PM Entertainment’s Honorable Mentions

The reaction to Bulletproof Action’s Ultimate PM Entertainment Countdown was tremendous. But when you are compiling a list of the best of the best from a company like PM Entertainment, that churned out so much product, not every deserving movie is going to make the cut.

Today we shine the spotlight on ten more PM Entertainment productions that just missed out on being a part of our Ultimate PM Entertainment Countdown, but most certainly deserve an Honorable Mention…

Matt Spector: It seems that PM loved to give anyone a chance to be an action star like with Sugar Ray Leonard in Riot. Did it work? I’m not one to judge a man who is a prodigious pugilist, but Riot is easily in the pantheon of Christmas action movies.

Todd Gaines: I love how the rioters leave all the Christmas decorations alone during the riot. Plus, Gary Daniels fights a gang of hockey goalies, Sugar Ray Leonard gets into a bar fight and there’s enough Christmas music to turn the biggest Grinch into Santa Claus. Ho! Ho! Ho! MoFo!

Dominik Starck: This time actor C. Thomas Howell lead behind the camera as well and is joined by cool guys Jeff Kober and Titus Welliver to deliver a neo noir-ish gangster-b-movie. Some pretty cool shots, a ton of action with nice stunts, late 90’s sex-appeal. It’s worth checking out for the great cast alone.

Matt Spector: Whenever I see the PM movie, The Big Fall, starring C. Thomas Howell (and directed by CTH) as hard boiled private eye Blaise Rybeck, I always think to myself, “This movie has soul, man”.

Dominik Starck: No, it’s not cheating to pick a whole TV show for a movie list! The explosive adventures of Wolf Larson and Steven Williams are PM Entertainment’s essence distilled into 48 one-hour shows. It’s a good time- and was a hit show in Germany years before it even aired in the States. Mind blowing.

Chris The Brain: If the opening to L.A. Heat is not enough to get you hyped are you even a PM Entertainment fan?!?

Chris The Brain: My personal favorite PM Entertainment movie and there’s not a car chase to be found… but what you will find is a great story (with a surprising twist) and a perfect cast. A fresh faced Michael Worth in his first movie role as the small town guy with big league kickboxing dreams… Perfect! Lorenzo Lamas as the grizzled and bitter ex-champion, who has the opportunity to relive his glory through his young protege… Perfect! Kathleen Kinmont, who is hopelessly in love with Lorenzo’s character despite all his faults… Perfect! And to top it all off the movie also features the Magnificent Mimi Lesseos… Final Impact is first in my heart.

Todd Gaines: Intense kickboxing with an ultra heavy dose of drama. The flick which introduced the world to Michael Worth and should’ve made Lorenzo Lamas an Oscar winner.

Dominik Starck: Since I worked with Don “The Dragon” Wilson on my own micro budget action thriller The Hitman Agency he needs to be on my PM list as well. This film seems appropriate. A Terminator rip-off with him and Richard Norton- a solid pick, even though it’s tough to love it as a longtime fan of the original Terminator and even Charles Band’s Trancers series.

Chris The Brain: When Terminator 2: Judgment Day made a boat load of money in 1991, it was only natural that the rest of the movie world would try to capitalize on that success in the years that followed. PM Entertainment jumped on the T2 bandwagon with Cyber Tracker and the result was one of Don “The Dragon” Wilson’s better movies.

Chris The Brain: Michael Worth’s hot head Eric Kulhane goes from representing his country to fighting for the woman he loves in this kickboxing tale that has more than its share of memorable moments.

Chris DePetrillo:  I was obsessed with seeing To Be the Best from the moment I saw the PPV preview commercial (which featured a clip of the bowling alley brawl).  Plus, thanks to my Karate Kid fandom (and love for the Cobra Kai Dojo), throwing Martin Kove into the mix was a huge plus.

Chris The Brain: With his big studio days behind him, Jean-Claude Van Damme found himself working with PM Entertainment in 1999. Van Damme’s one off appearance for PM ended up being one of the quirkiest films in Van Damme’s career.

Chad Cruise: Desert Heat aka Coyote Moon aka Inferno…Jesus Christ, someone just make a decision. It’s a Western starring a martial arts expert searching for his stolen motorcycle. As weird as that sounds, it does work on a couple of levels. Van Damme always looks good kicking the shit out people and the amount of odd characters in this strange little town will at least keep your attention for the runtime. 

Will Slater: What makes Street Crimes great? Two words: Dennis Farina. He’s first class fun as the grizzled, trigger-happy cop, partnered with Michael Worth’s gun-shy, by-the-book rookie. The chemistry between the two police partners is superb, but it’s Farina who sells it. As for the plot, it’s nothing special, although it does highlight PM Entertainment’s unending ability to shoehorn a punch-fighting contest into almost any conceivable storyline. 

Chris The Brain: Dennis Farina absolutely owns this movie. Where movie cops are concerned you just can’t do much better than Farina. Michael Worth pulled his weight in his sophomore effort with PM with a good balance of acting and action sequences for him to tackle.

Dominik Starck: Michael Madsen made two PM Entertainment movies in the late 90’s and admits that he did it for money and because he wanted to be the hero for once, not the killer. Even though The Sender really is a pile of sh… not good at all, I disagree with Madsen who dislikes both movies.  Executive Target isn’t a good movie obviously, but a pretty entertaining one. Fun one-liners, deluxe action, Roy Scheider as the President, Keith David as the bad guy and fabulous redhead Angie Everhart as David’s right hand. She made a few movies with Madsen and so did David, Dayton Callie and Robert Miano. Feels a bit like a movie made by a bunch of buddies. 90’s German action export Matthias Hues is also in it. (Side note: the German alternative title is The Stuntdriver).

Will Slater: ‘The best car chase since Bullitt’ and ‘the greatest crash movie ever made’ reads the blurb on the VHS cover. Bold claims, but not without foundation because if PM Entertainment knew how to do anything, it was car chases and car crashes. There are not one, not two, but three well-staged vehicular set-pieces and the film unquestionably features more fast-paced, tire-screeching, car-flipping, vehicle-exploding action than you could ever hope to witness.

Chris DePetrillo: Ring of Fire II: Blood and Steel is the movie that Double Dragon wishes it could have been.  While the big screen adaptation of the popular video game was geared towards the kids, Don “The Dragon” Wilson and the PM crew went balls out to ensure that the sequel to their kung fu love story Ring of Fire went as far off course as it get!   It’s also a bit of The Warriors meets Mad Max as Johnny and his friends (featuring many of the featured characters from RoF returning) enter the underground to rescue his beloved Julie from the evil clutches of gang leader Kalin.  One of the most fun films from the PM library, even though the big climax comes off as somewhat rushed.

Todd Gaines: The Empire Strikes Back of kickboxing movies. The bad guys from the first film turn face to help Don “The Dragon” Wilson save Maria Ford from a ruthless gang of baddies. Don and his amigos fight their way through a series of gangs in a gigantic underground tunnel, all while a radio DJ is flirting with The Dragon, while playing all the greatest hits of the tunnel. This movie is on fire!!