Month: June 2020

Film-making is not an easy endeavor.  Even if you could muster the money that’s required, you would still need to rent the equipment, hire the actors, producers, and scout locations for the shooting.  One of the most important, if not THE most important aspect of film-making, is finding somebody who wrangle all that together and try to make a coherent film.  You need a director.  A director’s job is make sure the actors do their job, co-ordinate shots with the director of photography and various other aspects of the film.  Making a movie is hard, making a GOOD movie is even harder, so you have to have the right people with the right mind-set and talent to pull it off.  You’ve got AAA talent like Steven Spielberg and James Cameron who have incredibly impressive backgrounds, but you also have great indie film-makers like Jesse V. Johnson who have made compelling films in their own right.  But for every Steven Spielberg, you have a hundred or so Troy Duffies.  I’ll get to him in a bit, but the point is, is that not everybody is cut out to be film director and they shouldn’t be.  That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t try, but it’s not always going to work out.  Here are some directors that got famous or infamous for a particular movie and ended up not making anything else worthwhile.

George Lucas – Star Wars

Before people start trying to crucify me for putting Mr. Lucas on this list, let me explain:  This guy did direct two movies before Star Wars: American Graffiti and THX-1138.  Those films weren’t that successful.  It wasn’t until 1977’s Star Wars that George Lucas was vindicated.  Star Wars changed the film-making landscape forever.  Everything that everybody knew about making movies was essentially turned on its head, and we ended up with one of the greatest science fiction and fantasy films of all time.  Nearly every movie made after 1977 owes something to George Lucas and his creation.  His work has inspired and continues to inspire film-makers today.  My respect for what George Lucas accomplished is never-ending.  However, he never really branched out much from Star Wars.  Yeah, he’s got producing credits for films like Willow and Indiana Jones, but as a director, he never got past Star Wars.  In fact, the last movie that he directed himself was Revenge of the Sith.  That was 15 years ago.  As a story-teller, George Lucas is fantastic, but as a writer and director, he never really got beyond his own creation.

The Wachowskis – The Matrix

In 1999, one of the greatest science fiction movies ever made was released: The Matrix.  It was such a unique concept and the execution was brilliant.  It was a combination of Cartesian philosophy, Kung-Fu, gun fights, and a cyberpunk world.  The film was a smash hit with both audiences and critics alike.  It fused a futuristic world with revolutionary visual effects and slow motion techniques that nobody had seen before.  It had a great story and great characters.  It was also a film that made you think.  Unfortunately, the Wachowskis never managed to replicate the success of The Matrix.  Aside from the two Matrix sequels, every movie that the Wachowskis had made since then has been a failure on some level.  Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas, and Jupiter Ascending all failed to meet expectations and disappointed everyone in the process.  The movies looked fantastic, but the writing kept relying on the whole Alice-in-Wonderland concept that was a huge part of The Matrix.

Troy Duffy – The Boondock Saints

There’s a word that I want everyone to consider: Hubris.  Hubris, as defined, is excessive self-confidence and pride.  This is something that can get people into a lot of trouble in certain industries, and more often than not, the damage can be permanent.  Troy Duffy, who directed the indie hit, The Boondock Saints, is a perfect example of this concept.  Troy Duffy failed to grasp one of the basic rules of getting into the film industry: It’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know.  Thinking he was going to a new power player in Hollywood, Mr. Duffy contacted some people about a movie that he wanted to make.  However, because of his abusive behavior, he managed to push everybody away to the point that nobody wanted to work with him.  It’s a miracle that The Boondock Saints was even made and released.  Duffy had insulted some pretty big names in the industry including Kenneth Branagh and Keanu Reeves.  Troy Duffy was, and from what I understand, is still a jack-ass of epic proportions.  Harvey Weinstein(Yes, THAT one), had enough of Duffy’s behavior, and the rumor has it that he got Duffy blacklisted.  When you get blacklisted in Hollywood, it’s damn near impossible to recover from something like that.    Duffy somehow managed to get a sequel to The Boondock Saints made, but it was a disaster of a film, and he hasn’t done anything since, mostly because nobody wants to work with him.  The man’s arrogance and boorish behavior killed his career before it even got off the ground.  He burned every bridge that was extended to him, because he thought he was such a hotshot.

