BARE BONES: JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 (2023)

John Wick: Chapter 4 picks up where the last one left off with the organization known as “The Tabel” trying to kill John Wick and he trying to hunt down and kill them. His quest takes him around the world while the Tabel’s appointed leader Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård) keeps upping the bounty and sending skilled assassins after him, like the blind Caine (Donnie Yen) and the mysterious Mr. Nobody (Shamier Anderson). John’s only hope is to force Gramont into an old-style one on one duel, but the path to his achieving this is filled with former allies, hired killers and dead friends.

Fourth chapter is again directed by Chad Stahelski from a script by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch and is the best so far in this overall solid franchise. The fast-paced sequel takes us from New York to Morrocco to Osaka to Berlin and comes to a dizzying and bloody conclusion in Paris, France, using all its locations spectacularly. Stahelski is at the top of his game visually as the film looks breathtaking and the action is some of the best yet in this series. The choreography really is amazing, no better example than a fight with multiple assassins in the frantic traffic surrounding the Arc de Triomphe. The film moves like one of Wick’s bullets and one hardly feels the almost three-hour running time. Chapter 4 does wisely give us a few moments to catch our breath before the next blood-spurting, bone-crushing action scene, so they remain effective, and does have some emotional resonance. Reeves and cast all perform well, including series regulars Ian McShane, Lawrence Fishburn, and the late Lance Reddick. All the newcomers impress too, including Clancy Brown as The Harbinger, Hiroyuki Sanada as the noble manager of the Osaka Continental and Rina Sawayama as his daughter/concierge. All in all, the best film in a series that has been getting better and better with each chapter. Watch through the end credits.

-MonsterZero NJ

TOMB OF NOSTALGIA: PET SEMATARY TWO (1992)

PET SEMATARY TWO (1992)

Sequel to the 1989 Stephen King book-based movie opens with the accidental on-set death of actress Renee Matthews (Darlanne Fluegel) right in front of her teen son Jeff (Edward Furlong). His veterinarian father Chase (Anthony Edwards) decides to get him as far from L.A. as possible and moves them across country to remote Ludlow, Maine. Ludlow is still affected by the events involving the Creed family and frightening strikes twice as Jeff and his new friend Drew (Jason McGuire) bury Drew’s murdered dog Zowie in the infamous “Pet Sematary” …along with the dog’s killer, Drew’s a-hole of a stepfather Sheriff Gus Gilbert (Clancy Brown). Bad idea on both counts!

Spooky sequel is directed by Mary Lambert, who also directed the first, from a script by Richard Outten. It’s more of an over-the-top and fun movie with Clancy Brown’s diabolically evil reanimated sheriff stealing every scene and making for an entertaining and creepy villain. There are some legitimately spooky moments, some very bloody kills, too and it is thick with atmosphere, despite its somewhat off-the-wall tone. Though it is early 90s, it still feels like an 80s flick and wisely plays its carnage and more ludicrous story straight. Why no one, including his own wife, seems to realize the jerk of a sheriff is a reanimated corpse, complete with gaping neck wound from the revived and pissed off Zowie, is amusingly hilarious in itself. Even with some unintentional goofiness, it is still a dark and effective chiller all the more entertaining because it mixes the scares and more oddball moments very well. Technically it looks great with Russell Carpenter’s unsettling cinematography and is given extra atmosphere from Mark Governor’s spooky score. Flick was a box office disappointment in 1992 and was not received well critically either, but all these years later and with the proper nostalgia, it is actually a fun night on the couch with the appropriate beverages.

The cast here is good. Furlong makes a solid lead as the emotionally wounded Jeff and even he gets to play a little darkly over-the-top when Jeff decides to try to reanimate mom you know where. Anthony Edwards is good as his concerned father who is starting to realize something very weird is going on in town. Clancy Brown is an over-the-top blast as the douche sheriff reanimated as an even bigger dirtbag. He simply gives every scene all he’s got and takes the villainous ball and runs with it enthusiastically. Jason McGuire is also good and sympathetic as the bullied Drew. A boy picked on by classmates and his stepfather. Jared Rushton is also very effective as local bully Clyde Parker and Lisa Waltz is solid as well as Drew’s mom Amanda who is too afraid of Gus to defend her son against his harsh discipline. A good cast 

Whether you think this is a good movie or a worthy sequel to a film now regarded as a classic is up to you. It also depends on how serious you want to take it. If you just accept it as its own thing and just go with it, you can have a lot of fun with Pet Sematary Two. It has some very spooky and atmospheric moments, some good gore and a delightfully over-the-top and sinister bad guy, even before he returns from the grave. It has a good cast, and, with the addition of teen bully Clyde, not one but two villains who get to dial it up to 11 once they get buried in that place that Ludlow citizens should know enough to avoid…

…. but if they did, there wouldn’t be a movie and a sequel now would there?

