Category: van damme

Movies for Guys that Like Movies…

   Ah this feels good.  When I first started this blog I would focus a ton on action films as they were the primary theme of my shirts at the time.  I wanted to share some pretty sweet trailers for some movies that dudes like me should be getting ready to watch.  There are some real doozies coming out, here are a few:

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/Gmt89TXjYBI&source=uds

    “Escape Plan” looks amazing.  Not just because it has Stallone and Schwarzenegger together, but also because it looks like it makes no sense at all – and in some spots, looks completely absurd.  All of these ingredients are essentially part of the recipe which is that of, “Awesome”.  Judging from the trailer, Stallone is  a master of breaking out of prisons.  A group of people want him to test this new state of the art facility to see how full proof it is.  He seems to agree to do this in the trailer but then is electrocuted, blindfolded, injected with some unknown substance, and then taken to the super secret, state of the art facility.  This is where it really starts to look ridiculous (as they pan back to get a shot of the awful CGI prison).  Stallone then seems to receive the typical prison welcoming by getting into a scuffle where he then meets the newly jacked up Arnold.  It is then discovered that this was a big ploy to punish Stallone as he essentially falls of the grid.  Action prevails as Arnold and Sly bash there way through security guards that wear masks that look as if they are from mars, while people on the outside try to help as well, one being Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.  The goal?  To break out of this bizarre prison and to get revenge on who set him up. This shit looks totally awesome.

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/DmjXkn8FJ4Y&source=uds

“Alien Uprising” or “U.F.O” is not something that will be in the theaters….ever.  But man, it looks stupid!  The trailer is kind of vague in terms of being able to explain the story in any depth, but basically, all is great for everyone, until the power goes out and of course, random alien mayhem.  If you are an action buff, and have never heard of this….just watch the trailer.  Don’t research it or it will ruin the surprise at the end!

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/xFhw1c_mnPY&source=uds

  Finally, the third awesome trailer for movies that I need to see soon, is for this gem.  “Legendary”, aka “Tomb of the Dragon”, stars Dolph Lundgren and Scott Adkins.   If you not familiar with Adkins, he’s a rising action star with his first real U.S. major role being Expendables 2, however he was in a bunch of other sweet movies.  He sort of looks like Ben Affleck if Affleck were an awful actor and could kick peoples asses.
  Travis (Adkins) and his team (I’m guessing they are scientists) travel to China to capture some creature that is said to be tormenting some tiny village.  This creature is of course not something that is supposed to be real, so they have to travel to see it for themselves.  All hell breaks loose when Harker, the legendary bounty hunter, also wants to get his piece of the action!
   I’m seeing a pattern here with these last two trailers…..totally awesome action stars and over the top terrible sci-fi effects.  I know for a fact I’ll be in the theatre for “Escape Plan”.  The other two I will try to see  soon so that I can give my full review on them.  If you have seen any of these, feel free to comment!

1

New Bolo Shirt!

    Earlier this week I decided to discontinue the original Bolo shirt we had.  I wasn’t feeling it anymore.  I felt that we needed to freshen it up!  I bring you the new Bolo shirt.

Warning:  Bad Ass

This is now posted in our eBay and Etsy store now, and should be on the website this week!  This shirt totally sweet.

0

Expendables 2: As good as it gets.

    Tuesday night I went to see Expendables 2, and I have to say…the movie was incredible.  If you go to the theater prepared to pick apart the plot, don’t even bother going.  This movie is not about the art of telling a story nor is it filled with much logic.  It’s not supposed to.  It’s sole purpose, is to kick ass.
    I am not going to give any spoilers, but I did take a few mental notes that were further discussed after the film.

    #1:  Arnold Schwarzenegger looks pretty terrible (old) and as ridiculous as it sounds, he has lost a step or two in the acting category.  The positive from this, is that due to his ridiculous appearance and his awful acting, it made his scenes that much more fun to watch.  He was hilarious.

    #2:  Chuck Norris’s face is made of clay.  It is impossible to guess how old this guy is.  Without giving away too much, his scenes in the movie were also really hilarious and he gives Arnold a run for his money for who can deliver their lines the worst.

    #3:  I’ll admit, when the announcement came that the movie was going to be PG-13, I was pissing and moaning about it every chance I had.  After watching this movie, I left there laughing at how unbelievably screwed up the rating system is.  This movie was violent, if not more violent than the first.  I’ts funny to me how you can show over a hundred people getting killed in numerous ways and its still PG-13, yet whip out a tit and say “fuck” and that’s “R”.  Its insane.

    #4:  If I had to complain about one thing in this film (there’s nothing much to complain about), its that there was not enough of Van Damme.  For being the main villain in the film, he wasn’t in it nearly enough, but the scenes you saw him in, he lights it up.  He is truly one of the greats.

