Month: May 2020

Released: December 2007

Directors: The Brothers Strause(Colin and Greg Strause

Run Time: 94 Minutes

Rated R

Distributor: 20th Century Fox

Genre: Science Fiction/Action/Horror

Cast:
Steven Pasquale: Dallas
Reiko Aylesworth: Kelly
John Ortiz: Moralez
Johnny Lewis: Ricky
Ariel Gade: Molly

Cross-over films have been around since the days of the Universal Monster movies.  You know, Dracula, Frankenstein, and all those films.  But during that time period, you began to see movies with Dracula going up against the likes of the Wolfman and the Frankenstein monster.  The concept of the cross-over film is not a new one.  This kind of film didn’t really start picking up again until we saw Freddy Krueger’s clawed glove show up in Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday.  The thing is, is that The Final Friday wasn’t the first film in the 90s to tease a potential match-up between iconic movie monsters.  There’s a scene in Predator 2 in which Danny Glover’s character boards the Predator ship and sees their trophy wall.  An astute observer will notice that one of the trophy skulls on that wall is that of the xenomorph from the Alien films.  When people saw that, speculation spread like wildfire.  The idea got so much attention that comics were made as well as some video games during that decade.  The idea of a live-action match-up of the Predator and the xenomorph was just too tempting.  In 2004, director Paul W.S. Anderson and 20th Century Fox released Alien Vs. Predator in theaters to…….mixed reviews.  People were confused: A film featuring two of science fiction’s most iconic creatures, both being R-rated properties themselves were put into a PG-13 film.  To be fair, I didn’t think it was that bad of a film.  It was straight-forward, it knew what it was, and it knew that it needed to deliver.  For the most part, I think it did, it just wasn’t as savage as it probably needed to be considering the creatures involved.  Well, after complaints from the audience, Fox green-lit another film to be released during the Christmas season of 2007: Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem.  The resulting film was…….savaged by both audiences and critics alike.  So, what did yours truly think of it?  Let’s take a gander, shall we?

Following the events Alien Vs. Predator, Requiem sees a group of Predators leaving Earth’s orbit with the body of their fallen comrade.  All of a sudden a Predator-Xenomorph hybrid bursts from the body and causes the alien ship to crash land back on earth outside of the town of Gunnison, Colorado.  A father and his son, who are out hunting, discover the ship only to be attacked by facehuggers.  The resulting creatures and the “pred-alien” hybrid make their way towards town in search of potential victims.  If you go into a movie with Aliens Vs. Predator for the title and expect a good story, you’re not going to get it here.  I’m not going to lie: The idea of a xenomorph invasion of Earth is actually a freaky idea.  It’s been done in comic books, novels and video games, but it really hasn’t been done on film before.  In the hands of better film-makers, it might have worked, but with Colin and Greg Strause at the helm, it comes across as ineffectual.  The entire film is set within the city of Gunnison, yet it feels far too big to be really effective.

Shrouding a film in darkness does not build tension.  Tension comes from what you don’t see, this is true, but the problem that the Strause brothers got themselves into was thinking that under-lighting a film creates tension.  I said that tension comes from what you don’t or can’t see, but shrouding a film in darkness doesn’t create tension.  This is a dark film.  I’m not talking in terms of tone.  That issue I’ll get to later.  No, this film is literally dark.  The lighting in the film makes it so that you can barely make out what’s going on.  This is almost as bad as shaky-cam.  Say what you will about the first AVP, you could at least see what’s going on.  The shots and the lighting in that film were actually pretty good.  That because Paul W.S. Anderson at least understood that you want the audience to see the action.  In Requiem, the film is constantly in the shadows.  Even the scenes that take place in daylight are darker than in real life.  If it was supposed to create some kind of mood, the Strause brothers failed, because the actual tone of the film is all over the place.

