Conrad Miller (Luke Goss, Death Race 2, 3, Blood Out, Night Crew, War Pigs) is a soldier with a dark past; one that he seems to want to escape. He has the wheels in motion to set his girlfriend Laura (Heather Loop) and himself up for a new life in the Maldives. However, going AWOL is not as easy as just not showing up to work. The cops are after him, primarily Detective Adams (RZA, The Man with the Iron Fists, The Protector 2), multiple hitmen are after him and the Russian consulate are after him - and a mysterious “asset" they think he is holding. Conrad’s plans to flee to the sunny island are not going to be as straight forward as he had hoped.
I didn’t mind this. I’m quite a fan of Luke Goss’ style and gave positive reviews to his films Death Race 2, Death Race 3 and Blood Out. When given the right films, he approaches a DTV equivalent of Jason Statham - that’s praise, by the way. He punches believably, kicks believably and holds a gun believably. As the AWOL marine he is pretty ordinary, but he earns extra points for being the Good Guy that puts things right as his journey unfolds. Saving the girl from the violent boyfriend, rescuing hostage people-smuggling victims - these actions and others like them add a modicum of soul to the character of Conrad Miller.
There’s a few good action scenes to watch for in AWOL-72, though they are few and far between though satisfyingly violent. Miller viciously beats up a redneck at the petrol station, and then again later in the film gives him a second serving. There’s a few run-ins with the mysterious Myron (our main hitman played by Bokeem Woodbine) that have that modern shoot-em-up feel found in a lot of post-2000 DTV action films, and him and Goss get a short but shark kickfighting session in. I also quite enjoyed and was surprised by the skills shown by hitwoman Monica (Mary Christina Brown, Shadowman, Blood and Bone) - that girl has some Rothrock moves on her.
“Lies are what we are."
This is Luke’s movie, thankfully. I bought into his plight and with every damsel he saved along the way, I rooted for him more. You don’t know his full past and you don’t know all the truths behind what he is doing, but he comes across as a good man trying to leave a horrible life behind him, using some of his skills from that same horrible past to obtain better. The character was well written and had little nuances such as crushing all burner phones he touches that help sell Conrad Miller as a skilled man.
Everybody else is really just minor support, including RZA. He plays a decent Detective, though he is not given much to detect. There isn’t a great deal of story to buy in with him - he may as well be any cop - and that is the main complaint I have with the movie. The local corrupt sheriff (Louis Mandylor), the mystery assassin on Miller’s trail, the Russian diplomats, even Miller’s girlfriend: they are all merely window dressing for the story of Luke Goss the Marine Putting Things Right on his Way to Freedom. I suppose they are like the bass guitarist in a band; they are not the star, but you notice when they are not there in the background laying a good foundation. All of the extra bodies in the film help flesh it out and make it more believable, however each on their own do not add much in the way of character. A smoking habit from the Russian agent Cushko (Adam Gregor) are about as deep as we go with character building here.
AWOL-72 is a little bland, but not offensively so. The film is obviously shot digitally and has the same annoying over-bright look (blue skies are bright white) that we see a lot of nowadays. There’s a few twists to keep you on your toes, though they are not anything outrageously different to any other thriller. I am not one that minds cookie-cutter films in the slightest if they are done well, and AWOL-72 is done well enough. Worth a watch.
Highlight:
The showdown in the cafe with Goss, Woodbine and Christina Brown is the best demonstration of action in the film.
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.
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.
Luke Goss (Mercenary for Justice, Death Race 2, Tekken) plays Michael Spencer, a Sheriff in a small town who learns that his brother David has been killed by a gang for wanting out. Not receiving any help from the city authorities on the case, Michael throws in his badge and positions himself as a thug without a gang to call home (ala Raw Deal) so that he can get to his brother's killer. He also discovers that his brother's widowed girlfriend is a habitual drug user and sister to one of the members of David's gang, as well as pregnant with his child. Michael advances the ranks of the gang whilst also taking out other scum on the streets from rival gangs in the area, but always keeping his eye on the prize - gang leader Elias who ordered the kill on his brother.