    #5:  Jason Statham is on top of his game.  He was by far the most impressive in this movie.  His fight scenes where incredible and he out-shined the rest of this all star cast with some of the best fight sequences he has ever done.

Bottom line:  Go see Expendables 2.  It deserves to be seen.

0

The Last of a Dying Breed.

    Often I use this blog to write about completely random things, wether it be my addiction to candy, the beer I am most into, or what I’m doing around the house.  This post is serious and I suggest you have a seat so that you can take all this in.
    I grew up on action films.  It was a fantastic time and I will never forget what I was able to grow up seeing and experiencing.  Things have been ruined with all of the different political groups and everyone wanting laws and regulations for everything imaginable.  When I was young, I could go to the toy store and I could get a toy gun that looked as if I would wipe out an army of scum bag terrorists.  Now you are lucky if you can find a toy gun, and if you do, it’s neon orange or yellow.  I understand why this happened, but it still blows.

What fun is this toy gun if it feels like it should come with a  tutu.

Even the action figures are different.  Sure you have the comic book action figures, which I suppose are the coolest choice nowadays, but when I was young, we had action figures for kids that were amazing.  Action figures based on characters from R-Rated action films.

I loved this toy as a kid.  It was my all time favorite.  I had the mini version and then I also owned the gigantic version.
This was the only picture I could find online of the gigantic 16 inch Arnold.
This was one of my favorite movies as a child.  Every kid had to have this action figure because it was flat out awesome; “Commando” was awesome. Lets take a look at the origin of this kids toy shall we (I didn’t create this video but its pretty awesome)?
I couldn’t get enough of these movies as a kid, as these heroes like Arnold, Stallone, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, and Van damme – they always stuck with me as being my favorites. 
    Today we are living through the death of the R-rated movie which essentially means the death of really awesome action movies.  What is this post about exactly?  It’s a post about the movie “Safe” starring Jason Statham.  My friend Justin and I went to go see this movie opening weekend.  We support Jason Statham because not only is he a great action star, but the torch was handed to him by the founding fathers of action in the first “Expendables” film.  While we were in the theater, I mentioned to Justin that I was still pissed off at the PG-13 rating that currently hangs over the “Expendables 2” movie coming out this summer.  Justin spoke of the fact that PG-13 is still super violent and that basically its lacks bad language.  At that moment I thought about it, and I agreed.
    An hour and a half later, filled with a nostalgic glee, we left the theater laughing and talking about what we just saw.  What did we see?  An absolutely awesome, balls out, no holds barred, action film.  This is something I have not seen in a theater for as long as I can remember.  Yeah I know, “The Expendables” was an action film, and yes it was great, but its a novelty act.  This movie was for real, and it was awesome.  My stance on the PG-13 not making much a difference accept for the language, had totally changed.  It had been so long since I had seen a real action film on a big screen that didn’t care about a rating, and the difference was clear to me.  The film was violent and it had bad language, which are essential in maximizing the fun of a straight up action film.  
   Statham plays an ex-cop/cage fighter who is pretty much the toughest guy ever.  Without giving anything away, he finds himself down on his luck and forced to be homeless. It is here he gets himself caught up in protecting a little Asian girl he finds in the Subway that is running from multiple criminal organizations because she is a math genius and has memorized a super long number containing the combination of a safe.  The movie is an hour and half of Statham protecting this girl by means of murdering criminals, point blank, in broad daylight, in large crowds of people.  It is absolutely awesome.  If you are a fan of action movies, especially old school action movies, get to the movies before this leaves because films like these are few and far between these days on the big screen.  Statham continues to carry the dwindling torch of a dying era.

   

0

Van Damme is still awesome.

    If you’re a casual fan, you probably know Van Damme from his classics like “Universal Soldier”, “Kickboxer”, “Bloodsport”, etc.  Die hard fans, like myself, have seen everything he’s made, which during the later years have been 80% garbage.  After the release of “JCVD”, Van Damme displayed  (to everyone that saw the movie) that he could act.  His main problem seemed to be the projects he was taking on.  Not all of the in the later year films were like “JCVD”, in fact 99% of them were not.  In  “Assassination Games”,  Van Damme is at his best again.  He is definitely a guy that looks way cooler the older he gets.  He goes from this:

To This:

    The film stars Scot Adkins and Van Damme.  I’ve never seen Scott Adkins in anything else but I was fairly impressed with him as an action star, he was pretty awesome.  Van Damme and Adkins play two rival assassins, one has a personal history with the target, the other is purely business.  The two have great chemistry and both play their parts perfectly.  Without getting too detailed, the film quality, action scenes, acting, and violence were better then most action films I’ve seen recently.  Its a shame these movies go straight to DVD as I think that people would go to the movies to see action flicks like these.  Instead we get watered down action movies full of teen heartthrobs and bad CGI.  Watch “Assassination Games” if you are in the mood for a good action film, its currently on Netflix streaming.