Tim Miller – Terminator: Dark Fate

Here’s an example of how one successful movie can really go to your head.  Tim Miller made his directorial debut with the phenomenal Deadpool.  It was a fantastic movie.  It was funny, action-packed, super violent and pretty much everything that I wanted from a Deadpool movie.  Here’s the thing, though:  The success of Deadpool was not because of Tim Miller.  No, it was because Ryan Reynolds was passionate about getting the character right.  It was because of Ryan Reynolds that Deadpool was so amazing.  Tim Miller didn’t return for the sequel, because he felt that Reynolds had too much creative control.  Listen up, Tim:  You don’t get to make those decisions yet because you only made one movie and the success of that film was on somebody else’s shoulders, not yours.  Regardless, Tim Miller was given the opportunity to direct a new Terminator film with producer James Cameron.  It seemed like a good idea, but Cameron and Miller had….differing opinions on the story of the film.  Cameron wanted it one way and Miller wanted it another.  This is where Miller’s ego got him into trouble.  Going toe-to-toe with one of the most powerful directors in the industry is not a good idea.  James Cameron earned his position and his ability to make movies, because he knew what it took to get the job done and he was very successful at it.  He’d been at it for decades.  Miller?  Not so much.  The behind-the-scenes issues are evident in the final cut of Terminator: Dark Fate.  It’s a clash of tones and ideas and it didn’t work as well as it should have.  Once the feud between Cameron and Miller got out to the public, that pretty much killed any ability for Tim Miller to helm any big-budget movie again.  Will he?  Maybe, but it’s going to be a while.  Add on top of that, Terminator: Dark Fate bombed at the box office, putting the future of the franchise in doubt.  It’s going to be a while before we see anything from Tim Miller again as a director.

Well, those are some of what I consider to be “One-Hit Wonders” of directing.  Granted, George Lucas built a multi-billion dollar empire from his movies, but he never expanded beyond that.  Troy Duffy was an arrogant prick that deserved to be blacklisted.  The Wachowskis aren’t bad directors, they’ve just picked bad projects.  I’m still curious to see what they do next.  Tim Miller?  Picking a fight with James Cameron was not the smartest move.  To Cameron’s credit, he was willing to let bygones be bygones, so that could end up being better for Miller in the long run.  It’s often interesting to see directors manage one successful movie, but not strike gold again for years.  It’s a bizarre industry.

Recently, I had discussed what I had considered to be the best uses of visual effects in films.  As I stated in my previous post, visual effects are simply another tool for film-makers to enhance their films, making them more enticing to the audience.  There are lots of great examples of great visual effects, some of which I described: The volcanic eruption in Dante’s Peak and the forced perspective in the Lord of the Rings films.  The best visual effects are ones that help keep you engaged in what’s happening on screen.  However, for every coin there are two sides.  For visual effects, there are some really, REALLY bad ones out there, and I am here to expose those abominations of film-making.  I’m not going to lie, some of these effects are in other-wise pretty decent movies, but there are movies where bad visual effects just take you out of the experience and ruin the whole movie.  Here are some of the worst visual effects that I’ve seen, and some of them are doozies.

The Scorpion King: The Mummy Returns

Oh, god, I’d forgotten how terrible this one was.  I happen to like The Mummy movies with Brendan Fraser.  They’re not that bad.  The second film had some really cool stuff in it.  It was also the on-screen debut of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as The Scorpion King.  Seeing The Rock in the opening battle sequence of The Mummy Returns was pretty damn cool, but after his army loses, he disappears from the movie until towards the end.  Unfortunately, the final form of the Scorpion King is an absolute atrocity of a CGI character.  This thing looks like a cheap PS2 character.  It was bad in 2001 and it’s even worse now.  The concept was interesting, but the execution was clearly not on point.  It’s one of the worst CGI characters that I’ve ever seen.

The Shark: Jaws 3

Jaws is widely considered to be one of the greatest blockbuster movies of all time.  In fact, it was the film that introduced the concept of the summer blockbuster.  It’s a classic in every way.  In fact, half the reason why the film worked was because the mechanical shark they used was broken most of the time, so they had to rely on other techniques to sell the illusion of a shark attack.  The sequels needed to learn that less is more.  I’ll be honest, of the Jaws sequels, I find the third film to be the most entertaining, even if it’s not for the right reasons.  It’s not a good movie, but it delivers on its B-movie promise.  However, because the film was shot with 3-d in mind, some of the visual effects are dreadful.  The worst effect in the movie has to be when the shark breaks the glass and…..stops.  It’s painfully obvious that this was a cheap effect and it elicited more laughs than screams.