I get the feeling that what the Strause brothers were going for in terms of tone was a combination of the serious and gritty atmosphere of the first two Alien films and the B-level aspects of Predator with questionable success.  This film feels like Aliens Vs. Predator Vs. Seventh Heaven.  You got these two iconic monsters thrown into the middle of some really weak-ass human drama.  I don’t go to a movie called Aliens Vs. Predator for the human drama.  I went to Aliens Vs. Predator for the monster-on-monster carnage.  I think I got it, but again, you can’t tell because the film is poorly lit.  Even on Blu-Ray, the lighting is dubious.  That brings me to the acting in the film, if you can call it acting.  The idea of acting is to pretend to be somebody you’re not.  Here, these people are pretending to be acting.  The acting here is abysmal.  The characters are so poorly written and conceived that I honestly didn’t care if they lived or died.  In a horror movie, you want to be able to connect with characters so that you can feel that these people are actually in danger.  Not here.  Everybody is pretty much cannon fodder.  The Strause brothers basically turned this movie into a glorified slasher flick.  If that’s what you came to see than you may not walk away disappointed.

You know, I really do appreciate it when a horror or science fiction film doesn’t pull its punches in terms of violence.  I admire that, really.  However, the tone is also important when it comes to on screen violence.  The violence in the Predator and Alien movies was for a reason.  You basically understood what the characters in those films were up against.  That also adds to the tension.  The problem with Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem is that it’s really fucking mean-spirited in terms of its violence.  Don’t get me wrong, I really like it when nobody is safe in a movie.  Not even kids.  But the level of violence directed towards kids in this movie is pretty brutal.  Not only that, but I think the pregnant women in this film almost get the worst of it when they’re attacked by the hybrid.  I’m a total gore-hound.  I love the spilling of blood and guts as much as the next guy, but even I had to ask, “Was that really necessary?”  The violence in this movie is simply there for the shock value and quite frankly, it doesn’t work.  When I first saw this movie back in 2007, I honestly got a kick out of all the violence.  Getting older, though, you realize that there needs to be more in a film to justify the level of violence that’s being displayed and Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem just doesn’t justify it.  I’m not saying that the film should’ve been PG-13.  Far from it, but the over-the-top level of graphic violence in the film is almost hilarious.  When you look back at the first two Alien films, they weren’t overly gory.  There was some gore here and there, but there was also restraint.  AVP: R is simply unrestrained violence, and I can dig it when I’m in the right mood.

Is there anything good to say about Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem?  Yeah, the creature designs are awesome.  The hybrid is fantastically designed, when you can see it.  It’s an imposing figure as is the Predator.  The film isn’t boring.  In fact, it moves at a really quick pace.  It’s over before you realize it.  We get to see the Predators’ home world for the first time which was awesome, but it didn’t last very long.  Some of the action is pretty good.  The sound design is incredible, as well as the music by Brian Tyler.  Unfortunately, the film is let down by shoddy directing, bad lighting, a terrible script, god-awful acting, and violence that comes across as extremely mean-spirited at times.  This should have been the Aliens Vs. Predator film that people were asking for, but instead, we get a film mired in bad film-making and bad decisions.  I will fully admit that I enjoy the film from time to time.  In fact, I loved it when it came out, but it’s not a very good movie.  I would still put it above Alien: Resurrection any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  Fact of the matter is, is that the AVP movies are disposable.  If you’re a fan of Alien and/or Predator, stick with those ones.

My Final Recommendation: “The government doesn’t lie to people!” 5/10.

Released: March 2020

Director: David S.F Wilson

Rated PG-13

Run Time: 109 Minutes

Distributor: Sony/Columbia

Genre: Action/Science Fiction

Cast:
Vin Diesel: Ray Garrison/Bloodshot
Guy Pearce: Dr. Emil Harting
Eiza Gonzalez: KT
Sam Heughan: Jimmy Dalton
Toby Kebbell: Martin Axe
Talulah Riley: Gina Garrison
Lamorne Morris: Wilfred Wigans

