What If PM Entertainment Had a Box Set?

Last year when Arrow Video released their spectacular Shaw Scope collection, like many physical media collectors, I was impressed. Arrow put out a top notch product that was a beautiful tribute to the legendary Shaw Brothers studio featuring 12 of their classic films and packed with plenty of extras. Based on the fan reaction, it was no surprise when a second volume, featuring 14 more Shaw Brothers movies, was announced earlier this month for a release this November.

But Arrow’s Shaw Scope collection also got me thinking about other collections I would like to see as an action fan and as a physical media collector. I couldn’t help but think of the extensive PM Entertainment library and the serious lack of love that it has received over the years despite so many action fans waxing nostalgic for the PM Entertainment movies released during the golden era of the video store.

So I decided to play a little game of What If? and imagine a collection of 14 PM Entertainment movies on Blu-ray with all sorts of bells and whistles and here is what I came up with…

Disc One – Recoil / Riot

Could you even have a PM Entertainment box set without featuring the unofficial poster boy for the company, Gary Daniels? I don’t think so… which is why I’d include two of Gary’s PM classics on Disc One.

1998’s Recoil starts off hot with a daring daylight bank robbery followed up by one of the best high speed chases ever captured on film. When it is all said and done, a mafia kingpin’s son is killed and that mafia kingpin is looking for revenge on the cop responsible, Detective Ray Morgan (Gary Daniels) and worse, Ray’s family!

• Special Features: Commentary track with Director Art Camacho and star Gary Daniels – An Interview with Action Director Spiro Razatos – Original Trailer

If this box set actually existed it would make a great gift for the upcoming holiday season and what better PM Entertainment movie to watch during the holidays than 1996’s Riot starring Gary Daniels and Sugar Ray Leonard?

Daniels’ Major Alcott and Leonard’s Major Williams are called into action when an heiress is kidnapped by terrorists in the midst of a Christmas Eve riot in Los Angeles. Also starring Patrick Kilpatrick and Charles Napier.

• Special Features: Interviews with Sugar Ray Leonard, Patrick Kilpatrick and Kenneth Tigar – Original Trailer

Disc Two – Ring of Fire / Guardian Angel

It was PM Entertainment’s answer to Romeo & Juliet and it was also the beginning of the relationship between Don “The Dragon” Wilson and PM Entertainment, I am talking about 1991’s Ring of Fire. Wilson plays Dr. Johnny Woo and he is in love with Julie (Maria Ford) but they are affiliated with rival kickboxing clubs that call L.A.’s Chinatown home. Who needs that Capulets and the Montagues?

• Special Features: Commentary track with Director Richard W. Munchkin and Don “The Dragon” Wilson – Interviews with Gary Daniels and Vince Murdocco – Original trailer

While Don “The Dragon” had a long run with PM Entertainment. “The Lady Dragon” Cynthia Rothrock had only one PM collaboration, 1994’s Guardian Angel. Cynthia’s character go from detective to bodyguard for a filthy rich dude with a psycho ex-girlfriend… the same psycho ex-girlfriend that killed Cynthia’s fiancé (played by Bulletproof Action favorite, Marshall R. Teague)

• Special Features: Commentary track with Cynthia Rothrock and Director Richard Munchkin – Interviews with Marshall R. Teague, Lydie Denier, Robert Miano and Art Camacho

Disc Three – Skyscraper / Intent to Kill

PM Entertainment was not afraid to think outside the box when it came to their action heroes OR action heroines, look no further than Anna Nicole Smith and Traci Lords.

The infamous Skyscraper starring Anna Nicole Smith as a helicopter pilot who finds herself battling a group of terrorists. But don’t worry Anna Nicole still manages to get naked which is what fans of the Playboy Playmate were certainly hoping for when they rented the movie.

• Special Features: Interviews with Jonathan Fuller and Deron McBee – Original Trailer

As I mentioned in my recent review of Intent to Kill, Traci Lords put in the effort to shed her previous image and be looked at in a different light in her movie roles with PM Entertainment and beyond. In Intent to Kill, Lords plays a cop with a philandering boyfriend (played by Scott Patterson), a father figure like boss (played by the incomparable Yaphet Kotto) and the skills and desire to take down a vicious drug dealer (played by Angelo Tiffe).

• Special Features: Commentary track with Traci Lords and Director Charles T. Kanganis – Original Trailer

Disc Four – T-Force / Cyber Tracker

PM Entertainment was not afraid to go sci-fi and T-Force is their ultimate sci-fi/action mash up! Jack Scalia plays a technology hating cop who is forced to team up with a robot cop (played by Bobby Johnston). The movie has everything you could ask for and more from a PM Entertainment production… including a robotic flipping of the bird!

