Going back to the roots of Explosive Action with a look at Six DTV Action Films from the 2010s!
I take a look at the films Bullet (Danny Trejo), Raze (Zoe Bell), Hijacked (Randy Couture), 6 Bullets (Jean-Claude Van Damme), Icarus: The Killing Machine (Dolph Lundgren) and Code of Honor (Steven Seagal).
Tagline:
The rules are simple: Drive or Die.
Movie Review:
After successfully winning four races during and after the course of Death Race 2, Carl Lucas aka Frankenstein (Luke Goss) only has one more race to win and will gain - along with the rest of his crew - a full pardon from Terminal Island Penetentiary. Unfortunately for Lucas, the Death Race franchise has been bought out from under Weyland's (Ving Rhames) watch by new owner Niles York (Dougray Scott), who does not intend to honour the previous bargain. Instead, the racers are shipped off to a new desert race track in South Africa. Will Lucas live long enough to gain his freedom from the new tyrannic race-master?
I was a big fan of the first film with Jason Statham and very much enjoyed the direct-to-video prequel from 2010. I stated back then that while the script had some niggling continuity errors, the CAR-nage more than made up for it. Death Race 3: Inferno ramps up the CAR-nage (okay, okay…) with even bigger explosions and crashes than it's predecessor, and much more interesting and varied scenery. Setting the race in South African sand dunes and slum towns was a good idea, I thought, and sees the racers combat in far more unpredictable terrain than a track in a prison complex. Indeed some of the shots of the dunes, valleys and towns are quite attractive (There's certainly a lot of red sand around that place).
Where the film falls down is the characterisation - or complete lack of it. There is no growth of any of the (returning) characters: Danny Trejo's Goldberg, Fred Koehler's Lists, Taint Phoenix's Katrina and Carl "Luke" Lucas plod their way through the film not really bringing anything new or interesting to the table, outside a very small handful of light-hearted additions. Goldberg for instance has a very small fling with a nurse after being injured in the race. An attempt is made to introduce jealousy to the Katrina character but you really just don't care that much. We meet a handful of new characters, principally the new drivers (with names like Razor, Nero, Olga, Fury, etc), but none are that interesting - in fact the one called Psycho was really getting on my nerves by the end of it with his bad lines. Some of the more interesting exchanges involve the uncredited African locals, who get in on the race as well bringing their own cars and machine guns in to the mix, and there's even some minor humour when the race intrudes into the peoplehomes (literally).
Ving Rhames literally phones in his performance as Weyland (half of his scenes are on a car phone). He is really only here to hand over the reigns to new boss York, which is a shame. York himself is the guy you love to hate; the only one in the film you could have any emotional connection with, albeit a negative one. He double-crosses, violently outbursts at his staff - poor secretary Prudence (Roxane Hayward) cops the brunt of it - and holds a massive grudge again Lucas that will see him try to sabotage his own Death Race. Another returning character is competing driver 14K (Robin Shou) who literally spends his whole time yelling in a Chinese dialect to his co-driver and not much else (that lack of character development problem again).
There also seems to be far more shaky-cam in this one and far, FAR too much ultra-zoomed-in shots. When the cars are flying over sand dunes or crashing through shanty towns, the picture is great. When the camera focuses on the drivers we can see up their nose. And in the fight sequences we see a lot of elbows and feet as the camera jerks around. It's not the worst example of MTV-style film making I've seen (see the early/mid-2000's Seagal flicks for that) but it was off-putting.
So the race mayhem itself is still as good as ever, and the scenery is far more interesting than before, but the lack of empathy or even interest I had for the characters really brought this one down. There's no chatter between the drivers and co-drivers of any real purpose, and between matches in the pit nothing much goes on. I will say that the final third does bring some "Aaaaaaah!" moments that rectify this to a fairly substantial degree, but the writers and director could have spiced up the dialogue for the rest of the film. Recommended of course for the action, but I think I will find myself re-watching part two more than part three.
Highlight:
The vehicular mayhem is pretty epic, but the sixteen year old boy inside me couldn't get past the glorious opening girl-fight sequence. To pick the ten winning co-pilots, all the girls are thrown into a ring to fight to the death. Similar to the sequence in the previous Death Race prequel, the contestants in skimpy outfits that promote breast size unlock weapons and kill each other in over-the-top fashion until only ten combatants remain. I very much enjoyed the flame thrower. I also quite appreciated the brief, slow-mo shower sequence with Katrina, baring all her assets. Ahem.
Sourced From:
The Australian blu-ray, presented in excellent quality 1.78:1 widescreen with a thundering DTS soundtrack.
