also gave Tico Torres a run for most testosterone on set while appearing as a gladiator in the music video for Bon Jovi's "Say it Isn't So" as well as appearing in the Scooter music video for Maria...This one's a bit tougher to figure out as he's rocking a satin red ruffled shirt, dancing disco style, drinking martinis and has a red terminator glowing style eye....I shit you not.

DropDeadFred posted a BLOG item 11 months ago

Hey, I know him!!! #6 - David Patrick Kelly

Warriors…Come out and Play-ay!

David Patrick Kelly has made a career out of playing both mentally unstable and creepy weasly type bad guy characters . Short, energetic, slightly annoying and nearly always over the top, Kelly has an instantly recognizable face a very distinctive voice and almost always has the amazing ability to really get under viewers skin.

Kelly got his start in the business with what may be considered his most iconic role to date in the controversial Walter Hill flick The Warriors. Landing the role of Luther, the main antagonist to The Warriors who sends them back through New York to Coney Island. Kelly was the leader of the Rogues gang. people will probably remember him most as delivering the iconic line “Warriors….Come out and Play-ay” a line that was never in the script and was purely improvised by Kelly during shooting when Hill told him to come up with something cooler than what was scripted. The character was a bit weasly and one of the few character that packed firepower in the flick. Luther ends up going out in a less memorable death at the hands of The Riffs…

From here Kelly went on to appear in the Eddie Murphy/ Nick Nolte buddy cop flick 48 hours. Another movie directed by Walter Hill again playing a character named….Luther (How Original Walter!). Kelly gets a bit of screen time in this one and is probably remembered as being sought after for being Gantz’s former partner who let him take off with his old-lady . In a rather unintentionally funny scene Nolte is interrogating Kelly, when Kelly backtalks, Nolte in typlical 80’s cop fashion punches him in the face and slams his head into a car…

Anyone seen the cult classic Dreamscape? If so, you may remember Kelly as the psychopath Tommy Ray Glatman who enters the dreams of the President of the United States in order to assassinate him in his dreams….From ripping out the heart of a police officer to turning into a snake monster to battle Dennis Quaid in the climatic ending it's got some pretty hoky effects, but at the same time it’s certainly one of Kelly’s more memorable movies and one of the few that he has a leading role in.

If you haven’t seen The Warriors (get on that!!!) then you’ll certainly remember Kelly as the sleazy character Sully from the Schwarzenegger classic Commando. Pimped out in a yellow Porsche convertible that is impenetrable to damage even when flipped…Kelly spends most of his screen time trying to pick-up Rae Dawn Chong and just getting under the viewers skin. In the end Kelly's character becomes just another reason for Arnie to deliver one of those classic one liners that we all love. After a car chase up the side of a cliff Arnie single handedly hangs him over the edge of a cliff, drops him and then steals his car…Arnie told Sully that he’d kill him last….he lied.

Remember Penn and Teller Get Killed? Me either, but Kelly appeared in that one as a psychotic Penn and Teller fan who turned his apartment into a shrine devoted to them.

From there we go onto a role that I associate with David Patrick Kelly the most. That of course would be the role of Sam the Sleaze bag in the Andrew Dice Clay classic The Adventures of Ford Fairlane. Probably remembered as the creepy obsessed fan of The Pussycats who carried around a red briefcase full of creepy momentos including a lock of hair…Kelly’s true devotion to the art of acting is shown when he’s able to deliver the line “Mr Rock and Roll Detective” with a straight face before Dice whips out his arm mounted pistol and shoots a disco ball that lands on Kelly’s head. When Dice said "So many assholes...so few bullets" he was talking about Kelly.…God damn it, why didn’t this movie make more money at the box office?!

From here Kelly went on to gather some smaller parts in some pretty impressive movies. He played Mr Ostrowski in Malcolm X, Tony Eyes in the Spike Lee flick Crooklyn where he played his own instruments and sang, A very understated out of character role for Kelly as Howie in the forgettable K-Pax and as Unger the backstabiing inmate in the Adam Sandler remake of The Longest Yard.

