- AMERICAN SAMURAI * * *
Mark has a supporting role as a competitor in a martial arts tournament in which participants fight to the death. Not too bad, even though the plot has beard. The main role is protrayed by David Bradley, who defeats Mark. Mark also helped out as double for more gymnastic moves. Mark's big screen break.
- DOUBLE DRAGON * * *
Children's film based on the video game. Two brothers and their adventures in New Angeles in 2007. The kids may enjoy it, but I found it a bit of a trial to sit through. Better than Redemption though.
 ONLY THE STRONG * * *
Directed by Sheldon Lettich (Double Impact, A.W.O.L.). Mark had high hopes for this film which unfortunately did not pay off. He reforms some young hooligans at his old school by teaching them capoeira. There isn't as much of it as I would have liked though. Some nice scenes of Mark working out on the beach, giving us a glimpse at his amazing athletic abilities. Climactic fight scene at the end as the group face up to the bad guys. Worth checking out for Mark and the capoeira - not something one gets to see all that often.
- REDEMPTION * * *
Really really bad film shot in South Africa, also known as Kickboxer 5. Kickboxer Matt Reeves travels to Africa to avenge the death of his friend David Sloan. Mark has one nice scene - working out under the African sun kicking at gourds. Not worth seeing, bottom of the barrel stuff. Only for completists.
- ROOSTERS
Non-action film, starring Edward James Olmos.
- DRAGSTRIP GIRL * * *
Non-martial arts film. Remake of a 50s drag-race film. OK - only one fight in which someone gets the better or Mark with one punch.
- CRYING FREEMAN * * *
Based on the manga/anime of the same name (with the violence toned down), three years in the making, cost about $15 million. Mark plays Yo Hinomura, a potter who serves the Sons of the Dragon cult as indentured assassin. He gets his name from the tears he cries in sorrow at the murders he has to commit. A meeting with Emu O'Hara changes his life - he disobeys the law of the cult that any witnesses must be eliminated after she witnesses the assassination of a Yakuza gangster in Canada. Pretty soon Yo is knee-deep in a war between a Yakuza head also making a bit for a takeover and the Sons of the Dragon, and the struggle to disentangle himself from the cult. Christophe Gans directs with great attention to visuals and atmosphere. The film is beautiful and stylish, Mark is perfect as Yo, and the martial arts and action sequences well-staged. Mark gets to execute some flashy moves and swordplay. Before Drive the best showcase of Mark's martial arts, and a must-see. Mark has subsequently married Julie Condra, who plays Emu. See poster below.
- DRIVE * * *
 In this film Mark gets the best showcase for his remarkable physical abilities so far. (Impact calls it "the best Hong Kong movie never made in Hong Kong".) He plays a Toby Wong, a man with a bio-tech implant which enhances physical ability. He escapes from the Hong Kong Leung Corporation, his "owners", intent on selling the technology inside him to someone in the US who will remove it, leaving his life to return to normalcy. Hunted by his former master he ends up "kidnapping" a barfly played by Kadeem Hardison, and together they set out cross-country to LA. Meanwhile the Leung Corporation has despatched the next generation model in the form of Masayo Kato to retrieve their property. There are some stunning extended martial arts sequences in various settings, akin to those in a Jackie Chan film. Director Steve Wang really shows Mark to his best advantage. Lots of homour, lots of action. A must-see. There is simply no-one else in the West like Dacascos. Read the Bad Movie planet review.
- SABOTAGE * * *
Non-martial arts film starring Mark as a bodyguard whose charge is gunned down. Tony Todd plays the derailed assassin. Some whacky camera angles put a novel spin on a not too original plot. One almost martial arts scene as Mark fights someone off in his hotel room. Very enjoyable - worth seeing. Read the Bad Movie planet review.
- DNA * * *
Bad non-martial arts film starring Mark and Jürgen Prochnov as a CIA agent and an archeologist who get entangled with a mutated monster. Avoid.
- REDLINE * * *
Tech smuggler Mark plays opposite fellow tech smuggler Rutger Hauer, turning on him and shooting him dead, only to have Hauer resurrected the very next morning by the law and sent after him. From a Hauer point of view the film is enjoyable action hokum, but Mark is criminally underused as the evil crime boss. He seems to have fun playing the bad guy though. The showdown between Hauer and Mark is a bit of a letdown - Hauer doesn't have too much trouble rubbing him out, paying Mark back for killing him. One of those cultish bad movies which are fun to watch. It has a very European feel to it which gives it some atmosphere, and plenty of action and naked flesh.
- SANCTUARY * * *
Mark finds that he can't escape his past as a member of an elite group of operatives used for jobs which are not publicly sanctioned. The only way to deal with his past turns out to be by confronting it and his former colleagues head on. Some great action sequences. Very enjoyable film, MUCH better than No Code of Conduct and incomparably better than the atrocious DNA.
- NO CODE OF CONDUCT * * *
Two cops (Mark and Charlie Sheen) and their superior (Martin Sheen) get hold of a pile of heroin which ends up pointing at corruption at the highest level in the city. Non-martial arts cop buddy film mainly remarkable for the ease with which Mark plays opposite the Sheens. He has really developed as an actor (hence the two stars), though he's somewhat underused in the film. The Sheens are fine, but rather watch Charlie in Bad Day on the Block. The trouble with actors moving away from martial arts actioners is that the mainstream B films' plots rarely have much to offer, which puts the lack of decent action in stark relief. Neither a good nor a bad film. If you have nothing better to do the film does pass the time.
- THE BASE * * *
Mark is assigned to military base to sniff out some corrupt personell. Very old plot about the fanatical but charismatic madman and his loyal crew, all brainwashed into thinking him infallible and doing whatever he bids them to. Mark has a girlfriend who gets kidnapped and then ... *yawn*. Fight sequences not really enough to stick around for. Gimme Drive! Gimme Sanctuary! Read the Bad Movie planet review.
- THE CROW: STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN * * *
Mark plays Eric Draven - the same character Brandon Lee portrayed in The Crow - in the US TV series. Shelley waits for him in limbo while he attends to problems on earth. It has promise, but the series is pretty formulaic. Eric basically follows in the footsteps of a myriad of roaming loners popping up in people's lives and solving their problems. Except, of course, that this hero is dead ... It's nice that they do have a bit of a story arc in the series, with Top Dollar and some of the others returning in later episodes. Worth catching, if only for Mark.
- CHINA STRIKE FORCE * * *
Mark plays a bad guy who gets to kick some serious butt. It's a Hong Kong film directed by Stanley Tong, starring Aaron Kwok, Wang Lee Hom, Mark, Coolio and Ken Lo. Mark wants to start dealing drugs with partner Coolio but his Triad father is against it. So a bit of a civil war breaks loose, while clashes with the law in the persons of Kwok and Wang add to the mix. Cool fights, cool stunts, great fun, though not as good as Drive.
- SCORCHER * * *
Waste of time. Mark and his boys must explode some thermonuclear devices to stop the Pacific tectonic plate from causing widescale destruction. And find his daughter before all hell breaks loose. Rutger Hauer plays the US pres. No kung fu action, in case anyone wondered, just a clichéd plot. You can read a full review (with spoilers) on Our Boy Rutger. Better than DNA at least.
- BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF * * *
This is a gorgeous-looking film, directed by Christophe Gans of Crying Freeman. It is set in France a couple of hundred years ago, and Mark plays a Native American called Mani. The film is supposedly based on a true story about a beast haunting the French countryside back then, but somehow I doubt that much historical fact survives in the screenplay. Definitely worth watching.
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