I like me a good survival horror/thriller. I think I may just pay $10 to see Liam Neeson punch nature in the face.
From this trailer, it appears that director Joe Carnahan has dropped the silly Smokin’ Aces shtick and gone back to that rough and weighty opening chase from Narc. The film has gotten solid reviews from those who care about this kind of genre, that is to say, fans of the David Mamet penned, Lee Tamahori directed The Edge.
Below is the red-band (bloody and language and all that) trailer for The Grey.
Although far from seminal, there are a few Hollywood franchises I enjoy more than the Mission Impossible series. Laden with spectacular stunts and driven by a Lalo Schifrin’s sensational main theme, each film bears the unique stylistic stamp of the director at the helm – Brian De Palma (Scarface) for the original, John Woo (Face/Off) and J.J. Abrams (Star Trek) for the sequels – while at the same time succeeding as fun, fast paced action movies guaranteed to excite and entertain. Most recently, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol sees another new filmmaker take the reins: The Incredibles director Brad Bird, in his very first live-action film. And while the plot may be slapdash and characterizations frequently feeble, this new mission once again delivers what audiences really want: ambitious, gripping, fantastically conceived action.
Ghost Protocol kicks off with IMF agents Jane Carter (Paula Patton; Precious) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg; Paul) breaking team leader Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) out a Russian prison so that the three of them might infiltrate the Kremlin and recover files that will help them identify a criminal known only as Cobalt (Michael Nyqvist; Abduction) who is bent on instigating a nuclear war. But the mission is soon revealed to be a set-up, and after a bomb destroys a large part of the Russian presidential complex, Hunt and his team, as well as the mysterious Agent Brandt (Jeremy Renner; The Hurt Locker) find themselves labelled as terrorists, disavowed by their agency, and with no choice but to clear their names by whatever means they can. » Read the rest of the entry..
With Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion being one of the best films of the year, many may have forgotten that Mr. Threaten-to-retire-but-remain-prolific has another film in the works. This one has Lem “The Limey” Dobbs on screenwriting duty and MMA fighter as the star, but I’m not going to talk about that.
The below trailer is a master class in savvy editing and swanky graphics for advertising an action-movie. With the presentations of the tropes of the genre, “Negotiations broke down. Fix it.” “You can tell me right now why you sold me out. Or you can tell me in 10 minutes when I have my hands around your throat.” All in a crisp 1 minute, 22 second package. (Compare this to the exhausting 3-minute plus trailer for Tower Heist.)
I wonder if Mr. Soderberg cuts his own trailers, as P.T. Anderson did for There Will Be Blood, instead of going out to one of the many trailer-firms. Either way, this one is most excellent.
If the trailer (and that director/writer/cast!) do not convince you to see this film, well, there is no help for you.
After struggling to organise a weekend we were all available to get together, we finally gave in and a cosy three of us met up at Justin’s place to enjoy the 6th (recorded) Weekend of Trash (back story and previous write-ups can be found here – 1, 2, 3 & 4 & 5).
After the last marathon’s criminal lack of VHS titles and inclusion of far too many ‘classy’ and known titles to be truly called ‘trash’, we went all out this time, with 3 tape titles and only 1 known-ish film (maybe 2, I’m not sure how well known Grand Duel is).
I’m afraid my time’s a bit restrained at the moment so my write-ups will be a bit brief compared to usual, but I’ll still include trailers and concise thoughts on the merits (and otherwise) of each title.
Friday Night
Kindred
Directors: Stephen Carpenter, Jeffrey Obrow Screenplay: Stephen Carpenter, Jeffrey Obrow, John Penney, Earl Ghaffari & Joseph Stefano Starring: Rod Steiger, Kim Hunter, David Allen Brooks Year: 1987 Country: USA Duration: 91 min
(2.5/5)
Kindred is an 80′s creature feature about a scientist, John (David Allen Brooks) whose mother (also a scientist) tells him to burn all of her notes and drops a hint that he might have a brother that he wasn’t aware of. Unfortunately it begins to look as though (and the cover gives this away) John’s brother isn’t quite fully human and might not be full of ‘brotherly love’.
It’s a very dumb film and it’s ropey script makes for a rocky first half, but it actually picks up later on and became quite a fun watch. The presence of five screenwriters was always a sign towards a clunky uneven story (why do we never go back to the evil scientist’s basement full of crazy mutants!?) but at least one of the writers knows that the film works best when it doesn’t take itself too seriously and throws in a couple of witty lines. The main draw though are the make-up effects. The practical monster and mutation effects aren’t realistic, but they’re pretty damn cool at times, especially when one woman sprouts gills!
During an early morning drug robbery, the culprits make off with a dozens of kilograms of cocaine, but one unlucky fellow, Vincent, gets tagged with a stab wound, and even worse, has his face spotted by the dealers he is stealing from. But wait a minute. Vincent and his partner are cops who have plotted a rogue, and quite illegal heist for some much needed cash. Vincent, all ready at odds with ex-wife gets in trouble when the owner of the drugs, Jose – a snappily dressed middle-man who operates out of a Paris night club the size of a small airport – kidnaps his son Thomas in exchange for Vincent returning the drugs. During a packed night, the hand-off at the club gets royally messed up as two more branches of the police, Vincent’s partner, the Turks who are trying to buy the drugs from Jose and at probably a couple of other interested parties join the chase as Vincent’s changes of getting his son back dwindle and his changes of getting beaten, shot, stabbed, busted, or simply bleeding death on the floor increase – exponentially. As far as I can tell, the entire film takes place within 24 hours, but the pacing is so relentless, that at times, it feels like a single whirlwind take.
