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Jean-Claude Van Damme does not always star in his own franchise sequels, but the legendary action star appears in Kill ‘Em All 2, which is currently trending on Netflix. Jean-Claude Van Damme is one of the world’s most iconic 1980s action stars, but while many of his movies began franchises, he does not always star in their sequels. Van Damme’s movies have often been described as “the most remade” of all time, based on the success of their franchises. However, until Kill ‘Em All 2, Jean-Claude Van Damme had only played three recurring characters.

In Kill 'Em All 2, Van Damme reprises his role as Philip, a former spy on a revenge mission. The movie takes place seven years after Kill 'Em All, with Philip discovering that the brother of one of the men he killed in the original film is also out for revenge. The cast of...

80s action legend Dolph Lundgren reveals what he learned from working with Sylvester Stallone on Rocky IV, and how this later evolved with The Expendables franchise. Lundgren became a European karate champion in 1980-81, before moving to New York City to study acting in the mid-1980s, eventually securing his movie debut with a supporting role in the James Bond movie A View to a Kill. Following this, Lundgren went on to have a strong career as an action hero in movies throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including Red Scorpion, Masters of the Universe, Showdown in Little Tokyo, and Universal Soldier.

In a panel with Screen Rant at Fan Expo San Francisco, The Punisher star discusses what he learned working with Stallone on Rocky IV, and how their relationship evolved in their reunion 25 years later. Lundgren's breakout role came in 1985 when he portrayed Soviet boxer Ivan Drago in Rocky IV....

Jean-Claude Van Damme. The Muscles from Brussels. If you grew up in the early nineties, this handsome Belgian was everywhere. With his unique accent, good looks, and a butt he was all but too happy to show off at least once a film, he was the rare action star that was just as popular with the ladies as the dudes. Changing tastes in the mid-nineties meant that his career as a viable lead in theatrical films started to dry up, which wasn’t helped by some off-screen issues he had with drugs (a Hollywood tale as old as time). But, while his contemporary, Steven Seagal, became something of a parody of himself, Jcvd got clean and doubled down on his craft, emerging as a surprisingly potent actor in some Dtv movies that are way better than anyone gives them credit for.

While his days as an A-list lead might be behind him,...

Back in 2017, legendary action star Jean-Claude Van Damme had the lead role in a film titled Kill ‘Em All, which saw him taking on the role of a mysterious stranger who arrives at a hospital on the brink of death – and yet still has to fight for his life when a gang raids the hospital with the intention of finishing him off. Seven years later, Kill ‘Em All is getting a sequel, appropriately titled Kill ‘Em All 2, which is set to receive a digital release next Tuesday, September 24th. In anticipation of that release, a trailer for Kill ‘Em All 2 has arrived online and can be seen in the embed above.

The feature directorial debut of fight coordinator Peter Malota, who had previously worked with Van Damme on Double Impact, Universal Soldier, Nowhere to Run, The Quest, and The Order, Kill ‘Em All was scripted by Craig Stewart, Brian Smolensky,...

Belgian martial artist-turned-actor Jean-Claude Van Damme has many incredible characters under his black belt, but one of my favorites comes from a silly source: The Expendables 2. At 10 years old, Van Damme enrolled in karate school, though I highly doubt he knew the level of success the decision would garner. After earning the Mr. Belgium bodybuilding title in 1978, he moved to Hollywood to become an actor. Ultimately, Van Damme landed his big break as ninjutsu practitioner Frank Dux in the 1988 martial arts flick Bloodsport one of my favorite Van Damme cult classics.

Van Damme's career-launching role in Bloodsport made him a hugely popular action star during the late '80s and well into the '90s. In my opinion, some of his biggest and best career highlights include Kickboxer (1989), Lionheart (1990), Double Impact (1991), and Universal Soldier (1992), though flicks like Hard Target (1993), Timecop (1994), and Street Fighter (1994) also come to mind. Eventually, Van Damme's...

If you were a film fan growing up in the ‘90s/early-‘00s, you’re very familiar with the work of Roland Emmerich. We’re talking movies like “Universal Soldier,” “Stargate,” “The Patriot,” “The Day After Tomorrow,” and, of course, “Independence Day.” And at one point, he was signed on to do a remake of “Fantastic Voyage.” Unfortunately, he was to work with James Cameron on that project, and let’s just say, their personalities didn’t mesh well.

Continue reading Roland Emmerich Left ‘Fantastic Voyage’ Remake Because James Cameron “Is Very Overbearing” at The Playlist.

"This never happened to the other fellow,” George Lazenby said as James Bond in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Lazenby’s Bond was a one-and-done deal, making the first and only Australian Bond the only actor to get a single crack at the job. Still, the iconic line...

