Albert Pyun from A to Z
Albert Pyun’s unique vision and outside the box creativity earned Albert a cult following among genre film fans. Born in Hawaii on May 19, 1953 Albert would make his directorial debut with 1982’s The Sword and the Sorcerer. Over the course of his filmmaking career, Albert would direct more than 50 films.
Albert sadly left us at the age of 69 in 2022, but he left behind a legacy of memorable movies that will live on forever. And now I will pay tribute to the man, as I present Albert Pyun from A to Z…
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A common thread among many Pyun films is their less than rosy outlook of the future. Take Adrenalin: Fear the Rush for example, there’s a virus that turns people into psychotic, cannibalistic, killing machines! Christopher Lambert and Natasha Henstridge play two of the cops that have been tasked with preventing the entire world being infected!
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Brick Bardo (Thom Mathews) is attempting to solve the mystery of who killed his brother in 1991’s Bloodmatch… a movie rich in martial artists! Bloodmatch featured Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, Dale Jacoby, Michel Qissi, and Pete “Sugarfoot” Cunningham. But Bloodmatch isn’t the only Albert Pyun movie that featured a character named Brick Bardo… Pyun used that character name in numerous movies, starting all the way back in his second film, 1984’s Radioactive Dreams.
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Back in 2020, Bulletproof Action celebrated its 6th Anniversary in Pyuntastic fashion, when we presented our Ultimate Albert Pyun Countdown. The #1 movie on that list was 1989’s Cyborg. A movie born out of Cannon’s failures with the first ever live action Spider-Man movie and a Masters of the Universe sequel, Cyborg allowed Pyun to pull off the nearly impossible feat of turning chicken shit into chicken salad. Differences with the star of the movie, Jean-Claude Van Damme, gave us two different versions of the movie… the Cyborg that was released back in 1989 and Pyun’s cut that he named Slinger.
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When Pyun met Moon… it happened in 1991, when Pyun directed Dollman for Full Moon Entertainment. Dollman tells the tale of a hard-boiled intergalactic cop that arrives on Earth and finds he’s only 13 inches tall! That pint-sized police man was played by none other than Tim Thomerson, who would go on to become a frequent Pyun collaborator, and his character’s name… Brick Bardo! Bardo’s nemesis in the movie, Braxton Red, was played by Jackie Earle Haley. Pyun would go on to direct 1993’s Arcade for Full Moon Entertainment.
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Albert Pyun turned 1992’s Nemesis into a direct-to-video franchise with multiple sequels. 1996’s Nemesis 4: Death Angel, featured another frequent Pyun collaborator, Nicholas Guest, in the role of Earl Typhoon. In one of the more memorable scenes in Nemesis 4, Earl has cyborg sex with the cybernetically-enhanced assassin, Alex Sinclair (Sue Price). Unless my research is off, Nemesis 4 appears to be Guest’s final Pyun directed film… at least he went out with a bang!
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Speaking of Nemesis sequels, Nemesis 3: Time Lapse (aka Nemesis 3: Prey Harder) would see Tim Thomerson do a quasi-reprisal of his Commissioner Sam Farnsworth character from the original film. In Nemesis 3, Thomerson plays Farnsworth 2, who encounters Sue Price’s Alex at the start of the movie. If only Albert named him Farnsworth 2: Electric Boogaloo.
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Guam was the backdrop and filming location for 2004’s Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon… a movie that would eventually be mired in controversy, with the government of Guam suing producer John F.S. Laing, Laing and Pyun having a falling out, and Laing bringing in Isaac Florentine to finish the movie for him. Not surprisingly, Albert was not back for the 2006 sequel, Max Havoc: Ring of Fire.
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One of my favorite Albert Pyun films is 1995’s Heatseeker starring Keith Cooke as kickboxer Chance O’Brien. Heatseeker was a fighting tournament movie, with an Albert Pyun twist. Gary Daniels played the enhanced Xao, Chance’s kickboxing rival. Tim Thomerson also appears, this time with a coke nail! Heatseeker is in dire need of a Blu-ray release!
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Albert Pyun worked with numerous stars from the world of Hip Hop, but Ice-T was at the top of the list! Ice-T played Vincent Moon in the bullet riddled and mambo filled Mean Guns, along with Christopher Lambert. Ice-T also appeared in Corrupt, The Wrecking Crew, Crazy Six, had a small role in Ticker, and served as the narrator in 1999’s Urban Menace.
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J. Eddie Peck made his feature film debut in 1986’s Dangerously Close. Peck plays a crusading school newspaper reporter who is looking to expose a group of high school vigilantes, who have taken things too far. Dangerously Close was the first film that Albert directed for Cannon and it boasted a soundtrack that featured The Smithereens, Fine Young Cannibals , Depeche Mode, and Robert Palmer!
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Originally intended to be Cyborg 2, 1993’s Knights finds Kris Kristofferson’s Gabriel training Kathy Long’s Nea to become a cyborg killer! Nea is going to need all the training she can get too, because she’s going up against the likes of Job (Lance Henriksen) and David (Gary Daniels)… Proud to say that a VHS copy of Knights is part of my physical media collection!
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Albert Pyun returned to the Kickboxer franchise, as the director of 1994’s Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor. In the fourth installment of the franchise, Sasha Mitchell reprised the role of David Sloan, Kamel Krifa took over the Tong Po role, and a new character was introduced, DEA agent Lando Smith. Lando Smith was played by martial artist, Brad Thornton, who was making his acting debut. After he stepped away from the acting world for many years, Thornton would reunite with Albert Pyun for 2017’s Interstellar Civil War: Shadows of an Empire.
