Ken Hell: Choreographer... Street Dancer

Not really. But he's the triple threat people, and who can resist a Breakin' reference. Hell's foray into acting via the latest ad campaign for Riva coffee. Gettin that TV money. CLICK THE PIC for the first webisode.

Killa! Jada! The Apollo! AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!

Kiss brings out Killa Cameron Giles @ The Apollo. Dude is back.

'The Combination' and their marketing choices

I saw the poster for this movie at Hoyts the other day. My first thought was "OMG! They finally got funding to make a Lebanese-Australian version of Kickboxer!". I did however just read this little piece of news, and learned that the movie is actually set in 2005 and based on the racially charged riots between white Australians and Lebanese in Sydney.

The synopsis of the film seems to borrow heavily from American History X (ex-con brother turns new leaf when released and fights to prevent younger brother from following his path of gangs and crime) and whether intentional or not, it's a striking similarity to a hugely acclaimed film which also focused on gangs, racism and hate crimes.

Returning to my initial reaction to the film's marketing, I can't help but feel they've misstepped here. The imagery in the poster screams 'dumb fight film' and looks like it's gonna be a Bloodsport meets Kickboxer affair. The name of the film sounds like a fight film when coupled with the imagery. The films slogan - and this is the clencher - 'No Second Chance', is definitely a slogan for an existing fight film. I mean, it has to be. I don't have patience to search but I'm sure that No Retreat, No Surrender 2 or Best of The Best 7 or something Lungdren/Van Damme/Stallone/Norris/Dudikoff MUST have used this. If not them, a B-Movie they turned down which never saw theatrical release. You know that period in the late 80s when there were hundreds of bad movies about ninjas or martial arts (See Dudikoff).

How many people will be turned off by this type of marketing? I'm actually interested in this movie now I have half a clue what it's about, but it was looking like Trojan Warrior revisited for a minute (or it's International release with the awesome name) and I'm sure I'm not the only one.