CGI Zords – Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: The Movie

When it comes to really bad CGI, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: The Movie takes the cake.  I’ll let you folks in on a little secret:  I actually like the Power Rangers.  I really do.  The cheesy B-movie nature of the show really appealed to me when I was a kid.  Not only that, you had giant robots taking on giant monsters.  I thought that was pretty freaking cool.  So, when I heard that there was going to be a Power Rangers movie, I was excited.  For the most part, the film delivered on what I wanted, until we got to the final battle with Ivan Ooze and the Zords.  Even by 1995 standards, the CGI in this movie was absolutely brutal.  I realize that the film was pretty low-budget and geared towards kids, but they could have spent some more money and actually put guys in suits for the final battle.  It would’ve been a lot better.  They actually did that for Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie which was considerably worse than this in terms of action, but at least they used men in suits for the giant monster/robot battle.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier had a lot of problems.  Between having the budget slashed and the script constantly being re-written, William Shatner’s first shot at directing a Star Trek film was butchered by Paramount Pictures and the results speak for themselves.  I think there are some really good ideas in here, along with some really solid character development.  But the problem was the forced humor at times, hackneyed pacing and lack of a centralized villain.  But the real big issue that a lot of people had with this film, and it’s a glaring issue, was the abysmal visual effects.  Between the god-awful matte paintings and backgrounds to the incredibly sub-standard animations and ship designs, Star Trek V was doomed from the beginning.  They dumped Industrial Light and Magic for some cheaper effects company and you can tell.  You don’t have to be a visual effects expert to see that something went horribly wrong here.

Hell – Spawn(1997)

I’m not going to lie: 1997’s Spawn is one of my guiltiest of pleasures.  There’s some ideas in here that are somewhat interesting, and they got look of the character right.  In fact, I really dug Spawn’s outfit.  It was well done.  I also liked the fact that they cast Michael Jai White as Al Simmons/Spawn.  He was a great choice.  There were some pretty decent action sequences and CGI effects, but all that was outweighed by some truly awful effects and CG animation.  In fact, one of the worst aspects of the film was the depiction of Hell itself.  Aside from being a stereotypical depiction of Hell with the fire and brimstone, it was horribly realized with some of the worst CGI I’ve ever seen.  What really takes the cake is the depiction of the Devil himself, Malebolgia.  IT’S AN OVERGROWN LIZARD-CHIHUAHUA WITH HORNS!  The close-ups of the creature were terrible.  I’ve seen better animation on a Playstation 1 game.

Everything: Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

Wow.  Talk about a movie where EVERYTHING went wrong.  I’m not saying that the first Mortal Kombat was a classic or anything, but it was Citizen Kane when compared to THIS travesty.  For a movie whose budget was twice that of the previous film, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation actually looks a hell of a lot worse.  This opening 5 minute scene is a preview of things to come.  Everything about this movie is….wrong.  The fight choreography is lame, despite the legitimate martial arts talent on display, the acting is atrocious, and the visual effects?  Oh, god.  I wouldn’t even dare to call the effects in this movie substandard.  That would mean that they actually tried.  No, there’s a word to describe everything here: Unfinished.  Look at the sky, then look at the blue-screen effects around Raiden.  It’s horrendous.  I’ve never seen a movie fail this hard, and I’ve seen quite a bit.  The worst part about all this?  Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was released to theaters.  Yeah.  It was bad in 1997, it’s even worse now.  If this had been released direct-to-video, I would have cut it a little bit more slack, but it wasn’t.  THIS is why movies based on video-games aren’t respected or liked.  Whatever you do, don’t play any drinking games to this movie, you’ll die of alcohol poisoning.

There are definitely a lot of movies out there with some pretty weak-ass visual effects, but these are some of the worst that I’ve encountered.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take more than a few showers and then drink myself to sleep(no, I won’t really, but the sentiment remains).