Every streamer gets the “Game of Thrones” copycat it deserves. HBO, the original house of the dragons, can lay claim to an official prequel series that’s slavishly devoted to its predecessor. Prime Video, which would be the Scrooge McDuck of streaming if not for Apple TV+, can spend all of McBezos’ money rebooting “The Lord of the Rings,” yet still end up with a naggingly laborious “Rings of Power.” Netflix, always happier to buy talent than develop good ideas, hired “Game of Thrones” showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to turn a “3 Body Problem” into a three-season snooze (replete with problems that plagued their last few seasons in Westeros).

There are others — some, even, quite successful — but let’s steer our dragons toward the latest attempt: Peacock’s “Those About to Die” leans on epic political machinations, brutal violence, and cold, calculating characters to sell its saturated vision of...

It's fair to say no one goes to a Roland Emmerich movie expecting Shakespeare. Ever since breaking through with the sci-fi action hit "Universal Soldier" in 1992, his name has been synonymous with switch-off-your-brain blockbuster entertainment. At his best, he thrusts a colorful assortment of stars and character actors into a series of mayhem-laden set pieces with a gleeful shamelessness unseen since the heyday of Irwin Allen. He's well aware of his dialogue-writing shortcomings, and casts big personalities like Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Oliver Platt and so on to sell the heck out of his implausible exposition and shopworn banter.

When it works, it's Arby's. When it doesn't, it's hour-old Arby's.

Take "Stargate" for example. Emmerich and co-writer Dean Devlin's follow-up to "Universal Soldier" was an ambitious, big-budget attempt at an off-brand Indiana Jones adventure starring James Spader as a bookish Egyptologist who gets recruited by a...

Stars: Juliet Mills, Richard Joseph Paul, Leon Russom, Walker Brandt, Tai Thai | Written by David Allen, Randall William Cook | Directed by David Allen

The Primevals was a film I thought I’d never get to see. Tracing its roots back to a short filmed in the 1960s, Raiders of the Stone Ring, and through the late 70s and early 80s it constantly seemed to be in some form of preproduction, either by the project’s driving force, stop-motion artist David Allen, or via one of producer Charles Band’s companies. It got frequent mentions in Famous Monsters of Filmland and even a cover story in Cinefantastique. But apart from some footage shot around 1978, nothing came of it until 1994 when the film’s live-action footage was shot in Band’s Romanian studios and the Dolomite Mountains in Italy.

Then, as he was working on the film’s extensive stop-motion effects, Allen died of cancer,...

Being a movie star is both a blessing and a curse. The blessings are fairly obvious, but, like all things that are too good to be true, they bring with them the seeds for the curse that follows, which is that movie stardom can set actors up for that much greater a fall should they start to slip off their pedestal. Some instances of actors taking a hard fall are deserved when it's to do with their offscreen behavior, yet in instances where it's mostly to do with the projects they're involved with being subpar, it's hard not to feel sorry for them.

Take Burt Reynolds, for instance. By the end of the 1970s he was among the most well-known and highest-paid actors working, and as the 1980s rolled on he continued to work with other name stars and solid filmmakers like Dolly Parton, Don Siegel, Blake Edwards, his buddy Hal Needham,...

The Cannes Film Festival has a storied history of infamous moments. We think of Brigitte Bardot in her bikini, Spike Lee threatening Wim Wenders with a baseball bat after losing the Palme d’Or, pretty much everything Lars Von Trier has said or done…But one that really caught the media’s attention was when Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren went at it on the red carpet, with people under the impression that the Universal Soldier co-stars and European macho men were really at each other’s throats. Turns out, it was all just a gag for the press.

It’s one thing that Universal Soldier was even being represented at the Cannes Film Festival but another entirely that it wasn’t even screened! As it was, despite a minor presence on the Palais des Festivals, Roland Emmerich’s sci-fi action flick wasn’t part of any screenings because it wasn’t complete.

Those who know who Roland Emmerich is will probably know that the director is known for his epic films, a lot of which are also major disaster films. Some of these major titles include Universal Soldier (1992), Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996) and its sequel Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), Godzilla (1998), The Patriot (2000), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), 10,000 BC (2008), 2012 (2009), White House Down (2013), Midway (2019), and Moonfall (2022). But, Emmerich is now shifting to television, as his new project is about to be released on Peacock this summer. Ahead of the premiere, a teaser trailer has been released.

The project in question is the epic sword-and-sandal series Those About to Die, which is set in Ancient Rome. The series will be based on the book of the same name by writer and journalist Daniel P. Mannix; interesting enough, the same book served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s epic classic, Gladiator.

The series will star acting legend...

The Beatles were the most popular and important act of the British Invasion, but no classic rock fan should ignore the achievements of Donovan. Notably, John Lennon was a big fan of one of Donovan’s songs, and he played it over and over. The “Hurdy Gurdy Man” singer revealed what he thought of John as a person. John felt that he and Donovan were on a similar wavelength.

John Lennon loved 1 of Donovan’s folk songs

Donovan is known for two types of songs: psychedelic ditties like “Mellow Yellow,” “Atlantis,” and “Sunshine Superman,” and folk tunes such as “Colours,” “Catch the Wind,” and “Universal Soldier.” A 2018 article from Goldmine says John was taken with Donovan’s folk song “Turquoise.” He had a vinyl copy of the song and played it repeatedly on a personal jukebox he brought with him on tour.

The “Season of the Witch” singer revealed what...

“Mellow Yellow” by Donovan is the most beloved 1960s song with the word “yellow” in the title that wasn’t released by The Beatles. During an interview, the “Atlantis” singer opined that his catalog was a lot more diverse than The Beatles’, to the point where he sounded like a completely different artist from song to song. Donovan also said something about his background made him similar to George Harrison, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney. While “Mellow Yellow” might be one of the most unusual hits of the period, it wouldn’t be the same without a little help from Paul.

Donovan said ‘Mellow Yellow’ and ‘Barabajagal’ were more original than any Beatles songs

During a 2016 interview with Best Classic Bands, a reporter asked Donovan why “Mellow Yellow” was so different from the rest of his catalog. “Why were they all so different?” he replied. “I displayed more of the painterly,...

As we've seen time and time again, Netflix is a good place for movies to be rediscovered. Sometimes, a film will come and go without much fanfare upon its initial release, only to end up becoming a hit when it ends up on the popular streaming service. Even something as terrible as the box office flop "The Snowman" can end up finding new life on Netflix. You just never know how these things will turn out. Part of it is availability — almost everyone subscribes to Netflix, and it's much easier to scroll through titles and hit play than it is to get up off the couch and go find a new movie in theaters. As a result, Netflix has become the modern equivalent of the video store — a place where movie-watchers can browse and find something fresh to watch. Only it's a video store you have in your own home,...

Elvis Presley didn’t sing too many protest songs, but one of his ballads was written by one of the most important protest singers of the 1960s: Buffy Saint-Marie. Elvis wasn’t the only artist to record the song. The tune changed its writer’s life.

Elvis Presley’s ‘Until It’s Time for You to Go’ was written by Buffy Saint-Marie

Buffy Saint-Marie is a singer and songwriter who was part of a huge wave of 1960s folk musicians who wrote about social issues. Some of her most famous folk tunes include “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone,” “Universal Soldier,” and “Codine.” She also penned some popular love songs, including “Up Where We Belong” from An Officer and a Gentleman and “Until It’s Time for You to Go.”

During a 2022 interview with Original Cin, Saint-Marie revealed her opinion of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. “I mean, I was a huge Elvis fan,...

Jean-Claude Van Damme's science fiction films range in quality, with clear winners and losers in the lineup. The Universal Soldier series, featuring Van Damme, is the most famous and strongest of his science fiction offerings. Van Damme's best sci-fi film is Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, which explores the darker implications of the Universal Soldier program.

Primarily known for his work in martial arts films, Jean-Claude Van Damme is also no stranger to the science fiction genre, with eight distinct films in his catalog closely competing for a top slot. Keen to trade shots with firearms just as often as he is to trade punches, Van Damme is a versatile action star that can be introduced into a wide variety of settings, from the grounded and gritty to the outlandishly imaginative. Some of these films even feature Jean-Claude Van Damme's best fight scenes, finding the flexible action star plenty...

War movies often use historical conflicts as a backdrop, such as World War II in "Captain America: The First Avenger" and World War I in "Wonder Woman." Sci-fi and fantasy films set during war can explore the nature of humanity and armed conflict, like in "Overlord" and "Watchmen." Wars can provide a context for characters to escape the horrors of reality, as seen in "Pan's Labyrinth" and "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."

Wartime settings are usually used for harrowing, realistic portrayals of warfare in cinema, but real wars have also been used as a backdrop for sci-fi and fantasy stories. Sometimes, wars are used to add to the historical context of a genre story. War can even be used to bolster the themes of a fantasy movie. In Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, the 10-year-old heroine Ofelia goes to a hidden fantasyland to escape from the horrors of Francoist Spain.

Nearly 40 years after he made his big screen debut with a brief appearance in the James Bond picture “A View to a Kill,” Dolph Lundgren is still best known as an actor thanks to a series of iconic roles in ’80s and ’90s favorites like “Rocky IV,” “Masters of the Universe,” and “Universal Soldier.” (More recently he’s been a fixture in the “Expendables” and “Aquaman” franchises.) Yet for the past couple of decades, Lundgren has been quietly forging a side career as an accomplished writer and director of low-budget action films, movies that belie their limited resources in ambition and craftsmanship. Like the scrappy genre directors of Hollywood’s past — filmmakers like Budd Boetticher, Sam Fuller, and Don Siegel — Lundgren uses the creative freedom of lower budgets to smuggle his personal obsessions and stylistic preoccupations into accessible entertainments that are as intelligent as they are lively.

