Check out my new review of Hustlers (aka Pawn Shop Chronicles) over at Blueprint Review.
Monday, 28 April 2014
Wednesday, 16 April 2014
Tuesday, 15 April 2014
Final Round
FINAL ROUND (1994)
Directed by:
George Erschbamer
Written by: Arne Olsen
Starring: Lorenzo Lamas, Kathleen Kinmont, Clark Johnson & Anthony De Longis
Written by: Arne Olsen
Starring: Lorenzo Lamas, Kathleen Kinmont, Clark Johnson & Anthony De Longis
Blatant low budget rip-off of The Running Man, Final Round
gets by on Lamas’ likeability, Kinmont’s looks, De Longis’ slimy bad guy and a
pace that’s keeps everything moving fast meaning we get just about 75 minutes
of B-movie action entertainment.
De Longis is the evil Delgado (what’s with all the De’s??!!)
who was once the right hand man to the also evil Munro (Stephen Mendel) but has
now branched out as a crime kingpin in his own right. And his evil specialty?
Organising a Running Man/Hard Target/Most
Dangerous Game style event where rich bastards place large bets on humans
being hunted by “skilled” hunters. Thrown into the gauntlet (an abandoned
industrial estate encased by an electrical fence!) is motorcycle loving,
non-shirt wearing and all round kickboxing badass Lorenzo Lamas. He’s been
scouted (it seems breaking up one bar fight and not wearing a shirt are all the
requirements one needs to be thrown into the game!), drugged and kidnapped and
now must fight for his life. Along for the ride is his busty date Kinmont and
some other random dude (Johnson), whose only function is to have some banter with our hero and prove inept at every fight he gets himself into. At
least Lamas can kick ass and he does so in this by the number action cheapie.
Lamas has made better action vehicles than this (Bounty Tracker, Viper) and the limited
budget is really stretched to breaking point (the unconvincing inescapable
hunting arena: they could have knocked that fence over no problem!) but if you
can forgive its shortcoming’s (the naff infra-red eye patches the hunters wear: they don’t even look cool!), Final Round is passable early 90s B-movie
action. We get Lamas being cool and a badass (despite wearing quite possibly
the worst action movie outfit ever: stonewashed denim dungarees! Nothing says
hero like stonewashed denim dungarees, especially when you’re rocking one strap
undone!!), Kinmont is lovely on the eye (though is disappointingly relegated to
the screaming damsel in distress: not cool, this lady can kick ass. Check out CIA Alexa 1 & 2 for proof), Johnson
(who would go on to helm big budget action pictures S.W.A.T and The Sentinel)
is fun as the forever-crap-at-fighting sidekick and De Longis is perhaps the
best of all of them as the evil Delgado. He even gets to put his bull whip
expertise to use in the final fight. Cool.
This brings us to the action. There is certainly plenty of
fights as Lamas takes on various bad guys (including kickboxing champ Ian
Jacklin) but between the lack of threat from the bad guys (many of them looking
a little over-the-hill rather than like deadly hunters) and the less than
dynamic choreography, means the fights lack punch. Still, there are a few nasty kills
(including a particularly horrible hook-to-the-face moment!) and as mentioned, Final Round doesn't outstay its welcome
with its barely 75 minute run time.
Cheap, not always cheerful and with a decent amount of
action Final Round is a watchable
Lamas flick.
Friday, 4 April 2014
Rapid Exchange
RAPID EXCHANGE (aka
FLIGHT 747) (2003)
Directed by: Tripp
Reed
Written by: Tripp
Reed & Sam Wells
Starring: Lance Henriksen, Lorenzo Lamas & Matt O’Toole
Starring: Lance Henriksen, Lorenzo Lamas & Matt O’Toole
This fun little heist flick from UFO Pictures (purveyors of
cheap and cheerful sci-fi and action films: Interceptor
Force, Velocity Trap, Dark Waters, Boa vs Python and a bunch of others)
sees 90 action star Lorenzo Lamas and his buddy team up with a group of dodgy
thieves to rob a Boeing 747, mid flight, of almost a quarter of a billion
dollars. Having been hired by the even more dodgy Lance Henriksen you know shit
is going to go wrong and double crosses will abound: which they do as Lamas and
his buddy are set up, left for dead but come back fighting for the money they
are owed. High altitude plane-to-plane transfers and some not bad early 2000s
low budget CGI ensue.
