Gary Daniels. The name just kind of rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Like liquid velvet on rye, it is. Gary Daniels. Try whispering it into your lover's ear tonight and see what happens. I myself had never heard of this guy until the independent television station I work for decided to pick up a movie package from Ascent Media, a company that distributes the timeless, life-changing motion pictures produced by PM Entertainment. Never heard of them? Not surprised. They're responsible for a ton of horrible action flicks, including a few Don "The Dragon" Wilson vehicles and several directorial efforts by Art Camacho, who is essentially the Michael Bay of dodgy B-Grade action. Anyone who's seen Gangland and/or Recoil knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Anyway, world-renowned kick-boxing champion Gary Daniels was a name I was completely unfamiliar with, despite the fact that I own both Anthony Hickox's Submerged and Jing Wong's City Hunter, two films that feature the charismatic Brit in small, easily-forgettable roles. So small and forgettable, in fact, that his presence didn't even register on my Internal Spreadsheet of B-Movie Fighters, a database fueled by Red Bull, Cheese Nips, and a serious lack of better things to do.

No, the first Gary Daniels picture to catch my attention deficit disorder was probably Richard Pepin's Firepower, or maybe it was the one that finds our hero whipping up some shirtless martial arts wizardry while wearing a pair of "Hammer Pants" inspired by the good ol' American flag. I honestly can't remember. Sorry about that. After a while, the majority of these pictures begin to bleed together into one malnourished amalgamation of ideas and explosions. Start watching this stuff on a regular basis and you'll experience the effects yourself.

Though these titles left a vague, slightly milky impression on my cinema-soaked gray matter, it was definitely Daniel's 1996 effort Rage that made me a fan. He stars as second-grade teacher Alex Gainer, a kung fu family man who is car-jacked one bright sunny afternoon by an angry Mexican armed with a shiny handgun and an itchy trigger finger. Always a bad combination. When the police finally force the duo off the road, Gainer is promptly beaten into submission and shipped off to a high-tech laboratory that secretly tests experimental drugs on illegal immigrants. And seeing as how they've got this nice, strong white boy at their disposal, the brilliant scientists on-duty inject the drug into our hero and prepare to record the results.