Blast (1997)

Director: Albert Pyun

Notable Cast: Linden Ashby, Andrew Divoff, Kimberly Warren, Rutger Hauer, Norbert Weisser, Tim Thomerson, Yuji Okumoto, Sonya Eddy

The success of Die Hard left a tidal wave of knock offs and various action films that attempted to recreate the iconic film’s brilliance. As with most big cultural films, this is a trend that happens. Some of these replications were effective in their own ways, films like Speed or Sudden Death stand out as fun spins on the premise, and some of them, sadly, were not. In the latter category, we have films like Blast. While Blast is definitely influenced by Die Hard, it’s not the replication to the extent that the cover would indicate. Blast uses the basic concepts about terrorists and a one-man battle against them in a sealed off building, but the lacking sense of humor and a very dry and serious approach to the material does not necessarily do the film any favors. It hits a lot of the right ideas in the formulaic approach (and it does have moments of B-grade action awesomeness,) but ultimately Blast tries too hard to be too dramatic to effectively entertain.

Walking Tall (2004)

Director: Kevin Bray

Notable Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Johnny Knoxville, Neal McDonough, Michael Bowen, Kevin Durand, Kristen Wilson, Ashley Scott, Khleo Thomas, John Beasley, Cobie Smulders

There are some films that seemingly get lost in the shuffle of time. Usually, these are films that run the middle of the road, not bad enough to be spit on and not good enough to make the lasting memories, but sometimes these are films that do eventually find their audiences. 2004’s Walking Tall, starring Dwayne Johnson while he was still credited as The Rock, is one of those films. When it was released, Walking Tall received generally negative reviews, but the film garnered enough of an audience to make two sequels (neither starring The Rock, who was replaced by Kevin Sorbo (?).) Yet, time was not necessarily kind to the film and it eventually disappeared from the mainstream consciousness, despite the eventual mega-stardom that Dwayne Johnson would achieve as an action star. That is, until now. MVD’s newest distribution arm, MVD Marquee, has selected Walking Tall as one of their first releases and rewatching the film for the first time since it’s release was interesting. Although, it’s still obvious why the film was forgotten. It does have its merits as a fun and entertaining little film, but it’s hardly the action classic that The Rock now puts out almost on a yearly basis.

Sukiyaki Western Django (2007)

Director: Takashi Miike

Notable Cast: Hideaki Ito, Koichi Sato, Yusuke Iseya, Masanobu Ando, Takaaki Ishibashi, Shun Oguri, Masato Sakai, Yoshino Kimura, Teruyuki Kagawa

The idea that the iconic cult film director Takashi Miike would take on two cult genres, spaghetti westerns and chanbara films, and then combine them into one wild film is a vulgar auteur's wet dream. This is because only a director as insane and creatively loose as Miike would be able to navigate those torrential waters and make the film not only work, but he makes it incredibly effective. Thus, we arrive on the intensely charismatic and stylish Sukiyaki Western Django, which combines our two beloved genres into a modern cinematic masterpiece of revenge, gunfights, lost love, samurai swords, and, of course, dusters with cigarettes.

Our unnamed wanderer (Hideaki Ito) has found a place that he might be able to pass a little time. Sometime long, long ago in Nevada, our gunman stumbled into a town with a legend of a lost treasure of gold. In classic cinema fashion, there are two clans in this town playing territory games to find the lost gold. The White clan lead by a sword-wielding samurai warrior with serious blade skills and the Red clan lead by a dimwitted and practically indestructible man who calls himself Henry are at a standstill. This lone gunman looks to play his thin odds as he helps out a distressed prostitute in the town seek her own revenge against both sides. It's war and only the most dangerous killers will survive.