If you follow me on social media, then you’ve probably seen that I regularly visit local Dollar Tree locations and check out what DVDs and Blu-rays they have in stock. Sometimes I stumbled onto some legitimately awesome finds, while other occasions will result in purchasing something that I know is going to be terrible and yet I just can’t resist picking it up anyway.
For instance, yesterday I picked up a DVD set that contains twenty - count ‘em - TWENTY movies. Are they good? Are they terrible? Are they fair to middling? Well, given that there are twenty of them, I’d guess that they run the gamut.
How, pray tell, can I possibly decide which one to watch and write about first?
Well, hell, why should I decide at all when I can let you nice people do it?
So here are the movies, in chronological order, and I invite you to head straight to the comments section and tell me which one should come first…and if you have thoughts about which ones should follow, let me know those, too.
Just brace yourself. God knows I am…
Starring: Mario Van Peebles, Brendan Ward, Melissa Esposito, Megan Van Peebles, and Dan Lauria,
IMDb Plot Synopsis: A young man just released from prison and living with his sister crosses paths with two children, also brother and sister, who are on the run from their child pornographer foster parents.
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Kiefer Sutherland, Lori Loughlin, Billy Zane, Joe Spano, and Danny Nucci
IMDb Plot Synopsis: High-school students start a vigilante group to combat crime in their neighborhood.
Starring: Suzanne Pleshette, Danny Aiello, Jon Tenney, Joe Morton, and Jon Polito
IMDb Plot Synopsis: A by the book female police officer is assigned to the most corrupt precinct in Pittsburgh and told to get it cleaned up.
Starring: Lindsay Wagner, Tom Skerritt, Constance McCashin, and Joanna Cassidy
IMDb Plot Synopsis: Four women play a terrifying game of cat and mouse when they encounter a Neo-Nazi hideout while making a trip through the Sierra Mountans.
Starring: Robert Urich, Avery Brooks, and Wendy Crewson
IMDb Plot Synopsis: Spenser is hired out by Hugh Dixon to track down the killers of his wife and daughters. He and Hawk are drawn into a huge plot involving assassination attempts on African leader Winston Boyko by some racist terrorist named Paul.
Starring: Robert Urich, Avery Brooks, Sonja Smits, Matthew Ferguson, and Barbara Williams
IMDb Plot Synopsis: When one of Susan's former patients, a news reporter, turns up dead on the outskirts of Wheaton, the cocaine capitol of Massachusetts, she and Spenser head out to Wheaton to find out why he was killed, with Hawk tagging along, and end up getting involved with Felipe Esteva, the head of the cocaine smuggling ring who has the entire town in his pocket.
Starring: Laurent Imbault, Johanna Black, Julian Tassielli, and Billy Dee Williams
IMDb Plot Synopsis: A beautiful young woman is trained by her father in the art of professional assassination. When her father is killed, she is forced to choose between the violent world she knows or the peaceful life she desires.
Starring: Michael Dudikoff, Frederic Forrest, Catherine Bell, and...Christopher Titus?!
IMDb Plot Synopsis: Nuclear submarine USS Ulysses rescues supposed victims of a boat disaster, who turn out to be terrorists intent on capturing nuclear weapons aboard the sub. Only a former SEAL can save the day by sliding aboard while the sub is underwater.
IMDb Plot Synopsis: Two orphans - Mac Ramsey and Li Ann Tsei – who have spent their life living with the Tang family - a ruthless Chinese organized crime syndicate. Mac and Li Ann were taken in by the Tang Godfather and have formed a close friendship with his son Michael. When they grow up, Li Ann is betrothed to Michael, but falls in love with Mac so the two scheme to steal money from the Tang family and run off to start a new life. During the heist, Mac is arrested and Li Ann flees to Canada. 18 months later, Mac is released into the charge of a menacing woman known only as the Director who takes him to Canada to work for her crime-fighting team. He soon realizes he will be working with Li Ann and her former cop boyfriend Victor.
Starring: Donal Logue, Callum Keith Rennie, Paul Sorvino, Max Perlich, and Gregory Sporleder
IMDb Plot Synopsis: Three losers, Eddie, Lucas and Mamet, are sent to collect some debt at a remote farm. But the thugs there are too hard for them, and they are humiliated. They return for revenge, it gets out of hand, ends with a bloodbath and they are left with a big amount of cocaine. The drugs belong to local mob boss Horace Burke, who sends his son to find them. Cops are also after them.