-MonsterZero NJ

Rated 3 (out of 4) drill bits!

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REVIEW: IN SEARCH OF TOMORROW (2022)

IN SEARCH OF TOMORROW (2022)

In Search of Darkness and its sequel were four-hour documentaries about 80s horror films from producer/creator Robin Block and writer/director David A. Weiner. Now the duo are back with a nearly five-hour documentary about 80s science fiction films called In Search of Tomorrow! The 80s was a great time for science fiction flicks and filmmaker David A. Weiner presents a host of movie footage and interviewees for in-depth coverage of some of the all-time classics, while also focusing on some of the decade’s more obscure films.

New documentary follows the format of the others, covering each year of the decade and some of the films made during that that year. It’s Weiner’s best yet as this flick really holds one’s interest firmly, delivering a fun and informative look back, that keeps the audience engaged for almost five hours! It’s a true love letter to 80s science fiction cinema!

Weiner rolls out a multitude of guests discussing classics, cult classics and some well-intended bombs, from a decade that cranked out sci-fi at a fever pitch! We get scenes from a great number of films, including classics like The Thing, The Terminator, Robocop and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and cult films like Buckaroo Banzai, Galaxy of Terror and Earth Girls Are Easy. We also get interview subjects such as Peter Weller, Nicholas Meyer, Clancy Brown and John Carpenter, to name just a scant few, and we also get some new perspectives like those of journalist Angélique Roché and podcaster Dr. Andrea Letamendi. Actors, directors, FX legends, production designers, along with contemporary journalists and 80s experts, all provide their own point of view and share dozens of personal on-set anecdotes. It makes for a nice variety of perspectives. It’s a wonderful retrospective that really does not feel as long as it is and is delightfully uncensored in both scenes shown and commentary made by its multitude of entertaining guests.

As with the In Search of Darkness documentaries, this one has an extensive running time at four hours and fifty minutes.  It sounds like a long-haul but goes by very quickly and if you are a fan of 80s sci-fi flicks, or even better, old enough to have been there at the time, then watching this is a great way to spend a lazy afternoon, or a Saturday evening on the couch. In Search of Tomorrow is available for pre-order starting today and running till 3/27 at www.80sscifidoc.com. There were a lot of films not covered, so bring on In Search of Tomorrow part II!

MZNJ PERSONAL NOTE: As I said with the last documentaries…Being old enough to have been in a theater for a lot of these flicks, not only did this documentary take me back to my favorite era of movies, but actually brought to my attention a couple of flicks I missed. Bravo again, Robin Block and David A. Weiner!

-MonsterZero NJ

Rated 4 (out of 4) terminators.

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HORROR YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: IN SEARCH OF DARKNESS PART II (2020)

IN SEARCH OF DARKNESS PART II (2020)

In Search of Darkness was a four hour documentary about 80s horror films from producer/creator Robin Block and writer/director David A. Weiner and you’d think after that lengthy runtime, they’d have said all there was to say about horror of that era…you’d be delightfully wrong. The 80s was a prolific time for horror and filmmaker David A. Weiner and his parade of interviewees are back for another four plus hours of in-depth coverage and this time, profiles some of the more obscure films, as well as, some of the classics that got left out in the last documentary.

