According to Deadline, Tarantino has just signed a two-book deal with HarperCollins. The first book on the schedule is a novelization of his most recent film, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Clearly, the filmmaker is influenced by the novelizations that were so prevalent in his youth and he’s expecting to bring that love to his first work of fiction.
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The “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” novelization will expand on the story of his film and give us a deeper dive into the lives of TV actor Rick Dalton and his stunt double/best friend, Cliff Booth. The novel will arrive in stores next summer.

The second book on the horizon from Tarantino is titled “Cinema Speculation.” The non-fiction book is described as a “deep dive into the movies of the 1970’s, a rich mix of essays, reviews, personal writing, and tantalizing ‘what if’s,’ from one of cinema’s most celebrated filmmakers, and its most devoted fan.” So, if you’re a fan of the various essays and interviews Tarantino has given about old Hollywood and his adoration of films, this is right up your alley.
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Gary Daniels is great as Ray Morgan. Daniels was a key player for PM starring in a good handful of their films and always delivering. He has the look of a classic action hero, the British accents to give him a touch of James Bond flair, and he’s a martial arts wizard. Kickboxing, Kung Fu, Wing Chun, Taekwondo, and more Daniels has trained in multiple styles and competed as well. He’s a great actor. He plays Ray as a hardened cop but as a quiet man as well. You truly feel for him when his family dies, as the emotion he conveys during the car scene where they eventually perish is heartbreaking. He takes, sorrow, anger, and fear all rolled into one and shows it perfectly. Now at the end he shows mostly just rage and he comes off as a total killing machine. The casting of Daniels is really what set this film apart. His martial arts skills are fantastic to say the least, and his acting is fantastic. As I said he’s a tough guy but not a stereotypical one. He plays the role of the family man perfectly as well. He also choreographed his own fight scenes in the film giving it a great personal touch/

So there you have it. You need something to watch tonight during quarantine? Get on over to Amazon Prime and select Recoil. Make sure you pick the one from 1998. There is another one made, same title no relation in 2011. That’s good as well, but you want the PM Entertainment action fest from 1998. Enjoy.

NEW YORK (AP) — The family of Sinbad says the comedian-actor is recovering from a recent stroke.

The Adkins family says in a statement to The Associated Press on Monday that "it is out of sincere love that we share Sinbad, our beloved husband and father, is recovering from a recent stroke.

“Sinbad is a light source of love and joy for many generations. While he is beginning his road to recovery, we are faithful and optimistic that he will bring laughter into our hearts soon,” the statement continued.

The 64-year-old Sinbad, born David Adkins, is known for his stand-up work and appearances in the sitcoms “A Different World” and “The Sinbad Show.” The entertainer has also appeared in several movies

“Our family thanks you in advance for your love and support and ask for continued prayers for his healing. We also ask that you please respect our privacy during this time,” the family statement read

With their being a pandemic and all going on, and lockdowns looming everywhere (I am all for the latter) you may be sitting at home wondering what to watch. Well fear not, as I will help you. Yes this will be the start of a new daily (I hope) section where I will recommend a film to watch during the pandemic. I mean now a days we have access to streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, and many many more so finding something is never hard. No the problem can be deciding what to watch as you have such a great choice at your finger tip. I am going to start out with an action film today. Its fun, action packed, and it will take up 90min of your quarantined life. Todays Film is entitled BloodFist III: Forced To Fight starring Don The Dragon Wilson. Why did I recommend part 3 over part 1? Truthfully because I enjoy it more, and second, the films are connected in name only. Aside from 1 and 2 the others are all stand alone pictures so you won’t be lost.

BloodFist III: Forced to Fight is a martial arts prison film. So right there we have two great types of film blended into one. Don The Dragon stars as Jimmy Boland. It’s the typical guy in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Luckily that is about zero percent of the story. Its just said so you wont think Jimmy is a mass murdering psycho or something. You have to know he is a good guy right from the start. And you find that out when his buddy, and fellow prisoner is getting beaten, and bent over if you know what I mean by a group of fellow inmates. Well Jimmy does not like that so he uses his Kickboxing skills (Side not for those of you who don’t know Don Wilson is the greatest Kickboxer of all time. If you think I’m joking look it up) and beats everyone senseless, killing the leader, Luther, of this gang in the process. Now the warden, who is about 1 level below corrupt decides to just transfer Jimmy to the black wing of the prison. This is not good as the gang leader Jimmy killed was not only black, but he supplied rugs to another Black gang leader named Blue.

