Yesterday, I received Daniel Budnick’s 80s Action Movies On The Cheap and I’m already in love with this book!

This book features 284 reviews of the 80s action films that tend to be ignored by those who now sing the praises of Stallone and Schwarzenegger.  We’re talking about the films of Michael Dudikoff here.  We’re talking about the directorial efforts of Cirio Santiago, Nico Mastorakis, Sam Firstenberg, and so many others.  We’re talking Italian action cinema.  In short, we’re talking about some of the most entertaining and unfairly overshadowed films of all time.

Yes, the American Ninja films are reviewed (or, at least, the ones that came out in the 80s are).  Yes, there’s a review of The Last Hunter and Space Mutiny and the Deathstalker films.  Much like me, Daniel Budnik appreciates Red Brown even if Reb’s habit of shouting during his action scenes does seem to be a bit weird.  But what I truly love about this book is that it also features reviews of films that even I previously didn’t know about.  I mean, honestly, there are hundreds of film guides out there.  What sets the great film guides apart from the good ones is how many previous unknown titles you can discover by just randomly flipping through it.  And when it comes to film reviews, the most important question is whether or not the review inspires you to try track down a film that you may not have seen or even heard about before.  The best film reviews inspire you to watch so that you can judge for yourself.  I’ve discovered a lot just by randomly opening this book.  And I now have a long list of cheap 80s actions films that I want to watch and which I will be watching and hopefully reviewing myself.

With 80s Action Movies On The Cheap as my guide, I look forward to all sorts of new discoveries.

(Click here for my previous entry in weekend books!)