Lundgren’s latest release,...

In a world where superheroes, sequels, horror (thankfully) and anything IP related are king, it seems as though the risqué original thriller has gone by the wayside. Over the past ten years or so you’d be hard pressed to find anything other than The Invisible Man, You Should Have Left, Gerald’s Game, Gone Girl, or Knock, Knock that really fit the mold (albeit with some finagling) and each of those is either tied to popular literature or skews closer to the horror genre.

But the original thriller thrived in the 1990s. Also thriving during this beautiful time in Hollywood were action movies featuring two adversaries face to face on the poster and/or movie cover. Movies like Face/Off, Point Break, Demolition Man, Universal Soldier, and Broken Arrow. 1992’s Unlawful Entry combines both of these elements with two heaping sides of the stalker and slasher horror subgenres. Which is why...

I still remember the exact moment when I became aware of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s presence in the entertainment industry. Although he had played the villain in No Retreat, No Surrender and made his leading man debut with Bloodsport, I didn’t know about him until the VHS release of Kickboxer. That’s when a local video store put up a large poster of the film – which the store’s owner gestured to while telling my mom and I about this new guy named Van Damme, who was meant to be the next action star along the lines of Stallone and Schwarzenegger. We rented the movie… and I’ve been a fan of Van Damme ever since. So I think it’s very cool that Diamond Select Toys will be releasing a Jean-Claude Van Damme action figure next year.

An image of the action figure can be seen at the bottom of this article,...

Sylvester Stallone helped Dolph Lundgren achieve action star status when he cast him in Rocky IV. But action films changed a bit over the years thanks to features like The Bourne trilogy. Lundgren seemed to feel this could be both a positive and a negative.

What Dolph Lundgren felt about Matt Damon’s ‘Bourne’ movies Dolph Lundgren | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Lundgren has starred in his own fair share of action movies. He starred in such features as 1989’s The Punisher and Universal Soldier, and held a certain fondness for action stars in the 80s. To him, the action heroes of yesterday had the physique to earn their roles more so than the action stars of today.

“Back in those days, you took somebody who could take their shirt off and have real muscles. Now, you take somebody who has won an Academy Award, put them in a suit, and he...

The serial killer thriller Squealer is set to receive a theatrical and digital release on November 3rd – and with just three weeks to go until that date arrives, a trailer for the film has been unveiled. You can check it out in the embed above.

Squealer marks the feature directorial debut of Andy Armstrong, who got his start in the entertainment industry by working as a stuntman. He earned stunt credits on more than fifty projects, including Nightbreed, Total Recall, Air America, Leprechaun, Universal Soldier, The Firm, Flesh and Bone, Stargate, Galaxy Quest, Charlie’s Angels, Planet of the Apes, Green Hornet, Thor, The Amazing Spider-Man, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. He also worked as assistant director or second unit director on many films, including The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Superman II, Krull, Highlander, Rambo II, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, and Double Impact. He has even...

Welcome to Cardboard Cinema, an ongoing series where we look at board games inspired by or connected to our favorite media.

It's spooky season, so what better way to celebrate Halloween than with a handful of spooky board game adaptations for your 2024 wishlist? This month's standouts include a competitive "Saw" game and the much-anticipated adaptation of DC Comics's "DCeased" series. We also look at a few pieces of big news in the tabletop community. Did you know that Zack Snyder was sort-of secretly working on a tabletop adaptation of "Rebel Moon"? You'll have to read on to find out how that went sideways!

Read more: Here's Why Movie Dialogue Has Gotten More Difficult To Understand (And Three Ways To Fix It)

Dimension 20 Leans Into Our Saddest Cartoons

After recently celebrating its five-year anniversary, internet streaming service Dropout has proven itself a mover and shaker in the tabletop space.

There’s a lot to watch on Prime Video in October and, as you may have guessed, there’s spooky stuff galore in amongst Prime’s usual rotation of extensive library content.

In the movie Totally Killer, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina star Kiernan Shipka travels back in time to the 1980s to stop a serial killer. Then there’s Make Me Scream, a Halloween special that challenges celebrities to “a gruesome game of terror.” Renfield will also be streaming on the service for anyone who’s been dying (muahahaha!) to catch the Nic Cage Dracula film.

Outside of Prime Video’s more creepy fare, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods will debut, Upload will be back for a third season, and new film Awareness should scratch your sci-fi itch. Meanwhile, for Frasier heads – those who consider themselves utterly Frasier-pilled – all eleven seasons of the Cheers spinoff show will be streaming at the touch of a button.

