THE MARINE 3: HOMEFRONT

Upon walking into Best Buy a few days ago I noticed there was apparently a third MARINE movie from WWE. I haven't watched wrestlin' for quite some time and I had no idea who the hell was on the front cover. When I turned the blu-ray box over I could have died...Scott Wiper was director. This might not mean anything to most people, but Wiper wrote, directed, and stared in what I consider to be a criminally underrated movie from 2000 called A BETTER WAY TO DIE. His output basically ceased until 2007 when he directed WWE superstar Steve Austin in THE CONDEMNED.



And then he disappeared again. While I don't know if this is due to underwhelming box office returns or not, Wiper is a man who needs to be behind the camera more.

THE MARINE 3 stars Mike "The Miz" Mizanin as, you guessed it, a Marine. He's on a two week leave and decides to visit come home and visit his sisters. When a terrorist(Neal McDonough) kidnaps his younger sister, Uber-Marine springs into action to save the day.

What Neal NcDonough really thinks about  THE LAST EXORCISM.

If you can get past how generic this series of films are, HOMEFRONT is a damn good film. Actually it is way better than it should be. The cast and crew seemingly forgot they were doing the third film in a direct to video series, and made something that is on par with the original. Given they didn't have to aim high, but the film delivers more in the acting department than what it should. Neal McDonough can do no wrong, and surprisingly "The Miz" is pretty damned good. What I didn't understand is not utilizing the always reliable Darren Shahlavi, but I'll take what I can get. 

Most importantly the action delivers. The boat raid is the highlight with a team of FBI agents getting mowed down by McDonough's militia. The Miz also gets to show his on screen fighting skills by going one on one with Shalavi. More action would have been appreciated, but instead of loading up the film with mediocre fights and gun play  Wiper and co-writer Declan O'Brien go for quality over quantity.

While HOMEFRONT isn't Wiper's best, it is a good flick. The story keeps you interested, mostly in part to the great cast. When the action does kick in, it is top notch, especially for a film with such a low budget. Entertain is the name of the game and THE MARINE 3 does just that. 

WONDER WOMAN PITCH REEL

Action-maestro Jesse V. Johnson (CHARLIE VALENTINE, THE PACKAGE) appears to have decided that he should be the man to direct a big budget WONDER WOMAN film...And from the look of this trailer I agree! Consistent with his feature length films, this trailer contains all the gritty action one expects from a Jesse Johnson film. The only difference is Nina Bergman is much nicer to look at than Steve Austin and Dolph Lundgren.

In two minutes you can get your daily dose of ass-kicking and a grizzled Peter Stomare! Enjoy.

Female Super Hero Fan Film from Jesse V. Johnson on Vimeo.

EL GRINGO

   

     EL GRINGO stars soon-to-be action legend Scott Adkins as a man with no name who rolls into a small Mexican town across with the New Mexico border. He carries a large bag of money. You know where this is going? Of course you do. Action legend plus a bag of drug money equals violence.
     While short on thought production, EL GRINGO delivers a fun ride with Adkins. Unlike certain action stars of the past, he seems to have some real acting chops to go along with the impressive fight skills we've seen in the UNDISPUTED sequels and EXPENDABLES 2. While his screen fighting skills can be seen for a quick clip here they aren't on full display here as GRINGO is a movie about guns. Action fans shouldn't be alarmed if they were expecting some serious ass kicking from Adkins as he and director Eduardo Rodriguez bring some real panache to the gun fights.

 Featuring some of the wettest squibs this side of Verhoeven Adkins blasts his way through cartel henchman with reckless abandon. The gun fights are the real highlight of the film, as it obvious the stunt team took real care to choreograph the gun fights. That's not to say GRINGO doesn't stumble at times though.