Movies based on comic books have been around for decades, going all the way back to the 40s and 50s.  But the genre started being taken a bit more seriously when Superman: The Movie was released in 1978.  It was one of the biggest movies of that decade and is widely regarded as one of the best, if not THE best comic book movie ever made.  A decade later and we get Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989, which was another massive hit for Warner Bros.  But the sequels to both films kept getting worse.  1997 saw the release of the live-action version of Spawn, which was not well-received and Batman and Robin in the same year.  That would’ve been the end of the genre if it wasn’t for 1998’s Blade, based on the Marvel character of the same name.  It wouldn’t be until 2000’s X-Men, that the genre would see a brand-new lease on life.  Since then, the genre has flourished, despite a few misses here and there.  So, imagine my surprise when it was revealed that a movie based on Valiant Comics’ Bloodshot would be made.  I’m not really a comic book reader, but I had heard of the character, but knew very little about him or the universe that he inhabits.  When Vin Diesel got involved, I started to pay attention and……..let’s just say that the final product was…not awful, but not great, either.

Bloodshot follows Ray Garrison, a special forces soldier as he rescues a hostage from a group of jihadists.  After a successful mission, Ray heads to Italy with his wife Gina to spend time together.  Waking up, Ray and his wife are kidnapped, tortured and killed by a man named Martin Axe.  Some time later, Ray wakes up on a medical table with no memory of who he is or how he got there.  He meets Dr. Emil Harting, the head of a bio-mechanical company that augments wounded soldiers with advanced technology.  When he realizes that he’s being manipulated by the people that brought him back to life, he decides to fight back.  Does this story sound familiar?  Anyone?  No?  Well, it reminds me too much of 1992’s Universal Soldier.  I don’t think that was the intention here, but that’s how I see it.  It’s not the worst story ever.  I don’t claim to be the smartest man on the planet, but I do know that people are pretty much getting sick and tired of origin stories.  That being said, the character of Bloodshot is not one that your average film-goer would have heard of, so an origin story makes sense in this case.  I’ve seen worse.

I’m not going to sugarcoat this:  Vin Diesel is NOT a world-class thespian.  He never has been.  I’m not saying that he doesn’t have range, he does.  He’s had some really great roles over the years: Groot, Dominic Toretto, Xander Cage, and the role that put him on the map: Richard B. Riddick from the Pitch Black films.  The thing is, most of those characters are muscled bad-asses.  He’s really good at that and he’s fun to watch, but when it comes to really quiet and emotional stuff, he just doesn’t have it.  That being said, his performance in Bloodshot is one of his better performances.  He absolutely embraces that rage-filled, testosterone-driven alpha male, and that kind of thing works here.  He’s also bolstered by a pretty decent supporting cast which includes the incredible Guy Pearce as Dr. Harting.  No matter what he does, I’m always glued to the screen when Pearce is center-stage.  He’s really good, but I’m not entirely sure that the character of Harting fits him.  Eiza Gonzalez plays KT, one of the other augmented soldiers previously wounded in battle.  She’s alright, but there’s not a whole lot there to dig into.  Toby Kebbell makes a pretty entertaining appearance as Martin Axe, and I have to say, I’ve quickly become a huge fan of Kebbell’s.  He’s so much fun to watch.  The only other actor of note is Lamorne Morris as Wilfred Wigans.  This guy is the comic relief in the film and he’s pretty damn funny.  I think his character’s got more charisma than anyone else in the film.  It’s a superhero movie, don’t expect anything Oscar-worthy, but at least it’s not Superman IV-bad.

While I certainly think that Bloodshot is smarter than your average superhero movie, it’s let down a bit by the bog-standard action.  Outside of a couple of set-pieces, there’s nothing here that you haven’t seen before.  I will say, though, that the sequence in the tunnel is one of the coolest sequences in the film as we see what Ray Garrison is truly capable of.  Not only does he heal instantly because of his nanite-infused blood, but he also has super-strength.  He’s basically throwing people around like rag dolls and kicking trucks out of the way.  It’s fun, make no mistake about it, but nothing else in the movie rises to that level, and it’s a shame, there’s a lot of potential for a character like this to take the genre in a different direction.  It’s too bad that the film-makers weren’t taking enough risks.  It’s also a pretty violent movie, despite it’s PG-13 rating.  Ray gets half has face blown off in the tunnel and that’s pretty gruesome, but it also shows how much you can get away with when it comes to PG-13.  Still, the action falls short even for a Vin Diesel-led film.  It’s not the worst way to spend two hours, but there are better action movies out there.