Every now and then I'm guilty of not realizing an actor is a certain person. I watch a movie a few times and then it finally hits me. This can be said for Kelly in the Brandon Lee classic the Crow. Kelly donned long hair and a beard to land the role of T-Bird and it’s such a dark movie that you’d probably only recognize him in certain close up scenes. Probably remembered as being mentally fucked up most of the movie and repeatedly yelling “Fire it up!” T-bird went out in a blaze of glory as his car launched off a pier and burst into flames at the hands of Lee. I think it was my 6th or 7th time seeing this movie before I did a holy shit double take and realized I knew the actor...

Where is he now?

After the mid-2000s the film roles started to dry up a bit for Kelly. Doing a bit of a 180 and returning to some of his roots, Kelly ended up doing theater and musicals on Broadway around this time he also was married for the first time.

Kelly also recently released a CD of original music that he had recorded during his club days in the mid-70's. Titled Rip Van Boy Man and described as a mix of folk and rock...

Kelly will hopefully be returning to the big screen next year alongside Heather Graham and Sam Shepard in the movie Shoedog.

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DropDeadFred posted a BLOG item 11 months ago

Review: Cube Zero

So after watching Cube and Hyper-Cube I finished off the trilogy with Cube Zero.

This movie is clearly one that should have been made after the original instead of attempting to re-create and improve too much in the ambitious but flawed Cube 2.

Cube Zero gives us the rawest looking Cube entry in the series. All the technology has been scaled back to metal plates and doors and a simpler version of the Cube. The traps were all practical and effective, the plot was well developed and finally delivered some sort of back story into the Cube. Not that everyone was dying to find out about the origins, but I'm sure there were enough out there asking to justify breaking the mystique of the Cube. Another bright point is they finally abandoned CG effects for the most part, which clearly work to their advantage.

The cast was probably the strongest to date employing actors that might be recognized outside of Canadian TV. The script also was probably one of the strongest to date, dialogue didn't seem as forced as it did in previous entries and the characters were somewhat developed and a nice ending that wraps up and leads into the original Cube. All that being said, this movie should clearly be watched AFTER the original. Part of what made the first one so great was the unknown and learning along the way. This movie pretty much shatters all of what made the first one so great by diving into the backstory.

Overall, this movie is an excellent companion to the original and at the same time it's hard to compare them as they're such different films. This movie is certainly a lot slicker with higher production values and improvements across the board. However, it's just missing the heart that the original had.

I'm giving it an 8/10.

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DropDeadFred posted a BLOG item 11 months ago

Hey, I know him her!!! #5 - Jenette Goldstein

"Whatever you're gonna do, do it fast!"

Jenette Goldstein is a woman that owes most of her theatrical career to a single director. Sure, she's appeared in other movies...but the roles she's best known for come at the hands of or association with James Cameron. She clearly is one of those actors that changes her appearance from role to role so while you might not recognize her instantly, you sort of connect the dots later.

Goldstein spent her early years studying at London's Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, she appeared in a number of local theater productions before answering a casting call for Americans with British Equity cards...this casting call ended up launching her career.

The 1986 casting call lead Jenette Goldstein to land the role that she would be best known for. James Cameron cast her as Private Vasquez in Aliens, having to cut her hair short for the role and don a very dark tan she pulled off the Hispanic role fairly well considering she is actually of Jewish descent. Apprently when she went to audition for Cameron she assumed that since the role was Hispanic and the title was Aliens was must be about immigration and showed up in a dress and heels a style very far from the character she would later portray. Luckily Cameron was able to visualize her in the role and she became a part of what many to this day consider an action classic. Vasquez would be best known as the butch space marine who delivered so many great emasculating lines throughout the movie before finally blowing herself up with that asshole Gorman...She ended up winning a Saturn Award for best supporting actress.

The following year Goldstein was cast as Diamondback along with fellow Aliens co-stars Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton in Katherine Bigalow's Near Dark (a movie that made Bigalow reach out to Cameron due to the casting and ended up in them dating and eventually getting married). Clearly a movie that gets lost in the pack of 80's vampire flicks, Goldstein's character gets some decent screen time as a member of Henricksen's vampire pack. Unfortuantly, like most vampires she's allergic to the sun and ends up being burnt to a crisp...