Many tools are used to create movies, be it the camera(obviously), boom mike, editing, sound effects, music, and/or audio dubbing.  The point is, is that making movies is never a simple process.  There’s a lot that goes into making a movie.  One of most important tools in making a movie that has been continuously evolving since the beginning of cinema is the use of visual effects.  These can include anything from wind effects to explosions.  There are many uses of visual effects to enhance a film’s look or entertainment value.  Miniatures are an effect, computer or hand-drawn animations are effects, and even cold breath is an effect.  The use of visual effects in today’s world has an unlimited capacity.  In fact, the only limitation is the human imagination.  I’ve seen a lot of movies over the years.  I’ve seen visual effects constantly evolve from the simple use of miniatures and stop-motion animation to full-blown CGI duplication of the human body.  The amount of options for today’s film-makers is incredible.  For this post, I want to go over some of my favorite effects in movies.  To be fair, not all these movies are going to be great, in fact, some of them might be pretty awful, but the visual effects can be a saving grace.  Let’s dig into this one, shall we?

Volcanic Eruption – Dante’s Peak

As someone who loves volcanoes, Dante’s Peak holds a special place in my heart.  It’s not just because it’s one of the best disaster movies ever made, but also because of how scientifically accurate it is….mostly.  Obviously, some stuff had to be exaggerated for dramatic effect, but the film does respect the science.  What makes this eruption so cool is how it was made.  They built a large-scale model of the volcano and rigged it with pyrotechnics and giant air cannons.  When they went off, the resulting explosion is pretty much like what you would see from one of the many cone volcanoes around the world, and just as violent, if not more so.  The resulting pyroclastic flow feels a little exaggerated, but the damage that it causes is very much like what happened with Mount St. Helens back in 1980.  Dante’s Peak is one of the last movies of the 90s that uses every visual effect trick in the book, from miniatures to CGI animation, and comes together extremely well.  For a film that was released back in 1997, it holds up remarkably well.

Tornado – Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz is one of the most cherished films in cinematic history, and it’s not hard to understand why.  It’s colorful, it’s energetic, it’s fun, and exciting.  The Wizard of Oz was actually pretty revolutionary in its use of visual effects, considering that the film was released in 1939.  It’s got miniatures and background paintings.  It’s visual story-telling at its finest.  One of the greatest moments in the film, though, was the tornado sequence towards the beginning of the film.  Now, understand that at this point in the film, it’s in black-and-white or sepia tone depending on the version of the film you have.  What sets this sequence apart from even some of the best effects today, is the use of rear-view projection.  What that is, is that the actors are on a set in front of a screen with a project behind the screen that puts an image or animation on the screen so that the actors can see what’s there.  In this case, it’s a Mid-Western twister.  This effect is also effective, because they also used giant wind machines to simulate the fury of a tornado.  When the house gets lifted up, the set is on a gimbal which gives the illusion of the the house shaking and rattling while it’s being thrown around by the twister.  You don’t really see that combination anymore these days, and it’s a shame, because it’s really cool to see.

The T-1000 – Terminator 2: Judgment Day

James Cameron is nothing if not a pioneer when it comes to film-making technology.  When it comes to the use of visual effects, no one has pushed the boundaries further than Jim Cameron, especially when it comes to the use of CGI and other forms of computer animation.  He continues to push the envelope of what can be done with computer animation, but one of his best films was Terminator 2: Judgment Day.  Like a lot of effects-heavy films during the 90s, T2 utilized every effect in the book up until that point.  What separated T2 from the pack was its villain, the T-1000, played by Robert Patrick.  Unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 model Terminator, the T-1000 was a liquid metal machine that could imitate anything it touched and changed its form depending on how it needed to eliminate its target.  This was the film that put CGI front and center in the film industry.  This was a character that could form knives and other edged weapons whenever it suited him.  This effectively made the T-1000 one of the most memorable and intimidating villains in cinematic history, but it also changed the way visual effects were used.

Forced Perspective – Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Now for something completely different.  Sometimes the best visual effects are the ones that you don’t realize are happening.  The Fellowship of the Ring has one of the best examples of this out of any movie that I’ve ever seen.  Forced perspective is when you use the camera in such a way that makes one character seem smaller than the other.  What happens, is that when two actors are required to be in the same scene together, but you need to show the difference in size, you take the actor playing the larger character and have him closer to the camera while the actor playing the smaller character is moved further back.  The set is designed in such a way that when the camera is in a certain position, it looks like the smaller character is sitting right next to the larger character even though the reality is far from the truth.  It’s a simple camera trick that’s been around for decades, but when done correctly it’s incredibly effective, and it’s done without the use of CGI.  It’s a brilliant use of visual effects without actually using visual effects.  It’s essentially a camera version of “sleight of hand.”  It works best when you don’t realize that’s what is happening.

