Byron Mann Movies

When two dim-witted blonde bombshells are mistaken for the underworld's most cunning assassins, they are approached with a lucrative contract to take out the head of the Chinese mafia in a globe-trotting, air-headed comedy starring Pamela Anderson and Denise Richards. Two fair-haired beauties have just witnessed a high-profile mob hit, and now the Godfather is convinced that they have what it takes to rub out his most fearsome rival. After accepting a hearty payout and agreeing to carry out the dangerous assignment, the two brainless beauties hit the open road on the adventure of a lifetime. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Tom Berenger returns to the role of Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Beckett in the action thriller Sniper 3. This time around, the Marine sniper must hunt down his best friend who has become a dangerous spy and criminal mastermind attempting to manipulate the United States and the world. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Ching Siu Tung directs the straight-to-video action thriller Belly of the Beast. Steven Seagal stars as ex-CIA agent Jake Hopper. He wants to retire peacefully, but is pulled back into the action when his daughter Jessica (Sarah Malakul Lane) is kidnapped by a terrorist group called Abu Karaf. While the rest of the CIA starts a routine investigation, Jake goes out on his own to find her. Seagal also co-wrote and co-produced. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

The strong anti-China beliefs of actor and political activist Richard Gere were evident in this Hitchcockian thriller that sought to expose the civil and human rights abuses of that country's legal system. Gere stars as Jack Moore, counsel to a large media conglomerate seeking to open trade relations with China, thereby delivering American television shows by satellite to the largest untapped market in the world. After an evening out at a nightclub and fashion show, Jack goes home with a beautiful model (Jessey Meng), then wakes up the next morning to discover her dead body. To his horror, Jack is accused of murdering the girl, who is revealed to have been the daughter of a high-ranking general. Assigned a court-appointed lawyer, Shen Yuelin (Bai Ling), Jack discovers that the repressive Chinese court system does not grant bail, encourages quick guilty pleas and executions, and looks upon him with disfavor for his Western moral turpitude. Finally persuading Shen that he's innocent, Jack and his lawyer embark on an investigation impeded at every turn by Chinese authorities, eventually uncovering a plot to discredit Jack and his company's entry into China. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Based on a popular Japanese comic, this stylish, romantic French-Canadian actioner features many exciting pyrotechnic effects, elegantly executed murders, and some nifty-doodle gadgets, but very little on-screen bloodshed as it follows the adventures of Yo, one of the world's greatest hit men. Yo works for a mysterious Chinese organization and has been given the dubious honor of being called Freeman, the name the tong gives to its chief enforcer. Yo doesn't want the honor, but there is little he can do; obligation is more important than personal want. Still, after each killing, Yo sheds a few tears for the victims. One day he bumps into Emu O'Hara, a beautiful painter who has avoided people after mobsters killed her father, who was a rigidly honest judge determined to wipe out crime. Emu witnesses Yo's killing three Yakuza on a rugged stretch of California coastline where she is painting. Yo sees her see him, and though they never speak, both know that necessity dictates she be his next victim. Following the police investigation of the killings, Emu goes back to Vancouver, BC. Yo has also been sent there to kill her and a Yakuza don. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Exploitation king Fred Olen Ray was well entrenched in his "Erotic Thriller" phase (typified by films like Inner Sanctum) when he turned out this oddball mix of salacious schemes and demonic possession. When creatively blocked horror writer Howard (Ted Prior) buys an oversized jar containing a silly-looking pickled monster from a tiny shop in Chinatown, he quickly falls under the thing's supernatural influence. Not only can he churn out reams of manuscript pages like never before, he also becomes more sexually aggressive -- a change which troubles his reserved wife Peggy (statuesque Sandahl Bergman), particularly after the arrival of sexy blonde live-in secretary Carol (Shannon Tweed, whose presence had become ubiquitous in films of this kind). The plot thickens when we learn that Carol is also conspiring with her partner Murray (Frank Sivero), Howard's greedy agent, to steal his manuscript. Carol soon becomes the puppet of the thing in the jar as well, playing violent sexual games with the couple, terrorizing Peggy at every turn, and ultimately turning on Murray -- leading to a hyper-violent climax which has nearly every character blasting away at his/her co-conspirator with automatic weaponry. Despite the heftier financial backing of Columbia Home Video, this is still exploitation in the classic Ray tradition, filled with the usual bucketloads of nudity and kinky sex, and featuring cameos from such familiar B-movie faces as Ray Silva and Turhan Bey, as well as Kato Kaelin as a busboy in the restaurant scene with Bey. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Corky (Faith Ford) is depressed over the prospect of turning 30, and never mind that she's still the "kid" of the "FYI" staff. To alleviate her distress, dashing Peter Hunt (Scott Bakula) comes up with a surefire cure for the over-30 blues. As it turns out, this cure involves a great deal of travelling to a great many faraway places--and, it is implied, a bit of fresh romance for the former Mrs. Sherwood-Forrest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide