The B-Movie Shelf

An alien race, intent on decimating mankind and repopulating the Earth, brainwashes humans to carry out acts of destruction. With the military powerless, humanity's only hope lies in an untested, hi-tech mech-bot. REVIEW: Hornet is an upcoming movie by The Asylum due out on December 18th, obviously made to be a mockbuster on the Transformers: Bumblebee movie. Amazon Prime Video in Canada has been releasing almost the entire Asylum catalog on their service bit by bit over the last week (so, pretty much early Christmas to someone like me!) and among the ones uploaded, much to my surprise, was an early release for Hornet! The plot is simple enough, although a tad bit unbelievable (then again, which Asylum movie isn't? Hahaha). When aliens invade the Earth and start brainwashing people into a mindless rage zombie-like state, it's up to a group of University students to use their secret project - a fully-working semi-self-conscious giant robot called Hornet - to help...

Jake Carter returns yet again and together with another former Marine, Luke Trapper, they must join forces to rescue a kidnapped girl from a gang of international criminals. REVIEW: I actually enjoy all these low budget Direct-to-Video Marine sequels (Most more than the original movie even), so I always like it when a new one suddenly gets released out of nowhere like this. Sadly, The Marine 6: Close Quarters is easily the weakest of the bunch. It's directed by the same guy that directed the previous movie, The Marine 5: Battlefield, which was my least favorite until this one came around so at this point I think this director is just not suited for this series very well. It's not all on him though. The Miz just looks bored during the entire thing and has no onscreen personality to speak of, which is strange because he was fantastic in the previous three movies (even Battlefield). On top of that, the action and fight scenes feel quite sluggish and very choreogra...

The Scorpion King teams up with a female warrior named Tala, the daughter of The Nubian King. Together they search for a legendary relic known as The Book of Souls, which will allow them to put an end to an evil warlord with his own mythical artifact of power. REVIEW: The Scorpion King: Book of Souls is the fifth (!) in a long line of movies spun-off from the Brendan Frasier-starring Mummy franchise, and I know they get quite a lot of flak online but personally I love almost all of the Scorpion King direct-to-video sequels and it's one of my biggest guilty pleasure DtV franchises. Despite all its low budget faults, I find them pretty fun overall and I feel there's not nearly enough 'Sword and Sandal' adventure flicks nowadays. Victor Webster, who played the role in the last two movies, IMO is way better and more natural in the role than the Rock was in the initial theatrical movie. With that said, and Victor Webster aside, I didn't like the previous mov...

Fin has to go back in time to rejoin his shark-battling friends to save the future by stopping the random Sharknados that are mysteriously popping up at major historical events throughout history. REVIEW: After five movies in five years , and a massively surprising pop culture phenomenon, it all comes down to this one last movie by The Asylum and the SyFy Channel, The Last Sharknado: It's About Time. Much of my issues with Sharknado 6 are actually pretty much the same issues I had with Sharknado 5: Global Swarming - Most of the jokes I didn't find funny, the plot is all over the place, they throw way too much random stuff into the script just to see what sticks and most of it doesn't, the special effects (which, to be fair, have never been good to begin with) are pretty much the worst they've been in the entire franchise, and it just moves from pretty much one random action scene directly into the next with very little (or none at all, in some cases) d...

Darcy is back on the force, but still fights on as the Black Scorpion in secret because "it's in her nature." This time, she fights Gangster Prankster, and a new villain, Aftershock, emerges when the Mayor tries to protect his federal earthquake relief money. When the two villains team up and kidnap Argyle's girlfriend, Black Scorpion is faced with the theft of the Scorpionmobile and the imminent destruction of Angel City. REVIEW: Black Scorpion 2: Aftershock, Roger Corman's 1996 follow-up to his 1995 low budget dark superhero movie is, sadly, not as good as the first movie, and that one was already not very good. While it's still quite heavy on the cheese, it has less sleaze and everything in it makes even less sense. There's actually a scene where the title "hero" is being chased by two cops, who are just doing their job in chasing her, and she outright blows them up and kills them... AND it's played up as a joke!? WHAT T...

Darcy is a cop by day who is also a supehero named Black Scorpion by night, who kicks ass and beats evildoers to a pulp. She soon catches wind of an asthmatic mad scientist who plans on tainting the city's air supply with a toxin. Only Darcy in her superhero garb can stop him with the assistance of a petty thief named Argyle and a really cool car. REV IEW: Black Scorpion, Roger Corman's very low budget superhero movie from 1995, is equal parts sleaze and cheese, with a dark as hell tone to it, yet a certain level of small bouts of comedy here and there (mostly with certain characters) to give it that level of levity once in awhile. This superhero movie has sex scenes and nudity (from the title hero at that!), it has a BDSM-style costume for the title hero that is in no way practical for crime fighting, it has a transforming high-tech car, it has death scenes (again, at the hands of the title hero), it has the Dollar Store Power Rangers version of Darth Vad...

Facing certain defeat, Merlin banishes the evil enchantress Morgana, and her son Mordred, to the ends of the universe. Vowing revenge, Morgana and her son finally return to Earth 1500 years later, hell-bent on destroying every last modern day descendant of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. REVIEW: The Asylum's upcoming movie due out May 2nd, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, an obvious mockbuster on the upcoming Hollywood movie starring Charlie Hunnam, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, is a similar idea to some of their other movies where they take a classic story or legend and update it to take place in the modern age. Movies like 3 Musketeers , The 7 Adventures of Sinbad, 30,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 2010: Moby Dick, and most recently Sinbad and the War of the Furies are just a handful of their titles that were all done like that, to varying degrees of success. Out of all those types of movies by them however, this just may be my personal...