If you’re looking for a complete list of every new movie and TV show coming to Amazon Prime Video in October, you’ve come to the right place. This month kicks off with a slew of great library additions, from James Bond films to relatively new releases (“Shazam! Fury of the Gods” and the Nicolas Cage Dracula movie “Renfield”) and beyond.

There are also some high-profile originals landing in October. The third season of the sci-fi comedy series “Upload” arrives on Oct. 20, while Oct. 6 marks the release of the Prime Video original film “Totally Killer,” a fun slasher set in the 1980s that stars Kiernan Shipka.

Check out the full list of what’s new on Amazon Prime Video in October 2023 below, followed by a complete list of new arrivals for Freevee in October as well.

Arriving October 1

Frasier, Seasons 1-11 (1994)

Hit, Season 3 (2020)

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

A Guy Thing...

Netflix has been hit with a lawsuit for axing a game development contract based on Zack Snyder’s widely anticipated Rebel Moon franchise

In a filing today in federal court, Evil Genius Games claims it was working hand-in-hand with the streamer to put together a tabletop role-playing game that was intended to be released in conjunction with the first Rebel Moon film, set for a Christmas release.

Then, after months of nothing but positive collaboration, it all came crashing down.

“Nevertheless, just weeks after the work was finalized and turned over to Netflix, Netflix did a complete about face, and accused Plaintiff of breaching the Agreement’s confidentiality provisions—’and Netflix’s trust’—by allegedly releasing confidential Rebel Moon content at a trade show and then disclosing unapproved artwork for the Rebel Moon game to retailers,” the filing says of the suddenly terminated a licensing deal in May this year...

The science fiction films of 1992 showcased a diverse range of genres, including cyberpunk noir, dystopian thrillers, and technology-gone-wrong stories. While lacking in tentpole franchises, the underrated '90s sci-fi B-movies kept the struggling genre together, incorporating elements of action and horror to create a unique and difficult-to-pin-down tone. Despite not being a banner year for science fiction, 1992 had its unforgettable highlights, including films like "The Lawnmower Man," "Freejack," and "Universal Soldier" that captivated audiences with their cutting-edge CGI and pulse-pounding excitement.

To assemble a list of 1992 science fiction films is to plumb the depths of cinema in the early '90s and discover a few hidden gems released in a truly weird year for movies. Coming off the science fiction high of the 1980s, the first handful of years of the burgeoning '90s struggled to find their cinematic identity despite more than a few bona fide blockbusters. Science fiction...

Evil Genius Games sued Netflix on Thursday for wrongful termination in relation to plans to create a tabletop role-playing game (Ttrpg) based on director Zack Snyder’s sci-fi action fantasy “Rebel Moon.”

Filed in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, the filing – which TheWrap has obtained – alleges that Netflix signed an agreement in March of 2023 to make a game with the promise of a delivery date aligned with the film’s intended Dec. 22, 2023 release date.

Evil Genius, a table-top game company founded in 2021 that previously developed games based on “The Crow,” “Highlander,” “Pacific Rim,” “Universal Soldier” and “Escape from New York” among others, claims to have paid Netflix for the license with an agreement to share profits.

The lawsuit claims that they agreed to pay Netflix an upfront licensing fee of $7,500, followed by payments of $7,500 by Feb. 1, 2024, and $10,000 by Feb. 1, 2025, as well as to “share...

Street Fighter actor Jay Tavare reflects on working with Jean-Claude Van Damme on the movie's set, recalling that he was very "out of control". During the late 1980s and early '90s, Van Damme became an international action movie superstar, working constantly. The actor has been open about developing a serious cocaine habit during the '90s due to the stress of constant movie shooting and promotion. Street Fighter Steven E. de Souza has previously described Van Damme as "coked out of his mind" during the movie's production, which evidently led to a chaotic filming experience.

Street Fighter actor Jay Tavare reflects on what it was like working with actor Jean-Claude Van Damme on the 1994 action movie. Directed by Steven E. de Souza, Street Fighter serves as an adaptation of the popular video game series of the same name. Van Damme stars in the movie as Colonel Guile, who leads...

Megan Fox's portrayal of Nitara in Mortal Kombat 1 uses her likeness, showing her commitment to the darker character. Nitara in Mortal Kombat 1 closely resembles Megan Fox, with minor modifications like fangs and wings to reflect the character's vampiric nature. The inclusion of references to Megan Fox's film roles in the game, such as a clever double entendre in the dialogue, adds an extra layer of connection between the actress and the character.

Mortal Kombat 1 has never shied away from using real actors' likenesses to portray its characters, but Megan Fox playing Nitara takes that to a whole new level. Since the beginning, the Mortal Kombat series has had close ties to real-world actors. It grew out of an attempt to adapt the 1992 Jean-Claude Van Damme film Universal Soldier into a video game. The upcoming installment finally fulfills the game's original intent by including Van Damme himself as a skin for Johnny Cage,...

