Seven foot Manthing actor, the giant from down under Conan Stevens makes an appearance in Bangkok Adrenaline in a comedic role which is a turn around for him since at seven feet tall and over 300 pounds of muscle, the giant normally plays the villain or the character who usually cracks bones instead of cracking jokes. Bangkok Adrenaline is just another of the many films Conan Stevens has worked on since arriving in Asia almost 2 years ago.

Bangkok Adrenaline is predominately an action movie with that classic Asian twist of comic relief mixed within dramatic action scenes. There are no obvious special effects in this independent film since all the stunt work in Bangkok Adrenaline is performed by top rate martial artists and stunt men from all over the world. What you see is what you get, there are no hidden wires and no CGI, this is a hardcore Asian action movie and the news from the set is that some of the stunt men only just avoided a number of serious injuries while making the film and this will be evident in the quality of the action scenes when the movie is released in cinemas later this year.

Bangkok Adrenaline is just another of the many fine Asian action films to be filmed entirely in Thailand with a cast of both Thai and international actors that will be released in 2007. Bangkok Adrenaline is one action movie I am very much looking forward to seeing once it hits the big screen in around November this year.

Having worked for many years on stage with the Sydney Dance Company in Australia and at the famous and prestigious Sydney Opera House, Conan Stevens has a long history as an actor. Conan has worked on over 20 professional film shoots and has acted in numerous television commercials all over the world.

The giant Conan Stevens achieved cult status with horror movie fans the world over a few years ago when he played the title role in the Marvel Comics movie adaptation of Man Thing. Dressed is an elaborate and expensive Hollywood style costume Conan played a giant swamp monster in a way only a man of his size and stature could in the movie Man Thing. Although an American movie the film was shot in Australia and also starred one of Australia’s most famous actors Jack Thompson.

Over the last couple of years Conan Stevens has been working in the booming Asian film and television market on both movies and television commercials. Having worked with the thriving Baa Ram Ewe film production company, who made the hugely successful and the highest grossing Thai movie of all time Tom Yum Goong, on the movie Power Kids in 2005-2006 Conan is now set to play one of the leading characters for the Baa Ram Ewe sequel to Tom Yum Goong. The movie is to be called Som Tam (pronounced Som Tum) and is to start filming in June 2007.

Conan has just recently finished working on the action comedy Bangkok Adrenaline which is planned for release internationally at the end of 2007 or early 2008. It’s been a long and sometimes slow road to the top for the giant Conan Stevens but finally he is seeing some light at the end of the tunnel towards achieving his goal of big budget action movie star.

A lot of people don’t know this about Conan Stevens but back when he was in school he was a tall and skinny kid with a big dream of being a big time action movie star. Although not many people took his dream seriously as is often the case with young actors making their move towards stardom, he teamed up with school friends and twin brothers Anthony Wingett and Jason Wingett and started working out to change his tall skinny body into the giant 300 pound frame he carries today. With the help of the Wingett twin brothers who both went on to win the heavyweight Mr. Australia bodybuilding championships in different years, Conan began to build an immense amount of muscle. His friend Anthony Wingett went on to become Mr. Universe at just 22 years of age and eventually became an IFBB professional bodybuilder. However, Conan took another path and became the biggest professional wrestler in Australian history traveling all over the country and was a draw card in the Australian versus American professional wrestling championships where Conan was one of the biggest if not the biggest of all wrestlers including the giant Americans at that time.

Conan retired form professional wrestling with a number of injuries which he has since recovered from and is now seriously back into his bodybuilding training and eyeing a move towards the USA to pursue his acting aspirations. At 7 foot tall and over 300 pounds of muscle he fills a certain role within the acting community that almost no other actor could possibly compete with. Conan Stevens may not yet be a household name although with his many years of acting experience and the will to succeed in the ultra competitive world of acting it may only be a matter of time till he becomes the worlds biggest action movie star.

