To celebrate the 54th birthday of actor Richard Armitage, I decided to watch this awesome scene from THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY where he plays the badass Thorin. This is such a cool scene and a highlight of the series. Enjoy!
Tag Archives: Bradley Crain
Late Night Retro Television Review: Highway to Heaven 4.10 “A Dream of Wild Horses”
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, we will be reviewing Highway to Heaven, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The entire show is currently streaming on Amazon Prime, Tubi and other services!
Episode 4.10 “A Dream of Wild Horses”
(Dir. by Michael Landon, originally aired on December 2nd, 1987)
In this episode, traveling angel Jonathan Smith (Michael Landon), and his companion Mark Gordon (Victor French) arrive at a struggling ranch where the widow Billie Harwood (Gail Strickland) is trying to keep her late husband’s legacy alive while caring for her young son Richie (Jason Horst) and aging father Jet Sanders (Richard Farnsworth). It seems that Jet, the patriarch of the family, sort of lost his will to live when he lost his wife and then his son in law, a man he truly thought of as a son. As Jonathan and Mark arrive on the scene, the family members are all at a breaking point. Jet wishes he would just die and quit being a burden. Billie is completely overwhelmed with the ranch, and you get the feeling she’s never truly mourned the loss of her husband. And Richie, who needs someone to love him and pay attention to him, instead is mostly ignored by his family. Jonathan, Mark, a pack of wild horses, and some divine compassion turn out to be just what the family needs to find the inspiration to start putting the pieces of their lives back together.
Directed by Michael Landon, “A Dream of Wild Horses” is everything I would expect from this series. Considering this episode was in season 4, it’s possible the formula was starting to wear thin with viewers back in 1987, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. For a man like me who loves a good western, I especially enjoyed the ranch setting, the wild horses, and the presence of veteran, Oscar nominated actor Richard Farnsworth as Grandpa Jet Sanders. He’s believable as the man who’s lost his purpose in life, but he’s even better when he turns things around at the end. One of the things I like about this series is the way Jonathan always knows exactly what buttons to push to get the characters going in the right direction. From bluntly telling Grandpa that he needs to quit feeling sorry for himself, to offering the widow a shoulder to cry on, and helping both of them see how much Richie needs their love and guidance, Jonathan’s genuine compassion is something this world really does need. Skeptical viewers may even roll their eyes, but I choose to accept the episode’s inspiring messages at face value. There have been times in my own life when I just needed someone else to care, and this series leans into those types of interactions. This family was broken, and Jonathan and Mark helped turn things around for them by simply caring. Things may be more complex and nuanced in the real world, but the simple act of caring will always be powerful.
Brad reviews COLLEGE KICKBOXERS (1991)!
Continuing my theme of low budget, direct-to-video, B-movie action films from the early 90’s, I found a movie called COLLEGE KICKBOXERS playing on Amazon Prime.
Also known as TRAINED TO FIGHT in some circles, COLLEGE KICKBOXERS follows James Caulfield (Ken McLeod, credited as Ken Rendall Johnson for some unknown reason), a young man with martial arts skills, as he navigates his freshman year of college. Things just aren’t going so well for James his first week of school. First, his roommate Mark (Marc D. Williams), an upperclassman, isn’t very nice to him when they first meet, so it appears that their dorm room may not be a place of peace and relaxation this semester. Second, the pretty girl he sets his sights on, Kimberly (Kendra Tucker), seems much more interested in saving the whales, the ozone layer and the planet than she does in dating him. Rude! And third, to cap it all off, one day while James and Mark are working out their differences through martial arts sparring, a racist gang called the White Tigers show up and hurl some very offensive slurs at Mark, who’s black. While James doesn’t seem to like Mark much at this point, he dislikes the racist bigots even more so he defends Mark’s honor, putting himself on a collision course of pain with The White Tigers and their A-hole leader Craig Tanner (played by Matthew Ray Cohen, whose only other role in his career was “Dancer #1” in the classic erotic thriller BODY CHEMISTRY). In all fairness, this clash with racists did result in James and Mark becoming best friends so that was a pleasant and unexpected surprise.
When it looks like things can’t get much worse for James, Craig Tanner and his racists show up at the Chinese restaurant where he works and proceed to take advantage of their superior numbers and kick his ass real good. That’s when something strange happens, the annoying cook Wing (Tak-Wing Tang), who had just messed up James’ chances to score with a chick a few minutes earlier, steps in and shows himself to be a kung fu master, easily dispatching the White Tigers with moves defined by speed, grace, balance, agility, and acupunctural science. Amazed by what he has just seen, James wants some of that and begs Sifu Wing to train him so that he too can become a martial arts master. Receiving the kinds of real-life lessons from Wing that could never be learned in a college classroom, James soon finds himself putting it all on the line in a martial arts tournament that gives him the chance to win $25,000 for his now-injured bestie’s martial arts dojo for at-risk youth. As a bonus, he’ll also get the opportunity to humiliate and destroy the White Tigers once and for all!
An impartial critical assessment of COLLEGE KICKBOXERS would probably not be very kind. For starters Ken McLeod, AKA Ken Rendall Johnson, is not a very good actor. Neither are Marc D. Williams, Kendra Tucker or Matthew Ray Cohen. To be completely honest, they’re pretty bad. I think it would be fair to say that both Ken’s and Marc’s line deliveries are awkward and amateurish, that Kendra is annoying, and that Matthew is over-the-top, and not in a good way. The script is nothing to write home about either, completely relying on the cliches of the genre and the cheesiest of dialogue. In another somewhat bad sign, clocking in at just 88 minutes, it doesn’t necessarily feel like a short movie as the middle portion definitely leaves you wanting more action to show up.
With that said though, I still had a great time with COLLEGE KICKBOXERS. I think the main reason is that I just love a good underdog story where bullies, and in this case racists, get their comeuppance, and at-risk youth get their own dojos. And I really enjoyed Tak-Wing Tang’s performance as Sifu Wing! He underplays the role in a subtle and humorous way that I found really appealing. Wing also completed the action choreography, which is the true highlight of the film. McLeod isn’t great in the acting department, but he does a fine job when called upon to kick butt. To further illustrate my appreciation of Wing’s action direction, the year after this film was made, he would serve as an action choreographer for Jackie Chan’s amazing POLICE STORY III: SUPERCOP, and a couple of years after that he’d work on Chan’s DRUNKEN MASTER II. The man is talented! And finally, COLLEGE KICKBOXERS has that intangible nostalgic charm that takes me back to the early 90’s when I’d scan over my local video store’s entire inventory, an inventory that was chock full of these types of movies. I enjoyed watching them back then even if they were silly and cheesy, and watching movies like that now takes me back to that more simple and undemanding time. There’s real value in that to me!
Brad reviews THE NAKED GUN (2025), starring Liam Neeson!
When I first saw that THE NAKED GUN was being rebooted with Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin, Jr., I must admit that I was quite skeptical. You see, the original THE NAKED GUN (1988) with Leslie Nielsen came out when I was 15 years old, and I remember watching it at the movie theater on a field trip with our high school’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) club. I loved it so much! I eagerly watched THE NAKED GUN 2 1/2 (1991) and NAKED GUN 33 1/3 (1994) at the theaters as well. To be completely honest, this series is one of my favorites of my “growing into an adult” years, and I didn’t want to see it screwed up. When the trailer was released a couple of months ago my reaction was cautious optimism as I must admit it looked quite funny, and I decided that I would go watch it in the theater when it came out. Well, tonight my wife and I headed to the Cinemark in Little Rock to see what director Akiva Schaffer and his crew had come up with…
In THE NAKED GUN (2025), dedicated Detective Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) follows in his father’s footsteps by leading Police Squad and causing an endless array of problems for Police Chief Davis (CCH Pounder). When a bank heist is staged by Sig Gustafson (Kevin Durand) in order to obtain a mysterious P.L.O.T. Device, Drebin teams up with his partner, Captain Ed Hocken Jr. (Paul Walter Hauser), and the beautiful crime novelist Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson) to investigate. Their subsequent probe leads them to tech mogul Richard Cane (Danny Huston) and his sinister plot to use the device to revert humanity to a base barbaric state as the balls drop on New Year’s Eve. With the help of his deceased father’s spirit that’s being housed in the body of a large owl, Drebin goes all out to foil Cane’s plans while simultaneously falling in love with Beth!
I’m going to go ahead and alleviate any suspense and state that I love the new NAKED GUN movie. I laughed out loud throughout the entire film, including the end credits, and I wasn’t the only one as there were people in our showing that were laughing much louder than me. It was a fun “crowd experience,” and I’m so glad we caught it in the theater. Not every joke is funny, but in the tradition of the original series, they come so fast and furious that there’s a good chance the next joke will be hilarious. Liam Neeson does a great job as Frank Drebin, Jr., infusing the character with just the right amount of seriousness to allow the absurdity all around him to be played for laughs. I told a friend a few months ago that I’d be really impressed if Neeson was able to pull this role off, and I’m glad to report that he passes with flying colors. He doesn’t make you forget the comedic genius of Leslie Nielsen, but he’s darn good. And Pamela Anderson is perfect in the crime novelist / love interest role. I haven’t seen her in anything in a long time, but she’s truly hilarious in the film. After watching her performance, I honestly don’t think any actress could have done any better. The rest of the game cast, including Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston and Kevin Durand each have good moments that add to the fun. I also enjoyed some of the specific throwbacks to the original series, including brief appearances by Priscilla Presley, Weird Al Yankovic, and especially the stuffed beaver, which got a big laugh out of me, just like it did when I was 15!
Overall, I had a great time at the movie theater with THE NAKED GUN (2025). Director Akiva Schaffer delivers a hilarious, 85 minute film that’s a worthy follow-up to the original Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker / Leslie Nielsen classics. What else could you ask for?!!
Brad reviews SHOWDOWN (1993), starring Billy Blanks and Patrick Kilpatrick!
Are you a fan of THE KARATE KID? If you are, then I have the movie for you… SHOWDOWN (1993)! What’s better is that it’s now streaming on Amazon Prime, so you can go watch it right now!
SHOWDOWN is primarily the story of Ken Marx (Kenn Scott), a high school student who has recently moved to a new city with his mom. When he enrolls in the local high school, he catches the eye of the beautiful Julie (Christine Taylor), unaware that her boyfriend is a bullying asshole named Tom (Ken McLeod), a young martial artist trained by the ruthless sensei Lee (Patrick Kilpatrick). SHOWDOWN is also the story of ex-cop Billy Grant (Billy Blanks), who accidentally killed evil sensei Lee’s brother seven years earlier when breaking up a wild party one night when he was on duty with his partner Spinelli (Mike Genovese). Unable to cope with killing a man, Billy is now working as a janitor at the high school. The two main characters come together one afternoon when Tom gives Ken a good beating for having the nerve to talk to his property, I mean his girlfriend, Julie. Billy sees Ken doubled over in pain after taking a shot from Tom in the face and the gut, so he reluctantly decides to help the new kid, eventually introducing him to self-defense techniques and martial arts that will help him stand up to the bully. His teaching methods are quite unconventional and include such humbling tasks as cleaning toilets and urinals. The stories all come to a head one night when Ken and Tom fight it out in the ring. When evil sensei Lee tries to involve himself in the battle between the students, Billy gets his own shot at redemption when he steps in to enforce law and order for the first time in many years!
Based on the plot description above, it’s evident that SHOWDOWN is not afraid to wear its “Karate Kid” influences on its sleeve! I had never seen this 1993 B-movie before, so I found a lot of nostalgic fun in its familiar underdog story, with characters even specifically referencing key moments from the 80’s classic. Even if he’s somewhat limited as an actor, Billy Blanks just has this likable presence about him, and he’s definitely believable as a martial arts master. I enjoy watching him. Kenn Scott carries on the tradition of being a 25-year-old man playing a high school student, but he seems much older to me than Ralph Macchio did in THE KARATE KID. Scott in 1993 was much more physically developed than Macchio was in 1984, so while he doesn’t seem reasonable as a high school student, he does seem more reasonable as a fighter. Continuing my comparisons, Christine Taylor is cute as the love interest, but a fifth grade Brad Crain fell head over heels in love with Elizabeth Shue as “Ali with an I.” That’s not Christine’s fault though, and she’s fine here. Finally, I have to give a shoutout to Patrick Kilpatrick as the evil sensei Lee. In a career defined by playing bad guys, his deliriously unhinged, over-the-top performance here is a true highlight of the film.
As for the fight choreography in SHOWDOWN, it’s serviceable and delivered with conviction, but it’s not that great when viewed in 2025 and compared to the better movies of the genre. But that’s okay because the movie does what a lot of movies can’t do… it entertains and moves by at a fast pace. I enjoyed it, and I can easily recommend it to any person who enjoyed THE KARATE KID series or low budget, early 90’s, direct-to-video action.
Brad reviews the romantic comedy THE OTHER END OF THE LINE (2007)!
Back in 2019, I took my wife to Dallas, and while we were there, she asked if we could visit the South Fork Ranch. As many of you probably know, this is the setting for the wildly popular TV series DALLAS, that originally ran from 1978 through 1991 producing 356 episodes. She loved the series growing up and especially enjoyed watching it with her “granny” back in West Virginia. When we got back home from the trip, I hopped onto Amazon and purchased the entire original series for her, a set of TV movies, and even the series reboot that ran from 2012 through 2014, producing another 40 episodes. We watched everything over the next 6 months. The rebooted series starred, among others, Jesse Metcalfe as the grown up version of Christopher Ewing. My wife really liked him in the series, so he’s become one of our favorites that we like to watch on Hallmark and many other movies. The other day I watched a romantic comedy Jesse starred in called THE OTHER END OF THE LINE (2007). It’s currently streaming on Prime, so I decided to write up my thoughts on the film.
In THE OTHER END OF THE LINE, Shriya Saran plays Priya Sethi, a young woman working at a CitiBank call center in Mumbai, India. One day she gets a phone call from Granger Woodruff (Jesse Metcalfe), an American advertising executive, when he becomes a victim of identity theft. While working to resolve the situation, sparks being to fly during their conversations, and Priya, quite smitten with the handsome American, decides to travel to San Francisco to meet him in person. Through a variety of rom-com type circumstances, Priya ends up creating a false identity that she uses as she meets and spends time with Granger. As they continue to hit it off, her deception begins to create some serious complications. These issues come to a head when her very traditional dad, who expects her to marry a guy he’s chosen for her back in India, shows up in San Francisco. The blissfully ignorant Granger is suddenly made aware of Priya’s real life, and the two are faced with rather awkward and difficult decisions for how to move forward. Will Priya choose true love over cultural tradition? Will Granger take a chance and pursue her even though she’s been deceiving him? This is a romantic comedy, so you probably have a good idea how it might play out!
I enjoyed THE OTHER END OF THE LINE mainly because I’m an undemanding sucker for rom-coms, and I liked Jesse Metcalfe and Shriya Saran in the lead roles. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Saran on-screen before, but she’s extremely beautiful and charming, and I can definitely see why Metcalfe’s character would fall in love with her. I did! Metcalfe is good as the business obsessed American who has a bit more depth and heart than you might initially suspect. The leads carry what story there is just fine, and I found myself with a smile on my face as the end credits appeared. With that said, the story itself could be a bit of a problem to more demanding viewers. This has all been done many times before, and there isn’t anything unique to differentiate this film from countless others. Cliches abound as you can pretty much guess what’s going to happen from frame to frame. And the supporting characters aren’t much to write home about either. The “best friends” are exactly what you’d expect them to be, and not really in a good way. The supporting character that had the most potential for me was Saran’s dad. Unfortunately, he was set up to be a goofus for most of the film, so when he gets to flex his acting muscles at the end, the character’s more serious scenes don’t really hit home for me. On another positive note, I did enjoy seeing the contrast in the film’s settings in San Francisco and Mumbai, India. One of the funniest moments in the movie involves Metcalfe’s character’s attempt to get across Mumbai as quickly as possible while navigating different forms of the city’s public transportation.
Overall, I recommend THE OTHER END OF THE LINE to undemanding viewers who enjoy sweet, cookie cutter romantic comedies. I think there’s plenty to enjoy. However, if you watch the movie with one of those people who likes to make fun of everything, that person will have plenty of material as well!
Live Tweet Alert – #MondayMuggers present JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE (2006)!
Every Monday night at 9:00 Central Time, my wife Sierra and I host a “Live Movie Tweet” event on X using the hashtag #MondayMuggers. We rotate movie picks each week, and our tastes are quite different. Tonight, Monday, August 18th, we’ll be watching JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE (2006), starring Jesse Metcalfe, Ashanti, Arielle Kebbel, Sophia Bush, Brittany Snow, Penn Badgley, Jenny McCarthy, Terrell J. Ramsey, and Taylor Kitsch.
The plot: Three ex-girlfriends of a serial cheater set up their former lover to fall for the new girl in town so they can watch him get his heart broken.
I’ll admit I’ve been watching some Jesse Metcalfe films lately. Just yesterday I watched the Hallmark Christmas movie CHRISTMAS NEXT DOOR (2017) and the culture clash romantic comedy THE OTHER END OF THE LINE (2007). I enjoyed them both. Sierra wants to go back and watch the DALLAS T.V. series reboot where Jesse played a grown-up Christopher Ewing! Keeping with that theme, tonight we’ll be watching a very young Jesse as he deals with a plot of revenge from a group of beautiful but scorned young ladies. I’ve never actually watched the film, but it sounds like an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes. If that sounds fun to you, join us on #MondayMuggers and watch JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE. It’s streaming on Amazon Prime! See the Trailer below:
Brad’s Video of the Day – “Sunday in the South” by Shenandoah, Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan!
The country group Shenandoah released “Sunday in the South” back in 1989 when I was 16 years old. As a southerner myself from Arkansas, I remember liking the song, but I was today years old when I realized that it had been updated to include Shenandoah, Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan. Enjoy my friends!
Brad’s Song of the Day – Elvis Presley’s “Riding the Rainbow” with Charles Bronson!
Elvis Presley passed away 48 years ago on August 16th, 1977, at just 42 years of age. I’ve always been so happy that Elvis worked with my movie hero Charles Bronson on the 1962 film KID GALAHAD. In this little musical number, Elvis drives and sings while Bronson looks on with a sweet smile on his face. I love it. #RIPKing
Brad’s “Scene of the Day” – Angela Bassett is sick of Ralph Fiennes’ crap in STRANGE DAYS (1995)!
I have a tendency to develop crushes on the beautiful women in cinema. In 1995, I watched STRANGE DAYS in the theater because of Ralph Fiennes, but when I left I was in love with Angela Bassett. Her tough, but vulnerable character of Lornette “Mace” Mason grabbed me right by the heart! In honor of Angela’s 67th birthday, here’s a scene from the STRANGE DAYS. Just be careful, because she’s a crush waiting to happen!
Through the Shattered Lens 