Tag: Straight to DVD

DVD Review: THE TOURNAMENT

the tournament

THE TOURNAMENT is one of those films where the premise is so corny and overplayed that it’s strengths have to come from it’s execution. Luckily The Tournament doesn’t disappoint and is actually something of a gem. In the world of films about televised or secret death matches between over the top badasses THE TOURNAMENT stands out for having a great cast and some of the better, bloodier and more interesting action moments ever.

The Tournament itself happens every seven years, when the world’s best assassins all gather together in one random small town to do battle until one is left standing and is declared the best assassin in the world. I think the winner gets a giant pile of money as well, but that’s never made clear. Each Assassin is outfitted with a tracking device so the other killing sociopaths know exactly where to go, keeping the insanity to a clean 24 hours. OH and the trackers are explosives, so if there are too many people left alive at the end of the day, BOOM!

This time around a civilian is brought into the mix when a Frenchman (played by one of the creators of parkour/free running, Sebastien Foucan) cuts out his tracker and places it in a coffee pot. This is when it’s swallowed by alcoholic priest Father Macavoy (played by Robert Carlyle). Now this washed up, hung over shambled priest has to figure out how to stay alive when the world’s best are trying to kill him. Luckily he has Kelly Hu playing a very sexy trained killer named Lai Lai Zhen. Hu seems exceptionally buxom in this role… but that’s got NOTHING to do with the story… just makes her that much more interesting to watch. Her fight scenes are top notch though, as are most in the film.

Also being a complete and total badass is Ving Rhames as Joshua Harlow, a man who was once retired at the top of his game, but is now pulled back in when the murderer of his wife is pulled into the competition. He’s out for revenge and looks damn cool while he’s there.

I can’t lie about somethings this film has that you’ll see coming a mile away and you’ll just have to suspend your disbelief for. Of course the entire small town is wired up with HD video cameras that are part of some safety network and of course two really smart computer hackers who live off red bull and talk like they’re from a Diablo Cody film have hacked into the system and are letting the gambling billionaires see who’s winning everything. Basically they have my dream job and are the nerds everyone like me (IT Majors) wants to be.

Where the movie falters is just that it’s a played out idea and the budget isn’t nearly big enough to make all the effects look as good as they probably should. Thank god most of the gore is practical effects and the movie relies on very little CGI. There is one scene that completely took me out of the experience involving a montage of murder done to a sweet song. It’s very over the top and comedic but doesn’t fit the rest of the film at all and doesn’t do anything to push the narrative forward.

I can’t help but wish this film was getting a very wide theatrical release here in the US because it’s worth it. Sure it doesn’t have any A-list stars, but the cast here is amazing and the characters are very memorable.

DVD Review: SUPERMAN/BATMAN: PUBLIC ENEMIES

superman batman public enemies

I’m going to jump right in and tell you that I hate the animation style of this movie. I prefer the clean lines of Batman The Animated Series to the subpar character work of this movie. If you don’t have the budget to make it look better than a Saturday Morning Cartoon, then go for style instead of clarity. It’s just that simple. That doesn’t mean the movie is bad, just not as pretty as I’d like it.

The Public Enemies story is about a world where Lex Luthor becomes the president of the United States of America, and ends up outlawing caped crusaders unless they come work for him. Lex’s group of Heroes includes Black Lightning, Power Girl, Katana, Starfire, Major Force and Captain Atom… if you’re not familiar, then don’t worry, Power Girl is the most famous, and not because she’s a great super hero but because of other assets.

The real story starts when a meteor the size of a small country is headed for earth in a week. The entire thing is made of Kryptonite. Luthor has a genius plan to destroy the meteor with a new enormous missile, but claims that he needs to meet with Superman just incase they need a back up plan. His real goal is to trick Superman into a fight with new Secret Service agent, Metallo, who’s powered by a Krytonite core, evening the playing field between the two. A large battle ensues with Batman coming to Superman’s rescue, Metallo gets away, but is soon found dead. Superman is framed for the crime and Luthor puts a bounty on his head for 1 billion dollars.

Superman and Batman embark on a mission to clear Superman’s name, stop the giant meteor from hitting earth, and try to stay alive while super villains from all over the DC universe try to take Superman out for the bounty. It’s definitely a good story… at least in theory. The execution, especially in the second half is so bad that it becomes laughable.