     Action films need a good bad guy and sadly this is an area where Gringo slips up. A corrupt Sheriff is the main villain, but sadly does very little. He spends more time shooting at stray dogs that sending his white skull faced cartel gang out to do any dirty work. Played more for laughs, the Sheriff isn't imposing enough and elicits very little fear from anyone it seems.  A little sadism would go a long way.
     Another problem I had is the lack of Christian Slater screen time. He's always been a solid actor and he brings a fine performance to such a small character in GRINGO.
Besides Adkins and Slater bringing their A-game, Yvette Yates brings the hot Mexican love interest to Adkins man with no name. With non-stop glistening cleavage it may be hard for some to recognize a good performance from her, but sadly like Slater she needed more screen time. And lastly, the ending was a let down. A final bullet ridden shootout is what was needed and it was no where to be found.
     EL GRINGO is bloody with some great action. Even when it stumbles, it isn't enough to take away from a fun ride as director Eduardo Rodrigiuez keeps his foot on the petal the whole time. This is definitely a winner for the After Dark Films Action team.
   

TOTAL RECALL 2012

   

    Letdown. A giant damned letdown. That's really all that can be said of the Len Wiseman directed mega-budget remake of the Schwarzenegger classic TOTAL RECALL. The story is essentially the same. Douglas Quaid goes to Recall, a place where they can implement a fantasy into your memory. Quaid, bored with how his life has turned out, decides secret agent is the way to go. As it turns out though, he actually is a secret agent who has had his memory erased. Maybe.
   

    Before going any further I will say Colin Farrell and the rest of the cast bring a lot of talent and respectability to the film. If it weren't for Farrell being awesome as always and Beckinsdale having a blast as one of the villains, I would have turned the DVD off.  Besides the stellar casting the other thing RECALL gets right is production design. Patrick Tatopoulos does a fabulous job with the landscape of the film. With a budget around 100 million, he had plenty to work with but none-the-less he always impresses.
     What hurts the film is boredom. For a film loaded with chases and shootouts, the film is just flat out tedious to sit through at times. I put that blames on the film's director, Len Wiseman. Why full blame you ask? Well, I have never sat through any of his films without feeling the exact same way. The man's going style out the ass, but his pacing is trite. Whether is be the first two UNDERWORLD films or the completely god-awful LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, Wiseman's style is that of Stephen Sommers without any sense of fun. The irony of course is Wiseman's next picture is supposedly of a reboot of THE MUMMY, which Sommer's directed.
     TOTAL RECALL is a waste of talent, pure and simple.

LAWLESS

     

     What I can assume to be loosley based on a true story, Lawless tells the story of the Bondurnant brother's exploits during the prohibition in Frankilin County West Virginia. Jack, Howard, and Forrest Bondurant are bootleggers. The best in Franklin County. Even the police in the area know the score and let the brothers operate. Like all good things it comes to and trouble begins when corrupt Commonwealth Attorney Mason Wardell  brings in special deputy Charlie Rakes to get the moonshine business under control.
     Although seemingly a gangster film, Lawless' story isn't just a violent shoot em up. The Bondurant's are a tight knit group of brothers and it is their relationship that holds the story together. What could have become a period piece gangster film filled with tommy guns spraying, Director John Hillcoat tries to bring some humanity to the Brothers Bondurant. The love story elements that Hillcoat and writer Nick Cave put in place are secondary to the bond the brothers share. You really feel that Forrest and Howard are looking out for their younger and impressionable little brother Jack by trying to push him away from what they do.
     Technically the film looks fantastic. Hillcoat's films are never flashy and Lawless is no different. For a film about gangsters Hillcoat keeps the tommy gun mayhem to one small scene. The rest of the violence up until the end of the movie is blunt and to the point. Violence in Lawless is fast and grotesque, much like Hillcoat's first feature, The Proposition. Nick Cave's screenplay moves briskly with no wasted dialogue.   
     While Shia Lebouf gets top billing in Lawless it's Tom Hardy and Guy Pierce who steal the show. It really isn't Lebouf's fault. He's a kid star with name power put into a room with real actors. You never doubt for a second that Guy Pierce is Charlie "fuckin" Rakes. You never doubt for a second that Tom Hardy is Forrest Bondurant. Similar to Leonardo DiCaprio in Gangs of New York, Lebeouf just can't hold his own in the ring with the other cast members. At least not yet.
     Lawless is a fine film. While Lebouf's Jack brings the film a bit, the rest of the cast and crew are in top form. The biggest flaw is that there are some story elements that are almost unnecessary. Gary Oldman is wasted as gangster Floyd Banner. But some Oldman in any film is better than no Oldman at all.
   