The 1408 Movie stars John Cusak and Samuel L. Jackson and is directed by Mikael Hafstrom. The basic story line behind the film is John Cusak’s character is a bestselling novelist who focuses on scary stories and the paranormal but he himself is not a believer in paranormal activity. So in the 1408 Movie he decides to spend a night in a notorious New York Hotel that is believed to be haunted to prove that the paranormal is all a bunch of hocus pocus.

As I sit here typing away this 1408 Movie review, or should I say 1408 Movie preview I am getting goose bumps just thinking about spending a night in room 1408 after since reading the Stephen King 1408 novel. Although I haven’t seen the film yet I must say I am almost certainly convinced this screen version will scare the pants off me when I see it and probably you to.

Stephen King as we all know is the master of horror or more directly scaring the living daylights out of his readers. With a brilliant couple of power house actors like John Cusak and Samuel L. Jackson I’ve no doubt the 1408 Movie will live up to the expectations of Stephen King fans and horror movie fans alike. I personally can’t wait to see this new horror movie and strangely enough I can’t wait to be scared senseless for some strange reason.

So fingers crossed for the 1408 Movie and let’s hope it’s as scary as the 1408 Stephen King novel.

Jesse the body Ventura was a member of Arnold’s elite crew of crack commandos in this epic action film along with wild man Sonny Landham. It was reported that while the Predator movie was being filmed Sonny Landham needed a full time bodyguard, not to protect him but to protect others from him as the studio that released Predator the movie knew he had a reputation for going a little crazy so they had a bodyguard with him at all times.

Writer Shane Black took up an acting role in the Predator movie which saw him not only on set most days in his capacity as an actor but also to oversee the production since John Mc Tiernan the director had never been at the helm of such a big budget film before. John Mc Tiernan certainly didn’t let the studio down with this original and classic big screen blockbuster.

The Predator movie was released just 3 years after Arnold Schwarzenegger made The Terminator which was his biggest movie achievement ever at that time. The huge worldwide success of the movie Predator only cemented Arnold’s position as the biggest action movie star in the world. Although Arnold was neck and neck with Sylvester Stallone at that time the Predator movie made it clear that Arnold was, just like when he was a bodybuilding champion, “numero uno” at the box office.

Predator also saw Arnold Schwarzenegger team up with another actor he had previously worked with on the film set of Commando and that was Bill Duke. Bill Duke is the veteran of many action movies and puts in a stellar performance in Predator. There was one scene in particular when Bill Duke’s character picked up the monstrous gun that was held by Jesse Ventura just before he was killed by the Predator and started firing into the jungle. This huge gun in question was actually a gun that is normally mounted on a helicopter and not usually held by one man. Needless to say this scene not only looked awesome but sounded incredible as well due to the whizzing sound of this massive helicopter gun.

The Predator movie sees Arnold leading a group of commandos on a mission to find a group of military men who had gone missing in the jungle but they end up finding more than they bargained for when they encountered a violent 7 foot creature from outer space played by actor Kevin Peter Hall who unfortunately died not long after the Predator movie was made.

This was director John Mc Tiernan’s first big hit but he has gone on to become one of Hollywood’s great action directors. The Predator movie is classic Arnold and probably one of the most memorable films of his stellar career. One piece of interesting Predator movie trivia is that Arnold had a complete gym flown onto the movie set so he could work out and keep himself bulked up and huge for the role of Major Dutch in this film.

Predator review-stuff.com rating 9 out of 10.

The Raiders of the Lost Ark story follows Indiana Jones as he globe trots all over the world looking for long lost archeological artifacts and finding himself in life threatening adventures along the way. Raiders of the Lost Ark is set in the 1930’s and starts off in the jungles of South America while Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones leads a group of not so loyal treasure hunters hoping to get to the treasure before him and leave him to his fate with the savage locals. One of the first scenes in Raiders of the Lost Ark is the famous huge rolling ball scene where Indiana Jones runs for his life through a series of ancient booby traps designed to foil the attempts of treasure hunters. Right from the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark this movie has you on the edge of your seat and screaming for more action and that’s exactly what you get in this brilliant action movie.

