THE HIT LIST - August 31, 2015

This week's Hit List was an absolute blast to help put together. We've got new action shorts and reels of all kinds to snack on this week in addition to some brief updates on major projects that are forthcoming!

For now though, let's face it: The only way I'm starting off this Hit List is if I do it with one of the most popular videos online to date, and if you're a Jason Statham fan, you'll understand. It's a supercut of every single punch Statham has ever thrown. Ever. And it needs no further introduction than that.

Beneath that will be the week's stunt playlist with a slew of action, stunt and training reels by Noah Fleder, Awaken star Natalie Burn, stuntman Djibril Newik Chase, independent filmmaker Shahaub Roudbari, Mirkos Radas, John Renyolds, Uros Certic, Amiee Zannoni, Cornered webseries co-star, actor Bobby Hernandez and action actor Angel Vasquez.

Now we get to brings things here into focus just a bit with the latest installment of actor and Ameritoku mainstay Jason David Frank's online doc series, My Morphin Life. For this, we venture into a behind-the-scenes look into the spectacular episode featuring Frank and action actors Peter Jang and Alvin Hsing in the epic duel between the Green Ranger and legendary Street Fighter character Ryu. As always, these things come with a few snags and Frank sure had his, but it didn't stop him from powering through. Check it out!

Up next are a couple of other new director reels featuring a small variety of things, including action. The first comes with great revere for French action director Godefroy Ryckewaert who never ceases to impress, and his latest trailer for the new shortfilm, Hiro, samples that fact quite a bit with Alex Duong starring as a man forced back into the Yakuza underworld in order to save his daughter. Hiro is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival which kicks off on September 10, and you can purchase your ticket by clicking right here for the screening.

The second video comes from Canadian cascadeur, actor and filmmaker Taz Garcia in the form of First Bust, a story of two odd couple undercover cops well on their way to their first major arrest, as long as they don't get in each other's way, and you can imagine the hilarity that ensues. The project was initially going to be a two-minute short story which eventually expanded into something slightly longer when more people got involved, and as it stands, it could very well present a meaty concept for television if things go favorably.

Check out both videos below!

Up next is a bit of a teaser from the folks over at EMC Monkeys who have been very busy working on their own individual projects and other obligations in the past couple of years. Such things tend to get in the way of content creation which is what they've largely been known for, and now the team's teaser is officially circulating online with a number of exciting new projects that are either completed, still being filmed or already in post, including an upcoming collaboration with Corridor Digital, as well as the long-awaited Evolution Of Fight series, Vs. Ninjas series, and the upcoming Nerf Cops tete-a-tete sequel with the first part arriving on Friday, September 4 upon which fans can expect even more content every week thereafter. (If you haven't seen the first Nerf Cops installment yet, your chance to do so is right here).

Also up for viewing are two other new director reels, including Desciple's latest reel full of action and dialogue gems, with snippets from two of his latest hyper-reality action shorts, Hetja and Hetja 2; The latter title is also being groomed for a possible award win at this year's Action On Film Festival with acting nominations for two of its lead performers, Disavowed webseries star Will Yick, and The Stunt People's own Bridger Fox.

The second reel comes from Darren Holmquist of Dardrex Productions with a new director's reel full of long-awaited goods that are pending with planned releases before the end of 2015.

Time to pepper thing up a bit with some fighting, and following Holmquist's production reel is a fresh new fight featuring himself opposite Leonard Zhang, proceeded by some sweet Karambit/Gun choreo from director Evan Taylor, a quick little scene of action from Rising Tiger Films's own Leroy Nguyen and Edmond Shum, and a superb test fight from Jay Kwon with Alex Meglei and Brett Easton.

And lastly, it's been a long and incredible journey for independent filmmaker and film student Anthony Pellino for his latest labor of love, Mortal Kombat: The Chosen One. Inspired by the popular fighting game of the same name, and featuring fight design by Cinematic Fight Studio's own Lawrence Yip, this one takes a slightly derivative approach to the source material. Jonathan Lee, David Chen and Craig Zisel are joined by lead actor Kage Yami in the role of former Shaolin monk, Liu Kang who is about to receive the most unexpected visit of his life.

Pellino's goal was originally to create something more than a fan film, which is why it took so long to finish, aside from school, two crowdfunders, reshoots and other hurdles. Fan film or not, a project like this is just what we need to help keep the pulse beating among fans as a new webseries season is still pending, in addition to further details regarding the revived hopes for a film as recently as the top of last month. It's a great case for more similar content with dozens of characters to experiment and play with, and I hope this isn't the last we see from the creative field we have today in that regard.

Mortal Kombat: The Chosen One can now be viewed on YouTube in the player below, as well as on Vimeo!

Further worth mentioning is the current completion post-production of independent action director Eric Nguyen with the new short, Of Martial Arts And Men, with a September airing planned, and it just so happens that his Spring actioner, El Guerrero, has been nominated with a mention among a slew of other shortfilms for this year's Action On Film Festival which kicks off on September 18 through 26.

Other news includes the upcoming comic-book fan film sequel, Black Panther And Deadpool: The Gauntlet, which just finished filming over the weekend, and a trailer can be viewed here as well in case you missed it. In addition, further pending are updates for Robot Underdog's forthcoming episodes for the Dragon Ball Z: Light Of Hope webseries with actor Tim Neff (Flowers Of The Night) set to play Trunks. Major creative differences have currently invoked restructuring of the original script, Dragon Ball Z enthusiast and former series writer Derek Padula who made his case in a recent blog post after announcing his departure from the project; As pot-stirring as these things tend to be, the least we can do is hope for a great sequel after this year's stellar offering, which you can check out here.