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER

         

         I wanted Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter to work. Really, I did. The trailers made it look like non-stop goofy fun. While it did deliver some incredible sequences, the mix of real history and vampires felt a little off kilter and rushed as the movie progressed.
          A synopsis really isn't needed for this film, as the title sells it all. Abraham didn't have a great child hood as he lost his mother at a young age. It turns out milk sickness didn't really have anything to do with it as it was actually a vampire infecting his mother. Fast forward a few years and we get a vengeance seeking Abraham getting shit faced at a pub when he meets a stranger by the name of Henry Sturges (Dominic Cooper). After exchanging a few words, Abraham stumbles out of the bar ready to kill the man responsible for murdering his mother. Things don't go as planned of course and luckily for Abraham, Henry Sturges shows up just in time to save him. And yes, Henry Sturges is a vampire killer.
          Abraham's training begins at this point in the movie and while it didn't need to dwell on it I felt more time should have been given to his training. Maybe I am just too big of a fan of 80's training montages, but it really wouldn't have felt out of place. In no time at all Honest Abe can swing an axe as if he were on a high school color guard team. From there we are thrown into the action as Abraham heads to Springfield to begin his new career. Timur Bekmambetov is no stranger to wild action (Wanted anyone). CG enhanced bloodletting ensues at a rapid pace and the film never lets up. It is in section of film that AL:VH is strongest.  The two largest action set pieces are really a site to behold as dazzling doesn't even begin to describe them. Of course, if you are in the anti-CGI crowd you'll be disgusted at the sheer abundance of the 'enhancements.'
          AL:VH is certainly a one of a kind film, or at least story. With a little more emphasis on the vampires and a little less on the historical fact, it could have been a classic. As it stands it's a fun film the gets more right than wrong. It moves at a breakneck pace and should be viewed for the two big action sequences if for nothing else.

       

UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING

"If you go looking for Deveraux, he'll find you first..."          

          It must be said that before all else, UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING is a psychological horror film. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Those expecting a film that exists in the the same world as the other films will be very disappointed. Even the main characters in the past Universal Soldier films (i.e. Van Damme and Lundgren) are placed in small yet essential roles. This is a Scott Adkins movie through and through
          The film starts off with a shocking point-of-view sequence John's (Scott Adkins) house getting raided by three assailants. What would normally ensue in any Scott Adkins film doesn't happen. He doesn't destroy the assailants with any spin kicks or quick fists to face combinations. No, he gets pummeled a crow bar. Cracked repeatedly over the head, he is forced to witness the execution of his wife and child by none other than Luc Deveraux (Van Damme).
          Long time fans of the franchise going into this film will be put off kilter by what happens over the next hour as you still are expecting a Universal Soldier film that bears some resemblance to the previous entries. That doesn't really happen. What plays out is more much more detective story as John tries to find out who murdered his family and why. I applaud the writers for going this route, as it is anything but generic. There are a few slow spots but the story never lingers. Director John Hyams shows that he is capable of providing more than just your basic action story. Does that mean there is no action though?

          Not only no, but hell no. What Day of Reckoning lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality and sheer brutality. Keeping with the horror movie theme, we switch from psychological to slasher movie mode. Blood is shed at an alarming rate. The camera never shies away as axes and machetes slap into flesh.  Both Van Damme and Lundgren get to trade blows with Adkins, but the star of the show for me was the sports store fight. Easily the best fight scene I have had the pleasure of viewing since the 'three-way' fight in The Raid, Adkins and the ever-bearded Adrei Arlovski beat the living hell out of each other. Bone-crunching doesn't begin to describe it. The rating of  "Rated R for Brutal Bloody violence..." really doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what Reckoning delivers. There aren't goofy one-liners to take the viewer out of the movie to help sugar coat the pain of seeing someone sliced up or shot like so many deliver. The violence here is served straight up and only helps carry the darker tone of the film.
          Minor quips aside, like a glaring continuity error in the car chase, this entry in the franchise is completely different yet very welcome. The cult-horror elements in the film surprisingly work. John Hyams deserves a few "ata boys" for delivering a highly memorable and unflinching film. It's obvious he set out to make a very different film with Reckoning and in the process made the best Universal Soldier film yet.