Trailer:
Movie Review:
I'm usually against remakes, but sometimes the remake is better than the first film. Cronenberg's The Fly is far superior to the 50's film. The 1988 version of The Blob is scarier than Steve McQueen's. And the 2008 version of Death Race starring Jason Statham is, in my opinion, leagues ahead of the Sylvester Stallone and David Carradine Death Race 2000 from 1975. It was faster, more violent and just more fun overall - and closer to The Running Man than the original, which is a good thing in my book. So when a sequel - actually a prequel - for the remake was hitting the shores of direct-to-DVD, I was excited.
This prequel sets up the events that take place in the Statham film and establishes the Frankenstein mythology. Ving Rhames is the owner of Weyland Corporation (not related, presumably, to Weyland Industries from Alien), a corporation that among other things privately runs the prison systems. As they own the prison and the prisoners therein they can do whatever they like with them; Death Match is a televised fight-to-the-death between randomly selected prisoners. It begins unarmed but combatants can unlock weapons by triggering plates on the ground. This is all well and good, but ratings are starting to plummet. What can the producers do to spice things up?
Enter: Death Race! Nine cars, armed and armour plated driving a course around the prison facility. And just in time to join in the fun is Carl "Luke" Lucas (Luke Goss, Blood Out, Blade II), a convicted bank robber and cop killer. After doing the dirty work of crime lord Markus Kane (Sean Bean, Lord of the Rings trilogy), Lucas is sent to Weyland's penitentiary. It's not long before he's suckered in with hopes of freedom to race for Weyland's TV entertainment manager September Jones (played ruthlessly by TV actress Lauren Cohan). With the gorgeous Katrina (Taint Phoenix) as his co-driver, things hot up on and off the race track!
Grab your friends, get some beer and strap yourselves in because this is a fantastic ride. If you just want to be entertained by brutal fights, hot cheerleaders and plenty of CAR-nage, then this is the film for you. Director Roel Reiné (Marine 2, Steven Seagal's Pistol Whipped) gives the DTV-action fans and fans of the first film exactly what they want. Luke Goss is a good actor and certainly fills the Frankenstein mythology that would be continued by Statham - the two are even vaguely similar in appearance and build. He's a beefcake when it comes to fist-fighting and looks like he knows how to handle a car (and later on in the film, a woman too).
Some of the characters and actors from the Statham film are in this film too; the somewhat savant Lists (Fred Koehler) in the role of the helper-monkey in Luke's pitt crew. Robin Shou returns as rival driver and Korean triad member, 14K. And new to this film is the ever-awesome Danny Trejo (Machete), who isn't used to the full extent he could be in the pitt crew but still provides a foreboding presence. All the other drivers have their interesting quirks; I especially loved the brief appearance of a driver called Hill Billy who, you guess it, is a big, fat cliched redneck hillbilly. Yee-haw!
With a budget of 7 million (pretty high in the DTV world), the special effects and size of the play field are very decent. Obvious CG is minimal, with plenty of realistic blood splatters and car mashing resulting in real explosions. There is a bit of MTV-style editing, but thankfully it's mostly slow-mo's and not much shaky-cam. The cameras do zoom in close to the drivers from time to time to save on exterior shots, but there's still plenty of outside driving (and crashing) to see. There's a few little niggling script continuity errors but.. WHO CARES, crash those cars! Recommended.
Highlight:
The CAR-nage (okay, I'll stop doing that now) is absolute throughout the film! THAT is the highlight - the film never bores!
Sourced From:
A sweet deal in a local release Blu-ray double-pack featuring the first film and this sequel.
Trailer:
Tagline:
For years private eye Ryder Hart lived on the edge. Tonight he'll cross the line.
Movie Review:
Sunset Grill, also known as 'Peter Weller with a moustache', is an early 90's crime/action/thriller that feels about five years late on the scene. Stone washed jeans and Mexicans over the border themes were very of the 80's. That being said, this is a solid (if slightly over-long at 104 minutes) movie that treads the same boards we've walked many times before. It does it pretty well so there's no harm in doing it all again - after all, this is a blog dedicated to movies that half the time share the same three or four stories.
Peter Weller is Ryder Hart (awesome name), a disgraced ex-cop now Private Investigator with the aforementioned moustache. He's a stumbling drunk, is estranged from his wife who now sleeps with his best friend, he lives in squaller and hangs out at a bar called The Sunset Grill, owned by his ex wife. The film starts with him on a routine case spying on a cheating wife with a long range camera, drinking whisky from the bottle with a straw. The opening scene makes you think the film will be more comedic than it turns out to be with angry husbands bursting through closed doors; in fact outside of a few lines here and there is a fairly intentionally humourless movie. In many cases that can make for hard viewing but I was satisfied with the end results here - not overly amazed and I won't be re-watching it in any haste, but all the loose ends were tied up nicely and I'm not left with a bitter taste in my mouth, which is more than can be said for a lot of movies from the early 90's.
