After a long absence of necessity (and a cross country move), Direct to DVD Dissection returns, primed and ready to not only look at the movies and discs that contain them, but to also do it several times over, for more bang for your internet views buck.
Death Race 3: Inferno
The Cast: Luke Goss, Danny Trejo, Ving Rhames, Robin Shou
The Story: The sequel to a prequel to a remake of a Roger Corman cult classic, chronicling the life of the first Frankenstein of Death Race fame.
The Dissection: In conjunction with the last movie, it looks at Luke Goss as the “first” Frankenstein racer, and concludes that story in a way to tie it into the Paul WS Anderson remake. With this, the series ends with a sort-of bang, if only because they threw out everything they could.
The problems in the movie start with the editing, as it is very chopped up and shaky, which doesn’t help to show off the action scenes that occur, and drag them down in quality cause of it. This also doesn’t help some of the less interesting action scenes. For a movie that relies on the whole aspect of being loud and bombastic, the way the movie is shot ends up ruining a lot of it. Still, there are enough interesting moments in the movie to keep interest.
The acting isn’t anything to write home about, and Rhames is shown too little for his billing (and Trejo too much, oddly enough.) The selling point of the movie really is the titular racing. In that, it’s a toss-up. Fans of the series will find some interests, but there’s nothing shown for others to really jump on board at this point. Still, the DVD helps to bring in some interest, as it’s full of extras, from an interesting director’s commentary to deleted scenes and behind the scenes footage. The Blu Ray release has more videos and profiles as an exclusive, if that interests you. It’s a time waster, but there’s nothing wrong if you rather see the remake or even the original instead.
Lake Placid: The Final Chapter
The Cast: Elisabeth Röhm, Yancy Butler, Paul Nicholls, Robert Englund
The Story: A local lake full of people is terrorized by genetically mutated killer crocodiles.
The Dissection: With this being the fourth film in the series, a movie that had an interesting premise the first time devolves into a generic “monster attacking people” story. It’s almost like a film The Asylum would release, except without the charm.
While the film is not without some merit, if only in the production aspect and and some good performances from the veterans Englund and Rohm, the rest is just a mess. The effects are horribly done, especially for the trademark monster crocs. The story is laughably bad, and relies too much on the idea that every single person in the movie is too dumb to live. Finally, it’s just dull and uninteresting as a whole.
For a movie that bills itself as a “final chapter”, this series ends up going out, not with a bang or a whimper, but with a “who cares?”. The DVD doesn’t even bother with anything other than just trailers. Just stick with the original or any other creature feature and forget this existed.
All Superheroes Must Die
The Cast: Jason Trost, Lucas Till, James Remar, Sophie Merkley
The Story: A group of superheroes are captured by their old nemesis for a twisted game designed to break their spirits, bodies, or both.
The Dissection: This is a comic book movie that, for better or worse, feels like it belongs in the 90s with the rest of the “extreme” era of comic books. It’s a dark comic tale that involves death and despair and taking heroes and just dragging them through hell and back. The first 5-10 minutes of the film is a barometer of how you see the film, with the set up being given and all the destruction that occurs and puts the story in motion.
The movie is low budget, but it’s a film that doesn’t really show it. Yes, the superheroes start the film having their powers removed, but it gels with the story and helps with the tension. James Remar as the main bad guy does a good job as well, if a little hammy, and the main heroes do very good as well, especially in the more dramatic moments. It’s not perfect, as all the good moments are no consistent and the movie lags at points, but it’s nothing to drag the film down.
What is a drag, though, is that there really is no reason to buy the film, cause the film doesn’t come with any extras. The film is better served either streamed on a movie service, rented, or Redbox’d. Still, it would make an interesting viewing, especially if you have a history with the comics the film is inspired from.
The Package
The Cast: Steve Austin, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Keenleyside, John Novak
The Story: A courier with a mysterious package must fend off gangs of enemies to find out the truth of his assignment.
The Dissection: Memo to action studios: If you have a movie that features two big action stars in the same film, they need to be in the same scenes at the same time. While the box art for the movie has both Lundgren and Austin headlining, this is an Austin action film that just has Lundgren as a special guest star. It’s not a bad Austin movie, mind you, but it’s not the movie that was advertised.
Still, forgetting all the build, it’s a pretty good action film. Speaking of the action, it’s easily the high point of the film. Director Jesse V. Johnson was best known as a stuntman and coordinator for about 20 years, so he knows how to frame the fights in the best light. Best of all, the effects of the film are for the most part practical ones and are done very well. The rest of the film, though, doesn’t reach that same pedigree, as the story is predictable and reads like a rip off to THE TRANSPORTER. It’s just an excuse to string all these action scenes together. Finally, on another note, it’s a bare bones DVD release.
Still, it’s a film that shows action done right, and that alone gives it reason enough for a recommendation. There’s not much beyond that, but I don’t think that will be much of a problem to the people that will go see this. Just don’t expect a clash of action titans, and you’ll be fine.
Sushi Girl
The Cast: Tony Todd, Mark Hamill, James Duvall, Noah Hathaway
The Story: A group of insane thieves meet on the release of one of their own to discover the location of their missing loot.
The Dissection: When it comes to grindhouse films, they usually come in two forms. The first are films that are tributes to those kind of films, the ones that spend time to stop and wink at the audience and point out that they love Grindhouse films, too. The second is a movie that is Grindhouse without having to smile at the fourth wall. This movie is solidly in the second camp, and pushes itself above the herd as one of the better films of its type released. Period.
From top to bottom, this movie is honestly great. The atmosphere, for one, is very interesting and helps immensely to set up this thriller. The acting, from the main cast and the revolving door of cameos, all perform well, Tony Todd and Mark Hamill standing out as the best of the film. It’s tense and thrilling, and just keeps the audience interested in the moments, especially with the film aimed through the eyes of the titular character, and how it ends up developing as the movie progresses. There’s not much to complain about with the film, though if pressed, the story progression is a bit predicable if you know how heist movies go.
SUSHI GIRL is getting a big recommendation. It’s one of the better films out there that can have the Grindhouse label to it. It’s also one of the better DVDs, jam packed with extras, from several behind the scenes vids and two audio commentaries to outtakes and deleted scenes and a load of others. What else is there to say? Get it.