NinjaJack
06-20-2005, 04:07 PM
Whenever I go to see a summer blockbuster featuring fictional charecters with extraordinary powers, I`m not just there to watch the drama unfold on screen. One of the key factors to keeping me there is the quality of the action. Would you really watch three hours of LOTR if all they did was stand around talk? Of course you would, but that isn`t the point.
A good action/adventure deserves, ahem, good action and adventure. It doesn`t matter if it`s on film or televison or even on DVD. Any project promoting action SHOULD have action.
I watched Mutant X since it first aired but the keen thing to note is that the action scenes are hit or miss. In fact some of the action in Mutant X is so underwhelming it`s almost like watching WCW.
Action makes up the backbone to these areas of entertainment, stuntmen are outrageously underpaid for what they go through. An actor apart of the 20 mil club will get just that $20 Million smakeroos while the stunt man that jump twenty feet from a moving copter gets a fraction of that.
Koichi Sakamoto is one of the geniuses behind the well established stunt crew Alpha Stunts. The Last Samurai, Daredevil and many other films and TV shows. His biggest claim to fame that he steadfastly stands behind? The Power Rangers.
If you want great martial arts and stuntwork you need look no further on your screen than the Power Team.
Koichi started work as a stuntman for MMPR, he was barely a legal adult when he joined the series. Jeff Pruitt was creating the stunt work back in the day. Not Ranger related stunts since in the first few years there weren`t a heck of alot to speak of. Jeff gave us those classic fights in the park, on the playground and uh, in the park.
Not the underscore the guy, he did some great stunt work that was later transfered to being in charge of Buffy and Angel`s buttkicking scenes.
But when Koichi started as cheif stuntie the show`s action really picked up. MMPR:TM for example might not have been an Oscar worthy film staring Sean Penn or Halle Berry(thus we should be thankful for that} but the fighting was at the top of the hill.
Koichi has even cameoed in the episode :"King For The Day", on of the classic Zeo episodes where he played an alien who brought the hero out of Bulk and Skull.
If you stop and watch an episode of PRG(Power Rangers Generations] you`ll note that the fights have gotten better over the last 13 years. Most note worthy being when the New Ranger showed up in the second half of PRT. Ever since Turbo return to unmorphed and morphed action the US stunt department has gained leaps and bounds on their Japanese counterparts. Where once the very idea of US Ranger footage meant the Rangers standing around kicking cardboard boxes, now were kicking butt.
In the 1998 series PRIS (Power Rangers In Space, not the BGC and Bladerunner droid) PR level of action excellence was enthused greatly by the inroduction of great wire work better lighting and the most exciting use of pyrotechnics on televison. What they lacked in 100 Million dollar budget they made up with 200 million braincells in Mr. Sakamoto`s head.
C2D(Countdown To Destruction) is still a masterpiece and testiment to what one could achieve on a televison screen. All the inhabited planets of the galaxy were being invaded at once. The Rangers(and likely Masked Rider and the Borgs) were being overun in the battlefield. The odds were against the forces of light and darkness was coming up the horizon. Zordon of Eltar, creator of the Orginal Five, saw tht only a self sacrice would stop the invaders. "Andros", he said to the one Ranger standing before him, "It is your duty as a Power Ranger to protect the universe, shatter my energy tube. . .". Of course fans remember that Andros did kill Zordon and that in turn resulted in the destruction of all the invading wrongdoers
C2D was Koichi`s brainchild and fleshed out by Judd Lynn. Ever since C2D the season finales have been more like hour long escapades into the sci-fi universe. I still believe today that every geek should watch
Countdown To Destruction, Journey`s End(PRLG), Fate Of Lightspeed(PRLR), End Of Time and all those that follow to have a better idea of great action televison.
Now lets skip forward to 2003 when Villiage Roadshow tookover production for PR.
This was a year of outstanding changes in location and style. New Zealand is a great place to film action. Especially when you have Xena and Herc`s crew on the job. They just didn`t know how to film a fight with Rangers. Koichi`s team was brought in and PRNS(Power Rangers Ninja Storm) and so on has had some of the best fighting in the show`s history.
later this year when the next batch of SPD DVD`s arrive in stores, check it out. SPD(Space Patrol Delta) is not only a action packed masterpiece but the pacing, stories and characters are on par with the action. Doggie Cruger for instance is the Chief of Earth space police. A every one else on his planet Sirius was killed by Grumm( evil general that is currently trying to make his life hell) While he was out fighting for his people his wife was abducted behind his back. When Cruger finally became the Shadow Ranger you could see it marked a new chapter in the Rangerverse`s stunt crew. In one of the most exciting and well choreographed fights on either the big or small screen Doggie kicked alot of tail
Koichi and crew are even in charge of Super Sentai`s current fight scenes and it truly shows you that this man and his partners in the company have shown the world that it doesn`t matter what project you`re on or what time it airs just as long as you give you 200% you`ll always have something to be proud of.
