Cool Target: Action Movie Reviews

Tuesday, 8 December 2009

Recent articles/reviews for Impact magazine 2

Recent reviews and features I have done for the excellent movie magazine, Impact, over the past year or so.
www.impactmoviemagazine.co.uk

American Ninja Retrospective

Seasonal Films Retrospective

Recent articles/reviews for Impact magazine

Recent reviews and features I have done for the excellent movie magazine, Impact, over the past year or so.
www.impactmoviemagazine.co.uk

Left for Dead

Der Clown

Broken Path

Hellbinders

Recent Published Work

Dogs of Chinatown and Contour at The Stunt People (www.thestuntpeople.com)
www.thestuntpeople.com/?page=press.php
www.thestuntpeople.com/bin/dogs_impact_fullspread.jpg
www.thestuntpeople.com/bin/contour_impact_fullspread.jpg

Dogs of Chinatown at All Aces Media (http://allacesmedia.com)
http://allacesmedia.com/dogsofchinatown/2008/12/29/dogs-of-chinatown-in-impact-magazine/
www.impactmoviemagazine.co.uk/

My Resident Evil: Extinction review gets a mention and a link at number 5 in this cool Zombie movie list at Only Good Movies:
www.onlygoodmovies.com/blog/movie-megalists/top-50-zombie-movies/

Underground and Bodyguard: A New Beginning
www.fareastfilms.com/reviewsPage/Bodyguard-A-New-Beginning-1898.htm
www.fareastfilms.com/reviewsPage/Underground-1221.htm
www.radiuspictures.co.uk/

DRIVEN TO KILL (2009)

Directed by: Jeff King
Starring: Steven Seagal, Dimitry Chepovetsky & Igor Jijikine

Seagal has been making direct-to-DVD stinkers for a while now but recently they’ve been turning around in quality and getting better. Sort of. Driven to Kill continues this new trend, and while it’s still a long away from the likes of Hard to Kill and Under Siege, it’s a decent enough, if predictable, Seagal flick with some hard edged action.

Here he plays a one time Russian gangster called Ruslan, now turned crime novelist. Well he’s been a chef, an environmental warrior and even a doctor (!), so why the hell not: Seagal can be a crime novelist. This is all by-the-by as it’s mentioned all but twice and serves little purpose to the plot which sees Ruslan’s daughter being attacked and seriously hurt by some nasty mobster heavies. This means Ruslan steps back into action mode as he hunts down those responsible and dishes out the pain. Ok it’s all pretty straight forward and standard formula but there is one twist that makes it just a little different from all the out-for-revenge Seagal flicks. His daughter’s fiancé (played well by Dimitry Chepovetsky) accompanies Ruslan on his quest for vengeance, his gangster father responsible for his future wife's attack. However, he is not the gangster is father is and nowhere near as capable at dishing out the violent retribution like Ruslan. It’s a unique dynamic and gives Seagal a different kind of sidekick: one who wants to hurt the people that have hurt the one he loves but finds it difficult to do so.

More surprisingly, Seagal is in pretty much all of this flick. Doubling and dubbing is kept to a minimum and its fun to see Seagal actually be in one of his pictures all the way through. He even tries to act a bit. Just a bit, mind. The action is not bad either, again Seagal partaking in most of it. He has a wicked extended knife fight with a bad dude, there’s a great shootout in an enclosed parking lot and the sustained running gun battle in a hospital is exciting and explosive stuff. The action is clear and crisp and the fights punchy and brutal, Seagal getting to face off with Indiana Jones 4 bad guy, Igor Jijikine.

So, not great but not bad either with some solid action. And these days, that’s pretty good for a Seagal flick.

Monday, 7 December 2009

Champion

My new review of Champion on Far East Films (www.fareastfilms.com)

http://www.fareastfilms.com/reviewsPage/Champion-2154.htm

Wednesday, 2 December 2009

Quote on the cover of Fatal Move DVD cover...

A snippet from my review of Hong Kong action film Fatal Move from Far East Films (www.fareastfilms.com) has made it onto the front cover of the Region 2 DVD release from Cine Asia:

"Entertaining slice of gangster action." FAREASTFILMS.COM

I made my first DVD cover. Wahoo :)

http://www.fareastfilms.com/reviewsPage/Fatal-Move-273.htm

Crying Fist

My review of Crying Fist on Far East Films (www.fareastfilms.com)

http://www.fareastfilms.com/reviewsPage/Crying-Fist-2150.htm

Wednesday, 25 November 2009

Highlander 3: The Sorcerer

HIGHLANDER 3: THE SORCERER (1994)

Directed by: Andrew Morahan
Screenplay: Paul Ohl
Starring: Christopher Lambert, Mario Van Peebles, Deborah Kara Unger & Mako

The original Highlander is a stone cold classic. It still holds up over twenty years later and is an almost pitch perfect amalgamation of fantasy, 80s styling and break neck action. Buoyed by fine performances, crisp and creative direction from Russell Mulcahy, one awesome bad guy and an ending that pretty much wrapped everything up neatly it is, as said, a classic. But having gained cult status and made a ton of money an inevitable slew of mish-mash sequels and a long running TV show ensued. Highlander 3 is by no means as good as the original but it is actually one of the more enjoyable of the various sequels and spin-offs. Made as a sort of apology for the disaster that was Highlander 2 (which seemingly tried to destroy everything that was great about the original), Highlander 3 is certainly schlocky and not as stylish as Part 1 but is still a fun, action packed Highlander story.