Besides, I said intentionally humourless; there's plenty of unintentional humour to enjoy here. The moustache for one. The sex scenes are pretty amusing too, probably due to the soft focus lens and, well, that moustache again. Weller in a cowboy hat and leather jacket, driving a huge American car and hurling whisky bottles is gold. Weller in a pink, backwards-facing baseball cap trying to work a coffee machine is just ridiculous. John Rhys-Davies' attempt at a Scottish accent is ludicrous, as was his racist attitude to 'beaners'. Weller attempting to hide in the nut-house section of a hospital is probably actually a funny scene that was intentional. Overall though if you are getting this to laugh at with your mates over beers you will probably be disappointed. If you want a funnier and more action-packed Weller, check out Shakedown.
We learn early on that Hart is separated but not divorced from his wife Anita who now just pities him after he has hit the bottle hard and lost his career due to the death of his father-in-law that he blames himself for. We also see in Tijuana a scared Mexican kid Guillermo running from a mad, tall blond guy and his rat-like sidekick. He manages to post a letter to Hart but soon after he is caught and his head crushed. The letter arrives at the Sunset Grill but Hart brushes it to one side. Later that evening when Anita is closing up shop she is attacked and killed by the blond guy and his henchman who are looking for the letter, but they do not find it. Hart sees this on the news and after coming to terms with his grief, puts his PI shoes back on, opens the letter from Guillermo and tries to both locate who killed his wife and what the strange barcodes in the letter mean.
Lori Singer is in this (from Footloose but more importantly in Julian Sands' awesome Warlock) as Loren, a hottie that works for Harrison Shelgrove (Stacy Keach), the owner of a gun club and more importantly a specialist hospital, which is crucial to the plot. She gets involved with Weller as well. Yes that does mean she gets her kit off, more than once I might add. Other players in the movie are the previously mentioned John Rhys-Davies (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Sliders) is also here as a corrupt cop that both arrests illegals and trades them. Danny Trejo has a brief appearance as the "Young Mexican" who tries to shiv Weller but gets beaten up by him instead. The one that stumped me was the Doctor who is apparently played by Randy Pelish, but I could have sworn it was Roy Brocksmith, the Doctor from Total Recall. The similarities are pretty astounding, I thought, especially the voice.
The trailer below will have you believe this is a gritty revenge movie, but it's not really. Hart is out to find his wife's killer, but he is also a PI trying to find out why these Mexicans are being killed and their organs removed. The puzzle is larger than the individual pieces, as it were. Cryptic notes are deciphered that help Hart climb the ladder to truth and as the movie goes on he learns more about his friends and associates, and their involvement in an underground people-trafficing ring with dark consequences. There is a bit of a noir feeling too with some of the shots I felt; close ups of Weller talking to the screen while talking to someone behind him, smoking a dangling cigarette. There's of course some action, mainly a few shootouts and punchups but no car chases, which was a shame.
This is an enjoyable movie when you want something less silly and more serious. It's not serious in a Schindler's List way but it's definitely not played for laughs. Recommended.
The Video:
Solid 16:9 enhanced widescreen presentation that isn't overly sharp, colourful or brilliant but it gets the job done. Dark scenes aren't too murky. The sound is fine but Weller tends to blur his speech when he mumbles which can make for a few cases of 'what was that?'. Runtime 104 minutes.
Sourced From:
eBay for a couple of bucks; the site is littered with them and as far as I can tell Region 1 is your only choice. Also available in a three-pack with low-budget crime movie Scorpion Spring and Dennis Hopper's Eye of the Storm.
Trailer:
More Screens:
Tagline:
They just messed with the wrong Mexican.
Movie Review:
Post #50!
Well I made it to my fiftieth post and what better way to celebrate than with, in my opinion, one of the two best action films of the year. In August we were lucky enough to have The Expendables, an all star action-movie ensemble cast extravaganza. I loved every minute of it and have seen it three times now. Putting all the old action movie stars, and some new ones, together in a movie could have failed miserably but I was extremely happy with the final product. And seeing Dolph back on the big screen was a thing to behold. Now in November (two months after the US, unfortunately) we finally get to see if Machete can hold it's own against the big boys of action.
Born as an idea that Rodriguez had after filming Desperado in 1993, Machete eventually culminated in to a fake trailer sandwiched between Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof" and Rodriguez's own "Planet Terror"; collectively known as Grindhouse. The idea was sound and although I believe they succeeded, the box office told otherwise. But there was still enough interest in the fake trailer for Machete to convince Rodriguez to take the fans seriously and actually film the thing in its entirety.
