tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83802093233395434132024-03-14T08:07:13.259-07:00Corn Rigs and Barley Rigs: A Film BlogA blog about movies and moviegoingTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781420512192241677noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380209323339543413.post-11668429807478542942017-05-26T06:15:00.000-07:002017-05-26T06:15:01.889-07:00Savage Dog - Film Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><b>Savage Dog</b> </i>(2017)<br />
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Director: Jesse V. Johnson<br />
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Anytime I go to write a review of a Scott Adkins film, I always begin with "I will see anything that Scott Adkins is in." And it still remains true. While the era of the modern big budget action film is dying (or dead, if you ask me), the era of low budget action film is having its day. And Scott Adkins (among others) is at the head of this movement.<br />
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His latest film, <i>Savage Dog, </i>received a Blu-ray release in Germany earlier this month. Directed by Jesse V. Johnson, who has worked in the DTV action market for awhile now, the film follows a simple pattern: prisoner Martin (played by Adkins) fights against other prisoners during his three years in the clink. The man in charge of the prison, a former World War II Nazi officer named Steiner (played by Vladimir Kulich), allows Martin to leave prison just to get a British officer off of his back that is after Martin. And with that, Martin begins his new life in Indochina. Or does he?<br />
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Quickly Martin turns back to fighting for cash, and while the fight scenes are entertaining, the setup is a bore. It is paint by numbers action and takes absolutely no risks. Martin falls in love with Steiner's illegitimate daughter. He forms a friendship with a bartender played by Keith David. And then he fights in a pit. Rinse. Repeat. The film is just running through these boring motions, and even with the fight scenes, it<i> </i>just doesn't have any bite to it.<br />
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Then, <i>Savage Dog</i> changes. It becomes...savage. The bar that Adkins works at/frequents is attacked by Steiner's men. They think that they've killed Martin during the attack, but they didn't. This is not revelatory in terms of story telling, but the action is taken to a whole new level. With machete in hand, Martin relentlessly attacks Steiner and everyone involved with his operation. It's violent, brutal, and a welcome surprise given the fairly tame first half.<br />
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Johnson takes <i>Savage Dog </i>and in the last 45 minutes<i> </i>turns what was standard direct to video slop into something that is worthy of discussing. Body parts are severed, heads explode, and more than once Scott Adkins is covered just about head to toe in blood. It's more akin to Stallone's epic <i>Rambo </i>than any recent film in the action genre. And that's about as high praise as I can give to any film.<br />
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To get to that point, though, you've got to slog through the beginning, and that is surprisingly a task. Something unique does eventually emerge in <i>Savage Dog</i>, and if you can hold on for that long, the final points are a treat to watch. Plus, if you are a fan of action, it has a fantastic cast, as along with Scott Adkins we get Marko Zaror, Cung Le, Juju Chan (who feels sadly underused), and Keith David.<br />
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If I had to grade only the last half, it would undoubtedly be an A-. If I had to grade only the first half, it would undoubtedly be a D-. So let's just about split the difference and call this somewhere in between.<br />
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Grade: C+Tonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781420512192241677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380209323339543413.post-69491181708028477642017-05-25T18:38:00.000-07:002017-05-25T18:38:54.835-07:00Tuesday Purchases - 5/23While I work on my review of <i>Savage Dogs</i>, here is a list of three films that arrived on my doorstep this week and why I bought them. This should tide you over until the review arrives.<br />
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1. <i>Heat </i>(Definitive Director's Edition)<br />
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I ordered this directly after watching the director's cut of <i>Blackhat</i> that I DVR'd off of FX. This release came out a couple of weeks ago, and at that point I thought I would stick with my DVD copy until I heard word on whether or not the upgrade was worth it. Then, I noticed it was $6.99. That was enough to push me to the point of purchase.<br />
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It should be worth noting that I went on a Michael Mann watching/buying spree last year, and still have the theatrical cut of <i>The Last of the Mohicans </i>and <i>Ali </i>(all editions) to get through, but <i>Heat</i> may jump to the top of the "Mann to Watch" pile simply because it's the latest release.<br />
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2. <i>Graduation</i><br />
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In the late aughts, I became a big fan of modern Romanian cinema because of Cristian Mungiu's <i>4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days</i>. That film remains a masterpiece that, to my knowledge, has not received a proper release on Blu-ray.<br />
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Mungiu's latest film, <i>Graduation</i>, received a Blu-ray release last week from the fine folks at Curzon Artificial Eye in the UK. I don't know if it can top <i>4 Months, 3 Week and 2 Days</i>, but the reviews were incredibly solid and this film was at the top of my list of films to see theatrically earlier this year. With it seeming unlikely that <i>Graduation</i> would play in Maine, I pulled the trigger and imported the Blu-ray without any hesitation or regrets.<br />
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3. <i>I, Daniel Blake</i><br />
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I'll keep this one quick. The only film from Ken Loach that I have seen is <i>The Wind That Shakes the Barley</i>. I thought it was a fantastic film. I had the poster for that film up in my college dorm room. It was a very cool thing to do in 2007. Very cool.<br />
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Despite the fact that I loved that film, I never felt overly compelled to seek out Loach's other works. And truth be told, the only reasons I picked this title up was because I wanted to save on shipping from the UK (or make it seem like I was saving on shipping by ordering this with <i>Graduation</i>) and I knew that the film still has not had a theatrical release in the US. On top of those two reasons, the reviews are solid, so looking forward to it.Tonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781420512192241677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380209323339543413.post-60477513792897628342017-05-23T08:52:00.004-07:002017-05-23T08:55:07.983-07:00Blackhat: FX Director's Cut - Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></i><i style="font-weight: bold;">Blackhat </i>(2015) (Director's Cut - Aired on FX)<br />