-NinjaJack
A good action/adventure deserves, ahem, good action and adventure. It doesn`t matter if it`s on film or televison or even on DVD. Any project promoting action SHOULD have action.
I watched Mutant X since it first aired but the keen thing to note is that the action scenes are hit or miss. In fact some of the action in Mutant X is so underwhelming it`s almost like watching WCW.
Action makes up the backbone to these areas of entertainment, stuntmen are outrageously underpaid for what they go through. An actor apart of the 20 mil club will get just that $20 Million smakeroos while the stunt man that jump twenty feet from a moving copter gets a fraction of that.
Koichi Sakamoto is one of the geniuses behind the well established stunt crew Alpha Stunts. The Last Samurai, Daredevil and many other films and TV shows. His biggest claim to fame that he steadfastly stands behind? The Power Rangers.
If you want great martial arts and stuntwork you need look no further on your screen than the Power Team.
Koichi started work as a stuntman for MMPR, he was barely a legal adult when he joined the series. Jeff Pruitt was creating the stunt work back in the day. Not Ranger related stunts since in the first few years there weren`t a heck of alot to speak of. Jeff gave us those classic fights in the park, on the playground and uh, in the park.
Not the underscore the guy, he did some great stunt work that was later transfered to being in charge of Buffy and Angel`s buttkicking scenes.
But when Koichi started as cheif stuntie the show`s action really picked up. MMPR:TM for example might not have been an Oscar worthy film staring Sean Penn or Halle Berry(thus we should be thankful for that} but the fighting was at the top of the hill.
Koichi has even cameoed in the episode :"King For The Day", on of the classic Zeo episodes where he played an alien who brought the hero out of Bulk and Skull.
If you stop and watch an episode of PRG(Power Rangers Generations] you`ll note that the fights have gotten better over the last 13 years. Most note worthy being when the New Ranger showed up in the second half of PRT. Ever since Turbo return to unmorphed and morphed action the US stunt department has gained leaps and bounds on their Japanese counterparts. Where once the very idea of US Ranger footage meant the Rangers standing around kicking cardboard boxes, now were kicking butt.
In the 1998 series PRIS (Power Rangers In Space, not the BGC and Bladerunner droid) PR level of action excellence was enthused greatly by the inroduction of great wire work better lighting and the most exciting use of pyrotechnics on televison. What they lacked in 100 Million dollar budget they made up with 200 million braincells in Mr. Sakamoto`s head.
C2D(Countdown To Destruction) is still a masterpiece and testiment to what one could achieve on a televison screen. All the inhabited planets of the galaxy were being invaded at once. The Rangers(and likely Masked Rider and the Borgs) were being overun in the battlefield. The odds were against the forces of light and darkness was coming up the horizon. Zordon of Eltar, creator of the Orginal Five, saw tht only a self sacrice would stop the invaders. "Andros", he said to the one Ranger standing before him, "It is your duty as a Power Ranger to protect the universe, shatter my energy tube. . .". Of course fans remember that Andros did kill Zordon and that in turn resulted in the destruction of all the invading wrongdoers
C2D was Koichi`s brainchild and fleshed out by Judd Lynn. Ever since C2D the season finales have been more like hour long escapades into the sci-fi universe. I still believe today that every geek should watch
Countdown To Destruction, Journey`s End(PRLG), Fate Of Lightspeed(PRLR), End Of Time and all those that follow to have a better idea of great action televison.
Now lets skip forward to 2003 when Villiage Roadshow tookover production for PR.
This was a year of outstanding changes in location and style. New Zealand is a great place to film action. Especially when you have Xena and Herc`s crew on the job. They just didn`t know how to film a fight with Rangers. Koichi`s team was brought in and PRNS(Power Rangers Ninja Storm) and so on has had some of the best fighting in the show`s history.
later this year when the next batch of SPD DVD`s arrive in stores, check it out. SPD(Space Patrol Delta) is not only a action packed masterpiece but the pacing, stories and characters are on par with the action. Doggie Cruger for instance is the Chief of Earth space police. A every one else on his planet Sirius was killed by Grumm( evil general that is currently trying to make his life hell) While he was out fighting for his people his wife was abducted behind his back. When Cruger finally became the Shadow Ranger you could see it marked a new chapter in the Rangerverse`s stunt crew. In one of the most exciting and well choreographed fights on either the big or small screen Doggie kicked alot of tail
Koichi and crew are even in charge of Super Sentai`s current fight scenes and it truly shows you that this man and his partners in the company have shown the world that it doesn`t matter what project you`re on or what time it airs just as long as you give you 200% you`ll always have something to be proud of.
-NinjaJack