City Destruction – Independence Day

Independence Day was one of the last big summer blockbuster films to use every visual effects trick equally.  The combination of miniatures, stop-motion, CGI, and practical stunt-work is seen in nearly every major effects shot in the film.  It’s really great to see different forms of visual effects compliment each other so well.  For the city destruction sequence, what the film-makers did was create a mock-up of certain cities, and stick them on a platform that would tilt at a 108 degree angle.  They had to do that because fire wants to go straight up, so to take advantage of that they put the mock-ups on said platform before they detonated the explosives.  When the fireball hits the mock up, the camera that’s set up above makes it look like the explosion is moving sideways instead of up.  It’s amazing how well they used every tool at their disposal, as the final product is spectacular.

Flying – Superman

What can I say about Superman that hasn’t already been said?  He’s one of the most, if not the most recognizable superhero of all time.  It wouldn’t be until 1978 that the world would believe that a man could fly.  Yeah, the world has seen it done before with George Reeves, but not like this.  While Star Wars changed the way that movies were made, Superman took a different approach into how to make a man fly.  The use of wire-work is pretty obvious, but the way it’s done makes it look so natural.  When Superman is actually flying through the air, they also use rear-projection to sell the illusion.  The one element that really sold it all was Christopher Reeve himself.  The way he moved his body and angled himself when the character was banking in the air was unlike anything that anybody had seen before.  While the effect may look dated now, it was incredibly unique at the time.  The technique used to make Superman fly was used in other movies like Highlander II and Hook.

Medusa – Clash of the Titans(1981)

There was absolutely no way I was going to do this list without including one of Ray Harryhausen’s creations.  The original Clash of the Titans was one of the most iconic effects movies in cinematic history.  It was also the last movie that Ray Harryhausen did the visual effects for.  His unique art-style and stop-motion animation has never been touched.  One of the greatest moments in Clash of the Titans was the battle with the Gorgon, Medusa.  It’s honestly one of the creepiest moments in the film, because of how hideous the creature is, and that was done on purpose.  The lighting and the sound effects just sold how threatening Medusa was.  The movie had a lot of great monsters, including the Kraken.  Clash of the Titans is one of my favorite fantasy films of all time.

Bullet Time – The Matrix

The Matrix was one of the most well-received science fiction movies when it came out back in 1999.  In fact, it did more business than Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.  The Matrix was certainly a much better film.  The film was revolutionary at the time, not necessarily because of the CGI, but because of the use of slow-motion.  There were certain moments in the film that really stood out, because it looked like a character was frozen in one place while the camera swung around the character in a circular motion.  The way this was achieved was what was revolutionary.  What happened was that the film-makers took dozens of still cameras, set them up in a particular way, and then when the director yelled action, each still camera was set off in sequence, giving the illusion that the character was moving extremely fast.  It was cool and it sold the illusion that these characters were in a computer-generated dream world.  You don’t see it used anymore because it was over-used in the sequels to The Matrix as well as movies like Swordfish, because they thought it looked cool.  Ultimately, it ended up evolving into something else, but as it used to be, Bullet Time is no longer a thing.

Well, those were some of my favorite visual effects that were used.  At the time, they helped make visual effects a legitimate tool for crafting a visual story.  While visual effects don’t make a good movie, they can show how creative visual effects team can be when they’re given an opportunity to do something that nobody else has done.  What are some of your favorite visual effects shots?

Released: May 2020

Director: Jesse V. Johnson

Not Rated

Run Time: 97 Minutes

Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films

Genre: Action

Cast:
Scott Adkins: French
Louis Mandylor: Sue
Marina Sirtis: Mal Reese
Vladimir Kulich: Tommy

It’s rare to see, but sometimes when you see a movie with a particular director, he/she always tends to cast at least one specific actor in a lot of their movies.  For example: Martin Scorsese tends to cast Robert De Niro in a large number of his films.  Quentin Tarantino usually casts folks like Samuel L. Jackson.  Certain directors attract certain kinds of talent.  When it comes to actors like Scott Adkins, there are two directors that he tends to work with a lot: Isaac Florentine and Jesse V. Johnson.  Whenever Adkins teams up with either of these guys, you’re almost always guaranteed to see something really entertaining.  Jesse V. Johnson, as a director, has put out hit after hit after hit over the past 5 years.  I’ve pretty much enjoyed most of his stuff, with the exception of last year’s The Mercenary.  Not a fan of that one, but everything else that he’s done has been fantastic.  His best film to date was also last year’s Avengement.  But the one film that I absolutely got a kick out of was The Debt Collector.  Not only did Scott Adkins team up again with Jesse Johnson, but he also starred along Louis Mandylor, making for one of the coolest, funniest, and most entertaining on-screen duos in years.  Now, in 2020, they team up again in Debt Collectors.