Sequel documentary follows the format of the first one, covering each year of the decade and some of the films made during that that year. Weiner and his illustrious guests also cover sub-genres of 80s horror, such as nature run amok, Italian horror, Hong Kong horror, horror/comedy, kid centric horror and even acting techniques, while discussing another host of classics, cult classics and hilarious misfires, from the most prolific decade in horror. They even cover horror video games! Once again we get scenes from a vast number of films, including some of the more lesser known flicks like The Boogens, The Being, Alone in the Dark and even Don Dohler’s Nightbeast. A lot of the interview subjects return from the previous part, such as Robert Englund, Barbara Crampton, Kane Hodder and Fangoria Editor in Chief Phil Nobile Jr, but we also get some new perspectives like those of actors Robert Rusler, Gedde Watanabe, Clancy Brown, Nancy Allen, director Jackie Kong and rocker/wrestler Chris Jericho, for example. Actors, directors, FX legends, along with contemporary horror critics and bloggers, all provide their own point of view. As with the last installment, the mix of 80s personalities with some of the new generation horror fans, who have embraced the horror films of this decade, makes for a nice variety of perspectives. The stories from filmmakers and actors of the time are a lot of fun and informative, as are the tales of discovery and analysis from the new generation of horror lovers, such as Daily Dead’s Managing Editor Heather Wixson. The documentary even covers some more controversial subjects, such as the proliferation of gore and violence, nudity, sex and the extensive use of rape scenes as plot devices in numerous films. No tombstone goes uncovered. It’s a wonderful retrospective that really does not feel as long as it is and is delightfully uncensored in both scenes shown and commentary made by it’s multitude of guests.

As with the last In Search of Darkness, four and 1/2 hours sounds like a daunting sit to do all at once…not that you have to…but if you are a fan of these movies, or someone who is old enough to have been in a theater seat during this awesome decade of horror, then it is a great way to spend an afternoon or evening. This second chapter…and yes, we’d sit through a third!… is almost more interesting and involving, as it covers some of the more obscure titles and foreign films, so even the most hardcore horror fanatic might see footage, or hear of a title, for the first time. A must watch for horror fans of any age and a sequel that is an equal in some ways and surpasses it’s predecessor in others. As said before, bring on In Search of Darkness part III!

Both documentaries are available on Blu-ray for a brief time at https://80shorrordoc.com/ and the first documentary can be watched on Shudder.

MZNJ PERSONAL NOTE: Being old enough to have been in a theater for a lot of these flicks, not only did this documentary sequel, once again, take me back to my favorite era of movies, but actually brought to my attention a couple of flicks I missed. Bravo Robin Block and David A. Weiner!

-MonsterZero NJ

Rated 3 and 1/2 (out of 4) hockey masks.

 

 

 

 

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REVIEW: PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN (2020)

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN (2020)

Film finds thirty-something Cassie (Carey Mulligan) working in a coffee shop and still living with her parents (Clancy Brown and Jennifer Coolidge). Cassie was a med student seven years ago, but the date rape and resulting suicide of her best friend Nina caused her to drop out. Now the emotionally troubled Cassie plots to get back at the man responsible and those who covered for and defended him. She also goes to bars at night, pretends to be drunk and teaches a lesson to anyone who try to take advantage of her. Her nocturnal activities and the path to payback for Nina hit a bit of a snag, though, when she meets a charming and handsome pediatrician (Bo Burnham).

Powerful flick is written and directed by Emerald Fennell and is an extremely impressive feature film debut. It tackles the subjects of date rape, sexual misconduct at schools and the effects on the victims, through the vengeful Cassie, but not without an undercurrent of dark humor. Through Cassie and her confronting those involved, we learn of how Nina was taken advantage of at a party, raped and then having to watch the perpetrator Al Monroe (Chris Lowell) defended and covered for by the school administration and other students, such as classmate Madison (Alison Brie). It turned Nina into an emotional wreck who we safely assume finally took her own life. The film boldly faces down how the perpetrators of such acts become the defendants and the victims the villains, in this society of boys will be boys. It illustrates how more concern is shown for not ruining the accused’s life than for the victim’s trauma and pain. Cassie also confronts like individuals by going to bars, playing drunk and then confronting these guys as they plan to take advantage of her. The film is unflinching, yet the underlying dark humor helps keep these timely subjects from bludgeoning you. Fennell deftly keeps you attentive, receptive and sensitive to the subject matter, as it’s cleverly woven into the story and thus better received and the points better made. As we watch the tale unfold, we get what writer/director is trying to say, slyly, but not too subtly as to miss those points. Emerald Fennell takes the gloves off and through Cassie calls out the frat boy, wolf pack mentality that protects the guilty and leaves victims humiliated and ostracized. She also directs with a lethal sarcasm and a hip and colorful style, as we follow Cassie along her path to retribution that culminates in a riveting and disturbing last act at Al Monroe’s bachelor party. A film with an important message for the #metoo generation, told with a lethal wit by Fennell. A viciously witty indictment of all too common behavior and the lack of consequences for that behavior.

