Following a supporting role in blockbuster 'The Expendables', 90s DTV action star Gary Daniels landed his first leading role in a decade with this movie. Originally intended to be released in cinemas, this is a must for action movie fans and anyone who fondly remembers Gary's 90s hits like Rage, Recoil, Firepower and many others.

As the title suggests, Gary is 'Forced to Fight' in an underground tournament organised by the criminal Peter 'Robocop' Weller. The movie has good production values and the fights are well staged and easy to follow, with the added bonus that Gary and the others are actual fighters, unlike actors in modern Hollywood 'action' movies. The story is simple but well executed, which is what counts.

To summarise, it's great to see Gary Daniels back leading a movie that is as good as his best 90s actioners.

This is one of Van Damme's better DTV movies, stronger than most of his recent output except Universal Soldier Regeneration and Wake of Death. It's a revenge movie with the plot lifted from Taken and Van Damme is on good form as the ex-mercenary who wreaks vengeance on the evil child traffickers.

Director Ernie Barbarash makes a better impression here than on Assassination Games, remembering to shoot in colour in this time. On the negative side, the film is set in the drab, over-familiar locations of Eastern Europe, like most of Van Damme, Seagal, Snipes and Lundgren's DTV movies, as it's cheap to film there. Although this time at least it fits in with the plot.

The action features knife-fighting prominently and is well done. Pacing is good despite the longer running time than usual. The Blu Ray has a good picture, although it's probably not a massive upgrade from DVD. There are no extras and Optimum don't even bother with subtitles. The working title was The Butcher, which is probably a better title given the movie's content - I assume it was changed due to the inferior Eric Roberts movie of the same name. Highly recommended for action fans.

Having starred in some of the best old-school action movies of the past decade (Blood and Bone, Undisputed 2 & 3), the talented Michael Jai white directed the DTV sequel to the Hollywood movie Never Back Down. Production values are very good for a DTV movie and the fight choreography is stepped up to a higher level as fans of MJW would expect. Good entertainment for martial arts action fans.

The last and least of the Taxi series by some margin, Taxi 4 ditches the action and settles for just the comedy instead. There are virtually no action set pieces but an excess of sit-com style comedy routines. Marion Cotillard is conspicuous by her absence for the first time in the series.

Although the first two were the best in the series, even the third one is way ahead of this one in quality. It just doesn't hold the attention and feels redundant - the franchise was a box office sensation in France but this poor effort proved to be the last one. Unless you are looking for a straight comedy with no action, you can skip this entry.

Like Van Damme's recent Assassination Games, the latest from Dolph Lundgren is about rival assassins. However, this is the better one - it's entertaining throughout and better photographed and directed. This is another good action movie from director William Kaufman (Sinners and Saints AKA Bad Cop, The Hit List). Cuba Gooding Jr has the most screen time but Lundgren steals the show with a showy, charismatic performance. Overall this is above average DTV action.

The Blu Ray is well worth the upgrade from DVD, displaying a sharp picture with bold colours. The only extra is a 10 minute featurette, mostly B-roll footage mixed with a few short interviews.

A reasonable effort, although I expected more from this team up between Jean Claude Van Damme and Scott Adkins. The story is about rival hitmen teaming up. It starts slowly but improves as it goes on, helped by the charisma of the leads. The action is relatively light, mostly with guns and a couple of fights where Scott Adkins (Undisputed 2 & 3) impresses once again.

Unfortunately the whole film is filmed on digital video in sepia tone - seriously there is almost no colour at all here and it looks oppressive at times. At least Van Damme has a decent amount of screen time and puts the effort in (take note Steven Seagal), so it's a much better bet for fans than the recent Dragon Eyes. Note that the original title is "Weapon".

Skyfall is an entertaining Bond adventure that will please fans of Casino Royale and the much-maligned Quantum of Solace. It rectifies Quantum's shortcomings (lack of Bond motifs and formula, too much shaky-cam, too short) and is much more like Casino Royale (although the more exotic locations and Bond girls seem to have fallen victim to austerity). I'd say it falls short of the excellent Casino Royale overall however.

On the positive side, Daniel Craig continues to make an excellent Bond, some of the Bond formula is returning to the series and the action is staged clearly without over-editing.

However, it still feels like the producers are struggling to figure out what a secret agent is supposed to be doing for his political masters in a post-Bourne world, where political corruption is all around. Once again, this time it's personal (like Quantum of Solace), there is still no SPECTRE-like super-villain threatening the world and no "exploding pens". The producers have spent three films re-booting Bond - let's see Bond on a mission against a madman bent on world domination next time. Like Connery, Moore, Dalton and Brosnan used to do. Leave the "realism" to Jason Bourne.

A very good movie, but let's actually get on with Bond being Bond now!

A lone fighter cleans up a small town, including taking out warring gangs and corrupt cops. The plot is lifted straight from Yojimbo (later copied by High Plains Drifter, Last Man Standing etc).

I was expecting a lot more from director John Hyams, as his first film since the excellent Universal Soldier : Regeneration. This is also the first movie I've seen from legendary action producer Joel Silver's After Dark Pictures (Transit, Stash House).

I won't be in a rush to catch any more. Thoroughly routine, shot on HD video and digitally bleached to almost black and white, with no dramatic tension at all, it's just hard to get into the story. Jean Claude Van Damme is featured prominently on the cover but is only in the movie for about 5 minutes - this is a Cung Le movie. The only positive are the well filmed and choreographed fight scenes.

There are much better action movies out there - it's not worth seeking out unless you are a Cung Le fan.

The DVD has a good picture (it's probably not worth upgrading to Blu Ray), 5.1 audio and optional subtitles but no extras (just 2 trailers).

This is really a DTV Collateral rip-off (note Cuba Gooding Jr's clothing on the cover) but it works out pretty well. Director William Kaufman also made the excellent 'Sinners and Saints' (released in the UK as 'Bad Cop'). Whilst this isn't as good, it's still above-average DTV and an interesting variant on the Collateral story.

This is one of the better Cuba Gooding Jr movies that went DTV. A violent crime drama that benefits from a good cast (Miguel Ferrer and Harvey Keitel) and movies along at a fast pace. Some of the dialogue suggests the screenwriter is a fan of Tarantino. Production values are good - it could pass for a theatrical release.