First thing's first; this is a serious bait-and-switch movie. If you are here to see Vinnie Jones, Val Kilmer or for some reason Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson you are going to leave this film sorely disappointed. The DVD cover (shown here) has 50 Cent right up the front, with Vinnie Jones to his left, Val Kilmer porking it up behind him and Luke Goss - the star of the film - sticking his head out in the rear. Honestly this kind of cover is just false advertising and should be subject to the same rules and regulations as a retail outlet TV advertisement. "Buy this couch for $199 today" then when you get to the shop they never had any in the first place, but would you be interested in this one for $499? It's just not cricket.
Jones is only in the first ten minutes and has one scene when he starts the ball rolling by executing Michael's younger brother David, a member of Elias's (Tamer Hassan) gang who controls the North American region. He's not seen again until the final fight where he gets a handful more lines. 50 Cent has one scene as the lazy and arrogant cop Hardwick who refuses to follow up the case of David's death and tazers Michael for pushing him - he does appear briefly later though I won't spoil that.
And Val Kilmer.. well, he finally turns up in the last act as rival gang leader for the South American region, Arturo, and his "presence" certainly fills the screen. The guy has stacked on more kilos than Seagal ever did and he really, really needs a haircut. He chews the scenery with glee, walking with a cane with ivory handle and spouting dramatic lines of prose from invocation The Rite of Mars. The less said about his involvement in the movie the better, though you will laugh yourself silly when he's on screen, just liked in Hardwired.
With that out of the way, I did enjoy this movie. It was filmed in that modern hyperactive way but the fights were clearly visible, just shaky. Luke Goss did a terrific job as a vigilante cop infiltrating a gang and truly is the movie's saving grace. He was very believable and looked the part when he got tattooed and chain-smoked. This is definitely a good role for him and reminds me of Jason Statham quite a bit, both in character and in build. The opening five minutes was pretty weird though and left me wondering where this film was going. Michael heads up a drug-bust that goes bad when one of the bad guys holds a little girl hostage. Michael doesn't see the girl and fires, killing both man and hostage. The next scene you would expect to see him getting raked over the coals, his badge taken away and put on suspension, but instead the Captain gives a "Good job today everyone, no-body killed." speech. Michael asks "What about the girl?" to which the Captain replies "Collateral damage." What the hell? It's also never referenced again and is not a catalyst for any other part of the movie. There's a few other "why is this here?" scenes as the movie progresses, like the S&M stuff.
Other worthy mentions are Tamer Hassan (Layer Cake, Unleashed, 7 Seconds) as gang leader Elias who plays the role convincingly without going over the top (unlike Val Kilmer who orders his girls to "Dance!" while on a phone call from his pool side reclining chair). A real star here was Ed Quinn (TV's Eureka), a "nice" thug that befriends Michael and is brother to David's ex-girlfriend. He tries to get her cleaned up and he also has a strong sense of loyalty to Michael which is one of the film's best chemistries, far better than the thrown-in-because-we-have-to-have it sex scene between Michael and one of Elias' (hot) female lieutenants and keen sadomasochists (the gorgeous AnnaLynne McCord, also in 50 Cent / Val Kilmer vehicle "Gun").
I won't give it away but there is a fantastic moment right on the one hour twenty-minute mark where Michael is involved with a car crash. Notice I didn't say IN a car crash, but with, as in the cause of it. I had to watch it in slow-motion three times to make sure I was seeing it right but the scene is one of the most ridiculous I have ever seen, right up there with Steven Seagal decapitating Japanese businessmen from the third story of a building in Out For a Kill.
This is Director Jason Hewitt's first film, although he has produced many DTV films in recent years - Cabin Fever 2 and Wrong Side of Town stand out the most to me. He did a pretty reasonable job, though he would do well to put the camera on a freaking tripod every now and then. You could get motion sickness watching too many modern DTV movies. Overall Blood Out is a pretty decent vigilante-revenge action movie with a few silly sub-plots and needless scenes, but with a straight-shooting main plot with enough shoot-outs and fights to keep you interested throughout it's not-overlong 85 minute runtime. And you get to laugh at Val Kilmer's hair to boot.
The Video:
Video was sharp and clear though strangely enough appeared to be incorrectly framed. The DVD is presented in scope at 2.35:1 ratio which, on occasion, leaves you looking at talking necks, not heads. It was clearly meant to be full-frame 16:9. It's a little distracting to be honest. Sound is fine though quiet. Runtime 85 minutes.
