Enter the Fist — My Movie Poster for a Movie that I’m In

Bizarre story: I was standing around one day when Oliver Stone’s son, Sean Stone, and Jean-Claude Van Damme’s daughter, Bianca Van Damme, and Alexander Wraith from Orange is the New Black, were about to have lunch when they looked over at me and were like, “You should be a John Travolta thug in our movie!”

And so, that is just what I became. It was so awesome working on the set of Enter the Fist and the Golden Fleecing. It’s an action comedy inspired by 1980’s action flicks with tons of really cool cameos …like Danny Trejo, Ernie Reyes Jr (yup!! One of my childhood favorites from Ninja Turtles!!!!) and a lot of pro-wrestlers and martial artists.

Taimak (yup again!!! The very same Taimak from the 1985 cult classic The Last Dragon) at one point enlisted me to reenact a fight scene from Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon. We were off-camera, in the patio outside the studio (afternoon sunshine gleaming all around) with a relatively small audience including stunt coordinator Pete Antico. Taimak, of course, played the part of Bruce Lee …and I was the guy getting beat up hahaha. But throughout the reenactment, Taimak described how this was more than just a fight. It was an emotional release. With each kick and punch, Bruce Lee’s character was in reality facing his fears and ultimately conquering the terrors of his past.

Perhaps one of the most surreal moments happened after I filmed a scene and got a few laughs – playing up the 1980s action comedy theme – Michael Dudikoff (the dude from the American Ninja movies that I watched as a kid!!!!!) came up to me, shook my hand, and said, “It was wonderful working with you!”

As a visual artist, I was so inspired by my experience that I ended up creating a movie poster. This artwork can now be seen on the IMDb page for Enter the Fist, with many the actors tagged in it (me included, Rey Marz as the Travolt Thug!!! I’m on the bottom row …the lead hair stylist, Leesa Simone, did a great job puffing up my hairdo like Saturday Night Fever)

Be sure to check it out!

 

Zelda Movie 3: Return of the Hero

The journey comes to an end as a young country elf named Link squares off against the evil dark lord Ganon.

*spoiler alert*

Link wins, of course. And in the name of his picturesque homeland of Hyrule (and in honor of the lovely Princess Zelda who had sent him on this quest in the first place) he reclaims what Ganon had stolen:

The Triforce … a trio of triangular power-tablets which have a rightful place back at Hyrule Castle … spreading extreme peace and harmony throughout the land.

And Link goes down in Hyrulian history as a dependable hero.

Thus concludes this Legend of Zelda Movie Trilogy.

Find out where it all began:

Legend of Zelda: The Motion Picture
The hero gets all the glory.

Legend of Zelda: Part Two
Villain Strikes Back

10,000 BC – cleverest hero in film history

Director Roland Emmerich re-imagines our expectations with 2008’s 10,000 BC.

So who is the hero of this movie? He calls himself D’Leh, and he happens to be the cleverest hero in film history. For starters, his name spelled backwards is “held“…which is German for “hero.” And since the bad guys in this movie don’t speak German, they have no clue who they are dealing with!

To further his disguise as a hero, D’Leh’s friends call him “delay“…which is English for “good for nothing.” When D’Leh is ready to embark on a quest to rescue his girlfriend, his spiritual leader actually spits on him as a blessing in disguise. And that is very clever. Officers in World War II used to smear mud on their helmets to disguise their rank. You never know when a sniper is watching.

And even when he is in his “hero mode”,  he still looks incapable of doing all of the wonderful things he does.  He gets the girl of his dreams by mumbling a few one-liners.  And he fulfills a prophecy of pictures painted on a rock, which roughly states that one day “a man and a sabre-toothed tiger shall meet, and both shall walk away, unscathed, or at least well enough to tell the tale another day . . . and also, this man shall then be destined to bring destruction to bad guys everywhere.”

The bad guys never saw it coming.  And, truth be told, neither did the good guys, including his girlfriend, his family, friends and neighbors.  Nobody saw it coming.  Because D’Leh is that good.  Seriously.

To see humans go further back in time, check out:

100 Million BC
Army guys! Time travel! Dinosaurs!