From here Goldstein was cast in a minor yet crucial role as Patie Jean Lynch in the Sean Connery classic -The Presidio....sure, she gets shot in the beginning of the movie, but if she hadn't there wouldn't have been a movie....

Anyone remember Jenette Goldstein in Lethal Weapon 2? No? Well she played Officer Meagan Shapiro. She appeared in less memorable scenes in the movie, but I'm sure anyone who's seen the movie will remember her best for rocking the one piece bathing suit and doing a perfect 720 flip into the pool as the diving board exploded during the cop killing spree.

Goldstein went quiet for a few years after Lethal Weapon 2 until the phone rang again and once again, James Cameron came calling for her to audition for a role in what would be another sci-fi classic in Terminator 2. Anyone remember her? Let me put it into perspective..."Hey, Shut up your worthless piece of shit"...and with that Goldstein cast as Jeanelle Voight put a shank through Todd's head. I bet he'll never drink straight from the carton again...

After a few brief guest appearances in numerous shows and a bit part as a Science Officer in Star Trek: Generations, Goldstein would again return to the big screen in the Cindy Crawford vehicle Fair Game, it also had one of the Baldwins in it...you know, the one nobody remembers. Many might not remember this one as it tanked in theaters. I remember paying hard earned money to see this flick...what the hell was I thinking? Oh, right I was 15 and it had Cindy Crawford in it!!! It's hard to believe that this movie was based on the same source material as the Stallone classic Cobra. Either way, Goldstein had a very minor role playing a character named Rosa who was part of helping with the witness protection program...

The phone is ringing again...guess who?! James Cameron calling wanting you to audition for a role in his next blockbuster Titanic. Goldstein was cast as "Irish Mommy" a passenger in third class on the Titanic. She had a few speaking lines, but probably not as memorable as some of her other roles...

Anyone see the Marlon Wayans and David Spade flick Senseless? Goldsteing had a bit part as a blood donation clinic nurse...Which brings us to the final theatrical role that most might know Goldstein from. She played Alice the Maid in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, all she was trying to do was clean the room when she was jumped by Benicio Del Toro and Johnny Depp and interrogated about dope....

Where is she now?

Jenette Goldstein took a few years away from the screen to focus on one of her dream projects. She wrote, directed and starred in a movie short titled "One Life Per Customer" and is currently in the process of trying to secure financing for a feature length version.

During her time away, Jenette also launch her own company releasing a line of bras called "Jenette D" with a catchy tagline "The Alphabet Starts at D" and utilizing such whitty advertising slogans as "Let's face it - We have a knockout rack and it has to be managed" she has created an online presence in the world of large breasted women...

Apparently Jenette also had a one woman stage show for a while...Jenette will return to acting next year, with the release of the low budget feature Living the Dream...

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DropDeadFred posted a BLOG item 12 months ago

Hey, I know him!!! #4 - Kim Coates

"Hey baby I thought you were tough. See Pablo, he's no sweat! "

Kim Coates has made a career of playing on-screen characters with serious attitude problems, usually henchmen or goons. Regardless of which side he's on, his characters always seem to be a bit of an asshole. Most F/X aficionados will probably recognize him these days as Alex "Tig" Trager on Sons of Anarchy, but the guy really does have a bit of an extensive list of minor roles to his credit most being pretty memorable...

Coates never wanted to be an actor growing up, it wasn't until he got to the University of Saskatchewan he took Drama as an elective and got hooked. Being Canadian Coates cut his teeth in Canadian Film and Television in his early years, this wasn't before he racked up 27 or so theater roles in Stratford, Broadway etc..Anyone familiar with Canadian gems like Night Heat, Diamonds, Katts and Dog (<---This show was awesome as a kid!!!), Street Legal, Dracula: The Series might recognize Coates from guest appearances.

Coates first major major on-screen role came playing "Chet", a cocky goon type henchman in the Willis/Wayans flick The Last Boy Scout. Probably remembered most as the man who makes Bruce Willis fall not once, but twice for the Cigarette-Punch to the face trick. Unfortunatly third time wasn't even an option as Willis rammed his nose up into his brain killing him instantly...can't say he wasn't warned.