Jimmy is transferred and sent to share a cell with Samuel Stark (Richard Roundtree of Shaft fame). Samuel is a calm prisoner who likes to fight with the law and books. He takes Jimmy under his wing, knowing that the person he killed was no good and invites him to work with his crew. A group of older wiser inmates who take care of the Prison Roof top garden for their work detail. Jimmy is also approached by Wheelhead the leader of the White Supremacist gang who offer him protection for joining them. Jimmy wants no part of that and decides to simply work with Stark and his group, that is after beating up a group of the white power weirdos himself. So now Jimmy has two problems, well three if you count the fact that he is in prison as one of them. He has the Black gang after him and now the White Power gang as well. In a moment of racial harmony they decide to work together to kill him.

Now Jimmy has one friend, other than Stark in this prison, the good natured sex offender named Diddler. Its never said what type of sex crime he did, but I think you can figure that out. He saves Jimmy from a murder attempt in the yard. Jimmy and Stark also become very close as Stark tries to help Jimmy better himself. Now the problem her is that lots of the guards don’t want to see Stark get out, let alone live. See as a prison advocate he’s a pain in the ass to them, as well as the warden who wants to run for Attorney General so they plan on getting rid of him. Luckily Jimmy is there to save him, and the rest of the prison as well.

Now as I am recommending this to watch I cant give the ending, or for that fact most of the middle away. I can tell you it follows a great formula. Someone, or a group of people go after Jimmy and he beats them up. Yes, this is a violent prison as fights happen every 5 to 10 minutes on average. The other thing I want to point out is the acting. Sure you don’t watch Bloodfist III for high drama, but you actually get that here. Don Wilson is outstanding as Jimmy. A nice guy deep down, but with a huge chip on his shoulder. He plays the part perfectly. In fact I think after Redemption, this is his second best film to date. Richard Roundtree is always fantastic and adds heart and hope to this picture. Its one of his best films as well. The rest of the cast does a fine job as well. The budget is low but that’s not exactly a problem when the setting is a prison.

If you like lots of action, with just a touch of drama Bloodfist III: Forced To fight is the film for you. You can watch it on Amazon Prime now. It’s a prison movie with a heart, and lots of martial arts action. Watch it tonight.

​When I was 9 years old I would watch sitcoms every evening.  I know lots of young people don’t remember those as only a handful are on the air, but in my day we had 3 channels all of which ad a good 2, sometimes 3 hour block of sitcoms on a nightly basis.  One of my favorites was Threes Company.  A show that was family friendly even though it was essentially about a guy who pretended to be gay so he could live with two women, while juggling multiple dates in each episode.  Yes fans, go back and watch.  Great show, same thing each week.  Anyway one night during commercials I saw a commercial for a new horror film called Silent Night deadly Night. It was a nothing commercial (I included it) below that featured glimpses of a Santa and a few people screaming.  Nothing crazy, just standard horror movie advertising.  I paid no real attention because during commercials I just waited for the show to return.  Well apparently a lot of people took notice of that commercial.
 
By the next morning stations were flooded with complaints from angry parents.  Stating how ads for this film should not run when young children are watching wholesome tv.  It will make them scared of Santa, and afraid of what will happen on Christmas they screamed.  My school PTA actually had a meeting about this.  I know that because my wacked out grandmother went to it.  Eventually stations started airing the promos later in the evening, but that was not enough.  No angry parents had to go to the local theaters that were showing the film to hold up signs and demand the film close. They would picket the film while singing Christmas Carols to be honest.  Siskel and Ebert gave it a horrid review, and even said “Shame on you” to the creators. The angry public could do nothing but yell about how the film was going to mentally damage the children.  Here’s the thing, speaking as a kid from that time.  We didn’t care.  Commercials we cared about were for GI Joe, and He-Man.  We didn’t pay attention to much else commercial wise.  That was bathroom and snack get time.  But still angry weirdos marched on.  They picketed, sent letters, called television stations.  Basically they created a huge outlet of free advertising for the film.  No different than the “Satanic Panic” of the 80’s as well. 

​The film was not doing great at the box office, but truthfully not so much because of the insane parent groups, no it was because it was a horror film, in December with a limited release.  But that didn’t matter either as a Milwaukee group calling themselves the “Citizens Against Movie Madness” began going on TV shows, radio show, hell they probably had rallies at a local Burger King for all I know at that point. But they generated enough traction to freak out the studio which was Tristar might I add, and they decided to pull the plug on the film 10 days into its release.  I’m sure it was not just because of some crazy protesters, I mean Phil Donahue, Leonard Maltin, and others bashing it on television did not help, nor did the fact it opened at number 8 at the box office.  Ironically another horror film entitled A Nightmare on Elm Street opened at the same time and was in fact getting beat by Silent Night at the box office.  Ironically when Silent Night was pulled Elm Street went on to capture the horror crowd and become a huge success.

