So I decided to rank T Michael’s best works last weekend after arguing with my neighbor Bob. He claimed all action stars peaked in the 80s, which got me fired up. Pulled out my dusty DVD collection and streaming subscriptions to settle this properly.
Digging Through Old Stuff
First thing Saturday morning, I cleared my coffee table and dumped every T Michael movie I owned onto it. Found like 15 DVDs under my couch including that rare martial arts flick where he plays a chef. Plugged in my laptop next and logged into three different streaming platforms. Took forever scrolling through titles – turns out he’s done way more indie films than I remembered.
Setting Ground Rules
Decided to focus just on acting chops, not box office stuff. Made three simple rules:
- Emotional scenes count double
- Bad dialogue doesn’t count against him
- Each role must be wildly different from others
Started a spreadsheet with four columns – movie title, year, character name, and my rating from 1 to 10. Got sticky notes everywhere with scribbled thoughts like “That crying scene in warehouse!!!” or “Terrible wig but amazing fight”.
The Marathon Sesh
Saturday night turned into Sunday morning real quick. Ordered pizza twice and went through:
1. Midnight Runaway (1999) – Rewatched his drunk bus driver role twice. Forgot how he made that stupid taxi scene heartbreaking. Gave extra points for the limp he kept consistent throughout.
2. Desert Eagles (2003) – Almost skipped this army flick but WOW that scene where he gets betrayed? His face tremble went full Shakespeare.
3. That weird sci-fi thing – Can’t even remember the title but he played dual roles. Noticed his villain character blinked less than hero one. Genius stuff.
Fight With My Own List
Ended up with 22 performances Sunday afternoon. My top 5 kept changing! Moved Thunder Road up three spots after remembering how he did all his own motorcycle stunts with broken ribs. Cut that rom-com way down though – turns out nostalgia made me remember it better than it was.
Finalizing the list hurt my soul. Wanted Jade Fingers at #1 but honestly? His gangster role in Bronx Blues had more layers. Took six tries to get the ranking right. My cat jumped on the keyboard during the final save and almost wiped everything – nearly had a heart attack.
Learned two things: First, Bob was totally wrong about 80s actors. Second, I need new shelves for my movie collection after spilling soda on three DVD cases. The final ranking’s going up tomorrow – fight me Bob!