Drawn in by the people and city of Jakarta, director Gareth Evans made a decision several years ago to continue filmmaking in Indonesia after doing a short film there. This major career turning point was aided by his fascination with the style of martial arts (Pencak Silat) he found there which he felt would work well in feature length action films. Boy was he right – without a doubt The Raid (his second feature length action film which World Premiered at TIFF’s Midnight Madness last Thursday) contains some of the most brutal, teeth-gritting and sustained fight scenes I’ve ever seen.
The story is somewhat nominal. A SWAT team attack an apartment complex that houses a dangerous drug lord and his cronies. As they move up floor by floor, they wipe out gang members and slowly secure the building. Until they are discovered and the gang fights back. That’s pretty much all there is to it. The set up is handled within 5-10 minutes and the shooting, stabbing and foot-to-face combat begins. Of course, there’s a few of the cops with specific characteristics (scared rookie, hardened veteran, soon-to-be first time father, etc.), but it really doesn’t matter. Even though the drug kingpin manages to get off a few good lines and crazy-eyed stares, this is not the kind of movie that has fans scrambling for early versions of the script on the Internet. It’s all about the visceral thrill of watching people beat the living crap out of each other in very unique as well as old-fashioned ways.
We broke the rules a little for our latest movie marathon (back story and previous write-ups can be found here – 1, 2, 3 & 4), for once we didn’t watch anything on VHS (accidentally more than anything – we had a bunch on our shortlist) and there were a couple of classic and decent titles that shouldn’t really be labeled ‘trash’. Nonetheless, everything we watched was a genre film of some sort and we certainly had a lot of action, horror and exploitation on the menu. It was a mixed bag in terms of quality, era and subject matter too so read on to find out how it went.
Director: Nirattisai Kaljareuk Producer: Jareuk Kanjareuk Starring: Arnut Rapanit, Lalisa Sontirod, Than Thanakorn Year: 2010 Country: Thailand Duration: 100 min
(2.5/5)
A low budget Thai action epic, Edge of the Empire should really have been saved for one of my video marathons, as it is the very definition of a cheesy action film. Unfortunately, it has a few too many problems to raise it above a mere definition though.
The film tells a simple, patriotic tale which crams in a few too many characters to keep it as simple as it should be. Basically, in the 12th Century the Han Empire has a stranglehold on Thailand and treats it’s people like slaves and animals. After one village is ravaged and it’s inhabitants tortured and killed, a small group of villagers band together to fight the evil regime off once and for all. There are a bunch of personal vendettas added to the mix too which I won’t go into, but I’m sure you get the picture.
The wonders of good design offer us the entire career of action-writer / director / producer Luc Besson as a transit map. Want to see the larger version? Click Here.
I trekked over to meet up with ‘the guys’ last weekend for another one of our movie marathons (previous write-ups can be found here – 1, 2 and 3) and this session certainly didn’t disappoint. Easily our most purely exploitative lineup, this time round we watched no modern or respected cult genre offerings, we stuck solely to long forgotten titles from 70′s and 80′s, unearthing a few trashy classics along the way.
As ever, and especially with a list of films like these, the scores relate more to the enjoyment factor rather than their quality so read on with an open mind… » Read the rest of the entry..
Director: Dolph Lundgren Screenplay: Raul Inglis Producer: Kirk Shaw Starring: Dolph Lundgren, Stefanie von Pfetten, Samantha Ferris, David Lewis, Lindsay Maxwell, Bo Svenson Year: 2010 Country: USA/Canada BBFC Certification: 18 Duration: 88 min
(2.5/5)
I was pretty stoked for this after Kurt posted the trailer for this straight to DVD/Blu Ray effort from director and star Dolph Lundgren. Unfortunately it’s not the sort of film that can live up to much hype and it’s lack of theatrical release is no crime against cinema. That’s not to say there isn’t anything to gain from Dolph Lundgren is the Killing Machine (yes that’s it’s full title), so please read on.
With my wife-to-be over in her home country of Finland for a week I took it upon myself to get the boys round for another one of our regular ‘trashathons’ last weekend (check out my previous write ups here and here). For the uninitiated (or those who can’t be bothered to look up those two links) these weekends involve pulling out our lowest budgeted, most breast, explosion and blood filled crappy VHS and bargain-basement DVD’s we can find and subjecting ourselves to their ‘pleasures’ for two nights and a morning. We usually squeeze in a couple of classier modern genre films too that haven’t received the widest of releases.
This weekend really delivered the goods I must say. There were no straight up classics, but pretty much all of them did exactly what they said on the tin, which is more than can be said for a lot of exploitation flicks – most make better trailers than they do films.
As usual don’t take the star ratings too seriously – I’m generally going on entertainment value over quality.
