My fellow space cadets, I have a special interview for you today: Alexander Nevsky.  If you don’t recognize that name, you will.  He is not only an actor, but he has also produced numerous independent films as well directing one: Black Rose.  I think the film that’s really going to propel him forward is Showdown in Manila.  Showdown in Manila is one of the most anticipated independent action movies of the past several years.  In Showdown in Manila, Alexander Nevsky plays Nick Peyton, a former Violent Crimes Unit officer-turned-private eye that is contacted by the wife of a murdered FBI agent.  Teaming with Casper Van Dien’s character, Charlie Benz, they start hunting for a criminal known only as The Wraith.  Let’s have a chat with Alexander Nevsky!

First of all: Thank you for taking the time to answer questions for us.

It’s my pleasure, Tom!  And thank you for the nice review on “Showdown in Manila”, glad you liked our movie!

Tell us a little bit about yourself:  Where do you come from and how did you get into the film industry?

I was born in Moscow, USSR, watched “Conan the Destroyer” in 1986 and started to dream about movies.  I was 14 years old and at the time was very skinny(my height was about 6’4″ but my weight was just about 160 pounds).  So I went into boxing gym and later switched to bodybuilding.  By 1993 I was 6’6″ and 280 pounds muscleman and Russian TV made me a star of documentary film about bodybuilding.  About 30 million people watched it on TV and I become a household name at just 21 years old.  Later I had my own successful TV show, wrote several fitness books and graduated from Moscow State University of Management.  I moved to LA in 1999, learned English at UCLA and studied acting in Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.  I produced and and starred in my first film Moscow Heat in 2003 but my first work as an actor/stuntman in Hollywood was original Undisputed in 2001.  Today I’m established movie star in Russia/CIS (my films are always wide theatrical releases there) and I produced 7 successful international action films to date.

How did you come to be a part of Showdown in Manila and what did you find appealing about it?

I’m a big fan of Sly Stallone’s “The Expendables” franchise so I created the story idea for “Showdown in Manila” with Mark Dacasco and Craig Hamann.  Later Craig wrote an interesting script and Mark decided to make it his directorial debut.  I was glad to get involved as an actor and producer!

Did you find it intimidating to be around some pretty well-known actors and actresses like Don “The Dragon” Wilson and Cynthia Rothrock?

Not at all.  I know Don for many years and Cynthia too, they are my role models, I always liked their films!  I can say the same about other great action stars: Casper Van Dien, Olivier Gruner, Matthias Hues (he’s a personal friend of mine) and Dacascos himself.  It was a big fun to work with them all.

Casper Van Dien played your partner in the film.  Were there moments that were improvised or was it all according to script?

Mark introduced my to Casper in 2014 and he liked the project from the beginning.  He’s an action star, as I said, and we all love him in Starship Troopers but he is a great actor also (remember Sleepy Hollow?) and he did a very good job in Showdown in Manila.  He supported me a lot.  We improvised in many scenes and it wasn’t easy for me because English is not my first language.  And thanks to Casper we have all this comedic moments in the movie!

Were there any moments in the film that you felt were kind of crazy and hectic or did you roll with it and have a blast?

I did “Black Rose” right before “Showdown in Manila”. “Black Rose” was my directorial debut, I also produced it and was in almost every scene as an actor.  That was crazy experience! “Showdown in Manila” was a walk in the park compared to that.  Yes, I produced this film and was one of the stars, but it was a dream come true project to me.  We had some difficulties every day (as every independent production has), it was very hot in Manila, big snakes were around us in the jungle and so on but I didn’t care much and had a blast anyway.

What was it like working with Mark Dacascos as a director?

Mark is very talented and I liked his vision for the film right away.  It was his idea to make in Philippines, it was his idea to add some drama and some comedy.  He was very supportive and flexible, he was also working 24/7.  “Showdown in Manila” is his directorial debut and I have no doubts that he will direct again very soon.

How was it working in the Philippines?  Do you feel it’s better to shoot on location as opposed to a closed set?

Funny thing is, I never been in Asia before.  So I liked Philippines a lot: locations are great and people are wonderful.  Our local co-producer Chris Santiago and his crew did a great job, we were shooting all around Manila and in the real jungle.  Director of photography Rudy Harbon worked with me twice before (on “Treasure Raiders” and “Black Rose”), he shot everything beautifully.  We had some closed sets but all the best (and my favorite) scenes were exteriors, especially those chasing scene at the huge fish market in the center of the city and big action scenes in the jungle.