​Now here are a few reason why this controversy was so stupid.  Black Christmas had a killer dressed like Santa and that came out many years prior and no one cared, but that was never the real kicker to me.  The real kicker was the fact that Santa was not a killer.  See protesters, at least the vast majority of them never bothered to watch the film.  They simply yelled about how Santa Clause was not a killer.  Guess what, he’s not, nor was he in the film.  The film had nothing to do with that.  None at all.  Nowhere in there did Santa snap and go on a killing spree in the North Pole, nor did he go down chimneys and kill kids instead of giving them presents.  No none of that happened, but parents sure thought it did.  So what we had were a massive group of people who encouraged you to not watch a film that they themselves never saw.

​For those unfamiliar, Silent Night Deadly Night is the story of Billy.  He and his family are heading home after visiting his crazy Grandfather in rest home of sorts.  His Grandfather tells Billy that Santa punishes naughty kids.  Things go from bad to worse for Billy when his family stops to help a stranded motorist dressed as Santa.  Problem is the guy dresses as Santa just robbed gas station and kills Billy’s father, and Mother, after raping her that is.  Billy and his little brother run off to hide during this and are taken to an Orphanage run by a sadistic nun, know only as Mother Superior.  She beats kids, punishes them, ties them up you name it.  She doesn’t like Billy and vows to cure him of his fear of Santa.  She does that by forcing him to sit on Santa’s lap when they bring a Santa in for Christmas.  He punches the guy and runs away and receives another beating in the process.

​Billy grows up and 10 years later gets a job at a local toy store right before Christmas thanks to a nun who was actually always kind to him.  He does good work, is well liked, hell he even has the hots for Pamela, his co-worker.  Unfortunately the store Santa they have gets hurt and as Billy is a good sized guy, not fat, just big and tall, the owner has him dress as Santa for the kids.  Billy is freaked out, but he does ok and when the store closes for their little Christmas party he is actually being told how great a job he did.  He’s of course depressed as is family died on this holiday but when he sees Pamela being manhandled by Andy, a warehouse worker he doesn’t like he finally snaps.  Yes, nothing to do with Christmas.  Billy sees a woman he likes about to be raped, just like his mother was and finally snaps and murders Andy with some Christmas lights.  He’s also by this point fully nuts and stabs Pamela as well.  For good measure he kills the rest of the employees as well.

​From there good old Billy just starts walking around town murdering people. He impales a girl on some antlers, cuts off a head, and stabs a few.  Always telling them they were naughty.  He is of course doing this in the Santa outfit he haws been wearing all day.  He finally decides he just needs to head back to the orphanage and murder the Mother Superior for all the abuse she dealt him over the years.  Luckily the police realize what his plan is and they are able to stop him, but not before gunning him down in front of his little Brother Ricky, who is still in the orphanage.  Ricky sees this and says “Naughty” before the film ends, setting up a sequel.  In fact the film did get a sequel, it got 4 sequels and even a remake.

​Is the film good?  Yes, in my opinion its very good.  The sequel is not bad either.  Sure it features a lot of inserted footage of part one, but it holds up fine as well.  3, 4, and 5, are terrible, but the remake is pretty good as well.  See all these years later us kids who grew up realized what we kind of knew all along, our parents were nuts.  Now that’s ok because I’m sure our children will grow up thinking the same thing.  It’s a cycle that’s unavoidable.  But finally Silent Night Deadly Night gets the respect it always deserved as a good slasher film.  Figures from NECA, a fantast Blu-ray release of the first two films from Scream Factory, an upcoming box set from 101 films, shirts, jackets, hell last year I got an activity book from Fright Rags.  This small film, bashed before its release has become a pop culture phenomenon.  I always wonder what would have happened had there been no controversy.  If they film merely opened and closed would anyone have even cared, let alone watched it to this day?  I cant answer that.  All I can do is look back and laugh at how bent out of shape people were when Silent Night Deadly Night came out.  If you want a great horror film to watch on Christmas, then this is your movie.  Put it on and enjoy.

​So when the pandemic hit essentially every movie got pushed back a year.  Sure Tenant came out, but it made change thanks in fac to most theaters being closed.  Films like the new James Bond kept getting pushed further and further back.  Fast and Furious 9 decided just to push back until 2021. A few films, smaller ones like say Bill & Ted Face The Music and New Mutants got a release when things opened up, but that was short lived as the majority were all forced to close again.  In fact where I live nothing is opened any more.  The last two films also had VOD releases which I personally took advantage of.  But one film that is still planned, at this point for a big release is Wonder Woman 1984.
 
