Bloodmoon (Gary Daniels)

[GwaiLoMoFo]

This one worth picking up? I saw it on the shelf today for $8, and I know Ive heard it mentioned here a few times. I believe the consensus was B-movie, with some great HK styled action sequences. Any thoughts??

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Get it. Really cool fights, and a lot of them. Chuck Jeffreys, Gary Daniels, Darren Shahlavi, they all look great. And mark my words, this movie has the greatest ending ever. If you like cheesy movies that is

[The Running Man]

It's worth picking up yes.

[Bus]

good movie with chuck, gary, and darren like my friend morgoth said also hakim alston who should've been in more films and has a decent opening fight and had nice fights in shootfighter and us seals 2

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Yeah you are right, Hakim Alston is great. Every time I see him on screen I know he's gonna bring it. I haven't seen Shootfighter. The only movies I have seen him in is Bloodmoon, US SEALS 2 and Mortal Kombat.

[KUNG FU BOB]

I still have my VHS copy of BLOODMOON with the holographic cover. First it's this picture... then it's that one... Hours of endless fun.

[Bus]

i bet they have to make use of camera angles when using him seeing as he's 6'8. you can tell in scenes from us seals 2 but the other movies he's in you can't. he has a good fighting background and even won gold medals in the olympics.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Man that is tall. You can tell he has real skills, but a gold medalist wow. I had no idea. I wish he was in more movies. On IMDB it doesn't list many at all.

[AlbertV]

I actually got an e-mail from Hakim a few years ago and it was just when he created his new K3 Fitness program with his brother Shah.

Bloodmoon has great fights courtesy of the excellent Tony Leung Siu-Hung. Gary, Chuck, and Darren all look great. But you gotta love the appearance of Frank "The Riddler" Gorshin as the police chief and I liked Brandie Rocci as Gary's master's daughter, even though you can tell she was doubled in her fight scenes, most likely by Leung's younger brother Ten Kid Leung with a wig, but she did throw a few nice kicks. Also nice quick cameo by Keith Vitali and Joe Hess as thugs who take on Gary in Gary's 1st fight of the film.

[Bus]

that's cool albert. wish he'd get in contact with you again on what he's doin

do you think chuck and them ment intentionally to parody eddie murphy from da beverly hills cop movies? because the way he kind of acted and even dressed like him made me laugh da whole movie

[Mike Leeder]

Hakim is tall, but I cant remember him being 6'8, met him when we did "Lost Time" for Robin Shou a few years back...great guy, and should have done more

[Chinatown Kid]

that's cool albert. wish he'd get in contact with you again on what he's doin

do you think chuck and them ment intentionally to parody eddie murphy from da beverly hills cop movies? because the way he kind of acted and even dressed like him made me laugh da whole movie

I remember watching Jeffries and thinking man this guy is trying to imitate Eddie Murphy, he even sounded like Murphy talking!

That Darren Shavali guy had some pretty good kicks in this flick, I liked the gimmick of the steel toe boots lol.

[Bus]

haha and da fingers? you could tell how tall hakim was when darren picked him up over his head i was like damn that dude is huge

[AlbertV]

I remember watching Jeffries and thinking man this guy is trying to imitate Eddie Murphy, he even sounded like Murphy talking!

That Darren Shavali guy had some pretty good kicks in this flick, I liked the gimmick of the steel toe boots lol.

I used to get in touch with both Chuck and Darren for quite a few years. Last time I heard from Chuck was when he had wrapped up Blade: Trinity as the film's fight choreographer. Darren has his own MySpace and when I have time, I try to keep in touch with him. Even had some contact with Gary Daniels for a little while back when Bloodmoon was on HBO. These three are truly gentlemen who care about their fans IMO.

Chuck's even told me he would love to plan something with Gary and Darren again. How cool would that be if these three reunited for a movie?

[Chinatown Kid]

It sure would be great Albert, thanks for the info man!

[GwaiLoMoFo]

Finally watched it. I thought it was one of the best DTV B MA movies Ive seen. The action was pretty good, but it did seem to be a couple steps slower than the HK flix Im used to watching. You could tell the stunts/fights were done by an HK crew. You never see any other stuntmen taking those kinds of hits/falls. That mask & cape that Darren wore was extremely cheesy! One complaint.. How terrible was the concealing of the wirework & harness at the end of the film. Gary looked like he was wearing one of those puffy sumo suits under his clothes!

I remember watching Jeffries and thinking man this guy is trying to imitate Eddie Murphy, he even sounded like Murphy talking!

The very first thing that came to mind when they first started introducing his character was Axel Foley. And magic tricks at the murder scene?

[AlbertV]

Oh that is so true GwaiLOMoFo. Yeah you can tell with the wirework at the end, especially when Gary did a running jump to a scaffold and he looked like he defied gravity. Other than that, fun fights. I was excited to see "The Riddler" himself as the Chief of Police and former WWE star Rob Van Dam fighting Darren in the film (I think this was only his 2nd film behind another Tony Leung Siu-Hung film, Superfights).

[One Armed Boxer]

I just got through watching this one for the first time, and it was definitely worth the wait, all be it not necessarily for the reasons I was expecting. I think the best way to describe it is like a Troma movie meets a kung-fu movie. Outside of the action, it literally piles on one laugh inducing bizzare scene after another.

Chuck Jeffreys arrives at a murder scene and starts performing magic tricks like pulling out brightly colored handkerchiefs from his sleeves, every single line which comes out of Darren Shahlavi's mouth is a certifiable classic, and the wardrobe department seem to have ordered all of Gary Daniels' clothes a size too big for him, poor guy.

