"Actor: Basil Wallace"

• Marked For Death | DVD | (25/08/2003) from £8.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The glowering brutality that is aikido head-banger Steven Seagal's substitute for a star persona at least gives us a rancid taste of authenticity in Marked for Death, a cookie-cutter action picture. This glum lug seems really to enjoy hurting people; he snaps limbs and shatters noses with visible relish. Pitted against a gang of Jamaican gangsters who invade his (white ethnic) Chicago neighbourhood and threaten his family, retired DEA agent John Hatcher sets out to solve the case with robotic efficiency, kicking butt in just about every scene. Not quite as pudgy in this 1990 outing as he became a few films later, Seagal looks like the genuine, lethal article in the fight sequences but like a hopeless amateur when he tries to act his way out of the waterlogged-paper-bag of a script. So what else is new? The one bright spot here is Basil Wallace, a mostly unsung actor who throws himself into the showy role of the Rasta gang-boss Screwface, a garishly scarred psycho with piercing ice-blue eyes. --David Chute, Amazon.com

• Rapid Fire | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-14.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Rapid Fire was the penultimate film starring Brandon Lee before his untimely death on the set of The Crow. It's a standard martial arts thriller in which Lee plays Jake Lo, a young arts student who witnesses a gangland execution and is unwittingly drawn into a pitched standoff between the mafia, a Chinese drug syndicate and Ryan, a downbeat but resolute Chicago cop (Powers Boothe) determined to nail his prey. With a plot that careens through every genre cliché, Lee's smouldering looks and showy fighting skills carry the film. The martial arts sequences (which Lee co-choreographed) are nicely staged, but given the unusual settings--the penultimate fight takes place in a Chinese laundry--could have been even more inventive. The workmanlike direction by Dwight H Little (Marked for Death, Free Willy 2) fails to inject much into the material. In particular, traumatised by seeing his Special Agent father die in the Tiananmen Square massacre, Jake Lo's attraction to both a corrupt FBI agent and Ryan as surrogate father figures could have been given more resonance given the loss of Brandon Lee's own father at an early age. With hundreds of bloodless deaths, cringe-worthy dialogue and a dated power rock soundtrack, Rapid Fire looks and feels like a TV film. And on that level, at least, it's entertaining. On the DVD: The main feature is presented in letterboxed widescreen. Sound and picture quality are very good. Subtitles are provided for ten languages (Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norweigian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish) and in English for the hard of hearing. Extra features are limited to chapter selection and a theatrical trailer. --Chris Campion

• Marked for Death | Blu Ray | (02/12/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The glowering brutality that is aikido head-banger Steven Seagal's substitute for a star persona at least gives us a rancid taste of authenticity in Marked for Death, a cookie-cutter action picture. This glum lug seems really to enjoy hurting people; he snaps limbs and shatters noses with visible relish. Pitted against a gang of Jamaican gangsters who invade his (white ethnic) Chicago neighbourhood and threaten his family, retired DEA agent John Hatcher sets out to solve the case with robotic efficiency, kicking butt in just about every scene. Not quite as pudgy in this 1990 outing as he became a few films later, Seagal looks like the genuine, lethal article in the fight sequences but like a hopeless amateur when he tries to act his way out of the waterlogged-paper-bag of a script. So what else is new? The one bright spot here is Basil Wallace, a mostly unsung actor who throws himself into the showy role of the Rasta gang-boss Screwface, a garishly scarred psycho with piercing ice-blue eyes. --David Chute, Amazon.com