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Director: Michael Mann<br />
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Michael Mann is a director known for changing his works...and changing them again...and changing them again. Sometimes, the changes are for the good of the film. Sometimes? His revisits and restructuring seems completely unnecessary. Take Mann's 2006 film <i>Miami Vice</i> as a perfect example of where the theatrical cut shines over the "unrated" cut of the film.<br />
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Even with Mann's hit or miss record when it comes to these alternate cuts, I found myself intrigued when I heard that he had reworked his 2015 film <i>Blackhat</i>.<br />
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I saw <i>Blackhat</i> the week it came out in January of 2015. My thoughts were that it was a good film, but not a great film. It certainly didn't reach the heights of Mann's <i>Miami Vice </i>or <i>Collateral</i>, though one could definitely see the same visual bricks from those films being used to build <i>Blackhat</i>. It certainly didn't deserve the critical lashing that it received, but was it up there with the best of Mann's work? No.<br />
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The plot, which shares more similarities to 1986's <i>Manhunter </i>than the previously mentioned films, follows a jailed blackhat hacker, played by Chris Hemsworth, as he works with law enforcement to capture a cyber terrorist who causes a rise in the price of soy stock. The hacker quickly follows with an attack on a nuclear reactor in China. This is where the differences between the theatrical cut and the director's cut begin, and this is probably the most significant difference between the two. At the beginning of the theatrical cut, we start with the attack on the nuclear reactor, and then later in the film we see the hacking of the soy prices.<br />
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However it's structured, <i>Blackhat</i> just doesn't live up to the standards that Mann's previous films have set. The use of handheld DV photography is still some of the best in the business, with an authenticity and a yellow, dirty city feel that is not easily replicated. Or pretty, for that matter. The action sequences are topnotch, with the shootouts being a gigantic adrenaline rush that keeps the viewer going until the end of the film. But the downfall? The hacking.<br />
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How does one make a film about hackers, realistic or not, and make it interesting? In <i>Manhunter</i>, Graham's quest to find this killer, whom he has never met, is a fascinating mix of research, psychology, and good old fashioned libel. Graham puts himself in the killer's shoes, and uses that ability to ultimately find and stop The Great Red Dragon. In this film, Hathaway puts himself in the shoes of a nameless hacker, and then gets on the computer and types a bunch of stuff. It's not thrilling. It's not intense. It's just a guy on a computer.<br />
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Ultimately, the action sequences and overall classic Mann look are enough to save this piece. The restructuring, for me at least, does little to help or harm the film, though it does make a little more sense in terms of storytelling. A hacker should start small before going big and blowing up a nuclear reactor in China, right?<br />
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Grade: BTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781420512192241677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8380209323339543413.post-41629510509752348982017-05-16T17:31:00.001-07:002017-05-16T17:31:06.919-07:00Tuesday Purchases - 5/16On Tuesdays, I have been known to buy movies. Here are the titles that ended up in my hands today.<div>
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<b>1. </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">Resident Evil: The Final Chapter</i> <b>(Best Buy steelbook exclusive)</b></div>
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I have to admit, I wasn't as crazy about <i>Resident Evil</i>: <i>The Final Chapter</i> as I was about the previous two installments in the franchise, but it's still a solid sci-fi/action film. What Paul W. S. Anderson created with <i>Afterlife</i> and <i>Retribution</i> were well shot, slick action films, that actually used 3D technology to enhance the composition of certain frames. <i>The Final Chapter </i>is well shot, and does have slick action (and good 3D), but ends up coming up just a bit short when compared to <i>Afterlife</i> and <i>Retribution</i>. The editing in this one is more frenetic, and while I like that the editing differentiates it from the previous two films, it comes off as just slightly jarring.<br />
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But I also like films that are slightly jarring.</div>
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I'm also not sure how I feel about this steelbook artwork. I skipped the previous <i>Resident Evil</i> Pop Art exclusives from Best Buy, but considering this is the only steelbook released of <i>Resident Evil: The Final Chapter</i> in the United States at the moment, I just went with it.</div>
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<b>2. </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">Return of the Dragon </i><span style="font-weight: bold;">(AKA <i>Way of the Dragon) </i>and <i>Game of Death</i></span></div>
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Confession time: I have only seen a couple of Bruce Lee films in their entirety. I've seen the final fight scene between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in <i>Way of the Dragon</i>. I've seen bits and pieces from <i>Game of Death</i>. But I've never sat down and watched both films from start to finish. And as someone who considers themselves a fan of martial arts and action cinema, I'm ashamed to admit this.</div>
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And what better way to introduce myself to these two films than with the new Blu-rays from Shout Factory? Maybe seeing them theatrically would be better, but that's not an option at this time.</div>
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I have read zero reviews on the quality of these two releases, but I'm assuming they're probably the best releases for these films on the market right now. Looking forward to spending 200 or so minutes with Bruce sometime in the near future.</div>
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<b>3. <i>Savage Dog</i></b></div>
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All the way from Germany comes this Blu-ray of <i>Savage Dog. </i>With a number of notable action film icons (Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Cung Le, and Juju Chan), I've heard surprisingly little about the film so far. However, if Scott Adkins appears in a film, even if there's bad word of mouth around it, I will go out of my way to watch it as soon as possible.</div>
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And that goes double if Scott Adkins plays Boyka.</div>
Tonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781420512192241677noreply@blogger.com0