Wonder Woman is in fact the last film that is still on the slate for a big release.  Warner Brothers is still targeting for Christmas.  Only problem is, things, unfortunately our not getting better.  In fact they seem to be getting worse.  SO now there is talk that WW may still get a theatrical release for the few screens that are open but then premiere on HBO MAX a few weeks later.  That would actually be a good move as HBO Max is not exactly setting the world on fire as far as subscriptions go.  A big film like this would really help it.  Second, the only other option would be to move it to 2021 summer, which has two problems.  One, it already going to be an over crowded summer with all the other blockbusters that moved to next year, on top of the ones scheduled to open.  Second, what’s to say the county will be in good enough shape to return to normal by then.
 
For now Wonder Woman 1984 is still set for a December release but that could all change in a second, and to be honest I am sure it will. With only six weeks to go till its planned release and with cases spiking am I sure we will hear a new date or roll out any time now.  

New World, which was a much smaller budget company had somehow acquired the rights to make a Punisher film. That was great news. They hired Dolph Lundgren to play the title role, also great news. And the film was going to get a hard R rating, which was exactly what fans wanted to hear. Now when the film came out people liked it, sort of, but comic book fans really hated it. I consider myself a different breed of comic fan as I am smart enough to know that us comic readers are about 2% of the audience. SO little things like a different costume, or possibly a different look in general didn’t really bother me. It still doesn’t. I mean as long as they keep the origin the same and stick to the material its all good. Sadly the Punisher missed the boat on a few things, but it got the heart and soul correct.

Now first off the vast majority of Punisher stories take place in New York. Guess what, it cost a lot of money to film there. This film had a budget of less than 10 million, so New York filing was never in the cards. But that’s ok, tons of movies set in New York are actually filmed in Canada. Well that costs money too, but luckily New World had Australian ties so the film was simply filmed in Australia. It does in now way shape of form look anything like New York. But that’s ok. Dolph Lundgren will openly tell you he had no knowledge of who the Punisher was. He was not a comic reader, but he didn’t need to be. Now the one issue I have always had with the film, and still do is that The Punisher does not wear his skull shirt. See that’s the costume. I mean back then he was drawn in a spandex outfit with the skull but they could have very easily just given him a shirt like they did in the Thomas Jane film, or even just a painted vest like in Warzone. No they simply had him wear a t shirt, jeans, leather jacket, but had him throw knives with the little skull on them for his calling card. I wont lie that was stupid.

They also changed the origin story a bit. See in the comics and most recently in the now canceled Netflix series, that got most of it correct Frank was a former soldier who when taking his family out to a picnic in Central Park watched them die during a mob hit gone bad. It caused him to snap and become the Punisher. A man who simply had a one man war against crime. If you were a criminal he killed you. Pretty basic. Well in this film Frank was a cop who was investigating the local mob. His family died in a car bombing that was meant for him. Everyone just assumed he died as well and because of this he became the Punisher. He now lives in the sewers and carries on a one man war against the mob. In fact he’s killed over 125 mobsters in the five years he has been on his crusade. He is added by a drunk washed up theater actor named Shake. I never got that part. Now his old partner Jake (Louis Gossett Jr) believes that Frank is still alive and that he’s the Punisher. In fact he’s been chasing him for the last five years.​

The film is violent. Very violent. In fact it was originally heavily censored to simply get the R rating. Weather you watch the R or the uncensored you will enjoy the film as it kept the spirt of the character alive. Mob kills family, you snap, you kill criminals. That’s it its plane and simple. This is the version that does it the best (as far as the films go) to say the least. Problem was the film came out during a time, as I said, when comic book films meant nothing. Sure it got a wide release overseas, but it got nothing here. Just a VHS that came and went. Comic fans were less than impressed as the skull outfit was nowhere to be found, but action fans embraced it.

Now as the years progressed the comic fans are starting to come around. The Thomas Jane big budget Marvel film fell flat amongst comic and action fans. Sure they had the look right but they changed the origin a bit to give it more of a movie flare but the part that hurt it was really the lack of action. In fact with the exception of the fight with the Russian and a little bit of explosions at the end the film is pretty much a drama. Not saying it’s a bad film its just not a punisher film. The follow up, War Zone, suffered a bit as well. It gave the violence back and turned it way up but the villains were played so over the top they were akin to the old Batman 1966 villains. It had a nice amount of action but it just never really came together, for me at least. Now the Netflix Show so far is the best version I have seen, but that’s a story for another day.