Shark Night (3D)

I had a thought that made me feel uncomfortable so I decided to punish my brain by watching Shark Night(theatrically released as Shark Night 3D)

The movie feels like a decent enough shark flick that was edited for television because of the PG-13 rating.  One of the most interesting elements is the justification for the sharks being loose where there are people.  While far fetched it was an idea I haven't seen played out before.

At a brisk 90 minutes the film is neither good or bad enough to be terribly memorable.  Ultimately it seems like a wasted opportunity.  You come up with a fairly decent premise, and its the shark action that is bland and sub par...but never bad enough to turn the flick off.

The cast is decent enough, while being utterly forgettable.  My favorite bit of casting though is Joel David Moore (who was 34 when this was shot) playing a college kid.

So if neither good or bad, but simply blandly forgettable is your bag I recommend Shark Night, which doesn't really take place much at night but sounds better than Shark Day and a Half.

In the grind house tradition...The Raid Redemption

The Raid Redemption is an Indonesian action film  that has some of the most unique and intense actions sequences in recent memory if not ever.  

While the plot is simplistic at best; 20 cops must enter a 30 story building to retrieve a drug kingpin; writer director and editor Gareth Evans adds small plot twists wherever he can.

The only real downside of The Raid Redemption are the characters.  Paper thin implies too much depth.  Literally all we know about one of the stars is that his wife is pregnant.  Even this information came to pass without dialogue in a training montage over the credits.  

The action and fight sequences are amazing.  Mele is the best way to describe them with a great deal of intricate close quartered combat.  Elbows and knees are used more than I have ever seen in a single film.  The movement of the actors with the camera allows the audience to see every blow and cringe accordingly.   

In the Grind House Tradition...Night of the Living Dead(1990)

With a screen play from George A Romero, a young enegetic Tony Todd and a bad ass Barbara played by Patricia Tallman, and direction from Tom Savini The Night of the Living Dead remake is a solid horror flick.  While not as scary or even gory as the original (massive cuts were made by the MPAA, would relish a chance to see Tom Savini's original cut) it is a fast fun entertaining flick.  Savini orchastes the scenes of chaos amazingly well and Todd, Tallman and Tom Towles also give great performances. 

Click any of the images to stream the film for free. 

Random fact Savini was supposed to do effects on the original, but was drafted and sent to Vietnam instead. 

In the Grindhouse Traditoin...Shadow: Dead Riot

Derek Wan's Shadow: Dead Riot is an affectionate homage to; prisonploitation, sexploitation, Kung Fu and zombie movies.  If you have no interest in any of these sub-genres you will find nothing to like here.

However if this sounds appealing to you on any level you will find much to like here.  The plot revolves around Tony Todd's Shadow being executed for murdering a pregnant woman.  Twenty years later Solitaire played with incredible gusto by Carla Greene is sent to the same prison which no operates as an experimental woman's prison.

The effects are well done, and the kung fu sequences are amazing especially for the budget.  The makers of Shadow: Dead Riot went out and got some of Jackie Chan's crew and it shows.  Carla Greene performs admirably in these sequences and is a true standout in the film.

Shadow: Dead Riot has strong production values for its low budget, and never looks so bad it takes you out of the film.While there are some obvious lapses in logic and a couple plot holes and actions of convenience if you want to see a woman's prison kung fu zombie movies that molds these elements into a clear fast paced coherent film, I challenge you to find another flick meeting all this criteria.  This is a bloody entertaining movie.

This film is available in a DVD two pack with Flesh for the Beast and is filtered to look like a distorted out 70's reel.  Or you can rent it from youtube below.

In the Grindhouse Tradition...Brain Dead

Kevin Tenney's Brain Dead is a film with a very specific audience in mind, and he does not want to disappoint, and he doesn't.  With filmography including Witchboard, and Night of the Demons Tenney knows genre fare.

Brain Dead moves at an incredibly fast pace, wasting no time establishing its characters and set up.  The cast is strong with Joshua Benton's performance great as the semi capable wise ass forced to lead the rag tag group against an alien zombie onslaught.  Michelle Tomlinson also provides a strong role.  The interplay between the assembled group including an adulterous minister an escaped convict and two grad students works well.  This comes from having a group of strong personalities stuck together.  No one is a simple follower or immediate zombie fodder. 

Tenney's action set pieces are strong with a followable sense of movement and incredibly strong practical effects department, especially for low budget fare.  The few horrible CG shots are really the only weakness.

This is not a film that will convert someone to a genre fan, but there is much to appreciate in this little gem.  It held my attention and was not soon forgot.  Click any of the images to watch the film online for free.  Those of you with netflix can also stream it. 

In the Grindhouse tradition... Drive Angry

"Since the birth of time, humanity has endeavored to restrain evil men in prisons. But since Cain fled the murder of his brother, evil men have fled the walls of punishment. So, it doesn't matter if you're a bad-ass motherfucker on the run, because you think you're better than everyone else, and somehow entitled to do what you gotta do. No. Because you see bad-ass motherfuckers are never fast enough. In the end, they will all be accounted for."
The Accountant

Drive Angry written by Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussierwas the follow up to their My Bloody Valentine remake, and bombed horribly upon release.  Costing 50 million dollars and barely bringing in 10 million it is clearly a commercial failure.  This is an utter shame as Patrick Lussier directs a B movie masterpiece.  The plot revolves around a recently freed from hell Milton played by Nick Cage as he pursues a cult intent on sacrificing his grand daughter.  He inexplicably teams up with Piper, played by an incredibly bad ass Amber Heard.  The duo is pursued by Satan's accountant.  William Fichtner plays the Accountant as a hero, adding more dimensions and ideas to a film jam packed with them.

This is Drive Angry's strength and weakness.  Farmer and Lussier jam the film with so many different ideas that none have a chance to be fully developed, yet the audience is never bored.  New plot threads are introduced every 10 minutes or so with a new action set piece.  I personally enjoy enigmatic qualities to a story and characters.  While this can often be due to lazy writing, Drive Angry never feels lazy.  It was a fast action horror hybrid with a plethora of ideas.

The film has a 70's grind house flavor, but is not a homage or rip off, it is the successor to those films.  Filled with pizazz and originality.   I missed it in 3-D, but the film still holds up on blu-ray.