After a few more T.V. Guest Appearances, Coates returned to the big screen in the John Grisham adaptation The Client. Playing Paul Gronke, a mafia goon who keeps an eye on Mark Sway during the time leading up to trial. It's a memorable movie, but a less memorable role for Coates...

After yet a few more T.V. Guest Appearances and an uncredited role in the movie Bad Boys as a Car Jacker, Coates went on to play a Drifter in the Kevin Costner Classic Waterworld. Don't remember him? He was the filthy guy with the funky hair who tried to barter with Kevin Costner because he had a piece of paper...not sure what was so special about the piece of paper, but to Coate's character it seemed to have some weird orgasmic qualities...he then tried to barter for Kostner's ladies....and THIS is (along with the budget to profit ratio) one of the reasons why Waterworld is such a great movie!!!

Yet another stint in Canadian Television shows including such classics as F/X: The Series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Poltergeist: The Legacy and Total Recall 2070 led to Coates being cast in his first leading role!!!!.....in Battlefield Earth.....There's a story out there about Coates actually reading the novel to get a feel for his character, started reading figuring his character was at the end after not finding him anywhere as he read on, finally Coate's finished the book and his character Carlo isn't in there at all......you think someone would have informed him of this fact A. Before telling him about the project and B. Before he signed on the dotted line....the character of Carlo was added to the movie as they felt that Jonnie's character needed a best friend. Most people might not remember him as most will want to remember this movie even exists...those who do remember will probably agree with the 2.4 rating this turd has in IMDB.

From here Coates went on to some forgettable roles. He landed a small supporting role as Jack Richards in the mix-reviewed Pearl Harbor. The role originally was intended to be a lot bigger, but due to the fact that Coates and Baldwin (maybe the only two serious actors in the movie) researched their roles and found out their characters in real life were heavy smokers ended up smoking throughout most of their scenes...Unfortunatly, after the fact Disney made it clear that they didn't want any smoking in their movie, so most of Coates and Baldwin's scenes ended up on the cutting room floor...Coates then had some less memorable roles as Delta Force member Tim "Griz" Martin in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down, a gunman named Butler in yet another Kostner self indulgent piece Open Range...

Around 2005/2006 were probably the years where Coates had his most on-screen roles. Coates landed a role in the remake fo Assault on Precinct 13 playing Officer Rosen. Don't get too excited though, after some major screen time in the first 15-20 minutes of the movie he goes out with three slugs to the chest during the initial Assault. This was followed up by Coates appearing the the Bruce Willis flick Hostage. Coates played The Watchman, the man responsible for kidnapping Bruce Willis' wife and daughter, most of his screen time is faceless due to the fact he's wearing a ski mask....of course, we all know Coate's last run in with Willis, you don't mess around with the man and get away with it. After Willis mops up the kidnappers in the mansion he goes over to rescue his family....not before putting a bullet between Coate's eyes.

Anyone remember Coates from Silent Hill? He played Officer Tim Gucci who stepped in to try and stop Sean Bean from uncovering the secret past of Silent Hill, the guy who had the flashbacks...A pretty forgettable role for Coates, but some decent screen time.

Last year we saw Coates behind the bench as Ronny Hortense in the very under-rated Goon, while a supporting role the man dropped a ton of F-bombs and had some great memorable lines in the flick...

Where is he now?

Coates is currently enjoying his first television steady run (by choice, he's always turned down being tied to a T.V. Show) in Sons of Anarchy, now in it's 5th season. The show's cast is made up entirely character actors. When not shooting, he lives in L.A. with his wife (of 27 years) and two daugthers. Apart from that, Coates stays on the down low and keeps to himself with his personal life.

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DropDeadFred posted a BLOG item 12 months ago

Hey, I know him!!! #3 - Peter Stormare

This is how we fix problem in Russian Spacestation....

Peter Stormare is one of those people that just pops up in movies. He's appeared in a number of well known flicks in memorable and simply forgettable roles, he's one of those people that sort of sneaks by when watching a movie and then when you see him in a different movie you realize "Hey, it's the same guy that was in..." but somehow never being able to remember his name. Stormare has worked with a number of well known directors including The Coen Brothers, Michael Bay, Terry Gilliam, Joel Schumacher and Steven Spielberg.