Namco's highly popular video game franchise Tekken is finally brought to life on the silver screen! The live-action movie adaptation features the familiar story setting, characters, and their distinctive martial arts styles from the famous fighting game series. Set in a dystopian future where corporations have replaced governments, the fantasy action movie focuses on the Iron Fist Tournament where fighters battle each other to death until only one is standing. A young fighter with a dark secret enters this deadly competition with the aim to avenge his mother's death and confront his evil dad and grandpa. Dwight Little (Brandon Lee's Rapid Fire) directs an ensemble cast that includes Jon Foo (House of Fury), Luke Goss (Hellboy II), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mortal Kombat), and Cung Le (Bodyguards and Assassins), with fight choreography by Dion Lam (Doom, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li).
Movie Review:
I don't know anything about Tekken (the game). I was always a Mortal Kombat kid, and others were Street Fighter kids. By the time Tekken had come around, all arcades local to me were closing down or being replaced with dancing games and the like, so I never had a chance to actually play the thing. Sure it hit the PS2 but by that time I had no desire to really check it out. I don't get to play many games anymore, and when I do it's usually something like Galaga or Phoenix. So with that in mind, this review is based solely on what I watched. I don't know how accurate the representations of the characters were and frankly I don't care. I'm here for the action.
(screenshot from the game that I've never played)
It's sometime in a post-global war future and the corporations run everything, including governments. Eight companies divided up the world, with the Americas going to the largest of them all - Tekken. Each year the companies put on a fight for the punters involving all the best fighters from each corporation, the "Iron Fist" tournament, and this year Tekken will be the host country.
Our main character, Jin Kazama (Jon Foo), is running through the derelicts outside Tekken city known as The Anvil being shot at by renegades and military types, all to the tune of some meathead nu-metal wrestling music. There are posters of the Tekken leader Heihachi Mishima (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) hanging everywhere with the motto "Strength Through Order" emblazoned on them, so you know this is some sort of 1984 future we are dealing with. It's a pretty exciting start to the movie, with Jin bolting along roof tops under the lights of following helicopters and eventually Jin escapes.
He goes to meet a crazy underground technology dealer and offers him a device he has just stolen from the Tekken corporation. Getting a reasonable price for his wares, Jin leaves and goes straight to a bar (though he's like 16 or something) and flaunts his cash around, buying black-market coffee and fruit from another dealer. The end of curfew siren sounds and Jin heads home to his mother who dissaproves of his anti-Tekken runs, no matter how much coffee and oranges it gets him. We have a little emo scene "Is this what father would have wanted?" and Jin bails to go see his bimbo girlfriend. While he gets his end away in an alley, the Tekken military types (they are known as Jacks for some reason. Perhaps jackboots?) smash into both the tech. dealers warehouse and through Jin's mother's roof, yelling at them in Japanese looking for Jin and the stolen wares. Not finding him, the buildings are blown up with missiles from the hovering choppers.
After arriving home to see the devastation Jin has a few flashbacks of his childhood past. Apparently his mother knew martial arts and had taught him from a young age. Jin assumes that Tekken was responsible for the death of his mother so signs himself up for an open fight in the hope of rising to the top and killing the Tekken boss, Heihachi Mishima.
The open call fights are designed to wet the punters appetite before the main tournament and occur in small caged arenas and are televised. Jin gets admitted by former Iron Fist combatant Steve Fox (Luke Goss) and goes up against another former Iron Fist fighter, "Martial Law". Jin gets a few hits in on the guy before going down. But, by the power of his flashbacks, Jin manages to get up and K.O. the guy. Steve Fox is so impressed with the fight he decides to become Jin's manager and get him into the Tekken tournament.