How much training did the film-makers put you through in terms of weapons and hand-to-hand?

Legendary Al Dacascos(Mark’s father) was a fight choreographer and he told me that my character should be just brutal.  I’m not a martial artist but I was an amateur boxer and studied kickboxing as a kid also.  My weight in “Showdown in Manila” was about 300 pounds of muscles so my fights were violent and effectively short, let me put it that way 😉  Al worked with Cynthia on her fighting scenes in the jungle and I think fans will be happy to see it!  Olivier Gruner and Don “The Dragon” Wilson were great too, as well as Matthias and Casper.  Regarding rehearsing: when you’re doing an independent film you have to do everything fast and, unfortunately, you don’t have too much time for pre-production and preparation.  But we trained all together every morning and everyone was very supportive.

Would you like to work with Casper and Mark in future projects?

Of course!  We just had a “Showdown in Manila” premiere in Beverly Hills last week and started to discuss future projects right away.  By the way, “Showdown in Manila” was released in the US in limited thaters and on VOD in the end of January.  You can find it on all digital platforms and in RedBox, DVD will be out in March (and premiere on Netflix will follow in April).  Film was a theatrical success in Russia/CIS and sold pretty much everywhere worldwide already.  I should probably get together with Mark and Casper and talk about sequel, don’t you think?

Final question: What do you have coming up that you would love audiences to get excited for?

My new action film “Maximum Impact” is almost finished.  It was directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak (Romeo Must Die”) and written by Ross LaManna (“Rush Hour”).  James Lew (got an Emmy recently for his work on Marvel’s “Luke Cage”) served as a fight choreographer and second unit director.  “Maximum Impact” is my biggest film to date, I produced it and starred in with Kelly Hu ,William Baldwin, Tom Arnold, Danny Trejo, Russian actress Maria Bravikova, Eric Roberts, Bai Ling and my friends Matthias Hues and Mark Dacascos.  “Maximum Impact” is an action comedy and it should be released worldwide later this year, your readers can get updates on my official Instagram @RealAlexNevsky and Twitter @NevskyAlexandr

Once again, thank you for your time and I hope people will get out to see Showdown in Manila.

Thank you again for all your interest and support!

Again, I would very much like to thank Mr. Nevsky for taking the time to answer some questions and I definitely hope that Showdown In Manila gets some serious attention.  As Mr. Nevsky indicated, the film is currently available on most digital platforms and will hit DVD in early March.

 

 

NOTE: Before I begin this edition of The Best, I want to give you a quick update on the Martial Arts Kid 2: Payback IndieGoGo campaign.  As of this writing, the amount raised is currently at $8,188.  That’s incredibly impressive considering the campaign has been going only 1 week so far and we’ve got 2 months to go.  If that kind of momentum can be kept up for the next 2 months, The Martial Arts Kid 2 will be in great shape.  So…let’s keep it up.  I’ll post a link to the campaign at the end of the post.

For this edition of The Best, I want to go over some truly top-notch independent films that I’ve seen over the years.  So, what is an independent film?  The textbook definition of an independent film is a feature film that has been made outside of the major movie studio system as well as being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies.  In my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, the independent film is not a genre, but rather a philosophy or a mindset into how a movie is made.  The independent film scene has been around just as long as regular movies have.  From the days when movie studios held a stranglehold on the industry to the modern era when anybody can pick up a smartphone or a video camera and start filming, the independent film has evolved and changed over the decades.  A lot of the big-name film-makers like George Lucas and Sam Raimi started out in the indie film scene and have since seen their careers skyrocket.  In this day and age of social media like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, it’s become a lot easier for amateur film-makers to share their work with the rest of the world.  This can be both a good and bad thing.  Bad, because anybody can pick up a camera-phone and start shooting without a plan or any kind of structure.  These are the worst kinds of indie films to the point I wouldn’t even call them that.  But every once in a while, you find somebody that has the patience, the talent, and the passion to create something that will make waves in the right way.  The independent films that I will cover here, are among the best.