The cast is strong with Carey Mulligan giving a brilliant performance as the young woman who beneath her sarcastic, slacker exterior is seething with anger and rage. A woman who’s pain and frustration, at how her friend was treated, has been focused into an intelligent and borderline sinister plan for payback. Until she reaches her target, she vents her anger out on lecherous bar patrons, she lures in by playing the naive drunk girl. It is also a direct statement on the mentality of far too many men when we witness just how often her trap works. Bo Burnham is charming and funny as Cassie’s unexpected love interest, Ryan. Is his interest in her and her growing feelings for him enough to make her put aside her inner turmoil and rage? This film is worth watching to find out. Clancy Brown and Jennifer Coolidge are good as her disappointed, frustrated and somewhat clueless parents and Chris Lowell is appropriately slimy as eternal frat boy and party rapist Al Monroe. In smaller, but effective parts are Adam Brody and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as men who Cassie vents her anger at…with good reason…along with Alison Brie and Connie Britton as the student and school dean, respectively, who covered for Monroe and dismissed Nina’s accusations.

Overall, this was an intense flick with a powerful message told with a very dark and sarcastic sense of humor. A smashing directorial debut from Emerald Fennell with a powerhouse performance by lead Carey Mulligan. It takes on it’s subject of sexual abuse and how society protects the accused and vilifies the victim with gloves off and head on. It has a lethal wit and a very hip style and comes to a climax that will stay with you for some time. Bravo to Emerald Fennell on a borderline masterpiece film debut and very, very highly recommended!

-MonsterZero NJ

Rated 4 (out of 4) sexy nurse hats!

 

 

 

 

 

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BARE BONES: THE MORTUARY COLLECTION (2019)

THE MORTUARY COLLECTION (2019)

Horror anthology finds pretty, young Sam (Caitlin Fisher) looking for work at the Raven’s End mortuary. The caretaker is spooky mortician Montgomery Dark (Clancy Brown), who begins to weave stories of the supernatural and the macabre at Sam’s insistence. Dark begins to tell a series of tales from a slinky pick-pocket (Christine Kilmer) encountering a Lovecraftian medicine cabinet, to a womanizing, college stud (Jacob Elordi) finding his comeuppance with a mysterious new co-ed (Ema Horvath), to a husband (Barak Hardley) driven to desperate measures with an ailing wife (Sarah Hay) to Sam’s own tale of her babysitting encounter with an escaped psychopath (Ben Hethcoat). As the stories unfold, we find that there may be far more to the Raven’s End Mortuary than just it’s grave history.

Anthology is well directed by Ryan Spindell from his own script. The stories are fairly consistent and while none is particularly original, or scary, they are all entertaining and well presented. Spindell has a very good visual eye, and the stories all look spooky and atmospheric, especially with the wraparound filmed in Oregon’s Flavel House Museum, which was one of the locations for The Goonies. The last story and the wraparound are the best, with some creepy FX, chilling moments and spooky revelations. The gore and make-up effects are top notch all around and the cast seem to all be having a good time, especially Brown as mortician Dark and Fisher as the feisty Sam. Fun anthology is streaming on Shudder and is certainly worth a look for horror anthology fans and quite fitting for the Halloween season.

-MonsterZero NJ

TV REVIEW: THE PUNISHER (2017)

THE PUNISHER (2017)

Spin-off series from season 2 of Netflix’s Daredevil finds ex-soldier Frank Castle aka “The Punisher” (Jon Bernthal) thinking he’s finished his mission of revenge and hanging up his skull adorned bulletproof vest under the new identity of loner, construction worker Pete Castellini. Upon being contacted by a whistle blower thought dead named Micro (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Castle finds that there is a deeper conspiracy responsible for the murder of his family, one that involves high ranking military personal, dirty CIA agents and unknowingly himself. Castle returns to the road for revenge, but only now he has a tenacious Homeland Security agent on his tail (Amber Rose Revah) who has her own score to settle.

