Nick Nicholson Movies
- 1993
With the Philippines again standing in for Vietnam, this low-budget actioner stars David Carradine as a ruthless, renegade American army colonel who disobeys orders to sneak his crack team into Cambodia to destroy a Viet Cong supply train. But when he steps over the line and after much convoluted mayhem orders the slaughter of innocent Cambodian villagers, his right hand man turns upon him and a deadly conflict ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Kickboxing champ Jerry Pelt (Jerry Trimble) is the One Man Army of the title. Not that he dons khaki or anything, it's just that Jerry proves more than a match for a batalion of bad guys. It seems that a small-town bigwig has arranged for the murder of Jerry's grandfather. With the law on the villains' side, Jerry has no recourse but to kick, poke and jab away. There's hardly an original moment in One Man Army, but who goes to these movies for their plots? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A Navy SEAL gets himself tossed into a seething Filipino prison after his attempts to stop a gang rape fail and he is accused of killing the girl. This low-budget martial arts actioner chronicles his struggle to survive and escape the hellish jail. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1993
- R
Director Cirio Santiago plays a cameo in his own Fast Gun. Contrary to expectations, the film is not a western but an espionager. An ex-CIA "spook" -- a man assigned to infiltrate enemy strongholds -- becomes unhinged when the department lets him go. Arming himself to the teeth, he takes over a small town. Only one man is willing to stand up to the former spy, and that man has a history of his own.Kaz Garas is the most recognizable name among the cast members of Fast Gun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
This martial arts adventure is set in a post-nuclear apocalypse world where rival gangs use gladiators to fight their battles. Most of these battles are to the death, and the trouble begins when one of the best fighters, Amp, begins objecting to the practice. When he is scheduled to fight his arch rival Mainframe, who enjoys killing opponents, Amp flees into the radioactive wasteland accompanied by a pacifistic Christian girl whose clan was wiped out by Mainframe's men. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1992
- R
Raiders of the Sun is a Filipino variation of Mad Max. In a post-apocalyptic world, warrior Richard Norton does what he can to survive. Since society was laid low by a biological mishap, provisions are at a premium, and the villains will do anything to grab up all they can for profit. Norton is a bit more altrustic: he wants to restore world order, even if he has to rearrange a few faces to do so. The all-purpose leading lady in Raiders of the Sun is Brigitta Steinberg, dressed in as close to nothing as possible. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
A golden Buddha and two kickboxing con men provide the basis of this lively martial-arts actioner that opens during the Vietnam war as three lost commandos make their way though the jungle and find themselves in a cave containing a fabulous golden Buddha. The story jumps ahead twenty years as two con artists Dave and James run a successful scam that bilks gamblers out of their money during phony kickboxing matches. One of the three veterans tells the grifters about the treasure and enlists their aide in getting it. He then draws them a map just before he is executed by the villain McMann's henchmen. Shortly thereafter, James, Dave, and Dave's girl friend, Julie, head for Cambodia. They are pursued by McMann and his deadly gang. The question then becomes, who will get to the treasure first? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1992
An army commander on a dangerous mission with a special forces naval unit in the Mekong River Delta is sidetracked when he risks his life to save a beautiful American reporter. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1991
- R
In this futuristic film, a drought-ridden Earth is besieged by bands of outlaws who prey upon the small cities in a hope to obtain any water they might possess. When the renegades attempt to take over the town of Chinle, a mysterious warrior named Michael (David Carradine) leads a band of fighters to ward off their attack. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1990
- R
A young couple go to a picturesque island for a romantic holiday, but when they witness the activities of a terrorist group, they become the next targets. ~ All Movie Guide
After escaping from a Vietnamese POW camp where they had suffered for five years, five American soldiers attempt to get out of the country before being spotted by Russian and Vietnamese troops in this tale of survival from Filipino filmmaker Eddie Romero. As the five escapees descend upon a remote whorehouse in hopes of collecting the supplies needed to reach freedom, a group of desperate prostitutes plea with the men to transport them to freedom and a troupe of Russian soldiers complicate their fragile escape plan. When the desperate group stumbles across an abandoned airplane deep in the jungle, they must bring the battered aircraft back to life long enough to escape the jungle and fly to freedom. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1987