There's one shot which weirdly opens on the poster for the Tom Cruise movie 'Mission Impossible', which was surreal as it doesn't seem like this is taking place in the same world as normal Hollywood fare. Of course it isn't, this was Seasonal Film's last foray into the Western market, and even though it was made in 1997, the look and feel of things makes it easily passable as a movie from at least five years earlier.

Thankfully there's fights, and plenty of them. As GwaiLoMoFo mentioned they are a shade slower than their HK counterparts (although if you did a comparison of HK stuff that also came out in '97, I'm not sure the difference would be so noticable), but the quality of them is high level stuff, with a particular highlight being the three on one featuring Daniels, Jeffreys, and the obviously doubled daughter of the murdered master taking on Shahlavi in the confines of a small apartment.

All in all, 'Bloodmoon' is a great movie for cracking open a few cans with friends, which is what I'll be doing the next time I watch it, there's plenty of unintentional laughs along the way, the biggest of which comes in the final scene, helped along with some great fights courtesy of Tony Leung Siu Hung, definitely recommended!

PS On a sidenote, I ordered the DVD off amazon which has the cover of Gary Daniels with slicked back hair pointing a gun towards camera in a ripped white vest against the backdrop of a full moon. I was surprised as this scene is actually nowhere in the movie, neither is Daniels wearing a white vest or having slicked back hair, is this image from a different movie? When my DVD did arrive, it actually had a completely different image on the front, which is Daniels holding a gun at the top juxtaposed with an explosion in a city street on the bottom. The DVD is made by genius products, inc. Is there any difference between the two versions?

5U_fsvIscnI

[ShaOW!linDude]

Wow, OAB, I'm so glad you finally got to see this. I'd have thought you took this in years ago. This is by far my favorite Daniels film and based on it, I never could understand why Shahlavi and Jeffreys didn't get more B movie action work, especially some films to star in. There's some great HK style Modern Actioner choreography in this. Love the end fight, though the very end is cheeeeeeesy.

[One Armed Boxer]

I never could understand why Shahlavi and Jeffreys didn't get more B movie action work, especially some films to star in.

I can't speak for Jeffreys, but it seemed to me like Shahlavi always had his sights set on working in the HK movie scene over the US B-movie circuit. Even 'Bloodmoon' is still essentially a HK production.

Unfortunately by the time he got his first prominent role against Wu Jing in 'Tai Chi II / Tai Chi Boxer', it was only a year until the Hong Kong handover back to China, and I think that affected the HK movie industry a lot more than we'll probably ever know. Most of Hong Kongs top talent escaped to Hollywood - Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat, Yuen Woo Ping, Ringo Lam, John Woo, Tsui Hark - & I don't think there was really a lot of opportunity left for a Caucasian martial arts star working in the territory.

If he was on the scene in the late 80's / early 90's I think it would have been a different story, & he would have easily become one of the classic Gweilo characters in the industry alongside people like Mark Houghton & Richard Norton. Only my opinion but I think it was just bad timing.

[ShaOW!linDude]

I know Jeffreys popped up in couple of other flicks (Superfights, Death Fight) as a henchman/villain. But the guy's acting chops are pretty good. I'd've thought he'd have made for an up and coming action star.

Did not realize that about Shahlavi. And have never considered the timing. Interesting. I just know that this and Tai Chi 2 were the only things he ever really got to showcase in. Then he just disappeared for a while it seemed like. I hate when something like that happens to someone whose talent is primed to go.

But it seems like Daniels' output slacked off after this, too, or the films he did just weren't of this caliber. Too much emphasis on the action, not enough on choreography. His earlier stuff though......pretty good.

[Jay Stone]

I remember when Bloodmoon had a write up in I think the old Hong Kong Film Connection magazine, then had it's world premiere on HBO! I still have my VHS recording of it. Fun movie.

[blue_skies]

I must admit I've never seen this film and hope I will one day.

[ShaOW!linDude]

This is one worthy of hunting down, b_s. You should be able to score it relatively cheap, too.

[One Armed Boxer]

I just know that this and Tai Chi 2 were the only things he ever really got to showcase in. Then he just disappeared for a while it seemed like. I hate when something like that happens to someone whose talent is primed to go.

Yeah it's frustrating I agree, ironically enough the main star of 'Tai Chi II' Wu Jing never really reached his full potential in my opinion either, although that had more to do with his own frustrations against the HK movie industry and the expectations that came along with it rather than a timing issue.

But it seems like Daniels' output slacked off after this, too, or the films he did just weren't of this caliber. Too much emphasis on the action, not enough on choreography. His earlier stuff though......pretty good.

The first movie I ever saw Daniels in was 'Fist of the North Star' back when it aired on British TV in the early 2000's. Hong Kong Legends also did a DVD release of that movie, so I went into it expecting greatness, but thought it was awful.

After that I wrote Daniels off and didn't have any interest in watching anything with his name on it, until I picked up the Hong Kong Legends release of the Jackie Chan movie 'City Hunter'. Although it's not one of Chan's best, it does contain an awesome fight scene with him against Daniels in which they're dodging each others blows so skillfully I had to rewind the scene, but it also had a great interview with Daniels as an extra feature. He comes across as a really humble and nice guy, who had some great tales to tell about how he got into the industry.

Still, 'Fist of the North Star', 'City Hunter', and now 'Bloodmoon' remain the only movies that I've seen of his....is there anything else he's done which comes close to the quality of the fights in 'Bloodmoon'?

I must admit I've never seen this film and hope I will one day.

blue_skies you can pick it up used really cheaply on amazon.com....not so much on amazon.co.uk. But even when you factor in the shipping cost from ordering within the US, .com still works out quite reasonable.