The Punisher solo series’ first season leaves some mixed feelings. Bernthal is still a great Frank Castle/Punisher and there is certainly a lot of the bone-crushing, brutal action like the character was involved in on Daredevil. The problems here are some sub-plots that don’t seem necessary or to add much to the proceedings and the fact that it once again takes nearly the whole season for The Punisher to really re-emerge. It’s more of a conspiracy show, a la the X-Files, which would be fine if it stuck to the conspiracy and it’s attention didn’t wander to sub-plots like a growing relationship with Micro’s “widow” (Jaime Ray Newman) and kids (Kobi Frumer and Ripley Sobo) and an emotionally disturbed young vet turned terrorist named Lewis (Daniel Webber). These sub-plots seem more like plot devices, one to keep his relationship with Micro antagonistic and the other to wrongfully out him to the world as a terrorist. At times they feel a bit like filler to stretch the series out to it’s 13 episodes when maybe a more streamlined 10 would have served it better and kept to the main story. Sometimes the violence seems a bit too over the top and Frank seems to bounce back from severe wounds or beatings far too quickly to be believable. If the show wants to ground itself in reality, which it does, than it’s hard to swallow a man entering physical combat mere days after being beaten practically to death. Still the show is well done and the acting is strong across the board, especially from Bernthal, Moss-Bachrach and Revah. Paul Schulze makes a detestable bad guy as rogue CIA director William Rawlins, one of the season’s main villains. There are also some returning characters From DDse02, such as Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page and Clancy Brown as Major Schoonover. While there are generous amounts of action throughout, once The Punisher suits up again there are some really intense action set-pieces, which illustrate just how bad-ass this incarnation of the character is. The show does have a kind of Sons of Anarchy vibe, it handled the theme of a combat vet’s life back home very well and a more focused second season could really fire on all cylinders for the character.

Overall, the first season for Marvel’s gun-toting vigilante wasn’t exactly on target, but has enough going for it to look forward to more. Now that the revenge and conspiracy elements are taken care of, season two can get down to The Punisher doing what he does best. Not a great first season, but one that shows a lot of potential if season 2 can lock it down.

EPISODE LIST

1. 3 AM – directed by Tom Shankland and written by Steve Lightfoot
2. Two Dead Men – directed by Tom Shankland and written by Steve Lightfoot
3. Kandahar – directed by Andy Goddard and written by Steve Lightfoot
4. Resupply – directed by Karl Skogland and written by Dario Scardapane
5. Gunner – directed by Dearbhla Walsh written by Michael Jones-Morales
6. The Judas Goat – directed by Jeremy Webb and written by Christine Boylan
7. Crosshairs – directed by Andy Goddard and written by Bruce Marshall Romans
8. Cold Steel – directed by Antonio Campos and written by Felicia D. Henderson
9. Front Toward Enemy – directed by Marc Jobst and written by Angela LaManna
10. Virtue of the Vicious – directed by Jim O’hanlon and written by Ken Kristensen
11. Danger Close – directed by Kevin Hooks and written by Felicia D. Henderson
12. Home – directed by Jet Wilkinson and written by Dario Scardapane
13. Memento Mori- directed by Stephen Surjik and written by Steve Lightfoot

-MonsterZero NJ

3 bullets.

 

 

BARE BONES: NOTHING LEFT TO FEAR and CAMP DREAD

NOTHING LEFT TO FEAR (2013)

Horror flick has a very familiar story though, is competently made. A pastor (James Tupper) uproots his family from the city to take over a parish in a small rural farm town…one that, of course, has a dark secret. Obviously, Pastor Dan and family have been lured there for something other than singing Kumbaya. Film is most notable for being co-produced by rocker Slash and is written by Jonathan W.C. Mills and directed by Anthony Leonardi III. As such, it is a moderately entertaining thriller with no big scares and the usually shaky head CGI phantoms. One glaring plot hole really hurts and that is if the townies need to shut the gates of Hell, then why do they open them in the first place which we clearly witness them do? Also stars genre vet Clancy Brown, Anne Heche, and cuties Rebekah Brandes (Midnight Movie) and Jennifer Stone. A time waster but, you could do worse.

