Stone Cold

Director: Craig R. Baxley
Writer: Walter Doniger
Stars: Brian Bosworth, Lance Henriksen, William Forsythe

While serving a three week suspension police officer Joe Huff is offered an opportunity to work for the FBI or face an extended suspension. The assignment is to go undercover and infiltrate a biker gang known as The Brotherhood, an extremist gang dealing in drugs and murder. Taking on the identity of John Stone, a biker and recently released convict, Huff begins to infiltrate the gang and earn the trust of their leader Chains Cooper. As events unfold and things take a turn for the worse Joe learns that there’s more to this gang’s plans than dealing drugs and collecting protection money. Now it’s up to Joe to single handedly stop an all out massacre as Chain’s and his crew attempt to “crack the whip”.

A definite B movie this is one of those action flicks that never made it before falling into obscurity.  Taking that into consideration I have seen much worse but that doesn’t make this movie seem any better.  The script is a complete mess and has an over abundance of bad dialogue that made me cringe throughout the movie. The acting is right in line with the script but is a bit more humorous even though it’s unintentional.  It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Brian Bosworth along with the entire cast’s acting careers vanished right to DVD along with this movie.  There is no one person to blame for this mess, it was definitely a group effort.

There’s nothing more to say about this film except watch it at your own risk…

Rating: 1 Reel

Red Riding Hood

Director: Catherine Hardwick
Writer: David Johnson
Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Shiloh Fernandez

Unwilling to settle for a marriage her parents have prearranged Valerie plans to run away with Peter the man she loves.  This is until Valerie finds out that her sister has been killed by a werewolf that stalks the forest surrounding the village she lives in.  After years of maintaining a peaceful existence with the werewolf the beast has now taken a human life during the period of the blood moon.  Fearful for their lives the villagers call upon the services of Father Solomon a famed hunter of werewolves.  Informing the villagers that the beast could be walking among them the villagers are thrown into a panic while the killings continue and Valerie discovers she possesses a strange tie to the werewolf.

Initially I was hesitant to view this movie not having heard many good things said about it.  But then that defeats the purpose of attempting to write a review.  After viewing I felt what this movie lacked in story and plot originality it did make up for with visuals.  The sets and props definitely helped make this movie look like a dark fairly tale.

The movie isn’t anything new within the monster genre, i.e. inhabitants of a small village terrorized by a murderous beast call on the assistance of a famed slayer of - insert monster name here -.  The movie used a lot of commonly seen plot ideas and characters altering them in various ways to fit this movie.

The script covers its bases but doesn’t venture much further than that.  Throughout the film it is implied that various characters could be the wolf, this unfortunately fails in several ways.  Firstly instead of trying to be subtle with placing suspicion on certain characters it’s done in a manner which seems to be laid on to thick making it almost obvious who isn’t the werewolf.  Secondly at the end of the film a lot of plot holes are revealed using short flashback sequences which further show the misguided attempt to lay suspicion as well as show events that were never even seen in the film.  Another failed moment comes in the form of actions that supposedly happen but when viewing these specific scenes a second time it’s clear that nothing actually did take place as stated.  These combined points make for some frustrating moments when all is revealed at the end of the movie.

Amanda Seyfried who plays the main character Valerie seemed to work well with the material she had.  She seemed to be able to slip into the character easily enough creating a convincing performance.  Gary Oldman who plays Father Solomon is always good at playing the role of the eccentric character that is outspoken and the center of attention.  As for the rest of the cast it’s a tossup as there really wasn’t anything which was note able.

Final consensus is that this movie wasn’t unwatchable regardless of the noted flaws.  However I would lean more in the direction of waiting for availability on cable as an alternative to renting.   

Rating: 2 Reels

IP Man

Director: Wilson Yip
Writer: Edmond Wong (screenplay)
Stars: Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Siu-Wong Fan

Well respected by everyone in the Chinese province of Fo Shan, Ip Man leads a comfortable life, this is until the Japanese Army occupies the province leaving all its inhabitants poverty stricken.  Working in a coal mine to support his family, Ip Man watches as Japanese troops show up daily and bribe workers to fight in tournaments. Hesitant to get involved Ip Man soon finds himself volunteering when friends and co workers begin to disappear without explanations. After discovering what is actually happening at these tournaments an outraged Ip Man decides he must step in and unleash his own personalized style of kick ass.

A semi factual film based on the life of (Yip) Ip Man, a grandmaster of the martial art known as Wing Chun, this is a good view for any fan of the martial arts.

The script provides a decent enough story that moves at a good pace while seemingly not attempting to recreate any specific events which could be open for debate.  A nice observation about this script is that it doesn’t try to incorporate any of the high flying acrobatic maneuvers which are seen in a lot of other movies in this genre.  It sticks with a decent amount of realism which I found to be a needed change considering it’s loosely based on a real individual within a historical time period.  The actors none of who I am familiar with except Donnie Yen all did a convincing job of creating an atmosphere which was reflective of the times and how the people suffered at the hands of the invading Japanese Army.

That said I won’t deny what really caught my attention about this movie that being the incredible choreographed fight scenes.  Donnie Yen is amazing in this movie, he is truly an incredibly talented martial artist.  The speed in which he throws the combinations of punches and kicks is amazing.  It makes me wonder why he isn’t seen in more main stream movies considering the amount of martial arts actors whose skills pale in comparison.  Over all this was a very entertaining semi biographical movie about a man who would eventually go on to mentor another martial arts legend and actor, Bruce Lee.

Rating: 2 1/2 Reels