Let’s be honest, it’s a weird time out there in the world of streaming movies. As the major streamers continue to mess around with their apps and libraries, adding ad-tiers or changing their names to nonsense words that have nothing to do with the brand, they’re also charging more for less. As Netflix, Max, and Amazon Prime decrease in value, free streaming services become a better deal.

But just because you’re not shelling out any cash doesn’t mean that you want a terrible experience. If you know where to look, you can find hundreds of movies available online, completely for free. And no, I’m not referring to those sketchy sites you used to visit in college. I’m talking about services that let you watch full-length movies completely for free. Sure, you’ll need to watch a few ads to get the movies, but...

Streaming exclusively on Screambox beginning today, Project Wolf Hunting is a hyper-violent South Korean genre bender that packs action, sci-fi, horror, and thriller aspects into a two-hour splatterfest of epic proportions.

It’s a wholly original production, but here are six movies that writer-director Kim Hong-Sun (The Chase) evokes with Project Wolf Hunting.

1. Con Air

Although the plots ultimately diverge in drastic ways, Project Wolf Hunting‘s basic premise echoes that of Con Air. The 1997 action thriller takes place on a maximum security transport plane that’s been hijacked by criminals in an effort to escape. Project Wolf Hunting transplants the action to a cargo ship, wherein convicts coordinate an escape attempt while being transported.

2. The Raid

Project Wolf Hunting‘s merciless violence brings to mind The Raid. While few movies live up to the 2011 Indonesian film’s revolutionary action set pieces, Project Wolf Hunting‘s bone-crunching brutality is supplemented by literal tons of gore.

There are quite a few movie franchises that pay no attention to maintaining any coherent or firm continuity. Continuity is an interesting concept in fiction and especially in movies, the basic idea being that one story flows into the next in a streamlined fashion. Modern superhero movies have been particularly fixated on continuity, in order to facilitate crossovers and team-ups similar to those seen in the comics.

That being said, not every movie series is terribly concerned with the continuity established in one film matching up with what is seen in either later sequels or preceding prequels. In fact, some film series are much more casual about their approach to continuity, with others even tying themselves into knots with retcons that continually alter their stories. Here are 10 movie franchises that either pay no attention at all to continuity or which repeatedly rewrite it as they go along.

Related: 10 Iconic Franchises...

Stars: Seo In-Guk, Dong-Yoon Jang, Choi Gwi-hwa, Dong-il Sung, Park Ho-San, Moon-Sung Jung, Jung So-Min, Jang Young-Nam | Written and Directed by Hongsun Kim

Project Wolf Hunting begins with a mass return of Korean criminals captured in the Philippines. As they’re being led through Seoul airport somebody with a grudge against one of them detonates a suicide bomb killing himself, his target, and everyone else in the vicinity. To avoid a repeat of this, the next group is to be transported on the Frontier Titan, a specially fitted out cargo ship and delivered to a pier in Busan harbour to which the public doesn’t have access. I guess simply flying them into a military base never crossed anyone’s mind.

The Frontier Titan leaves Manilla with forty-seven criminals, twenty guards, two medics, and the ship’s crew. At least that’s what they think they’re leaving with because...

Scott Adkins must return for the next Universal Soldier to pay off the last movie's cliffhanger. The Universal Soldier movie franchise only became stranger the more it evolved. From Roland Emmerich's original shoot-em-up to a couple of silly, non-canonical Universal Soldier TV movies or the trippy Day Of Reckoning, there's an entry to suit every mood. Jean-Claude Van Damme's Luc evolved from hero to villain in later outings too, with his performances in his first and final appearances feeling like two completely different characters. Adkins joined the series with the most recent outing, 2012's Day Of Reckoning.

Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning is so suffused with dread and gore that it's basically a horror movie, and finds Adkins John on a quest to find out why Luc murdered his family. During this era, Adkins was making a name for himself as the next big martial arts star. Adkins...

After over a decade since its final installment's release, Jean-Claude Van Damme's high-octane sci-fi action franchise Universal Soldier deserves a revisit — but this time as a full-fledged reboot, not as a remake or a sequel. Despite receiving a lukewarm response from viewers and critics, 1992's Universal Soldier succeeded at the box office as a "more brawn, less brain" popcorn flick. Its story was continued by two TV movies that did not include the original cast and characters. Seven years later, Universal Soldier: The Return marked Van Damme's homecoming to the franchise, following which 2009's Universal Soldier: Regeneration reunited the first film's leads, Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren.

In 2012, the franchise hit the big screen again with a new installment, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, that added Scott Adkins to the mix alongside Van Damme and Lundgren. However, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning was the last of the movie...

