herbiehancock

Original Title : Deathcheaters Year : 1976 Director : Brian Trenchard-Smith Writer : Michael Cove , Brian Trenchard-Smith (story) IMDb : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074385/ Genre : Action, Comedy Synopsis: Two stuntmen and war buddies are recruited by a man known only as Mr. Culpepper to retrieve papers from a remote At least Stunt Rock had the ridiculous stage act to offset the lack of actual movie. Deathcheaters was I suppose Trenchard-Smith's attempt at a comedy. As the film started, I actually felt a little confident in this realization, as the laughs weren't gut-busting, but at least entertaining. John Hargreaves playing stuntman Steve Hall and Grant Page playing stuntman Rodney Cann had good chemistry at first. Steve was sort of the voice to Rodney's peculiarities (such as wearing a Seinfeld-style pirate shirt and talking to his Bassett hound a la Roscoe and Flash from The Dukes of Hazzard). This film was released before either Seinfeld of Dukes though. Can't ...

Original Title : The Man From Hong Kong Year : 1975 Director : Brian Trenchard-Smith , Jimmy Wang Yu Writer : Brian Trenchard-Smith IMDb : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073343/ Genre : Action Synopsis: Special Agent Fang Sing Leng is called in from Hong Kong to Sydney, Australia to interrogate and extradite a Chinese drug dealer, but becomes increasingly involved in a larger criminal network despite protests of the local law enforcement. As far as I can tell, The Man From Hong Kong is Trenchard-Smith's first feature length film, and boy what a fucking doozy of a first film. To be a rookie in the 70s and get to blow shit up like this certainly took some sway somewhere. This film stars Jimmy Wang Yu, who was apparently quite the problem actor. I had heard of his being tough to work with in a review long ago by Cinema Diabolica about his 1976 film The Master of the Flying Guillotine. Yu and Trenchard-Smith had issues on this set as well with who was directing who, but the pairing here...

...and taking forever to finish my review, you can watch the trailer for The Man From Hong Kong!

Original Title : Stunt Rock Year : 1978 Director : Brian Trenchard-Smith Writer : Paul-Michel Mielche Jr. , Brian Trenchard-Smith IMDb : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078335/ Genre : Action Synopsis: Australian stuntman Grant Page goes to Los Angeles to work on a television series. He uses his spare time to lend his expertise to rock band Sorcery, whose act features duels between the King of the Wizards and the Prince of Darkness, with his cousin playing the Prince. OK, I'm not always a fan of saying there's not much to say about this movie... but... Stunt Rock was certainly not what I expected. Instead of a standard action flick, what we get is sort of a Grant Page highlight show. Trenchard-Smith creates a very barebones story with Grant Page coming to Los Angeles to work as a stuntman on a new television show, meeting a lady there who is writing a story about people making sacrifices for their profession.... or something. Enter Mr. Page who throughout the film tells whatsher...

TrenchARD that is. Tonight I watched the fantastic documentary about Ozsploitation films... or genre films from Australia and typically about Austraila(ns)... Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! and there was quite a bit on a Mr. Brian Trenchard Smith . Trenchard-Smith is a director I have not really given a fair shake to. The only film I have seen by him (gasp) up to this point is 1988's Day of the Panther . It was decidedly not my favorite martial arts film. Probably wasn't even my favorite that I watched that day! I've had people tell me and heard on various podcasts and such that I really should see more. Well, now's as good a time as any I guess; I've been sitting on a few for awhile. Fresh off the heels of the testosterone oozing Actionfest this past weekend, I'm still chomping at the bit for more shit blowing up, cars crashing, and people defying death. These will all be films released before Day of the Panther in 1988. Who know...