• Return Of The Living Dead III | Blu Ray | (28/08/2017) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Return of the Living Dead III is the third go-round for a premise intended as both a sequel to and a satire of the George A Romero Living Dead films. This could just as easily have been an entry in director Brian Yuzna's Re-Animator series, and indeed the plot nugget seems derived from the last shot of Re-Animator itself, as a devoted youth (J. Trevor Edmond) revives his freshly dead girlfriend (Mindy Clarke) with trioxin, a military zombie-making gas, and learns to regret his actions. Though it has some left-field ideas--the heroine turns herself into a DIY Hellraiser Cenobite poster-girl with extreme body piercing to distract herself from the desire to eat her boyfriend's brain--and effective action, it is still confined by its low budget and thus stuck with ordinary acting, a minimal plot and too many dumb developments. The central thread is the necrophile/SM romance, which ends up in a liebestod clinch in the army base's furnace, but there's a sub-plot about a quartet of zombified gang members which serves mainly to get some violence going every few minutes. Clarke is a striking presence, studded with bits of metal like a punk porcupine, but her performance flat lines even before her death in a motorcycle crash and revival as a zombie, while the rest of the cast--with the honourable exceptions of Kent McCord as a senior officer and Basil Wallace as a mystical down-and-out--are typified by Sarah Douglas' strident militarist mad scientist, who wants to put zombies in armoured exoskeletons and deploy them as combat troops. Nevertheless, this is gruesome fun for the fans, with some imaginative zombie mutilation effects. On the DVD: It's a no-frills full-screen transfer. The only extra is a 50-second trailer.--Kim Newman

• Wrong Turn / Roadkill / The Hole | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Wrong Turn: In a hunt to the death would you survive? When a group of friends get stranded in the back woods of Virginia they find that they are not alone... hunted by cannibalistic mountain men they must try to escape without transport before they become the next meal. Roadkill: It's summer break and college freshman Lewis Thomas (Paul Walker) has decided to embark on a cross-country road trip to pick up the girl of his dreams Venna (Leelee Sobieski). But Lewis' romantic hopes hit a detour when he stops on the way to rescue his older brother Fuller (Steve Zahn) who goads him into playing a practical joke on a lonely trucker over a CB radio. Now that trucker an unseen and terrifying force known only by the CB handle 'Rusty Nail' wants the last laugh; and revenge... The Hole: Liz (Thora Birch) staggers towards her exclusive school bloodied and deeply traumatised. Whilst a police psychologist is trying to figure out what happened to her she reveals this twisted and chilling tale. Three rebellious friends Mike Geoff and Frankie are desperate to avoid a school fieldtrip to Wales. Martin the school nerd helps them hide away in an old underground bunker and his only condition is that his friend Liz joins them. Martin is in love with Liz but she wants Mike the coolest guy in school. The teenagers party uncontrolled and undetected in the soundproofed bunker hidden deep in the woods. For three days it is this wild place; Mike even starts to notice Liz for the first time. But when Martin doesn't return to let them out the party atmosphere drains and their sanctuary quickly becomes their living nightmare.

• The Return Of The Living Dead 3 | DVD | (10/09/2001) from £22.50   |  Saving you £-9.52 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Return of the Living Dead III is the third go-round for a premise intended as both a sequel to and a satire of the George A Romero Living Dead films. This could just as easily have been an entry in director Brian Yuzna's Re-Animator series, and indeed the plot nugget seems derived from the last shot of Re-Animator itself, as a devoted youth (J. Trevor Edmond) revives his freshly dead girlfriend (Mindy Clarke) with trioxin, a military zombie-making gas, and learns to regret his actions. Though it has some left-field ideas--the heroine turns herself into a DIY Hellraiser Cenobite poster-girl with extreme body piercing to distract herself from the desire to eat her boyfriend's brain--and effective action, it is still confined by its low budget and thus stuck with ordinary acting, a minimal plot and too many dumb developments. The central thread is the necrophile/SM romance, which ends up in a liebestod clinch in the army base's furnace, but there's a sub-plot about a quartet of zombified gang members which serves mainly to get some violence going every few minutes. Clarke is a striking presence, studded with bits of metal like a punk porcupine, but her performance flat lines even before her death in a motorcycle crash and revival as a zombie, while the rest of the cast--with the honourable exceptions of Kent McCord as a senior officer and Basil Wallace as a mystical down-and-out--are typified by Sarah Douglas' strident militarist mad scientist, who wants to put zombies in armoured exoskeletons and deploy them as combat troops. Nevertheless, this is gruesome fun for the fans, with some imaginative zombie mutilation effects. On the DVD: It's a no-frills full-screen transfer. The only extra is a 50-second trailer.--Kim Newman

• Kiss Of The Dragon / Bulletproof Monk / Marked For Death | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Kiss Of The Dragon China's top secret agent Liu Jian (Jet Li) visits Paris on a pleasure trip only to encounter government espionage at the highest level. Accused of a murder he did not commit and on the run in a city he doesn't know Liu befriends an American woman Jessica (Bridget Fonda) and makes a promise that could compromise his career and even cost him his life... Bulletproof Monk 'Bulletproof Monk' begins in the 1940s as a Tibetan Buddhist monk charged with protecting an ancient scroll passes on his legacy to his pupil. As the student receives the power to safeguard the scroll his aging process is halted and he gives up his name only to be known as the Monk (Chow Yun-Fat). Suddenly the monastery is raided by Nazis led by the ruthless Strucker (Karl Roden). As they attempt to seize the relic the Monk is shot and falls off a cliff taking the scroll with him... However six decades later the Monk appears in America and crosses paths with Kar (Seann William Scott) a tough city kid with a talent for picking pockets. Together the unlikely duo must contend with the forces of the now-elderly Strucker still determined to possess the mystical scroll. As Strucker's granddaughter Nina (Victoria Smurfit) leads his thugs to track down Kar and the Monk the two heroes receive help from the mysterious Jade (James King)... Marked For Death Just retired from the Drug Enforcement agency John Hatcher (Seagal) returns to his hometown and quickly discovers that drugs have infiltrated his old neighbourhood. Determined to drive the dealers out Hatcher crosses paths with a ferocious Jamaican druglord who vows that Hatcher and his family are now marked for death...

• Children Of The Dust | DVD | (24/02/2003) from £6.74   |  Saving you £-3.75 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  Led by bounty hunter Gypsy Smith a US army detatchmentattempts to capture a suspected Indian renegade in a Cheyenne camp. But the mission goes wrong and there's a bloody massacre. Smith finds a small child called White Wolf among the bodies and takes him to the Maxwell family. The boy grows up not fully Indian not fully white but fully in love with the Maxwell's daughter Rachel to the disapproval of her father. Years later Gypsy Smith reappears leading a group of black settlers and White Wolf (or Corby - his 'white' name) joins them to try to return to his own people. A magnificent epic drama that tackles the issues of racism love and conflict in the Wild West of the 1880's.

• Marked For Death / Rising Sun / Unlawful Entry | DVD | (15/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Marked For Death: Just retired from the Drug Enforcement agency John Hatcher (Seagal) returns to his hometown and quickly discovers that drugs have infiltrated his old neighbourhood. Determined to drive the dealers out Hatcher crosses paths with a ferocious Jamaican druglord who vows that Hatcher and his family are now marked for death... Rising Sun: Special liaison officer (Snipes) is called to investigate the murder of a call-girl in the boardroom of a Japanese corporation. Accompanied by a detective with unusual knowledge of the Japanese culture (Connery) the two men must unravel the mystery behind the murder by entering an underground shadow world of futuristic technology ancient ways and confusing loyalties... Unlawful Entry: After an armed robbery attempt on their suburban home a young couple (Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe) do what anyone would do - they call the police. That's when they meet Los Angeles Policeman Pete Davis (Ray Liotta) and immediately warm up to his caring and sensitive attitude. He makes the couple's safety his personal concern and begins frequent patrols of their property. But this friendship turns into a twisted obsession as Davis's relationship with the couple develops and forces his way into their lives. Plunged into a nightmare where protector becomes predator the couple must somehow escape from the web of security that has become their ultimate enemy...