More of a lightweight caper (albeit with a bit of swearing
and violence thrown in) than a full on action film, Rapid Exchange is an entertaining B-flick thanks to its game cast,
a bit of humour and some cool effects showing the team of crooks transferring
from one plane to the other as they attempt to steal the cash. Lamas is his
usual likeable self and seems to be having fun playing the more comedic character
of the cast (which involves him dressing up in various unconvincing and
ridiculous, but no less funny, disguises!) and while Henriksen isn't in the
film a whole lot he plays smarmy and sleazy well and gets most of the best
lines.
The planes and daring robbery are all rendered with CGI and
as mentioned, the CGI is pretty good for a film of this budget. The heist is
well staged and fairly thrilling though does become a little overly-complicated
and drawn out: not least in the last act of the film where Lamas and his buddy
attempt to retrieve their loot in a somewhat muddled and anti-climactic finale!
However, if you can get past a few “Huh?!” moments and leave any anger you have
towards CGI behind, Rapid Exchange is
an easy going action caper buoyed by a watchable cast and a lively pace.
Thursday, 3 April 2014
Behind Enemy Lines 2
BEHIND ENEMY LINES
II: AXIS OF EVIL (2006)
Directed by: James
Dodson
Screenplay: James Dodson
Starring: Nicholas Gonzalez, Matt Bushall, Keith David, Bruce McGill, Ben Cross & Peter Coyote
Screenplay: James Dodson
Starring: Nicholas Gonzalez, Matt Bushall, Keith David, Bruce McGill, Ben Cross & Peter Coyote
Direct-to-DVDs sequels to films that hit big are practically
their own genre these days and often, taken on their lower budget terms,
usually decent entertainment. Especially in the action arena with Universal Solider notching up three
sequels (part 2 a bit ropey, 3 & 4 absolutely stellar), Death Race two sequels (2 a bit naff, 3
much better), The Marine two sequels
(both decent) and the likes of Undisputed
and Never Back Down receiving
sequels that are far better than the original franchise starters (if you
haven’t already, check out Undisputed 2
& 3 for how action sequels should be done!). However, it’s not always
good to continue an action franchise (the less said about The Art of War sequels the better!) and Behind Enemy Lines 2 is unfortunately one of the worst of the
bunch: an over edited, headache inducing mess.
The original, considerably bigger budget, Behind Enemy Lines (which starred Owen
Wilson and Gene Hackman) was some glossy action fluff that was turbo charged
thanks to John Moore’s kinetic direction. Sure he used a little too much rapid
editing, slow-mo and all kinds of wizzy tricks to jazz up the action but always
knew when to hold back and just let the action flow. The same can’t be said
about its first sequel which is often like one giant 90 minute music video and
quite possibly why the term “Avid fart” was coined. No editing trick is missed from all the
mentioned above to ridiculous amounts of dissolves, overlays, freeze frames,
colour changes and pretty much any other transition or effect you can think of
that comes with a modern digital editing suite: meaning there is rarely a frame
that goes by without some kind of editing trick assaulting your eyeballs. If
you think Steven Seagal’s oeuvre of late has been the ultimate perpetrator of
the dreaded “Avid fart” I would say that crown now goes to Behind Enemy Lines 2.
There is a decent story here for a military action vehicle
as a squad of Navy seals get stuck behind enemy lines while attempting to blow
up a missile base in North Korea. However, between the constant editing
nonsense, excessive shaky cam in the action scenes and some heavy handed
political mumbo-jumbo (as the likes of Peter Coyote and Bruce McGill argue over
the best course of action to take when the mission goes south!) means any
potential thrills or tension are all but diluted in a barrage of MTV style
edits. Shame really, as on the rare occasion when everything does calm down and
plays out in a smooth and coherent fashion there is a decent film to be found.
The cast are pretty good and the end raid on the missile base is actually quite
tense and thrilling before the dreaded retina blazing editing kicks in again.
The second sequel, Behind
Enemy Lines: Colombia, was a more successful sequel. It again tells the
story of a bunch of military dudes fighting for their lives while stuck in
enemy territory albeit this time in a much more straightforward and easy to
watch fashion with regular bursts of decent action. Seriously, that’s all us
action fans want.
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