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Before Chris Evans was Captain America for the MCU, and after Reb Brown played the part of Cap in two TV movies… Matt Salinger was tapped to play the dual role of Steve Rogers/Captain America in one of the most underappreciated movies in history, 1990’s Captain America. Only a director with the resourcefulness of Albert Pyun could have pulled this movie off, given the budgetary challenges.
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1992’s Nemesis has some amazing action sequences… the whole shooting through the floor gimmick being the best of the bunch. Olivier Gruner is a total badass as Los Angeles cyborg cop, Alex Rain and there’s no denying he looks the part of an action hero… It’s really no wonder that Nemesis is considered one of Albert Pyun’s masterpieces. The numerous sequels combined, could not hit the level this movie does.
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We’ve talked about a lot of “Albert Pyun Guys” on this list so far, and I am about to hit you with another one… Yuji Okumoto. Okumoto appeared in several Pyun films including Nemesis, Blast and Mean Guns. But his biggest role in an Albert Pyun movie was starring opposite Andrew Dice Clay and Teri Hatcher in 1993’s Brain Smasher… A Love Story.
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The Pyuniverse is the name Albert Pyun loyalists have affectionately bestowed upon the filmography of Albert Pyun. The Pyuniverse is filled with strong female characters, cool weapons, bleak futures, cyborgs, kickboxers, and kickboxing cyborgs! Time and time again, Albert proved he could do a lot with a little and while his budgets always had restraints, his imagination never did.
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Kickboxer 2: The Road Back proved it didn’t need Jean-Claude Van Damme to be a success, but I don’t believe the movie would be as great as it was without the menacing Tong Po, played by Michel Qissi. In wrestling terms, Qissi’s Tong Po had so much heat, it was easy to cheer for a new Sloan brother, David Sloan (Sasha Mitchell), to slay the kickboxing dragon! Bad guys make action movies!
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1995’s Raven Hawk has a lot going for it… Rhyia Shadowfeather is one helluva name for an action hero, and Rachel McLish’s physical presence gives the character the all important action hero aura… There’s also the supporting cast that in addition to numerous Pyun mainstays, includes the likes of Ed Lauter, Mitchell Ryan, and William Atherton… throw in a tried and true revenge tale and Raven Hawk becomes a must see movie for action fanatics.
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Move over Kurt Thomas, there’s a new gymnastic action hero in town and her name is Kristie Phillips! Phillips, may have missed out on being a part of the 1988 US Olympic Gymnastics Team, but she did not miss out on a chance to work with Albert Pyun in her one and only movie role, 1995’s Spitfire! Phillips plays gymnastics champion, Charlie Case… who also happens to be the daughter of a Bond like super spy, played by Lance Henriksen. Charlie ends up caught up in her father’s attempts to prevent launch codes from getting into the wrong hands. Fun Fact: Spitfire was filmed back-to-back with Hong Kong 97.
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It took two decades for me to learn that Steven Seagal and Albert Pyun worked together, but the pairing did happen in 2001’s Ticker! Seagal played explosives expert Frank Glass, who helps Detective Ray Nettles (Tom Sizemore) track down the man who killed Ray’s partner Fuzzy (played by Nas). Ticker also starred Dennis Hopper, Peter Greene, and Chilli herself, Rozanda Thomas of TLC fame.
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I mentioned Albert Pyun’s Hip Hop connection earlier when discussing Ice-T, but Ice-T was only one of the rappers that Pyun worked with. In Urban Menace, Pyun had the opportunity to direct Snoop Dogg, Big Pun and Fat Joe. Pyun would follow up Urban Menace with the hip hop heavy Corrupt and The Wrecking Crew.
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At one time Vincent Klyn was one of the top five surfers in the world, but after being spotted by Albert Pyun, Klyn would take a different career path beginning with the role of Fender Tremolo in 1989’s Cyborg. Pyun would cast Vincent Klyn in a dozen more movies over the years including Dollman, Bloodmatch and Kickboxer 2.
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Has anyone been in more Albert Pyun movies than Norbert Weisser? Beginning with 1984’s Radioactive Dreams and ending with 2010’s Abelar: Tales of an Ancient Empire, I counted 16 Weisser/Pyun collaborations! But, my favorite Weisser role in an Albert Pyun film will always be Tsui Tung in Heatseeker!
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There’s no way I could leave Albert Pyun’s first movie off of this list, 1982’s The Sword and the Sorcerer! The fantasy film starred Lee Horsley, Richard Lynch, Anthony DeLongis, Simon MacCorkindale, and the hulking Richard Moll as Xusia of Delos! Xusia is a reanimated demonic sorcerer, so you just know that Horsley’s Talon was going to need his cool ass tri-blade sword to take out a foe as powerful as Xusia.
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Physical media collectors, if you haven’t heard the news… Yippee Ki-Yay Mother Video has entered the Pyuniverse! The Wisconsin based company has already released the Director’s Cut of Cyborg and up next is Albert Pyun’s cut of Captain America (which I have pre-ordered and am anxious to check out)! But they aren’t done yet… Knights aka Cyborg 2: The Kingdom of Metal and a workprint of Ticker are among the future Pyuniverse releases!
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1996’s Omega Doom is Albert Pyun’s take on Yojimbo. The titular character, Omega Doom, is played by the legendary Rutger Hauer. Omega Doom finds himself in a ghost town populated by two gangs of warring cyborgs… one gang is known as the Roms and they are led by Blackheart (Tina Cote), the other gang is known as the Droids and they are led by Zed (Shannon Whirry).