CAMP DREAD (2014)

Awful movie has a washed-up, 80s horror filmmaker (Eric Roberts) planing to make a comeback by staging a horror themed reality show at a summer camp. Obviously, when the troubled young twenty somethings, that are the contestants, are eliminated, they are eliminated for real…and quite gruesomely. As written and Directed by Harrison Smith, this is a tedious and dull affair that makes 90+ minutes feel like three hours. There is no suspense, scares or surprises and the gore is phony looking, as well. Also stars Sleepaway Camp alumni Felissa Rose, Scream queen Danielle Harris…who only appears in two scenes…and if it wasn’t for some welcome eye candy from the shapely Montana Marks, this would have been a complete waste of time.

 -MonsterZero NJ

HORROR YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (2010)

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (2010)

(Clicking the highlighted links brings you to corresponding reviews and articles here at The Movie Madhouse!)

2010’s remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street isn’t really a bad movie, it’s just a very unremarkable movie that doesn’t bring enough new to the franchise to justify it’s existence. To a degree it’s just another sequel with a new Freddy and new characters, including a new Nancy in name only.

The story follows that of the original film very closely with a group of teens having nightmares of a horribly scarred man with a gloved hand fitted with knives. He is murdering them in their dreams and they are all now afraid to sleep as their numbers dwindle. The man is Freddy Krueger (now played by Jackie Earle Hayley) and he is a child molester that their parents hunted down and burned alive…and he has returned to exact his revenge against the teens he preyed upon as children.

The film is actually directed fairly well by Samuel Bayer from a script by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer and does have a few effective sequences. One of the main problems here is the fact that it just comes across as another series entry with very little new, other than a new actor as Freddy and a brief period of time where they try…but don’t succeed…in making us have doubts surrounding Freddy’s guilt. It’s obvious from the get-go how horrible he is and that this is not a nice guy done wrong. The dream sequences are well filmed, but again, offer nothing really new and it wouldn’t seem like a remake at all if it weren’t for a couple of sequences lifted from the original, a heroine named Nancy (Rooney Mara) and rehashing Freddy’s origin, adding little new to that. Why not just make this another series entry and keep Robert Englund as Freddy? There lies another big problem, despite a strong turn in Watchmen as Rorschach, Haley does not impress or scare as Freddy. He comes across as someone’s sleazy, perv of an uncle and he is never as threatening as Englund in the early installments and certainly not as charismatic as Englund was in the later installments, when Freddy became more of a wise-cracking gremlin. Haley is just a generic boogie man and that legendary persona is all but gone. He’s bland and the film is neutered without a strong villain. The make-up and visual FX are top notch, as is most of the production, but it’s kinda hollow without a stronger story and more fearsome villain.

Aside from Hayley not living up to the challenge as Freddy, there at least is a strong lead from Rooney Mara as Nancy. She makes a strong heroine with her own inner turmoil and pain and it’s too bad she’s not in a better film to play her character in. Her character is so different from Langenkamp’s Nancy, that she could had been re-named and it would have had no effect on the story. Kyle Gallner is good as Nancy’s friend Quentin. He helps her uncover the truth behind who this dream specter is who is hunting them and killing their friends. As those friends, we have Katie Cassidy as Kris, Kellan Lutz as Dean and Thomas Dekker as Jesse and they all do a suitable job as Freddy fodder. We also have good performances by Connie Britton as Nancy’s mom and Clancy Brown as Quentin’s dad. A decent cast, but wasted in a ho-hum reboot attempt.

I’ll admit this mediocre attempt to restart the series is still better than the worst of the original series (2 & 6 in my opinion), but far from the best of the bunch and can’t hold a candle to the original. The film is well enough directed by Samuel Bayer, who has a nice visual eye, but doesn’t deviate nearly far enough from what has come before it to justify it being made. It plays it safe and gives us little new except recast Freddy unsuccessfully. I didn’t hate this flick, but it is unremarkable and quite forgettable and certainly nothing worthy of building a new franchise over. It lacks the kind of intensity that made the familiar yet, entertaining Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake one of the better of this remake trend. Not the worst, but far from the best and makes you appreciate the great Robert Englund even more.

Rated 2 and 1/2 (out of 4) Freddys…and the real one, might I add.