If Covid doesn’t kill you, the tall guy with the hunting knife probably will. That’s the hook in John Hyams’ “Sick,” which makes clever work of an ongoing health scare, and especially the way that college-age kids dealt with CDC restrictions — often by ignoring them — adding a few disposable undergrads to the pandemic’s otherwise tragic body count. That’s what’s so compelling about this quick-turnaround collaboration from Kevin Williamson and “Scream” assistant-turned-co-writer Katelyn Crabb, now streaming on Peacock: You’re never really sure whether you should be rooting for its inconsiderate young coeds or counting on a slasher to teach them a lesson.

Playing on our lingering paranoia, “Sick” kicks off with a scene that recalls the early, uncertain days of the pandemic. A college kid named Tyler (Joel Courtney) wanders an apocalyptic-looking grocery store whose shelves have been emptied of Tp and other essentials. He...

Director Roland Emmerich has brought us a whole lot of fun movies over the years, from Independence Day to The Day After Tomorrow, but as far as I’m concerned the best movie he has ever made was his 1992 sci-fi action film Universal Soldier (watch it Here), an awesome movie that pits Jean-Claude Van Damme against a villainous Dolph Lundgren. And that happens to be the movie The Arrow in the Head Show hosts John “The Arrow” Fallon and Lance Vlcek are talking about in the new episode of their show. To find out what they think of Universal Soldier, check out the video embedded above!

Scripted by Richard Rothstein, Christopher Leitch, and Dean Devlin, Universal Soldier tells the following story:

During the Vietnam War, soldier Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) finds that his superior officer, Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren), has turned violently deranged, and the two fight to the death.

This is something of a golden age for direct-to-streaming sequels, as the much-promoted Disenchanted and Hocus Pocus 2 illustrate. In both cases, the movies pick up after their theatrically-released forebears.

Of course, long before streaming became the norm, many sequels were released straight to the home-video market, first on VHS and then on DVD. While most of these were forgettable – or often just downright bad – there are a number of surprising instances in which a straight-to-video sequel actually ended up being, if not better than the original, then at least enjoyable enough on their own terms. Redditors have helpfully identified the most notable.

Tremors 2 (1996) Stream On YouTube

Though at first, it seems like a B-movie, the original Tremors ultimately becomes a great creature feature in its own right. Unsurprisingly, its success led to a number of straight-to-video sequels, including Tremors 2: Aftershocks.

Even though some of the cast didn’t return,...

There aren't many Jean-Claude Van Damme Horror Movies, but here's how they ranked against one another. After becoming noticed thanks to low-budget martial arts films like Bloodsport and Cyborg, Van Damme would become a major film star through much of the '90s. His fighting abilities, such as his trademark of doing the splits, combined with his unique charisma saw movies like Timecop - which deserves a legacy sequel - become big hits. Sadly, some bad choices saw his career head to the Stv market by the time the early 2000s came around.

That said, he starred in many action gems in his later career, including Universal Soldier: Regeneration. Van Damme has branched out to different genres, including dramas like the meta Jcvd or even animated comedies like Minions: The Rise of Gru, but he's best known for his action roles. This didn't give him much of a chance to explore horror films,...

Here's every Dolph Lundgren and Scott Adkins movie collaboration ranked from worst to best. Dolph made his screen debut with a mute appearance in 1985 Bond adventure A View To A Kill, but it was his turn as hulking box Ivan Drago in that same year's Rocky IV that made him a star. Like Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lundgren became one of the defining action movie stars of the '80s and '90s, starring in gems such as Showdown In Little Tokyo or Universal Soldier. He feels more active than ever, appearing in The Expendables movies or the Aquaman series.

Adkins grew up idolizing the martial arts stars of the Dolph era and would go on to co-star with many of them, including Van Damme. In his own way, Adkins has kept the flame of that era alive with modern favorites like the Undisputed series or the Accident Man movies. This...

Here's every Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren Movie, ranked. They never reached the box-office heights of Schwarzenegger or Stallone, but both Van Damme and Lundgren became major action stars, beginning in the late '80s. Both had extensive martial arts experience, which combined with their ripped physiques and charisma saw them corner the action market. As special effects blockbusters started to take over, their brand of action waned, with most of their movies heading direct to video and DVD towards then of the '90s. That said, they've both remained in the business - and consistently popular - for decades.

They've both diversified their skills too. Dolph has written and directed several movies, including Skin Trade and Castle Falls with Scott Adkins. He also received great reviews for his work in Creed 2, where he reprised Ivan Drago. Van Damme has also matured as a performer, winning raves for...