Like with 2011 , 2012 , 2013 , and 2014 this is my Annual list of my personal favorite B-Movie releases of 2015. I know it's SUPER late (Like, two years late), but I had actually given up on doing reviews for awhile and then when I got back into it I kind of forgot all about this list. Now, there is still plenty of movies from that year that I haven't yet seen, plus it's been a couple years after the fact now, so it's possible I've potentially skipped over a few diamonds in the rough due to that, since this list is based off what I've actually watched myself and what I could dig up that came out that year. Also, this list is solely based off what has hit home video formats and Video On Demand services in 2015, so movies that aired on TV stations like Lifetime or the SyFy Channel that year, but never came out on DVD, BluRay, and VOD services until 2016 or later, does not count for this. I want this as a list of movies that you could potentially pick...

On a treasure hunt gone wrong, modern-day adventurer Sinbad accidentally releases the Furies, three beautiful but terrible ancient beings powerful enough to threaten life on Earth. REVIEW: The Asylum has pretty much always been my favorite low budget B-Movie production company ever since I first really started getting into and doing reviews for B-Movies back in the early 2000s. Since then, Asylum has consistently been putting out two (and on some occasions, even more) movies per month, so we always had a great B-Movie variety pack to choose from. However, these last couple years, with the SyFy Channel producing less and less Original Movies, and Asylum's own TV Show, Z Nation, taking flight as a force to be reckoned with, it seems Asylum has majorly cut back on the amount of movies they make, putting out usually only one a month now at most, and sometimes even entire months go by in between any new release. I figured that would mean the few that ...

After the FBI receives a threat that endangers the entire city, an interrogator and an I.T. specialist are plunged into a series of mind games with a criminal mastermind, desperately racing against time to uncover the villain's true agenda as they fight to protect thousands of lives. REVIEW: The Direct-to-Video action flicks put out every few months by WWE Studios are always a huge guilty pleasure with me. Sure, they're pretty generic and filled with bad acting, and when all is said and done and the end credits are rolling they're pretty forgettable and interchangeable with one another, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that, during the runtime of them while you're actually watching them, they're fun as all hell. The Marine sequels are a pretty big favorite of mine in this area. Interrogation, however, is sadly not one of them.  The music is kind of fun and sets the mood of each scene perfectly, but the acting is pretty bad here, ...

A retired mixed martial artist can't refuse a million-dollar payday he's offered for one final match in Myanmar. But when he arrives for the fight, he learns he's been tricked into becoming the target of a human hunt. REVIEW: It's no secret that I actually have an unnatural love for Direct-to-Video action movie sequels that are simply sequels in-name-only and have nothing to do with the first one. I know most people hate them, but I always have a blast with them and Hard Target 2, the 2016 sequel to the classic 1993 Jean-Claude Van Damme movie is no exception. Actually, this is one of the best ones I've seen. High production values, thrilling well-shot action scenes, and serviceable acting (not great outside of Robert Knepper, but passable) can all be found in this one, with some truly amazing martial arts fights. Scott Adkins is so damn talented when it comes to martial arts, and the camera work actually manages to stay on him while perfor...

An ex-con reunites with his estranged wayward teen daughter to protect her from drug dealers who are trying to kill her. REVIEW: Blood Father is a fine return to form for Mel Gibson, an actor that, personal issues aside, is one of my favorites. The plot is nothing all that new or revolutionary, though it still remains engaging all the way through, and it's certainly helped by the great performances by Mel Gibson and Erin Moriarty who plays his daughter, and to a smaller degree William H. Macy as Gibson's neighbor and AA sponser. Gibson shines here brighter than in any other modern movie he's been in, showing a wide degree of emotions and personality types throughout the movie, and pulling each style off masterfully, even managing to throw in some well-timed, and what seemed like improvised, moments of comedy here and there. The action may not have been quite as plentiful as I was expecting (I would say this is more of a thriller than an outright action ...

Rookie cop Lucas White goes undercover in a street racing crew as they scheme to rob a crime boss kingpin in this parody of the Fast and Furious franchise. REVIEW: I'm a huge fan of the Fast and Furious franchise. I've highly enjoyed every film they've made, with Tokyo Drift being a bit of a weaker entry for me than the rest. When I heard the makers of all those dreadful "Fill in the Blank Here" Spoof movies were making a spoof of the Fast and Furious films, I have to confess that I was curious to say the least. Than when the trailer came out and I viewed that, while it may not have been the funniest thing I've ever laughed at, what I did see seemed okay to me and certainly better than 99% of what I saw of all their countless other spoof movies So how does SuperFast! stack up? I have to admit, I actually found that it was quite enjoyable. It's one of those spoof movies that are more story-based and follows an actual plot, as opposed to just ran...

Like with 2011 , 2012 , and then 2013 this is my Annual list of my personal favorite B-Movie releases of the last year. There is still plenty of movies from this past year that I haven't yet seen, so it's possible I've potentially skipped over a few diamonds in the rough due to that, since this list is based off what I've actually watched myself. Also, this list is solely based off what has hit home video formats and Video On Demand services in 2014, so movies that aired on TV stations like Lifetime or the SyFy Channel this year, but never came out on DVD, BluRay, and VOD services yet, does not count for this. I want this as a list of movies that you could potentially pick up yourself or have easy access to legally obtaining. Likewise, some of these movies may have aired on TV in previous years, but didn't actually get released on home video formats or VOD until 2014, thus I count them as 2014 movies for that reason. The following list won'...