THE HIT LIST - June 1, 2015

Another big week has rolled by for some more amazing feats of independent action for domestic and international, with at least a few gems lending a spotlight to longstanding thespians respective to their own bases. These Hit Lists are always so loaded with content so I hope you are all able to keep up, too.

That said, let's get the show going here with some notable fight, stunt and tricking reels in the following embedded playlist, and a few of these are quite the favorites among some fans out there. Jessie Graff's most recent reel came out in April and so I've finally caught up with it myself, in addition to many more performers, including Katie Kramer, Esther Ballesteros, Michael Lehr, Goran Stjepanovic, Matt Mullins, Peter Jang, Aaron Toney, Jordan Okubo, the EMC Monkeys and the amazingly talented Celine Tran in a beautiful sword performance video from Godefroy Ryckewaert (if you'd like to see her kill zombies instead, you can do that too).

It's trailer time, and there are only a couple of these projects now active in some form or another, firstly with the current episode one webseries release of J.F.K. from actor and filmmaker Kyle Wong over at Black Ice 140. There's no relation here to the 35th President Of The U.S. and much more of a cross between The Hangover and The Twilight Zone with a story centered on three friends forced to piece together the events that occured the night they all got a little too drunk; The project is a reworking of its previous iteration, shot entirely new for a more cohesive story. There's comedy, a little drama, and only one fight scene in its current six-part setup, which is fine for what Wong envisions, and there are three character trailers on the channel to serve as a nice intro - Kyle's character trailer is at the very top.

The second trailer comes directly from blogger and filmmaker Michael S. Moore whose brand new webseries, Cornered, is airing its first episode on Tuesday, with Donald Brooks starring as a cop forced to fight his way through a gauntlet of deadly fighters to retrieve a briefcase and save the life of a woman from captivity. This doesn't look bad at all for Moore's debut at all and I look forward to what the remainder of this series has to offer, and you can learn more about it at his official Facebook page.

Two other short film trailers are also making the rounds - the first one comes by way of Bryan Sloyer, a filmmaker, stuntman and a consumate work-in-progress with a more mindful approach in his artistic delivery for sometime now, and his upcoming fight short, Music Man, is an example of that. The trailer beneath it is compilation trailer for two shortfilms by French actor and stuntman Daren Nop for Shadow Of 13, both which focus on a young homeless man whose remarkable fighting skills and acts of heroism draw the ire of the local thugs; Both shorts are now offline, but bode highly in their respective parts with stellar performances and design by Nop and his team, Cascade, in association with Taken and Transporter Refueled fight coordinator Alain Figlarz and his team. Moreover, the project just hit Cannes two weeks ago, so I wouldn't be too surprised if a feature film is in the works because of it. Just delighted, really.

The week also brings some cool new pictures from upcoming indie short projects. The first wave comes from Canadian fall guy Alex Chung well underway with Hit Me Apocalypse, now out with two new stills illustrating this, the third in a series of shorts paying hilarious tribute to Fight Club and host to an array of action sequences full of comedic genius...which reminds me... those ARE sticks. And ow. - The second album includes stills from a forthcoming project by George Johnston and his talented crew at Glasgow-based Hybrid Fight Academy. It's been a few years since I heard from this lot, so I look forward to whatevet their stills entail as well.

Time to knuckle up and get the fights out and about! The first four comes with the good graces of actor and martial artist Mathis Landwher taking the lead in a conceptual action sequence for a project titled Trespasser; It looks pretty ambitious and I would love to see more of it if there are plans in the works.

The second, third and fourth short videos below bring us the latest test fight gig from performers Taylor Tai and Ieisha Auyeung, Winner Takes All - the latest from David Conk over at Wolf Stunts, and some Pad Training with a twist courtesy of Movie Do's own Eskindir Tesfay and featuring pad-kicking trainee Robert Masser!

Now merging into some longer material, this final leg of the Hit List is one to truly savour. Actor and choreographer Namphon Arta Thainuruk's latest performance in Fired lends a good start here, with a story focused on an assassin whose concious arises during a job. I'll be honest, whatever happens at the end kinda left me feeling mindfucked a bit.

Bittersweet Beatdown is another new short that grants a bit of dramatic appeal with some action to boot, with performances by Andres Del Toro and director Joren Reyes. Del Toro plays Alessandro, a desperate street fighter in need of a little help that comes in a most awkward, and painfully brutal way. The action is a little sketchy with regard to editing and execution, but it's a watchable package and I recommend checking it out anyway.

Oh...and speaking of Lehr and provided you caught his reel in the embed at the very top, his team at Fight Factory have assembled anothet gem of their own, and it's apparently more suitable in brackets. [kill] is the title here, so make of it what you will. It's stylishly violent, gory and brutal, and for those reasons alone, it's awesome.

Next up is a continuation of a miniseries of action-packed fight experiments from filmmaker Eric Nguyen over at Lunar Stunts Action Cinema. The Fighting Journey has been going for a few years now and each with great results, and his next anf eighth installment, Uncharted, is another to feast the eyes on.

Now, now, in case you're getting weary of learning when you'll hear from Vlad Rimburg again, fear not. I teased his latest project with Tony Chu a few Hit Lists ago and it has since arrived in full, and it packs an array of walloping kicks to the face! Sacrifice is the title here featuring Brendon Huor leading with key performances by Mickey Faccinello, Amy Johnston, V10 Women Stunt Professionals's own Nadia Padilla, and a ghoulish appearance by fellow action actress Gemma Nguyen!

Shenmue - 'Suka High finally arrived from Leroy Nguyen and his team over at Rising Tiger Films, based on the Sega Dreamcast video game of the same name. I admit, I have no idea what the game itself really is since I never owned a Dreamcast, but whatever Nguyen and co-star Daniel Sim have set out to accomplish here, it appears they've done exactly that. You can also catch a making-of video on their channel as well.

While many of independent filmmaker Jeff Centauri's previous shorts feature gorgeous Filipina locals at the center of the action, this time he's bringing the fellas back to the stage once more. That said, Centauri's Kung Ako si ASIONG (If I Were ASIONG) lends the spotlight to the main character in a 2011 feature-length gangster biopic with an entertaining spin, showcasing Jerico Estregan and Eric Ejercito in a bro-infused duality between Asiongs. Oh, and there's a special appearance at the end by Eric's father who played the title role four years ago on the big screen, which I thought was pretty damn cool. Take a look!

Continuing all Star Wars fandom is the latest fight video from a group that I'm new to. Trilogy Wars brings John Perez and Alfonso Rodriguez in a tale of two friends talking girls, life, and movies, and as the story would have it, the last one results in an epic lightsaber battle around the house, with a twist at the end you might find amusing but...so much anti-Jar Jar hate though! Wow.

And finally, it's a good year to be actor and director David Sandberg, star of the new online shortfilm, Kung Fury, with 3 millions views in the first 24 hours and rising since Thursday, and now one of the most buzzed-about and warmly-received shorts now hitting festivals with a feature film on par for 2018. If you're new to this finely-crafted piece of retro awesomeness, by all means, let's fix that right now. All it needs are your eyeballs, and just thirty minutes to completely melt your brain through them. It'll feel good, I promise!

Subscribe to the channels and pages above, and if you have a few more minutes, last week's Hit List is still up and running in case you missed. But more importantly, if you have a QUALITY reel/shortfilm/trailer or other action-related material you think deserves an audience, hit us up at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com.