Stars: Seo In-Guk, Dong-Yoon Jang, Choi Gwi-hwa, Dong-il Sung, Park Ho-San, Moon-Sung Jung, Jung So-Min, Jang Young-Nam | Written and Directed by Hongsun Kim

Project Wolf Hunting begins with a mass return of Korean criminals captured in the Philippines. As they’re being led through Seoul airport somebody with a grudge against one of them detonates a suicide bomb killing himself, his target, and everyone else in the vicinity. To avoid a repeat of this, the next group is to be transported on the Frontier Titan, a specially fitted out cargo ship and delivered to a pier in Busan harbour to which the public doesn’t have access. I guess simply flying them into a military base never crossed anyone’s mind.

The Frontier Titan leaves Manilla with forty-seven criminals, twenty guards, two medics, and the ship’s crew. At least that’s what they think they’re leaving with because...

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Of all the action heroes merrily kicking the asses of bad guys in the late ’80s and early ’90s, in terms of actual fighting prowess, few came close to Jean-Claude Van Damme, a karate and kickboxing champion who turned his phenomenal martial arts skills — including a particularly impressive spin-kick — into, for a while, back-to-back box office gold.

First propelled into the action arena thanks to Cannon Films’ 1988 low-budget smash Bloodsport, Van Damme quickly cemented his iconic status as the Muscles From Brussels thanks to 1989’s iconic Kickboxer, then starred as warring twins in 1991’s Double Impact, began a long-running onscreen feud with Dolph Lundgren in Roland Emmerich’s sci-fi 1992 hit Universal Soldier, led John Woo’s U.S. debut Hard Target in 1993 and donned Guile’s beret in 1994’s Street Fighter video game adaptation. Like many ultra-ripped stars of the time, however, the...

Jean-Claude Van Damme is going to the Congo but not to hunt the Gray Gorillas. The mega-pliable action star is joining the cast of Silent Kill, an upcoming action film directed and written by Anthony Hickox. According to Deadline, Silent Kill follows four mercenaries searching the Congo for hidden treasure. After finding the goods, the group buries the treasure and agrees to return three years later to split the winnings. As you can imagine, the plan goes awry.

Former NFL star Vernon Davis, Rafael Amaya, and Madalina Anea star alongside Van Damme, who also produces with Joram Moreka. Andrea Iervolino, Monika Bacardi, Ovidiu Toma, and Bradly Gentz produce.

“One of the all-time great action stars, Jean-Claude Van Damme has cultivated a worldwide fanbase that will absolutely love this adrenaline-fueled movie that starts fast and never takes it’s foot off the gas pedal. Its Van Damme doing what everyone loves watching him do,...

Before Mortal Kombat hit arcades 30 years ago, the arcade was dominated by Street Fighter II, and rightfully so. Capcom’s fighter had rejuvenated the arcade scene, and multiple developers were looking to cash in with their own creations, no matter how much they ripped off Street Fighter II‘s concept. Midway was one company, which had tasked Mortal Kombat creators Ed Boon and John Tobias with creating a fighting game that would rival Street Fighter II. A few digitized actors, a swapping of letters, and a Fatality or two later, and the duo had done just that.

Fighting game stories aren’t exactly deep, and Mortal Kombat‘s story is no exception. The game takes place in Earthrealm, where a martial arts tournament is held on Shang Tsung’s Island. Shang Tsung was banished to Earthrealm 500 years ago and, with the help of the four-armed Shokan warrior Goro, is able...

Amazon Prime Video has a host of new offerings to sift through in October. New to the streaming service this month is a brand new film from writer/director Lena Dunham, “Catherine Called Birdy” (available Oct. 7), as well as a pair of new release films from 2022 making their debut on the streaming service.

“The Northman,” the Alexander Skarsgard-fronted Viking saga, comes to Prime Video on Oct. 11 after first streaming on Peacock, and “Downton Abbey: A New Era” arrives on Oct. 28 (after also streaming first on Peacock).

In terms of new Prime Video TV shows, “Westworld” creators Lisa Joy and Jonah Nolan present “The Peripheral” on Oct. 21. The futuristic series stars Chloe Grace Moretz and Jack Reynor and is based on the novel of the same name by William Gibson.

Check out the full list of what’s new on Amazon Prime Video in October below.

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‘Catherine Called Birdy...

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“I have a mantra,” says director Peter Hyams. “It was something me and my camera operator, Steve Campanelli had: each morning before we went to shoot we’d put our arms around each other, like football players, and say four things: 1. Go bigger or go home. 2. If it can’t be fixed with a hammer, it can’t be fixed. 3. If it doesn’t fit, force it. 4. Let’s blow shit up.”

As mantras go, it’s hard to argue with the results. With a career that’s included prescient conspiracy thriller Capricorn One (1977), with Elliott Gould and James Brolin; sci-fi Western Outland (1981) with Sean Connery, the Gene Hackman/Anne Archer actioner Narrow Margin (1990) and Jean-Claude Van Damme’s time-traveling fight film Timecop (1994), Hyams, has secured his place in cult cinema history.

It’s also an approach to movie making that informed the career of Hyams’ son,...