Inside the flashy walls of Tekken - a total contrast to the slums of The Anvil - Mishima's son and security officer Kazuya (Ian Anthony Dale, who played Scorpion in the awesome Mortal Kombat: Rebirth short/preview - watch that now if you haven't) is doing this years roll call of combatants. They are:
Raven, representing G-Corp - lethal ninjitsu expert and former military intelligence
Eddie Gordo, from Valencorp - capoeira master and underworld enforcer
Sergei Dragonov, from Ruscorp - sambo fighter, trained by the defunct Russian military
Anna Williams and Nina Williams - sisters and assassins, fighting for Eyderdex, and masters of koppo and aikido
Christie Montiero for Vectrocorp - a skilled mixed martial artist, played by the hot Kelly Overton
Miguel Rojo - zapote specialist, basically punches them in the head a lot
Yoshimitsu - master swordsman, wears a full body suit and looks like an android
Bryan Fury - a power boxer, kempo fighter and current Iron Fist champion, played by Gary Daniels
And with Jin as the "People's Choice", there are ten fighters in this years competition. Jin meets all the combatants who generally give him the cold shoulder, except for Christie Montiero who's just a tart at heart. Jin makes evil eyes at Mishima up in the control room.
The fights in the movie are all good quality, which is of course the main reason anyone is watching this (Kelly Overton's rack not withstanding). Starting with Raven vs. Eddie Gordo, we get to see the skills that the actors bring to the table - all of which I understand actually trained in the martial arts they portray in the movie. Eddie Gordo puts on a good display of his cappoeira skills but is ultimately owned by Raven. Jin is picked for the second fight against Miguel Rojo and strolls in to the ring doing his best Bruce Lee impression. Jin lays the first punch but Miguel ducks and weaves his way around the blows before knocking Jin to the ground. "Do you know where you are? This is Iron Fist!"
Jin gets his second wind and drags Miguel around a bit, but again is flattened to the ground. Through the awesome power of the flashback (a recurring medium), Jin gets a third wind and finally connects some decent blows and dislocates Miguel's shoulder. Fueled with anger, Jin keeps laying into the guy well after the bell rings. This impresses Christie who goes to Jin's room after the fight looking for a screw, though the two go for a dance instead. This scene was made for all the horny sixteen year old boys in the audience as the camera is always panning down to Christie's jiggling arse, revealing the two-inch crack left by her well positioned leather pants. After their date, Jin retires to his room and is attacked by a ninja in the dark. He fends the ninja off but is injured; thankfully Christie hears the scuffle and rescues him, the ninja vanishing.
Round three is the one that had to happen to satisfy even more teenage boys watching - Nina Williams vs. Christie Montiero - and it's a total cat fight in purple and white bikinis. Jin says he is sure that Nina was the ninja that attacked him, so Christie makes the fight personal, with flicking hair and one liners, ultimately flattening Nina.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is always good as a bad guy and this movie is no exception. I can tell without researching that he has been done up to look like his video game character; his eyebrows are so over the top he just has to be. For a megalomaniac that posters the city with his portraits, the guy is rather respectful of the tournament and is annoyed by his son's constant efforts to undermine him. Like a spoiled brat Kazuya has a tantrum, and using his security manager powers orders the Jacks guards to arrest his father. Kazuya declares the rest of the tournament to be fights to the death. He really is the BAD guy in Tekken.
Tekken is a predictable, but enjoyable fighting movie. It's very, very DTV, which makes me all the more surprised that it will be getting a US theatrical release in 2011. A downside to it is it has, as Matt at the Direct to Video Connoisseur would say, a Gary Daniels bait-and-switch. He plays a role almost as small as he does in The Expendables. Ultimately he has a fight with Sergei Dragonov with chains which is pretty brutal, and finally he has a fight with Jin. It is great to see Daniels really putting his kickboxing skills back onto (digital) celluloid. There is a nice sub-plot about his body being half bionic with illegal implants but it's not explored very far. I guess that is the trouble with a movie that has to show ten fighters in the ring in ninety minutes yet still wrap a plot around it all - the fighter you really want to see has to share the ring with the other fighters. I guess that's why anime serial Yu Yu Hakusho spent an entire season of 42 episodes in the ring.
I've no idea if Tekken game fans will enjoy this or if they will get all comic-book-nerd and complain that Bryan Fury's hair was the wrong shade of grey, but as a dumb fight movie it did the job well enough for me.
The Video:
Sharp and clear, but obviously digital cameras were used. The ususal problems are present; the darks gets consume by grain and the lights get blasted with white.