The Martial Arts Kid

While the sequel is currently in pre-production, it wouldn’t have existed without this one.  If I had to pick between this and The Karate Kid, I would take this one over that film any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  Not only is the film promoting a positive message about martial arts, it also deals with an issue that really is plaguing some of our schools throughout the world:  Bullying.  With some strong performances from Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock and Jansen Panettiere, The Martial Arts Kid is the kind of action film that really is family friendly in nearly every way.  It’s honest in its approach to the subject matter and it’s very satisfying to watch.  It’s definitely worth checking out.

Lord of Tears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHVfuS4PSEk

This one is special to me, because it’s one of the first movies that I got a screener for.  Shot entirely on location in the highlands of Scotland, Lord of Tears is a slow-burn horror film that is both beautiful and haunting to behold.  The attention to detail here is astounding.  It’s more of an atmospheric kind of film than a jump-scare movie.  The Owlman that shows up periodically throughout the film is one of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen.  If you can find it, it’s absolutely worth a look.

Weapon of Choice

There are a number of reasons why I put this one here.  1. Hapkido master Jino Kang.  Why?  For one, this guy is a phenomenal martial artist, but more importantly, he’s really good at making action movies.  To be honest, the film’s low-budget nature can show sometimes, but that doesn’t get in the way of the film’s honest approach to the material  There are no superficial twists in the film.  It goes from A to B to C without any deviation.  It can be a slow at times, but that’s because there is more to the film than just the action.  Master Kang’s films are influenced by some of his personal philosophies and ideas.  That doesn’t mean he’s a slouch in the action department.  Far from it.  Once the action starts, it keeps going and it’s really good.  The choreography is solid and infused the right amount of tension.  This one is definitely a must-see.

A Reckoning

This one is truly unique.  A Reckoning takes place in a world where only one man is alive, as far we know.  No explanation is given for what happened, even though there are clues throughout the film that point towards what MAY have happened.  The film isn’t interested in what happened to the world, but rather how one man reacts to such an event.  Made on a $10,000 budget, A Reckoning is more thought-provoking and emotionally engaging than a lot of crap that you’ll see on the big screen these days.  It’s just too bad the film never found a distributor, because this is a great movie.  This is a character-driven film that really deserves to be seen by more people.

Bone Tomahawk

I absolutely love Westerns.  It’s a grand and epic genre that explores a specific period in our history.  Westerns are even better when Kurt Russell is in them.  Bone Tomahawk is one of those rare indie films that looks, sounds, and feels like a major studio film without it actually being one.  It’s about a few folks who go after a group of savages that abducted a number of townsfolk.  This is a film that has one surprise after another.  It is a slow-burner, but like any good slow-burner, the payoff is worth the wait.  The film does veer into horror movie territory suddenly and it’s pretty brutal.  Fantastic performances as well as stunning cinematography make this movie a fantastic Western….if you like a side of horror to go with it, of course.

Donnie Darko

I honestly love movies that throw you for a loop, but Donnie Darko is a special kind of mind-job.  I couldn’t even begin to tell you what it’s about.  I have to watch it again.  It’s equal parts funny, thought-provoking, creepy, and “What the f***?”  Honestly, this movie is bonkers on so many levels.  From the creepy rabbit-guy to the insanely bizarre visual effects, this movie will have you scratching your head long after the credits stopped rolling.  I don’t know whether you should be sober, drunk or stoned when you watch this movie.  It’s really out there.

The Evil Dead(1981)

This is about as independent as a horror film gets, and yet, what The Evil Dead managed to do was scare the pants off of everybody who saw it.  Or grossed them out.  When you want to talk about guerrilla film making, this is a perfect example.  You can tell that these guys were inexperienced in making movies, but the desire to make a real horror movie was obvious, and it worked.  The visual effects, though extremely dated, are still charming and gross at the same time.  This movie helped launch the careers of both Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell.

Forsaken

The second Western on this list, Forsaken features some very strong performances by everybody involved, especially Kiefer Sutherland and his father Donald Sutherland.  Great movies are often character-driven, and this film is no exception.  Seeing Kiefer and Donald act against each other for the first time is pure magic.  Both are amazing actors in their own right, but when you have father and son playing father and son, something special truly happens.  It’s a genuine shame that this film never got a huge theatrical release.  I loved every minute of it.

Boyka: Undisputed 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQtB3-NMfnU

Every bit as hard-hitting as the previous two entries in the series, Undisputed 4 features a surprisingly thoughtful story and character development for one Uri Boyka, played to perfection by Scott Adkins.  While the previous film was titled Redemption, this is the film that actually allows the character a certain level of redemption.  Outside of the story, the action and fight sequences are some of the best that you will ever see in a movie like this.  No wires.  Just sheer brutality.  This one is easily the best in the series by far in terms of fighting and story.  It is absolutely worth the entry fee.

While there are many decent independent films out there, these are the ones that stood out to me the most.  Any one of these films is worth taking a look at.  These films are some of the reasons why the independent film scene is getting stronger.  That concludes this edition of The Best.  Thank you for reading and I hope that you will find these movies as entertaining as I did.

LINK: The Martial Arts Kid 2: Payback IndieGoGo Campaign Website.

Released: January 2018

Director: Mark Dacascos

Run Time: 86 Minutes

Not Rated

Distributor: ITN Distribution

Genre: Action

Cast:
Alexander Nevsky: Nick Peyton
Casper Van Dien: Charlie Benz
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa: Aldric Cole
Tia Carrere: Mrs. Wells
Mark Dacascos: Matthew Wells
Mathias Hues: Dorn
Don “The Dragon” Wilson: Dillon
Cynthia Rothrock: Haines
Olivier Gruner: Ford

When The Expendables came out back in 2010, people have always wanted to have their own dream team of action stars.  The Expendables had Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, Gary Daniels, Jet Li, and Dolph Lundgren.  At the same time, Robert Rodriguez did Machete, which featured the likes of Danny Trejo, Don Johnson, Robert De Niro,  Jeff Fahey, Steven Seagal, and Michelle Rodriguez.  These were pretty awesome movies at the time, but over the past few years we’ve been seeing team-ups of actors like Mark Dacasco, Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock, and Olivier Gruner in films like Ultimate Justice, Death Fighter and a new film called Showdown In Manila.

The film begins as Nick Peyton, head of a local Violent Crimes Unit, as he and his team are prepared to take down a known drug and human trafficker.  Unfortunately, they are led into an ambush by a criminal kingpin known only as The Wraith.  With his entire team decimated and himself left for dead, Nick leaves the police force.  Two years later, Nick is a private detective with partner Charlie Benz, taking down cheating husbands and other minor non-lethal activities.  At the same time, FBI agent Matthew Wells is murdered in front of his wife by The Wraith.  Seeking retribution, she hires the two private detectives to hunt down and bring back The Wraith to face justice.  I really love it when stories are straight-forward without the extraneous use of surprise twists.  Half of the time, those twists don’t work and you can see them coming a mile away.  When a movie presents a story that takes you from A to B to C without any deviation, that tells me the story is honest in its approach.  Simple, yet honest.  The story in Showdown In Manila isn’t anything that I haven’t seen before, but it works for what’s presented here.

Let’s talk about the cast first, shall we?  Leading the pack is Alexander Nevsky, a former Russian bodybuilder turned actor, writer and producer.  I’ll be honest, I’ve never really seen anything with this guy in it.  I’ve heard the name in the independent action film scene, but I’ve never had the pleasure of actually seeing him in action.  Standing at 6’6″, this guy is TOWERING and built like a tank.  Unfortunately, I can’t really compare his performance in this film with another, because I haven’t seen his other movies.  I will be rectifying that over the next few weeks.  As a result, I’m not entirely convinced yet that he can hold a movie on his own.  He strikes me as an actor that’s a lot better when he’s bolstered by a strong cast.  Thankfully, we do have that here.  Nevsky definitely has some really solid chemistry with Casper Van Dien’s Charlie Benz.  I have to admit, I’m a big fan of Casper Van Dien.  Ever since he showed up in Starship Troopers over twenty years ago, he’s shown that he’s got some pretty good screen presence and pretty strong personality.  Here, he plays a former LA cop with a unique……problem.  His introduction into the film is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time.  Later on in the film, we get screen legends like Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock and Olivier Gruner.  It’s really awesome seeing these guys on the screen together.  Cary Tagawa always makes for an outstanding villain.  He’s got that real sinister feel about his characters that makes them somewhat scary.