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REVIEW: HOMEFRONT (2013)

HOMEFRONT (2013)

Much like Out Of The Furnace, Homefront is another example of a film with a routine and cliche’ B-movie action plot elevated into something more by a good cast and a solid director behind the camera. Here we have a plot that in the 80s would have perfectly suited Van Damme, Norris or Seagal with undercover DEA agent Phil Broker (Jason Statham), who has had enough of the violence and bloodshed associated with his job, moving to a small rural town in Louisiana to start a new life. But, an altercation between widower Phil’s daughter Maddy (Izabela Vidovic) and a bully at school raises the ire of the boy’s redneck parents Cassie and Jimmy (Kate Bosworth and Marcus Hester) and when it escalates, Cassie calls upon her meth dealer brother Gator (James Franco) to get them payback. But, in a cruel twist of fate, Gator knows the man Phil last put behind bars, a biker gang leader named Danny Turrie (Chuck Zito) and sees this as an opportunity to earn a favor from the powerful gang leader. Now a schoolyard incident turns into a bloody fight for survival as Turrie sends a squad of killers, led by the lethal Cyrus (Frank Grillo), into this quiet town to get revenge on the man who put him in jail and caused the death of his son.

Sure we have seen this all before but, with a surprisingly tight script by none other then Sylvester Stallone, based on Chuck Logan’s book, and a real solid directing job by Gary Fleder, this film goes from direct to home media action flick to a very taunt and entertaining thriller. Felder creates some nice tension and suspense from a routine action movie plot and when that action comes, it’s fast, furious and bloody. The film has an intensity that runs through every scene and the action is well choreographed and we get just enough of it to punctuate the story without going overboard or getting over stylized. Most of the scenes are hard-hitting fight scenes and shootouts, saving the car chases and explosions to up the ante in the last act. Felder has a nice but, unobtrusive visual style which takes good advantage of the small town Louisiana locations, especially the scenes shot at night in the swamps and around Broker’s old house. There’s none of that post production editing FX or filters, just some crisp cinematography by Theo van de Sande that makes every shot have some nice, rich but, natural color. His night shots in the swamps are bathed in cool blues and I liked this no nonsense approach to the look of the film.

Felder also has a good cast to work with. Statham is an underrated leading man and does far too many generic action flicks but, he is as good an actor as he is effective in the action and here he proves it again with his portrayal of a loving father who will go to any length to protect his daughter. And he has never looked better in the film’s vicious fight scenes. Franco once again proves himself a chameleon in his portrayal of a sleazy redneck drug dealer who, is sly and clever but, ultimately, not clever enough to know when enough is enough and he is in over his head. He wants to be a big league gangster but, would be better off sticking to his small time meth business and staying out of his sister’s petty squabbles. Winona Ryder is a surprising choice to play Sheryl, Gator’s ex and a woman with connections in the seedy underworld and is the one who helps bring in the reinforcements from Turrie when Gator’s thugs get their asses handed to them by the ex-DEA agent, Broker. Frank Grillo makes an imposing villain as hired killer Cyrus and one of my few complaints about the film is he is not utilized enough and his showdown with Broker should have been a bit more epic. Rounding out, Bosworth and Hester are adequate as a stereotypical redneck couple who start a huge bloody mess just because their bully son is basically bested by a girl. Fan favorite Clancy Brown is also solid as the local sheriff, who will only look the other way so much. And Rachelle Lefevre is pretty and likable as Maddy’s teacher Susan, a potential love interest for Phil but, a story sub-plot that gets dropped and goes nowhere when the plot gets rolling.

To wrap things up, this is, on the inside, a routine B-movie action flick given some surprising depth by a good script from Sly… who avoids, for the most part, a lot of the cheesy dialog that usually inhabits his Expendables scripts… a very solid directing job by Gary Fleder and good performances all around by it’s cast. We have seen it all before, it’s not original in any way but, it’s a cliche’ action flick elevated to more quality entertainment due to the respect given the material by the creative team behind it. And it just proves that talent can overcome mediocrity. No classic, but a really solid action flick that puts some class back into the overdone ‘trying to escape violence but, having it follow you’ action flick. One of Statham’s better flicks in quite some time, too. Won’t win any awards but, should certainly provide satisfying entertainment on movie night.

3 very solid bullets. Would have given it more had it’s story not been so familiar.