Indeed, this week is another loaded one with more to come, and hopefully you've been able to keep up with all the craziness as last week's Hit List is just as awesome. Beyond that, subscribe to the channels above and by all means, if you or someone you know creates exciting, QUALITY content, just hit us with an e-mail filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com.

THE HIT LIST - August 3, 2015

There weren't a lot of new stunt reels to host this week - I share a lot of them anyway so I wouldn't really be surprised if I covered every working stunt professional who had a reel. 😀 Still though, I have a few gems to share in this week's Hit List which also grants us a look at a small variety of some upcoming independent projects, as well as the usual assortment of exciting independent fight action that goes out in epic fashion, and a little something special end!

Toby Fuller, James Mowat, Benjamin Redic II and Jenna Hellmuth outline this week's playlist of stunt performers with fantastic reels, in addition to an awesome featurette by stuntwoman Cheryl "In Action" Lewis, on location in Jersey City, New Jersey back in June to rappell 480 feet down a building in the name of fighting cancer. Check out the goods!

Getting into some cool new promotional content is a set of four titles, two of which will need help of public support.

The first is a campaign pitch by the folks over at DC Stunt Coalition (MAGfest, Swords Of Insurgency) for their upcoming Spartacon Live-Action Gladiator Stunt Show debut in Maryland. The event page is live on Facebook where you can join in on the fun as the show, hosted by Red Serpent, L.L.C. sets out to premiere a bold reenactment of daring action sequences inspired by the Starz hit series. In the meantime, the team itself is well into its current Indiegogo campaign to help raise money to reimburse its members with a reasonable bit of pay, as well as to reassure future live-performances for audiences across the country.

Watch the campaign video below!

Next up is the first of several trailers now online for The Hit List - this one is for an inspired Batman fan film directed by James Campbell which is set to arrive this October provided current post-production crowdfunding goes according to plan. Ripper is the name of the project and puts a uniquely impressive conceptual spin on the Batman storyline with a late nineteenth century London setting as it sets up for a decisive final battle between darkness, and the one vigilant Knight lurking within. Find out more about it at the Indiegogo page right here!

The second trailer comes in the wake of the latest digital download release in the form of the new documentary, From Here To There. Professional freerunning athletes Jesse LaFlair and Cory DeMeyers are the center of this newest profile with segmemts by fellow stunt performers and friends alike as it looks into the various aspects of what it really means to chase your dream as a freerunner. You can find the documentary right now on iTunes, Google Play and wherever digital downloads are sold, including links in the description of the video in the player below.

The third trailer is for upcoming short dark dramedy, The Recovery from A Mindful Samurai Productions. Filmmaker A.J. Singh wore multiple hats for this one while directing this latest gem clocked in at just forty-two minutes with actor and producer Jon Bailie starring in a story of a drunken loser's last ditch effort to get himself together when life takes an expected turn.

It's not heavy on action but does present glimpses of what looks to be typically British comedy and drama with a few hits to the face to boot. Not to mention the soundtrack here has some extra good energy, courtesy of Ace Records and Selrec International, Ltd. It's heading to festivals first and foremost, so mind the poster just beneath the trailer and keep this on your radar if you see fit.

And now we get to the fight stuff, with action actors Betim Alimi and Agron Pajaziti in Special Forces, Delivery Man from the folks at CBR Stunts, indie filmmaker Anthony Pho's latest Monkids offering, Candy Thief, the latest superhero Minute Match-Up from the ismahawk channel pitting Green Arrow against Hawkeye, Nathan Quattrini's latest test fight stunt gathering titled Poison and a Neo-Geo-inspired experimental Final Fight fan short from the gang over at EMC Monkeys that will literally have you spinning in circles (open it with the YouTube app and you'll see what I mean)!

Of course, I'm going to save the best for the last. It's the latest upload from the amazing crew over at stellar action choreography and film team, Reel Deal Action and having seen it for myself many moons ago, I have been waiting and hoping it wouldn't be too long before I could share this to you. Yes, it's director Christian Pfeil's MULTI award-winning shortfilm, Evil Twin, with Can Aydin in a dual role in a story that takes place following a robbery involving two teleportation jewels, and an epic fight between two brothers on opposite sides of the moral compass.

This is from the same team that's about to unleash its feature film and without dissent, it'll be well worth it to see what happens on that end. For now though, I welcome you to watch Evil Twin in all its explosive, hard-hitting and spectacular NSFW glory, and follow the Facebook fanpage right here. Who knows what that could that could accomplish, if not the hopes of a forseeable feature or a sequel?!

And now for that special little something - no, I'm not too familiar with her music, but it's still worth taking an ear to even if you don't speak the language. Taiwanese hip-hop artist and musician, Miss KO, unveiled her latest music video dedicated to domestic violence awareness with a special message shedding light on how her own survival inspired her to help carry the message forward. Let It Go (Stop The Violence) is the name of the song with actor, stuntman and filmmaker, Ron Yuan, sitting in the director's chair. Granted, most of the lyrics aren't in English but the imagery here is just as compelling and transcending in nature.


....Wow. I can't wait until next week and hopefully I don't bleed the inrernet dry! 😁 Last week's Hit List was even more loaded with action and I highly recommend bookmarking it for later viewing if you've missed it . Beyond that, if you make movies that kick just as much ass or do stunts that are just as daring, bold and sensational, send them to me directly at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!

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.