That all brings me to the biggest problem facing Bloodshot and any future entries in the universe:  It won’t happen.  While the marketing was a bit of an issue, the problems surrounding the film’s release really aren’t anybody’s fault.  Nobody was anticipating a global pandemic that we currently find ourselves in.  As a result, Bloodshot was one of the last films to be released in theaters for the next few months.  It didn’t even survive a month in theaters before being thrown onto video-on-demand.  This was a low-budget film at 45 million bucks, but it barely made a little over half of that back, resulting in a financial failure for the film.  Again, I don’t think there’s a lot of people that you can blame for what happened here.  Bloodshot was a victim of very bad timing.  I think there is serious potential for the character of Bloodshot and the Valiant universe, but right now, any plans are on the back-burner, and I don’t see another theatrical release of a Bloodshot movie.  Add on top of that, there’s another project featuring Bloodshot that was released as a film about a month or so ago on YouTube called Ninjak Vs The Valiant Universe.  It features Jason David Frank(of Power Rangers fame)in the role of Ray Garrison.

Would Bloodshot have fared better if we didn’t have a pandemic to worry about?  Probably.  I think there are enough fans of the character that the film would have gotten at least one sequel, but because of the outbreak, Bloodshot never had a chance and neither does the Valiant Universe, at least for the time being.  Honestly, I don’t think it’s a terrible film, I think there’s enough here for Vin Diesel fans to really enjoy.  I enjoyed a good chunk of it myself.  It’s not a perfect movie, but what movie is?  I just wish this film came out at a better time.

My Final Recommendation: 8/10.

WARNING!  MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Released: September 2019, May 2020(Extended Edition, Amazon Prime Only)

Director: Adrian Grunberg

Rated R

Run Time: 90 Minutes(Theatrical Release),101 Minutes(Extended Edition)

Distributor: Lionsgate Studios

Genre: Action/Thriller

Cast:
Sylvester Stallone: John Rambo
Paz Vega: Carmen
Sergio Peris-Mencheta: Hugo Martinez
Adriana Barraza: Maria
Yvette Monreal: Gabrielle
Oscar Jaenada: Victor Martinez

Periodically, I like to revisit certain movies here at Major Tom’s.  There are a number of reasons why I would do something like that.  One:  Enough time has passed that my views on a film may have changed or I have something more to say than I initially did in the first review.  Two: There’s another version of a film that has been released that I haven’t seen before.  I’ll look at it, but I’ll only do a post about it if there’s something significant that was either added or cut from the film.  It happens.  It’s all part of film-making.  Stuff’s going to get left on the cutting room floor while other stuff will make into the final release.  It’s usually done for pacing purposes and tightening up the story.  Again, it happens all the time, from big-budget blockbusters to the low-budget indie film.  But I have to wonder, sometimes, at why a movie studio would release an extended version of a film to the rest of the world while countries like the U.S, Canada, and the U.K get the shorter version.  Not only that, a film studio has the audacity to finally release the extended version of a film to audiences months after the Blu-ray or DVD initially released.  It also bothers me that a movie studio would not include said extended version with the initial home video release.  My only conclusion is that it’s greed, plain and simple.  What I bring you today is not just another look at last year’s Rambo: Last Blood, but the extended version of the film as well.

The first thing that you will notice about the extended version of Last Blood is that the opening sequence is vastly different from the theatrical release that was given to the U.S, Canada, and the U.K.  In the theatrical release, the film opens with John Rambo on his farm in Arizona working horses.  In the extended version, the film opens during a major storm with rescue teams looking for a group of missing hikers.  Rambo often volunteers to help look for people, so this shouldn’t have been any different.  Rambo finds the mangled body of a woman, but finds two survivors further upstream.  The guy, whose wife was found dead, takes off trying to find her while Rambo ties himself and the girl to a rock when the river really starts coming down.  Afterwards, he brings her to safety and discovers that the body of the man was found.  Rambo returns home to deal with the fact that he could only save the one and not the other two.  Why this sequence was cut from the original release, I will never know.  It’s a ten-minute sequence that actually further humanizes Rambo and the fact that he’s no longer in peak physical condition to help everybody.  There are themes in the scene that are actually rather important in the rest of the film and why he fails more than he succeeds.  Outside of a couple of minutes of added footage, the story plays out like before, with Rambo having to track his niece down after she’s been kidnapped.