Stormare got his start in theater and movies over in Europe, his screen credits are hardly something you'd call glorious ranging from "Young Man Who Helps Isac With Cofer" to "Neurochemist". After moving to America Stormare slowly trantioned from theater to Made-For-TV Movies. I'm going to focus on his memorable theatrical roles (and be less detailed over his less-memorable as the guy has a pretty extensive list of brief appearances). Stormare's landing his first North American screen role in the Coen classic - Fargo.

Stormare played one of the lead characters in Fargo named Gaear Grimsrud, a kidnapper who ends up killing off most of the cast...For those out there that find Steve Buschemi annoying, you'll probably remember Stormare mostly for the infamouse scene where he gets the honor of killing Buschemi with an axe and feeding him into a woodchipper.....well, most of him.

After appearing in a few more straight to video features, Stormare returned to the big screen in Spielberg's Jurrasic Park: The Lost World playing Dieter Stark. Stark was the second in command for InGen at the park and probably remembered as the guy who antagonizes the Compsognathus with the electical prod. What happened to Deiter? Well he was "going to the ladies room" when he saw a Compsagnathus in the bushes, he decided to electrocute it in the head and then takes off running....Dinosaurs caught up and ate him apparently avoiding the parts they didn't like and leaving a trail of blood that fashionably flowed into a nearby stream...

After a few more minor roles Stormare reteamed with the Coen brothers again in The Big Lebowski playing Nihlist #3 (or...the tall one), you know the guys who were running with scissors?! Although it's hard to recognize him due to him wearing the bodysuit.

Probably one of my most memorable appearances Stormare made on television was in Seinfeld playing Slipper Pete, the man who helped George try and salvage the Frogger machine with the saved high score...Yeah, the man who wore down the battery by playing it while they were transporting it and forced George to cross the street with the machien....frogger style.

Stormare's next big screen role was probably the one he's best known for, playing Lev Andropov in Armageddon. Best known for his constant reference to being in a "Russian Spacestation" and beating the crap out of things with wrenches when they go wrong he was an integral part of helping Bruce Willis save the Earth in typical Michael Bay fashion...This is probably the flick that I remember him from the most.

From here Stormare went on to appear in a lot of well known theatrical movies, but with less memorable roles as a snuff film director in 8mm, an alcoholic wife beater in Chocolat, an ex-russian colonel with mafia ties in Bad Company, a gunnery sergeant in Windtalkers, a shady black market doctor in Minority Report, another doctor in the Jackie Chan "Classic" The Tuxedo, and once again (surprise!!!) a russian mobster who assaults a mansion during a raid in Bad Boys II.

In 2005 Stormare landed a role I also personally associate with him in Constantine....playing the role of Satan pimped all out in a white suit. Stormare received limited screentime. However, the role clearly was an integral part of the story as both being responsible for taking out Mammon taking care of Gabriel and paving the way for Keanu Reeves to re-appear in a sequel should there ever be a need for one....in the same year, Stormare played the part of Cavaldi in The Brother's Grimm. While he had a hard time deciding what side he was on, it clearly wasn't a good year for him appearing in movies that were loved by the general public...

By 2006 Stormare's big screen roles were starting to diminish, he landed a reoccuring role in the T.V. show Prison Break and managed to land less-memorable roles such as Emperor, the gypsy who instruct Nacho Libre to be a better wrestler by climb to the highest peak and eat the egg of an eagle....didn't work for Nacho Libre but it was an excuse for Jack Black to extend the cinematic turd's screen time out a bit longer...

From here on out it's a mixed bag of straight to video classics, video game appearances and television roles (minus a brief but very forgettable appearance as The President in The Imaginarim of Doctor Parnassus).

Where is he now?

Stormare continues to be an active musician in his downtime, having playing in a band called Blonde from Fargo, still running his independant record label Stormvox Records and recording music in his spare time.

Peter Stormare is still kicking around, he's churning out steady work Danny Trejo style, appearing in 10+ movies per year plus television appearances...unfortunatly, not sure how many of them will be seen by the general public as the film roles are mostly knock off movies...(Anyone seen Jewtopia?!...Me either!!!)

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