Favorites - Top Ten Power Ranger Team-ups

The Snowocalypse of 2016 is officially over. I think everyone in the state can say, “About time!” It may have been fun for the kids, but for an adult it kind of sucks. Since there was nothing to do (other than eating, sleeping, texting, trying to exercise, and Internet surfing), I hit up Netflix to see some more of that butt-kicking action. One stop was today’s subject: Power Ranger Team-Ups. I’ve had this idea in my head for months and it was finally time to see what team-ups were the best. Besides, I might as well talk about the Rangers in the month where butt-kicking is the theme.

For those who don’t know or are in the “cool” crowd, the Rangers would usually team up with past Rangers usually once a season. They have teamed up with other heroes though with the most notable and infamous team-up being with the Ninja Turtles. Yes, that happened and it wasn’t that good. It was kind of a yearly thing with the show but some seasons skipped the team-up episode. They tend to vary in quality. You have the good, the bad, and the down-right ugly episodes. So, here are my top Ten Power Ranger team-ups. Before I get to those, I do have a couple I need to mention. Whether they are honorable mentions is a big matter for debate.

• A Friend In Need (Mighty Morphin’) – This was really the first team-up with another hero for the show. In this case, it was the Masked Rider. If you don’t know who that is, then you’re not the only one who says that. All I know about the character is that was another hero Saban wanted to make a show around and it only lasted a season on FOX. The Rangers end up traveling to the world of Edenoi on the behalf of Alpha 5. They find the planet enslaved by Lord Dregon and they team up with the Masked Rider to beat some baddies. We even got some Rita/Zedd action as well. It was an okay arc but I didn’t like it all that much. The Masked Rider was kind of lame which is probably why his show only lasted a season.
• Shell Shocked (In Space) – This weird crossover happened when the Rangers teamed up with the Ninja Turtles. Astronoma hypnotized the reptiles into being against the Rangers but you know how those things work out. This wasn’t one of the good ones. At this time, Saban was making Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. I don’t remember much of that show but I don’t remember it being good. Fortunately, this one episode was just a hiccup in a pretty good season for the show.
• Legendary Battle (Megaforce/Super Megaforce) – “Well, that was a letdown,” a lot of Ranger fans said. This finale for Power Rangers Super Megaforce (seriously?) was the famed battle that teamed up every Ranger from the franchise and took about five minutes to happen. The finale had the main villains try to attack Earth with everything with the Megaforce Rangers throwing everything including the kitchen sink at them. I didn’t watch Megaforce, so I can’t really comment on that show. I haven’t heard good things about it though. It wasn’t a bad finale but the team-up was really a letdown for me. It felt tacked on at the end. I will say it was cool seeing some of those old faces though.

 With those out of the way, here’s the list.

Movie Talk - Shaw Brothers' Movies

I told ya I wasn’t done with the Shaw Brothers. For those who don’t know, Shaw Brothers Ltd. was a movie studio that produced a ton of movies in the 20^th century. While they may be best known for their kung fu movies from the 1970’s, they started churning out movies long before then. They actually stopped producing movies in 1987 to work on television productions. I hadn’t really heard of the company all that much.  I know I’ve had to have seen some movies that were made by them before Netflix.

The 36 Chamber trilogy of movies were just a small bit of what the studio did martial arts-wise. I don’t know how many martial arts movies they did, but it was a lot. Recently, I noticed that Netflix has started to put a lot of these older movies on there, so I decided to watch some of them. I have to say that I was quite surprised by what I found. The movies I’ll be talking about today are Shaolin Martial Arts, Kid with the Golden Arm, and Five Deadly Venoms.

Tales From The 50 Cent Bin! - Richard Dragon #1

Next up for this butt-kicking month, I got a DC character who I really don’t know about: Richard Dragon. Like most martial arts characters, he originated out of the kung fu craze from the 1970’s. He first appeared in a novel written by Denny O’Neil and Jim Berry in 1974. O’Neil later adapted the character in his own series, Richard Dragon: Kung Fu Fighter. The guy’s supposed to have trained most heroes and villains in the DCU. Other than his series and a couple of other spots, he really hasn’t been seen all that much. No wonder I haven’t heard much about him. I probably know more about The Bronze Tiger, his former partner in butt-kicking.

In 2004, there was a short-lived series that featured the character.  I found Richard Dragon #5 in the cheap bins some time ago. I was going to look at that issue until I found the first issue to this series in Murfreesboro a couple of weeks ago. The writer is Chuck Dixon. I think I’m beginning to see a pattern with Dixon and characters that practice martial arts. The pencils were done by Scott McDaniel and the inks were handled by Andy Owens.

Richard Dragon #1

Writer: Chuck Dixon

Pencils: Scott McDaniel

Inks: Andy Owens

Colors: Tony Auina

Letters: Phil Balsman

Editor: Michael Wright

Movie Talk - The 36th Chamber Trilogy

Well, it's cold here in TN with this snow. I think it’s time to get some straight-up kung fu action. Today, I’ll be looking at the 36^th Chamber of Shaolin trilogy done by Shaw Brothers Studio. The movies all involved the legendary monk, San Te. The star of these movies is martial artist Gordon Liu. While he was already in movies like these, it’s the 36^th Chamber that people will remember him for the most. I first saw snippets of his movies on this video that talked about martial artists a long time ago.

I first heard about the original years ago. When I found it at f.y.e., I bought it. It was a while before I saw it though. Over the last few months, I’ve noticed that Netflix has put on different kung fu-related movies. I saw that the latter two movies were on there, so I decided to give them a watch. There are some other Shaw Bros. movies that I saw on Netflix that aren’t related to the 36^th Chamber. I’ll get to those some other time this week. By the way, I watched them all undubbed. I think this is my go-to thing with foreign movies since most old-school dubbing is pretty terrible.

TV Talk - Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist

I think it’s time to step back into the world of Street Fighter. It seems like it’s been going well for the franchise with the recent games being well-received. Capcom even did a crossover with Tekken and I think I have that one. I’m not sure. When it comes to film, Street Fighter failed twice with the 90’s movie and the Legend of Chun Li. I looked at those two a couple of years ago. Thankfully, I think someone up there said, “That’s it! I’m making a good live-action SF thing actually work this time!” I think that’s how we ultimately got Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist.

Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist was actually directed by Joey Anash, a stuntman and actor. He was the guy Jason Bourne punched with a book (great fight, by the way) in The Bourne Ultimatum. He and others got together to create a short film called Street Fighter: Legacy. Capcom saw this and ultimately granted the team the rights to do a web series in 2012. It took a while to complete, but the series eventually came out in May of 2014. I was supposed to go the gym the day it aired and I when I saw that it was online, you can pretty much guess what happened. I was originally going to review this last year, but then I saw that Machinima didn’t have the series on there anymore. Luckily, I did find the DVD for this at Wal-Mart sometime ago and have viewed it again.

Assassin’s Fist does something that no other live-action SF media has done: actually include Ken and Ryu as main characters! I’ll gripe on this later but I do have to say it. The series looks at what Ryu and Ken in their final training years with their master, Goken. We see them develop into the fighters they eventually become. We even see them have some fun. During their training, their master starts to teach them the right way in using the powerful art of “Satsui no Hado.” At the same time, Goken is worried since the misuse of the art could corrupt them like his brother, Gouki. We also end up seeing what actually happened to Gouki who we eventually know as Akuma.