Comic books have a level of well… comicness they can get away with before an adult, no matter how big of a fan, starts to just laugh and remark on how stupid what they’re watching truly is. This came in the last act for me. The entire film started to break down into action sequence after action sequence, which can be fine, but that means you’re missing out on what could be the bets Batman detective story of all time. Batman having to prove Superman isn’t a criminal? Well you can see how cool that could be right? Instead that entire plot line is almost completely thrown away, Batman is never really a “public enemy” and we get one of the douchiest moments I’ve seen in these films…

Much of the dialogue in Public Enemies are cliches that feel like they’re out of a bad Schwarzenegger film. To top that off, most of the banter between Batman and Superman comes off more than a little homo-erotic, and very catty. If they spoke like this on the big screen people wouldn’t openly moan at how bad it is. Even Kevin Conroy, who IS BATMAN can’t save this film.

Review: ‘Green Lantern: First Flight’

greenlanternfirstflight

DC has been pumping out a decent quality animated film based on one of their hit franchises every few months for a few years now. It’s been a great way for the comic book powerhouse to supplant their characters into the minds of children all over the world without having the multitude of live action film franchises that Marvel has been able to dish out. But the quality has been starting to dip as of late and DCs characters are starting to be the blame.

Green Lantern’s story starts with test pilot Hal Jordan being summoned to a crash site where a dying alien imparts on him the Green Lantern ring. This ring gives Hal the ability to do nearly anything as one of the guardians of the universe in the Green Lantern Corps. The Lantern Corps are like intergalactic police. Each member is given a different part of the universe as their jurisdiction and their entire job is to protect it.

It’s a pretty simple premise with a lot of cool visual elements to keep the story interesting. Not long after Hal is gifted the ring he’s pulled in by The Lantern Corps to see if he has what it takes to really use the ring. Humans apparently have a bad reputation and the Guardians, the race that created the rings, are unsure that Hal is the man for the job. Sinestro, another member of the Corps steps up and vouches for Hal, saying that he’ll take him under his wing and train him to see if he can handle the responsibility.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that a guy with slicked back black hair, a dastardly moustache and a name like Sinestro is obviously going to be a bad guy. It’s only a matter of time before we get the reveal that Sinestro is working for the bad guys who have a secret weapon to destroy the Green Lanterns. The worst part of the whole thing is that the secret weapon is… “the color yellow”.

The Green Lantern mythos has a lot of cool ideas behind it, and some really incredible characters, but it plays out terribly. I like the Green Lantern comics, but after seeing this movie and hearing the dialogue spoken it all just comes across as really goofy. The thing that stops the green lanterns is the color yellow? Well why? Who made that rule? And why the color yellow? Couldn’t have been another actual element that happens to be yellow? It all suffers from Poke’Mon syndrome of the simplicities of “fire beats wood, wood beats electricity, electricity beats water, and water beats fire and rock.” Only without any logic behind it at all.

I guess if I try to look past that, what I find is a pretty cool space opera full of betrayals, aliens and intergalactic war on the brink. But then I don’t relate the characters at all either. We’re never really given any time with Hal Jordan before he’s instantly thrown into the situation at hand. He’s not a well known enough character to just simply have a known back story like Bruce Wayne or Superman, so when the opening of the movie is the actual transfer of the ring from the dead alien Aben Sur to Hal Jordan, we get zero back story on who this guy is.

One of the major saving graces on this film is the incredibly well done voice acting. Hal Jordan is played by Christopher Meloni of Law and Order:SVU fame, and he brings a youth to the part that is some what surprising considering the actor’s age. My favorite character though was a member of the Lanterns called Kilowog who was voiced by very gruff and appropriate Michael Madsen. Unlike some of the previous DC films, I bought all the characters and was only bothered by one… Ch’p a talking squirrel who is also a Green Lantern, and played by David L. Lander aka Squiggy… It’s annoying as it sounds.

The animation here is the star though. It’s a cross between what was done in the previous films and a bit of the anime style from Batman: Gotham Knight. It’s a good mix and many of the characters are well designed. There’s a clean look to the entire film that’s just shy of theatrical, but better than a TV show. It’s a middle ground of quality with some pretty decent and well shaded CGI models rounding out the mix. It’s by no means ground breaking, but better than what most of the Marvel films look like. There are some great moments, but knowing that live action Green Lantern movie is on the way just makes you wish they would carry over some of the ideas.