The action in the film is not bad.  It really isn’t.  However, and some people not like this, but the film does take its time getting to the actual showdown part of the film.  Outside of the opening action sequence, the first half of the movie is more like a buddy cop movie.  Showdown In Manila takes time to get our two main leads to search and find this particular bad guy, and I really like the way that they actually do a little bit of investigating.  There’s not a whole lot of investigating, but what is there is appreciated.  There is some actual tension that does build up throughout the film and it feels like things could really explode, which they eventually do.  The film saves the big climactic battle for the last and I really like the fact that the film does that.  There’s gunplay and explosions and wonderful stuff like that.  But we also have some hand-to-hand action, which has been choreographed by Mark Dacascos’ own father, Al Dacascos.  Sadly, some of these action sequences are let down by some questionable editing.  The hand-to-hand stuff suffers the most from the editing.  Don’t get me wrong, what we see is pretty decent, but the way the camera moves along with some of the editing kinda gets in the way.  That being said, the final battle is a pretty thrilling sequence.  Watching Don “The Dragon” Wilson and Cynthia Rothrock kick ass never gets old.  Alexander Nevsky is clearly a physical presence, but I don’t feel the film fully utilizes Nevsky the way it needed to.  He’s got some serious potential as the next Arnold Schwarzenegger-type of action star, and that’s not a bad thing.

I think a lot of the problems that the film has can be chalked up to the fact that it is an independent action film.  A lot of the things that I’m sure that they wanted to do or do better came down to budgetary and time constraints.  That’s something that needs to considered when you watch an indie film, whether it’s a horror film, action film, or a comedy.  That being said, I really like the way that Mark Dacascos staged some of the action.  He doesn’t really rely on shaky-cam, thank god.  However, for fans of Mark, he only shows up for a couple of minutes.  At the end of the day, Showdown In Manila was kind of what I was expecting.  Nothing super complex or ultra dark.  It’s definitely got a sense of humor, and the chemistry between Alexander Nevsky and Casper Van Dien is pretty strong.  A lot of the issues I have with the film I can forgive because of the nature of the film and how it was made.  Honestly, it’s pretty solid little action flick.  I can honestly say it’s worth check out at least.

My Final Recommendation: Welcome to the jungle, baby!! 8/10

 

The last time I posted about the upcoming sequel to The Martial Arts Kid, The Martial Arts Kid 2: Payback, I was informing everybody about the crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo.  The campaign for the film, as of this writing on 1/15/2018, is in effect.  For the next 2 months, we, as an audience have the opportunity to help fund this project to make it one of the most anticipated independent films of 2018.  The Martial Arts Kid 2: Payback is the sequel to the award-winning family film, The Martial Arts Kid, starring legendary martial arts actors Don “The Dragon” Wilson and Cynthia Rothrock.  The official press release is as follows:

As of January 15th, 2018, the IndieGoGo Campaign to raise extra funds for THE MARTIAL ARTS KID 2: PAYBACK is LIVE and ACTIVE! The sequel will be bigger, with a larger cast, more locations, greater action, and a lot more danger.

Once again we will be using the largest number of real martial arts Grand Masters, Masters and Champions as have ever appeared on screen before; breaking our own record. We need your help to make this sequel something we can all be proud of. Join the Dragons: Cynthia Rothrock (Aunt Cindy) and Don Wilson (Uncle Glen) as we create something special together. And don’t forget that we will have some terrific perks for everyone involved.

The INDIEGOGO is now LIVE!

Crowdfunding Pitch Video:

Director Michael Baumgarten returns to direct this sequel to the well-received original film.  Cynthia Rothrock and Don “The Dragon” Wilson also return in their respective roles as Uncle Glen and Aunt Cindy.  I gave the first film some pretty high marks, so I will try to post on the campaign’s progress over the next couple of months.  I hope that anybody who has seen The Martial Arts Kid is as excited as I am for this upcoming sequel.  For anybody who may be interested in the film, I will post a link to the official IndieGoGo site for the film down below.  The site will provide more information on the film, cast and crew as well as perks for people who wish to donate.

Official IndieGoGo Crowdfunding Project For The Martial Arts Kid 2