A lot of the stuff that I’ve said about Last Blood in my initial review still stands, but I would like to reiterate those points.  The acting is still really strong across the board, especially with Yvette Monreal, Sylvester Stallone, and Adriana Barraza.  I honestly still like the dynamic between Stallone and Monreal.  It still feels like a father/daughter relationship, even though we don’t know a whole lot about her or Maria, outside of the fact that they were allowed to stay at Rambo’s ranch.  Unfortunately, Paz Vega still gets the short end of the stick here as Carmen, who also has a personal vendetta against the Martinez brothers.  She’s good, but she’s not given a whole lot and even less screen-time.  While I can’t say that the villains in this film are memorable, Sergio and Oscar really dive into the roles that they’ve been given, and because they are such good actors, I’ll remember them for this film.  Stallone actually gives one of his best performances in the series here, especially in the scenes after he rescues Gabrielle.  It’s actually a pretty powerful scene and bitter-sweet.  He saves her, but she ends up dying from a drug overdose on the way home, which sends Rambo over the edge.

This extended edition doesn’t add new violence or more action.  In fact, outside of the opening sequence, most of the added scenes don’t really add anything worthwhile.  There’s a scene in which Hugo discusses his business with another cartel boss, and there’s a really short scene in which Victor allows police access to the girls that he kidnapped.  It doesn’t add anything to the conversation about the sex trafficking business, outside of showing how corrupt the Mexican police can be.  I’m not being racist about that, it’s in the news.  But I know now why these minor scenes were cut:  They add nothing to the movie.  Ultimately, I think Sylvester Stallone was right in getting some of these scenes cut.  The opening sequence, in my opinion, needed to be there.  This all goes back to one of my initial points about multiple home-video releases.  There was absolutely NO reason for Lionsgate to keep this stuff out of the original Blu-Ray release, except to milk people out of more money.  All they needed to do was add a “deleted scenes” section, or god forbid, an extended option in the main menu.  I’m certainly guilty of double-dipping, myself.  I definitely have multiple copies of the same film, but more often than not, those releases are generally bolstered by a bevy of special features.  What’s even worse, is that Lionsgate dumped this version of the film on Amazon Prime only, which means you have to have a subscription to watch it legally.

At the end of the day, I still really enjoy Rambo: Last Blood.  I think it’s the weakest entry into the series, but as an action movie, it’s still pretty damn good.  The last twenty minutes of the film are bat-shit crazy and super-violent.  Most of the blood and gore is practical, so I definitely appreciate the effort on that angle.  The music by Bryan Tyler is really damned good and pulse-pounding.  The alternate opening sequence is pretty thrilling and sheds a little bit more light into Rambo’s PTSD.  Not a whole lot, but it’s a sequence that I actually like.  Ultimately, my recommendation is to stick with the theatrical release if you already own it.  This isn’t the first time that Lionsgate pulled this crap.  They did it with the fourth film as well, but I haven’t seen the extended version of that film yet.  I don’t know if I ever will.  The extended version of Rambo: Last Blood is the worst kind of double-dipping that a studio can do, in my opinion.  I think they’re trying to keep the franchise afloat and popular.  Given the response and critical drubbing that the film got by both audiences AND critics, I honestly can’t see another film being made.  I know that Stallone has talked about doing an origin story of sorts, but I think audiences are sick and tire of origin stories.  The original First Blood still remains the best film in the franchise, hands down.  None of the following films can come close, but I don’t think there’s a bad film in the series.  So, those are my thoughts on the extended version of Rambo: Last Blood.  You can find the alternate opening sequence on Youtube, so you don’t have to pull up Amazon to see it.  I’m thinking of doing a list of pet peeves that I have with the film industry later, so keep an eye open for that.

My Final Recommendation:
Initial Review: 8.5/10
Extended Cut: 7/10