Machete is a different beast entirely to The Expendables. While The Expendables was all about stuffing as many recognisable action (and wrestling) stars into a movie and blowing things up in Madeupistan, Machete is more about one man's fight for vengeance, with a whole fleet of "hey it's that guy!" types in tow. The Expendables had Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham and Jet Li; Machete has a weathered Danny Trejo, a larger Steven Seagal and Cheech.
We immediately and literally kick into high gear as Machete smashes his car into the wall of a house and begins taking out bad guys with his blade without even making eye contact with them. At one point he chops the hand off a guy who was shooting at him and uses the disembodied hand, still gripping the gun, to kill two other guys. Machete rescues a naked and stoned bimbo but it's a trap and get's shot in the leg for his efforts, then made to watch his wife die by decapitation at the hands of an evil Steven Seagal in drug-lord motif.
A few years later Machete alone and on hard times joins the daily work gangs to make a living. One day he is picked up by Jeff Fahey in a limousine. Machete expects some gardening or plumbing work but instead is offered $150k to kill a right-wing politician (Robert De Niro) with strong anti-immigration ideals. Machete considers and eventually accepts the money. You know the drill from here if you've seen the fake trailer - Machete is double crossed, Machete turns out to be an ex-Federale, Machete get's revenge.
There is so much gold in Machete I have trouble finding where to begin. Once again I have to turn to the IMDB Parental Guide to summarise some of the best parts of this movie:
I can't emphasise enough how cool some of the violence and gore is in the movie. It's slapstick on level with Evil Dead 2, and then some. A guy gets crushed by the wheels of a bouncing car. That says it all really.
The only real downsides to the movie, and there aren't many, are basically the same ones I have with The Expendables. Firstly: so much awesome talent and not enough time. I love Steven Seagal and I could not get enough of his ridiculous Mexican accent in this, but he spends the vast majority of the movie behind a laptop and on a screen. This is understandable as he would simply get all his henchmen to do the work, and he does finally come out swinging a samurai sword, but still I would have liked some Seagal Slap-fu. Tom Savini also only has a very minor role as a hitman but I had forgot he was in this at all so was delighted to see him show up.
The second downside is Jessica Alba. She is a very pretty girl, no doubt about that, but out of all the ladies in Machete she is the one that needs to work on her acting chops a little more. That may sound harsh but up against the display that Michelle Rodriguez put on as the Taco-selling reisistance-running Luz, Alba's law enforcement character was weak by comparison. Her lines were delivered mostly flat and without emotion, whereas I easily believed Luz had been fighting this war for years. I can let it slide however, as many grindhouse movies of old had far, far worse acting on show than Alba.
Cheech is brilliant as Padre - I wish all priests were like him - he is a definite highlight. Seagal proves he still has it and also that he can play an over-the-top bad guy, something he hasn't done before (It's great to see him on the big screen again just like Dolph, too). Fahey, De Niro and Don Johnson as the vigilante redneck are all great, and even the Lohan factor couldn't keep the movie down. Despite her negative publicity she's a fine actress. In fact she should play Killer Nun's more often.
Danny Trejo IS Machete. This could be his typecast for the next twenty years. There is absolutely nobody else that could pull off this role so well. Trejo does some of his best acting with just the cracks and lines in his face. He delivers some cool lines that are bound to become catch phrases and as was said in the fake trailer "He kills the bad guys. He gets the women". Boy, does he ever.
I was amazed that all the main parts of the fake trailer were used, verbatim, in the final picture. Some isolated scenes would have been easy to include, like Machete sharpening his blade on a stone wheel, but Rodriguez went to the effort of making up Lindsay Lohan to look like the blonde from the skinny-dipping scene in the fake trailer and filming more of it. And of course we still get the awesome scene with Cheech ("God forgives. I don't!") and the finale of the fake trailer Machete on his motorbike with mounted minigun. The inclusion of all these scenes is very important as it shows that Rodriguez both respects his fan base and also stays true to his original ideals for Machete.
There have been some nay-sayers about the strong political agenda Machete raises. I have to plead ignorance on this. I know very little about Mexico and so-called illegals in America; it's not something that really gets reported on in Australian news. I only know what I've seen in this and other TV shows and movies - obviously not trustworthy sources of information - that all Mexicans are lazy drug dealers and/or working as maids in hotels filled with white people. That would be like saying all Australians own pet kangaroos and live on a diet of beer (well.. that last part is quite accurate). So I see this as I would any other action movie; a required plot to get us from explosion A to explosion B. And on that front it excels. I didn't take my eyes off the screen for a second. The Senator's campaign videos were a hoot too.
Honestly they are very different movies, but if the choice were between The Expendables and Machete I would have to give my final vote to Machete. It's non-stop action, it's hyper-violent, there's plenty of boobs and tonnes of laughs. The Expendables was a great homage to 80's action. Machete is pure grindhouse.
Trailer:
Posters:
