Magnificent Seven Week: VHS Origins

Can you believe I've been to a whopping 16 comic book and popular culture conventions this year?! Big and small, they've all been terrific for the most part. Well except September's Long Beach Comic Con which was a frigging mess. Comikaze looms at the end of the month but before then we'll be headed to downtown for a show I never knew existed, the western and Magnificent Seven themed M7 Con! I don't know how I missed this for the last two years as The Magnificent Seven movie and TV show are among my favorites of either media. I remember the first time I saw M7 the film was on AMC back when they still showed movies, fell in love with it then bought it on VHS and subsequent special edition DVD. Based on Akira Kurasowa's seminal film The Seven Samurai, the story of a band of ragtag samurais protecting a small village in Japan, Magnificent transplants the action to Mexico where veterans and gunfighters band together to take on a bandit and his small army. Directed by Damamged Goods Hall of Famer John Sturges with a script credited to William Roberts, Seven starred Yul Brynner as black clad leader Chris Adams while launching the careers of Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn and Robert Vaughn. Released in 1960, the film made little impact in America but made a splash in Europe and returned to become an audience favorite that garnered an Academy Award nomination for composer Elmer Bernstein's rousing score.

John Sturges had steadily been building his reputation as the go-to filmmaker for action flicks with heart and machismo with Escape from Fort Bravo, Bad Day at Black Rock and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral already to his credit. Seven would cement his status as an action director who specialized in alpha, doer-centric casts and would culminate in career high effort The Great Escape in 1963. Allegedly The Magnificent Seven is the second most played film on television. Yul Brynner lead sequel Return of the Seven was released in 1966 featuring an all new cast that included Robert Fuller and Warren Oates. Burt Kennedy (Support Your Local Sheriff!) directed the Larry Cohen scripted affair which reused Bernstein's memorable score. George Kennedy assumed the role of Chris Adams with Bernie Casey and Joe Don Baker appearing in 1969's Guns of the Magnificent Seven before 1972's The Magnificent Seven Ride! recruited Lee Van Cleef as Chris for the film franchises final ride. An update was bandied about in the 80's from Hard Times and The Warriors' Walter Hill then the 90's with Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark writer Lawrence Kasdan at the helm but those versions never materialized.

Cut to January of 1998 and CBS premiered The Magnificent Seven starring Michael Biehn, Eric Close, Ron Perlman, Anthony Starke, Rick Worthy, Dale Midkiff and Andrew Kavovit. The pilot found the new seven taking on a band of disgruntled Confederate soldiers headed by Robocop's Kurtwood Smith as he threatens a village of natives and freed slaves. Young Guns and Under Siege sequels director Geoff Murphy takes the reins for an action packed if unevenly shot 90 minutes which manages to fit in some social commentary about race relations, belief and honor back in the old west from a script by Frank Q. Dobbs, Chris Black, Pen Densham and John Watson. Of course Biehn's involvement got me hooked early on but the cast all get their time to shine. Biehn plays black clad leader Chris who is known as a cold blooded killer throughout the territory after losing his wife and son. Eric Close fills in for Steve McQueen as 2nd in command sharp shooter Vin while Perlman is Josiah, the preacher who drinks and fights, Starke is the card shuffling scoundrel Ezra, Worthy plays Nathan the stretcher bearer turned town doctor, Midkiff as ladies man Buck and Kavovit as young whipper snapper J.D. Debuting on Saturday, January 3rd in place of Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman, The Magnificent Seven pilot came out guns blazing, securing the # 8 spot for the week with 10 million viewers and 19% share of monitored viewers. I remember sitting in a movie theater on a Friday night and suddenly realizing I had forgotten to set the VCR to record an episode. I contemplated using the pay phone to tell my mom to do it for me but luckily the entire series would be released on DVD in the mid 2000's.

Premiere! Skin Trade

It's been an interesting journey going from the guy sitting in the audience to the one helping put things together and standing up front with a microphone. Last night's premiere of Skin Trade was an educational experience as I watched how studios and PR firms handle their business. The courtyard to The Egyptian Theatre was set up with a red carpet and lights with security checking people in at Hollywood Boulevard. #ActionMovieBros David J. Moore from World Gone Wild and The Action Elite's Eoin Friel were there while news outlets like Nerd Reactor, Variety, The Arnold Fans and Starburst magazine had their spots on the red carpet. I ran into co-producer Craig Baumgarten who was on his way to Asia shortly after the premiere. Bloodsport co-writer and Double Impact director Sheldon Lettich was one of my guests for the night and in some near perfect timing, it had been a year and a day since the inaugural Dammaged Goods Presents event, The Van Damme Triple Dip at The New Beverly Cinema. Speaking of Van Damme, Pound of Flesh director Ernie Barbarash was in attendance and walked the red carpet.

A pack of papparazzi was stationed on the Walk of Fame and one by one, our guests for the evening started to arrive. Ron Perlman. Tony Jaa. Director Ekachai Uekrongtham. Celina Jade. Dolph Lundgren. They were joined by the likes of Chuck Zito, Victor Ortiz and Chin Han. An invitation to one Jean-Claude Van Damme was extended but I was told he was too busy with his own impending premiere the next evening. Earlier in the day it was said that Jason Statham planned on attending and we were hoping Michael Jai-White and Peter Weller would swing by if they were in town. It looked like Statham was a no show while Mr. White had just hopped on a plane to London and Mr. Weller must have been predisposed. Apparently Mr. Statham had already snuck into the theater and lo and behold when I went to the waiting area to do the night's introduction, there he was. After a quick hello and shake of hands, where I forgot to invite him to do a movie night, we waited as the cast filed in from outside.

Then it was showtime and after a quick introduction and mic handoff to Dolph, the co-producer, writer and star of the film talked about the origins of the film coming from real world events, having met Tony Jaa a couple of years ago on a Thai comedy, getting the cast, securing financing and then enlisting director Uekrongtham. Dolph got a little more serious in talking about the horrors of real world human trafficking where mostly young women are drugged, beat and raped then put to work. While it seemed like a third world problem, Dolph cited an example of it in nearby Brentwood where a woman was brought to the country and put to work as a nanny. After slipping a note to a fellow nanny and praying for help, a week later a dozen FBI agents arrived and pulled her out. Thanks to C.A.S.T., the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, the young woman was put into a shelter, found new work and eventually married and had a child. That young lady was also in attendance. A special auction to attend the premiere, meet the cast and work out with Dolph netted a whopping $40,000.00 bid the last time I checked. Attending co-stars Jaa, Jade and Perlman joined Dolph up front and then it was movie time.

Skin Trade is the tale of two cops, New Jersey based Nick Cassidy (Lundgren) and Thailand's Tony (Jaa). They're both working cases involving human trafficking and after Cassidy kills the son of drug dealer and trafficker Viktor (Ron Perlman), the Russian boss' remaining sons send a rocket into Nick's suburban house window, killing his wife and daughter. With nothing to lose and vengeance on his mind, Nick shows up in Thailand and tracks Viktor down with extreme interrogation methods including shotgun blasts, mangled joints, front kicks and letter openers to the throat. The two cops face off before realizing they're on the same side and they head into a gunfire and explosion filled confrontation with Viktor and his thugs. The script by Lundgren, Gabriel Dowrick and Steven Elder is pretty straightforward but the attention paid to trafficking is rightly sad and unsettling. Uekrongtham lingers a little long on the bad stuff to set up the world but the picture is extremely crisp, the locale used to great effect and action pretty Damme good.

Michael Jai-White shows up as task force member who gets to show off his meaty physique barely contained by a three piece suit and gets a nice fight with Jaa where he goes full Super-Shredder as he punches, kicks and breaks anything in his way. It's pretty impressive to see a man of his size move so fluidly and performing jump, spinning multiple kicks. Jaa of course whups all kinds of ass from his first scene involving a belt and a balcony and his fights with White and Lundgren are excellently staged. His bout with Lundgren showcases both of their styles, Jaa being smaller and faster, flipping, jumping and kicking 20 feet into the air while Lundgren gets to do a trademark step in side kick, show off some brute strength and his classic rough and tumble karate. The fight scenes were shot pretty wide so you could actually see what was going on and with each star being a lifelong martial artist in his own disciplines, showcased each of their styles. There's an old school harshness to action scenes with Dolph blasting a room full of thugs apart with a shotgun or bludgeoning another with the butt of an AK-47.

The cast is filled with familiar faces from the action genre as Peter Weller (Robocop) and Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa (Mortal Kombat) have a few scenes with Lundgren, Jaa, White and Perlman. The ending sets up a sequel so hopefully Skin Trade has been killing it on VOD and will find more success on Blu-Ray. Overall a solid flick elevated by the cast and a handful of stand out action and fight sequences. Following the flick we hopped over to Sadie's across the street for the after party for a few small bites, thank yous and hand shakes before calling it a night. Great times but gotta do it all again tonight, only this time I won't be directing traffic, I'll be part of it.

Many thanks to Magnolia, Magnet, The Egyptian Theatre, Dolph and Craig's teams and everyone who attended. We'll see you on the next one.