Not only is Raiders of the Lost Ark literally dripping with action from start to finish, the story itself is original and compelling. If you can suspend your disbelief for about 2 hours while you watch this movie it is about as entertaining as a movie can get. Raiders of the Lost Ark gave even more, well deserved credit to up and coming director Steven Spielberg but also helped cement the star power of Harrison Ford after his spell as Indiana Jones in this movie. Riding high on the success of Star Wars both Harrison Ford and George Lucas successfully teamed up again for this action blockbuster.

After Indiana Jones returns to America from his adventure in South America he finds himself on another adventure to find the lost Ark of the Covenant, hence the name of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana Jones then heads to Asia where he teams up with an old flame named Marion Ravenwood played by actress Karen Allen. Although not on great terms both Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood head to Egypt where they meet up with Indiana’s good friend Salah played by actor John Rhys Davies. The three of them move around trying to avoid the Nazis while looking for the resting place of the lost ark.

Raiders of the Lost Ark takes turn after adventurous turn as Indiana Jones and his friends find the lost ark before the Nazis but just after they find it the Nazis take it from them. Although, ever persistent Indiana Jones reacquires the lost ark and heads off on a boat with the Ark of the Covenant. While Indiana and Marion Ravenwood are on the boat at sea the Nazis intercept the ship and take back the ark again.

Eventually we get to the grand finale and climax of Raiders of the Lost Ark where the Nazis decide to open the Ark of the Covenant on a remote island. The climax of the film does not disappoint in the usual Steven Spielberg fashion. Raiders of the Lost Ark finishes on a high note. If you have not seen Raiders of the Lost Ark I envy you as you are in for a real treat, I certainly wish I could experience this absolutely wonderful film for the first time again.

Some interesting facts and movie trivia about Raiders of the Lost Ark you may not know.

Harrison Ford was not the first choice to play Indiana Jones, in fact the role of Indiana Jones was given to Tom Selleck but due to his commitments on the television show Magnum PI he had to turn down the role. What a bummer for Tom Selleck. Indiana Jones played by Harrison Ford went on to be the focus of 3 movies in total and word around at the time of writing this Raiders of the Lost Ark review is that Indy 4 with Harrison Ford, George Lucas and Steven Speilberg at the helm is due to begin filming in 2007. If there is an Indy 4 movie filmed in 2007 it will be 18 years since the last Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was released in 1989. Indiana Jones 4 would be a money making machine if there ever was one but Harrison Ford is in his 60’s now, he was in his late 30’s when he played Indiana Jones for the first time in 1981, although I still think it would be a real winner.

Some more Raiders movie trivia, in the first part of Raiders of the Lost Ark there is a scene where Indiana Jones jumps into a plane that takes off from the river while he is being chased by local savages. The plane took off with Harrison Ford and the pilot in the aero plane and flew what looked like, into the sunset, but as the plane flew out of view of the cameras it crashed soon after but nobody was badly hurt.

The South American scenes in Raiders of the Lost Ark were actually filmed in Hawaii.

There is another scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones is in Cairo and is about to fight a local swordsman, the scene was supposed to be an elaborate sword fighting scene but Harrison Ford had a bad case of food poisoning on that day so instead of delaying the filming of the movie they decided to shorten the scene where Indiana Jones simply pulls out a gun and shoots the Egyptian swordsman dead. It actually turned out to be a really cool scene and quite funny in a dry Indiana Jones kind of way.

Raiders of the Lost Ark was the first collaboration between Harrison Ford, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg but was certainly not the last. All three of these men are now some of the biggest heavyweights in Hollywood and have numerous big blockbusters under their names.

Raiders of the Lost Ark review-stuff.com rating 10 out of 10.