• Special Features: Commentary track with Jack Scalia and Director Richard Pepin – Interviews with Erin Gray and Deron McBee – Original Trailer

Cyber Tracker was PM Entertainment’s answer to The Terminator with Don “The Dragon” Wilson playing Secret Service Agent who finds himself framed when he becomes aware of some of the less than ethical things the man he was being paid to protect, Senator Dilly (John Aprea), is involved in. Now he has to deal with the Senator’s right hand man Ross (Richard Norton) oh… and the state of the art and indestructible cyborg cops known as Trackers!

• Special Features: Commentary track with Director Richard Pepin and Richard Norton – Interviews with Don “The Dragon” Wilson and Steve Burton – Original Trailer

Disc Five – Final Impact / To Be the Best

Michael Worth is my favorite PM Entertainment action star. I have heard him speak fondly of his time at PM Entertainment on more than one occasion and for good reason… PM was actually the one to give Michael his first movie role in 1992’s Final Impact. Worth plays the fresh faced Danny Davis, who is chasing his dream of kickboxing glory and sitting under the learning tree of the former kickboxing world champion Nick Taylor played by Lorenzo Lamas.

• Special Features: Commentary track with Michael Worth and writer Stephen Smoke – Interviews with Lorenzo Lamas and Mimi Lesseos – Original Trailer

It is more Michael Worth kickboxing action in 1994’s To Be the Best… Worth is one of two brothers representing the United States of America against the powerhouse team from Thailand, led by Hong Do (Steven Vincent Leigh), in the World Kickboxing Championships in Las Vegas. But the drama is not limited to just the ring, as Worth’s Eric Kulhane has his share of relationship woes with the woman he hopes to marry one day, Cheryl (Brittney Powell). Eric’s kickboxing competition and love life are complicated by a ruthless gambler played by Alex Cord. The movie also stars Art Camacho, Vince Murdocco, Ron Yuan, Phillip Troy Linger as Eric’s brother Sam and Martin Kove as Rick Kulhane, the father of the Kulhane boys and coach of the U.S. team.

• Special Features: Commentary track with Michael Worth and Director Joseph Merhi – Interviews with Martin Kove, Brittney Powell, Vince Murdocco and Art Camacho – Original Trailer

Disc Six – The Sweeper / Private Wars

C. Thomas Howell made a few movies with PM Entertainment, but for my money 1996’s The Sweeper tops them all. Howell played Mark Goddard, a cop with the LAPD that is recruited by a federally funded vigilante group led by a man named Molls (played by the late great, Ed Lauter) Sweeper is filled with some classic PM Entertainment vehicular mayhem and also starred Jeff Fahey and Felton Perry.

• Special Features: Commentary track with C. Thomas Howell and Stunt Coordinator Spiro Razatos – Interview with Jeff Fahey – Original Trailer

The movie in this set that I would probably watch first would be 1993’s Private Wars… not because it is the best in the bunch, but because I have never seen it before and as I type this seemingly unavailable (unless I’m looking to spend $30 plus on a VHS copy).

In Private Wars, Steve Railsback plays former cop/current alcoholic who comes to the aid of the residents of a neighborhood that are being intimidated and threatened to leave their homes by the hired goons of a wealthy (and less than ethical) businessman, so he can develop the land for his personal gain.

• Special Features: Commentary track with Steve Railsback and writer Ken Lamplugh – Interviews with Micheal DeLano, James Lew and Vince Murdocco.

Disc Seven – Deadly Bet / Last Man Standing

Jeff Wincott brought an equal amount of acting experience and martial arts experience giving him an edge over some of his contemporaries in the 1990s direct to video realm.

Wincott was able to put both skills to good use in 1992’s Deadly Bet, as Wincott’s character Angelo, a degenerate gambler who actually bet his own girlfriend (played by Charlene Tilton), has one of the greatest redemption stories in PM Entertainment history.

• Special Features: Commentary track with Jeff Wincott and Director Richard Munchkin – Interviews with Michael DeLano, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini and Art Camacho – Original Trailer

1995’s Last Man Standing is less martial arts and more explosive action as Wincott plays Detective Kurt Bellmore, a cop who finds himself on the run with his wife (played by PM favorite Jillian McWhirter) from both the bad guys and the dirty cops that Kurt is looking to expose!

• Special Features: Interviews with Jeff Wincott, Jonathan Banks, Jonathan Fuller and Robert LaSardo – Original Trailer