0

2012 Site Design and some random notes…

    I’ve decided to change up the main website over at http://www.supersweetshirts.com .  There are no visible changes yet, but soon I will have them published.  Every year I change it up, it’s nothing major, I just need to keep things fresh.  I started redesigning some things today.
    Now, for some random ramblings.  We watched “50/50” last night.  It was great and I am a gigantic baby.  If you are unfamiliar with this movie, it stars Seth Rogan and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  The film is about two friends, one of which (Levitt) is diagnosed with a rare for of cancer; a tumor near his spine.  Sounds depressing?  It totally is and I was sobbing like a baby.  I’m not good at holding back tears during super sad movies which is why I hate watching them, but this one I took exception to.  It is definitely worth watching and probably a breakout performance for (Levitt) who seems to get more impressive as an actor every time I see him.

Now it’s time to rant about Chuck Norris.  I respect Chuck Norris, he is a legendary action hero.  As you may have heard, The Expendables 2 is PG-13 because Chuck Norris has a problem with language.  From what I have read, Stallone insists that it’s just the language that was cut out, and that its still an ass kicking action film.  And sure, the DVD will probably be more violent or there will be some sort of director’s cut, and that’s fine.  I still have a problem with Chuck Norris throwing his weight around, protecting his “brand”.  First off, young kids are no longer looking up to him, I’m not sure who he is protecting here.  His brand spawned from an ongoing joke about how he’s the toughest man on earth.  After this stunt, he is forever tarnished in my eyes.  There are plenty of dudes that could kick his ass. Dudes like:

Arnold and Carl Weathers could kick his ass.  I mean look at this.

 

Dolph Lundgren could kick Chuck Norris’s ass.  I didn’t see Chuck Norris cast as “He-Man”, that’s because he doesn’t have what it takes.

Bolo. (No words are needed here)

0

Finally! Tong Po!

   Today we added the newest addition to our action shirt collection.  The legendary, ruthless, Tong Po from Van Damme’s famous film, “Kickboxer”.  I’ve been for the new year to do this design now that we have our flash dryer and we can do white inks.  The design is quite simple:

The script under Tong Po is Thai for “Muay Thai”.
    This might be my favorite shirt so far.  We shall see if it’s a hit.  This has been added to our etsy store and our eBay store.  It will be in our official website in a few days.
0

2 new onesies!

   I’ve been able to get the Super Sweet Shirt co. studio into a working condition with the bare necessities to get the ball rolling again.  Slowly I will be making it more the way that I want as I get more time, but I needed to get things set up so that I could keep up with the orders and make new designs.  I have created two new onesies that I wanted to shamelessly plug on the blog today, both are totally awesome.  I have had many requests from France and Australia to do a Van Damme onesie.  I already do a Van Damme t-shirt but haven’t had a baby onesie until now.  The onesie features Van Damme in fighting pose from “Kickboxer” as Nack Suk Cao (The White Warrior).

The second new onesie is something Nicole had come up with.  I was always a fan of the “Big Wheel”.  It was always something that would make a kids imagination run wild.  I remember riding mine around driveways like it was the open road.  Nicole had come up with the idea of “Heck’s Angels”.  I totally fell in love with the idea and designed the little logo.

Both of these designs are available in the eBay and Etsy stores, along with our website at http://www.supersweetshirts.com .

0

Bolo shirt is finished (and some other stuff).

   Well I finished the Bolo Shirt and it came out pretty awesome.  I’ll be even more excited if someone else appreciates it as much as I do.  I know one thing, there are no other Bolo shirts, so this is it.

I think I’m also going to do one in red.

   Next week I am thinking of doing another obscure t-shirt.  I think I am going to start a mini-line of action film villain shirts, but only the greatest villains that ever graced the screens.  My next tribute will go to the evil Tong Po.

    I am also putting on deck a Dolph Lundgren “Andrew Scott” shirt from universal soldier which I want him to be seen wearing the necklace of ears.  Ill have designs up this week or next. Stay tuned!

A Dolph shirt is overdue.
0

Bolo

    Last night I had a vision.  Anyone who knows action films will know who this man is.  When the idea came to me I rushed online to see if it had been done before.  I could not find a single shirt.  Nobody had paid tribute to one of the greatest martial arts villains of all time, Bolo Yeung.

   I rushed to my computer when I got home and started to design the shirt I wanted.  This wasn’t going to be something I was going to draw free hand, I basically took a closeup of his face and pulled out the color.  I placed the symbol for warrior up in the corner and then simply placed Bolo at the bottom.  I wanted to keep it simple.  I smoothed out the picture by hand with some black ink, scanned it and then prepared it for my transparency.  I can’t wait to print this shirt, I love the design.

0

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