Ignoring the events of Highlander 2 completely, Highlander 3 picks up some years after the events of Highlander. It seems Connor MacLeod (Lambert) wasn’t the last immortal after all and there are still a few roaming the earth looking to claim his head as the ultimate prize. Not least, the mad and bad Kane (Van Peebles) an all but carbon copy of the Kurgan (Clancy Brown) from the original. He wants MacLeod’s head while MacLeod just wants to be left alone to live with his son and romance pretty lady Alex (Kara Unger) who may just be the reincarnation of his long lost love (or somebody that looks a lot like her anyway). So after a nostalgic trip to Scotland, MacLeod, whether he wants to or not, must get back down to the head lopping business.

Van Peebles' over-the-top villain isn’t the only thing that is strikingly similar to the original as this instalment pretty much plays like a re-hash of the first film: right down to Kane driving a car crazily much like the Kurgan did. No doubt in an attempt to make up for Highlander 2, the filmmakers stuck so closely to the successful elements of the first film they ended up just making another version of it: only less good. Fair enough I suppose as it’s much better than Part 2 and the following sequels and a lot more fun that the TV series. Van Peebles, despite just playing the Kurgan.2, is also a blast (but, obviously, not as good as Clancy Brown) and while Lambert looks noticeably tired in this instalment (presumably getting a bit fed up with all the Highlander shenanigans) is still good as Macleod, playing him here as a more experienced and slightly bitter version of his character from the first film.

The action isn’t bad either, delivered regularly with a lot of bang for your buck. Mucho sword fighting and crazy pyrotechnics all delivered with Hollywood efficiency, as things well and truly blow up whenever an immortal loses his head. The final showdown between Lambert and Van Peebles is efficiently punchy and sword wielding and features a neat gag where Van Peebles gets his legs cut off which then have to come running back to him so he can rejoin himself and carry on fighting. Cool! The flick, much like the original, has a sense of humour about proceedings, though the tone and story does swerve here, there and everywhere.

Not great and will forever be overshadowed by the original, Highlander 3 is still enjoyable and passable entertainment that hits the action beats well and has just enough of what made the original great to make it a semi decent, if pointless, sequel.

Hawk The Slayer

HAWK THE SLAYER (1980)

Directed by: Terry Marcel
Written by: Terry Marcel & Harry Robertson
Starring: Jack Palance, John Terry, Bernard Bresslaw & Annette Crosbie

How naff is Hawk the Slayer? Pretty naff. But in a good way. Yep, naff can be good. And Hawk the Slayer is all kinds of good. Well, naff. Cheap, cheerful and very, very British, well except for the two leading men being American of course, it’s Lord of the Rings lite (sort of) as Hawk (who I’m pretty sure is never referred to as the actual “Slayer”) is a goody two shoes, know it all, brilliant-with-a-sword hero who with his band of merry men (an elf, a dwarf and a gaint: hmmmm, Lord of the Rings eh?) set off across the land to free everyone from the evil clutches of Voltan (Palance). He just happens to be Hawk’s (Terry) mad, evil brother who has the land in his mad, evil grip (which simply seems to involve shouting at people a lot). He also killed Hawk’s lady love and father so they have that to sort out as well.

It’s not all bad though, as Hawk the Slayer is a whole heap of campy fun. From Hawk levitating his sword, to the ridiculous sound effect and musical score that accompanies this (and pretty much when anything else happens in the flick) to the ever so serious Elf warrior and Jack Palance hamming it up (and seemingly suffering loss of depth perception with the crappy helmet he has to wear!), Hawk the Slayer has something for fantasy film and bad movie lovers everywhere. Bernard Bresslaw (from the Carry On films and other fantasy themed flicks where he had to play a giant) is good fun as, yep, the warrior giant and the authentically cold and damp English woods provide a bit of grit to the setting and help to counteract all the campness.

The action scenes aren’t much to write about, though there is a fair few of them, edited too rapidly and relying on the crappy speeded up effect of the Elf firing many, many arrows at once. Still it’s all part of the cheesy fun and while it's not as good as similar early 80’s fantasy fare (Krull, Clash of the Titans, Dragonslayer: I’m sorry but it isn’t) Hawk the Slayer still, ahem, slays plenty bad guys and provides enough silly fun. Cool.

Amazing!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8Ra6TsdEts

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