The film opens as Sue(Louis Mandylor)walks into a bar.  After taking a seat, a group of belligerent bar patrons start making trouble.  French(Scott Adkins)tries to deal with these people as politely as possible until they start making fun of his accent.  After all hell breaks loose, French is fired from his job.  Luckily, Sue is there to give the man a job as a debt collector again.  As one last job, French and Sue are to head to Las Vegas to collect a debt from one of Sue’s former flames, Mal Reese(Marina Sirtis).  As tends to happen in the debt collection business, things get a bit more complicated and French and Sue have to find a way to get out of it alive.  Story-wise, the biggest issue facing Debt Collectors was dealing with the ending of the first film.  At the end of the first film, Sue and French were not left in the best of places.  It’s explained a little bit how they managed to survive, but it seems a little strange.  You kind of have to roll with it if you’re going to enjoy the film.  Aside from that little….issue, the story here is pretty straight-forward.  There aren’t a whole lot of major twists and turns, but there doesn’t really need to be, so long as you understand what’s going on.

At the heart of any good story, you have to have good characters.  While most of the side characters in Debt Collectors are semi-interesting, the real focus of the film is on two: Sue and French.  Sue is played by Louis Mandylor and French is played by Scott Adkins.  I have to tell you, the relationship between these two characters is absolutely unique.  There are times when they are antagonistic towards each other, leading to some of the film’s biggest laughs, but other times they actually come across as really good friends.  It’s this shifting relationship that makes the whole endeavor work.  If the main characters work, the movie works.  If it wasn’t for Scott and Louis, these films just wouldn’t be the same.  It would be like if Val and Earl from Tremors weren’t played by Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward.  It wouldn’t work as well.  The chemistry between the characters is phenomenal.  I have to say, bringing in Star Trek alumnus Marina Sirtis was a stroke of genius.  She gets to play a psychotic ex-girlfriend of Sue’s, and the gravitas that she brings to the role is fantastic, despite the fact that she’s not in the movie a whole lot.  Vladimir Kulich, who plays Tommy, also returns as Sue’s boss.  He usually tends to play the villain in a lot of movies, but in the Debt Collector films, he’s not the villain, but he’s not a great guy either.  Honestly, the main villain of the film is so forgettable, I forgot that there was one.  For the most part, the writing and dialogue are spot on with an edge.  Thankfully, Scott and Louis are more than up for the task and they nail it.  Scott Adkins has improved a huge deal since his days playing an angry Russian.

Debt Collectors, being yet another Scott Adkins and Jesse V. Johnson collaboration, also has the benefit of having Luke LaFontaine as the stunt and action coordinator.  The fights are well shot and very well staged.  Not only can you see what’s going on, but it really looks like those hits and kicks that Scott delivers and takes hurt.  There is a fight between Sue and French that happens later on in the film that is absolutely brutal, yet strangely funny at the same time.  I have to say, while Scott definitely brings his physicality to the table, it’s awesome to see Louis Mandylor throw down in a no-holds barred street brawl.  Again, credit has to go to Scott and Louis for going all in on this.  It’s absolutely wild.  A lot of the action scenes are incredibly fun to watch.

If there’s a negative to the entire film, it’s that the pacing can be off from time to time.  Some scenes and sections of the film feel like they drag on for a little too long.  I think some snips here and there would tighten up the pace a little bit.  Aside from that, what we have here is another knock-out punch from Jesse V. Johnson as a director.  This guy absolutely knows his stuff and it’s genuinely compelling at times.  I really like how he focuses on the characters and not just the action.  While the story is somewhat average, it’s bolstered by some really spirited performances by our two main leads and some really rock-solid action and humor.  It shouldn’t work as well is it does, but it does work.  In anybody else’s hands, I think the film would have fallen on its face.  If you’re a fan of Scott Adkins, I would absolutely recommend not just this film, but the first Debt Collector as well.

My Final Recommendation: 9/10