Starring: Frank Zagarino, Kayle Watson, and J. Christian Ingvordsen
IMDb Plot Synopsis: Hidden at a desolate air base in a former Soviet Republic is an awesome weapon, the only working prototype of the MIG 35 "Firebomb" the Soviet stealth fighter/bomber. A mercenary assault team led by former Spetnatz Colonel Vlad Kotchov and the beautiful but deadly Nadia assault the base and steal the black stealth plane.
Starring: Sandrine Holt, Ivan Sergei, and Nicholas Lea
IMDb Plot Synopsis: Trained thieves investigate a hit man and a power struggle within their former crime family.
Starring: Frank Zagarino, Kayle Watson, and J. Christian Ingvordsen
IMDb Plot Synopsis: High above the Earth, Top Gun pilot turned astronaut, Frank White commands his first Space Shuttle mission. While in orbit, the science team headed by Doctor Bender runs a critical experiment utilizing the unique properties of micro-gravity to cultivate a cure for the Ebola virus, the most lethal pathogen known to the human race. Back on Earth, an accident on the way to de-brief leaves the entire science team dead. Only Dr. Bender has survived. Suspecting foul play, Frank White infiltrates the hospital where Dr. Bender is quarantined, and learns from the critically injured scientist that the accident was arranged. The Ebola in the experimental container had been stolen. Frank takes this information to James Kelly the Deputy Director of Intelligence for the CIA. Immediately after, Frank is nearly killed on a training flight when his unarmed FA-18 is attacked by a mysterious F-15. Frank finds his way to former SEAL team leader Bone Conn. The two uncover a plot to turn the Ebola virus into a chemical weapon of unimaginable destructive power. Millions of innocent lives hang in the balance as the two men and their team of Navy SEALS become locked in a deadly race against time to stop the ultimate terrorist attack.
Starring: Sandrine Holt, Ivan Sergei, and Nicholas Lea
IMDb Plot Synopsis: The Director assigns Mac to uncover why the Janczyk crime family has been venturing into uncharted hoodlum territory. While investigating, he discovers that the family is now being run by the boss's sweet but dangerous daughter, Jackie. After leading the teenage mob boss to the brink of a potential gang war with the Tang family, they come face to face with the Tang Godfather and their past.
Starring: Steve Guttenberg, Kim Coates, Torri Higginson, David Fraser, Colm Feore, and Sean Bean
IMDb Plot Synopsis: An elite squad of government agents executes a daring mid-air raid to retrieve the world's deadliest biological weapon, SEREX. With disaster imminent, they confront the killer, only to find that it's one of their own.
Starring: Eric Roberts, Tommy Lee Thomas, Martin Kove, Jody Nolan, Moe Irvin
IMDb Plot Synopsis: An ex-soldier is hired to infiltrate a corrupt jail.
Starring: Michael Rooker, Bas Rutten, Dana Lee, G. Anthony Joseph, and Wolf Muser
IMDb Plot Synopsis: An ex-Navy SEAL faces his riskiest mission yet when he's forced to compete for his life in a survival game. The last man standing will take home a 10 million dollar prize, those who fail will die a lonely death in the jungle.
Starring: Jason Barry, Russell Wong, Roddy Piper, Linda Park, and Joanna Pacula
IMDb Plot Synopsis: In a world where street gangs collide with the law, neighborhood friends, Raymond and Gabriel, must decide which side of the battle to join. This will be the ultimate fight - the one for power, family, and HONOR.
Starring: Erick Gosse, Thomas Tamburello, Lynn Adrianna Freedman, Steve Rad, and Ron Jeremy as Dr. Finerty!
IMDb Plot Synopsis: Jason Boyer is a loose-cannon special agent brought in by a narcotics task force to bring down De La Cruz crime family lieutenant Bobby Leoni. A rising star in the criminal underworld, Leoni excels at drug trafficking, a skill offset only by his weakness for the fairer sex, most notably the trophy wife of his crime lord boss, Nick De La Cruz.
Starring: Cristos, Ion Overman, Courtney Ray Geigle, Scott Haze, and Leslie Mills
IMDb Plot Synopsis: When a jury fails to convict the serial killer who savagely murdered his family, one man must rise above his desire for revenge and descend into the deranged world of a sadistic predator to uncover the truth and finally get justice. What begins as a classic revenge tale takes a dramatic turn into a haunting land of horror and murder.
My 13 year old self can vouch for Once a Thief AKA John Woo's Once a Thief. My sister and I loved it at the time and had a VHS copy taped off the original broadcast. I didn't realize there were multiple films, but it later spawned a Canadian TV series.
Airboss followed immediately by Airboss 2 of course. Airboss marathon!