It might seem as though the cast of “Friends” got lucky landing their roles in that beloved ’90s sitcom. And while luck is a big part of it, it’s not as if the actors simply moved to Hollywood, got cast in the show, and became mega-stars. Every member of the ensemble spent years grinding it out in failed TV projects and small movies before they landed the roles that would change their lives.
Before “Friends,” David Schwimmer starred in a short-lived sitcom with a “Happy Days” veteran, while Matthew Perry became the king of sitcoms that lasted just one season. Courteney Cox starred in a goofy fantasy flop and Matt LeBlanc starred in two failed spin-offs of a beloved sitcom before he landed the role of Joey Tribbiani on “Friends.” But LeBlanc also had a couple of big-screen duds.
In 1994, the same year that “Friends” debuted, LeBlanc co-starred in “Lookin’ Italian,” a crime drama from director Guy Magar which wasn’t quite as terrible as its title suggests. Other than that, LeBlanc had just two other film credits: a 1987 short film titled “Doll Day Afternoon” and a supernatural horror film with a premise so ridiculous it makes Cox’s abysmal “Masters of the Universe” adaptation look like high art.
Matt LeBlanc is barely in Ghost Brigade
Matt LeBlanc wasn’t really able to transition to the big screen even after “Friends,” which is perhaps best demonstrated by his appearance in a late-’90s sci-fi flop that failed to revive a classic TV series. But LeBlanc’s 1993 supernatural horror movie was a real nadir. It goes by several titles: “Ghost Brigade” and “Grey Knight” are the two most common, but it’s also known as “The Killing Box” and “The Lost Brigade.” Why this movie has so many alternate titles remains unclear, but it has been re-released multiple times since it first debuted as a direct-to-video offering in ’93, and it seems distributors were simply trying their luck with every new version.
Directed by George Hickenlooper, the movie has a bonkers B-movie premise that involves the Civil War, an evil voodoo entity, and an army of undead soldiers. When the Confederate Army awakens the malevolent spirit, it possesses the bodies of dead soldiers, creating an entire army of zombie troops ready to do its bidding. What exactly that bidding actually is? Don’t worry about that. It’s, y’know, evil stuff. At least this particular voodoo entity fostered reconciliation between North and South, forging its undead army from both Union and Confederate fighters. This all prompts the non-dead armies to come together in order to overpower the supernatural threat — or “Ghost Brigade,” if you will.
Corbin Bernsen plays Union army man Captain John Harling, who seeks out former Confederate regiment commander Colonel Nehemiah Strayn (Martin Sheen) in order to forge the alliance that will eventually overpower the undead hordes. Matt LeBlanc plays a character named Terhune (or Terhue, depending on which source you’re using — yes even the characters have multiple titles in this movie, apparently). But if you’re interested in seeing LeBlanc in his feature film debut, best of luck to you. Terhune is presumably one of the troops enlisted to take on the ghost brigade, or he’s one of the troops in that brigade, but it’s nigh on impossible to pick him out in the movie. One intrepid Letterboxd user believes they have tracked him down in this screenshot (pictured above), but LeBlanc’s role in the movie otherwise remains as mysterious as the evil entity itself.
Reviewers aren’t impressed with Ghost Brigade
The New York Times described “Ghost Brigade” as “Night of the Living Dead meets Gone with the Wind,” which I’m guessing the director figured would be the kind of thing people didn’t know they needed until they saw it, but turned out to be the kind of thing nobody needed or saw. The NYT described star Corbin Benson as the “reigning straight-to-video king” at the time, which should give you some idea of where the film sits in the history of movie-making. That said, the inclusion of Martin Sheen, Ray Wise, Billy Bob Thornton, and even David Arquette might pique your interest, and the movie certainly benefits from their involvement. But the only reviews available aren’t exactly glowing.
Rotten Tomatoes has just one review, which can’t be read in full, though it’s apparently “fresh.” Meanwhile, there’s a smattering of negative reviews over on Letterboxd, where users have written things like “If you have looked into this movie and thought it looks really bad I can assure you that it is much worse than you might have thought.” According to that particular user, the film was given yet another title in Germany, “Army of Zombies,” which sounds a lot more intriguing than any of the American titles but likely only heightened the inevitable disappointment. Still, nobody seems to outright hate this early ’90s DTV effort, with some even praising the battle scenes and “weird west ideas.” There is, as one viewer noted, an odd stylistic choice wherein some scenes are bathed in a nostalgic haze and some aren’t, despite the fact there’s no suggestion any of them are supposed to be flashbacks or memories. That said, a film that is essentially about “killer redneck Freddy Kruegers with bayonets,” as one user put it, can’t be all bad.
If you fancy trying to play “Where’s Matt LeBlanc?”, “Ghost Brigade” (or “Grey Knight,” as it’s called on the service) is currently available on Prime Video. If you actually want to be able to see LeBlanc on-screen, however, you might try the cancelled Joey Tribbiani spin-off which is now streaming for free.