- R
A special forces unit is sent to Vietnam to combat a group of renegade rebels made up of POW and MIA in this limp war drama. Sergeant Rick Stratton (Brett Clark) is reluctantly teamed with reporter Chris Chandler (Cec Verrell) to head off the rampaging rebels from continuing their unauthorized, murderous rampages. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brett Baxter Clark, Robert Patrick, (more)
- 1987
- R
The makers of this '50s monster-movie throwback must have greatly enjoyed the Wisconsin-lensed Bog -- since this film lifts that regional clunker's premise in its entirety and merely transplants it into a pleasant Polynesian locale. Yet another prehistoric terror from the deep (i.e. diver in cheap latex suit) rises from its eons-long nap after being rudely awakened by boozy, dynamite-fishing locals, slinking among the swaying palms to snack on unsuspecting tourists. That is, until the local Sheriff (of course) teams up with the owner of a popular resort to stand around and talk a lot... and eventually put an end to the beast's bloodthirsty rampage. There's even a convenient reptile expert on hand to kick around pseudo-scientific nonsense and pad out the film's runtime with even more inane dialogue. For more Italian variations on the same tired theme, masochistic viewers may want to seek out Up from the Depths (from the same director, no less!) and Devilfish. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1987
In this actioner, a pair of ex-Green Berets use the skills they perfected in 'Nam to save the Pope from an assassin's bullet in Central America. The trouble is, the hit man is the veterans' former commanding officer who was captured in Asia and outfitted with a special microchip that lets him take orders directly from the Kremlin. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Max Thayer, John Dresden, (more)
- 1986
- R
This action film from prolific Filipino director Cirio Santiago stars Cec Verrell as tough cop Jennie ("Silk"), who works for the Honolulu police. A series of murders has the police baffled, so Silk is called in to help uncover the culprits. Her sleuthing leads to several shoot-outs and evidence that incriminates one of the cops. Connected to the deaths are gangland figures and the ugly business of selling fake identities. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cec Verrell, Bill McLaughlin, (more)
Oliver Stone's breakthrough as a director, Platoon is a brutally realistic look at a young soldier's tour of duty in Vietnam. Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a college student who quits school to volunteer for the Army in the late '60s. He's shipped off to Vietnam, where he serves with a culturally diverse group of fellow soldiers under two men who lead the platoon: Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger), whose facial scars are a mirror of the violence and corruption of his soul, and Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe), who maintains a Zen-like calm in the jungle and fights with both personal and moral courage even though he no longer believes in the war. After a few weeks "in country," Taylor begins to see the naïveté of his views of the war, especially after a quick search for enemy troops devolves into a round of murder and rape. Unlike Hollywood's first wave of Vietnam movies (including The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, and Coming Home), Platoon is a grunts-eye view of the war, touching on moral issues but focusing on the men who fought the battles and suffered the wounds. In this sense, it resembles older war movies more than its Vietnam peers, as it mixes familiar elements of onscreen battle with small realistic details: bugs, jungle rot, exhaustion, C-rations, marijuana, and counting the days before you go home. This mix of traditional war movie elements with a contemporary sensibility won Platoon four Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director, and a reputation as one of the definitive modern war films. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, (more)
In American Ninja, Michael Dudikoff plays American "GI Joe" who, based in the Philippines, gets hip to a crooked arms racket involving none other than the military itself. There's no end to the rib-cracking opportunities Dudikoff encounters as he knee-knocks his way through a host of bad guys as he rescues a lady in distress and ventures to thwart the thieving arms vendors. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, (more)
- 1985
- R
In a story of one woman's revenge against a gang of brutal rapists, Carla Harris (Deborah Tranelli) makes Rambo look like the Easter Bunny. After her husband is killed when he comes to the aid of a woman under assault, Carla leaves New York City and goes to stay with her parents in California. A group of local men badger her for dates; when she puts them off with increasingly sharp comments, they plot an attack against her. Waiting until she is alone at home one night, the men subject her to gang rape and kill both her parents (and a repairman) when they return home unexpectedly. Carla then begins a series of bloody, revenge-motivated killings that eventually take her back to New York City for the final round of bullets. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Deborah Tranelli, Kaz Garas, (more)
