KILLER ELITE
Blu-ray Review by Kevin Carr
MOVIE: *1/2 (out of 5 stars)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars)
When you take into the fact that I am a red-blooded American male (and that’s a confirmed fact, since I checked my status this morning), you’d think I’d be genetically inclined to love a film like “Killer Elite.” After all, it stars three of the greatest tough guys working in Hollywood today (or at least two of them, since Clive Owen rarely brings his tough guy A-game to his films).
The movie has all the elements in place that should make it a great experience for not just a fan of tough guy cinema but also for anyone who enjoys political intrigue and action movies. The story is based on the (alleged) true account of a rogue group known as The Feather Men who arrange political assassinations. When two ex-SAS agents are pulled into a mission to avenge the deaths of a Sheikh’s sons, they knock heads with this shadow organization.
I’ll admit that it was cool to see Robert De Niro share the screen with the likes of Jason Statham, and the genre itself has been getting into there teams recently with De Niro in the lame but admirable “Righteous Kill” with Al Pacino and Statham in “The Expendables.” And yes, both of them hold their own in the action moments. Indeed, De Niro shows he still has plenty of badass to dish out, kicking the butts of people half his age.
But the problem in this film comes not from the action, but from the characters and story. It is a needlessly convoluted movie, with shifting relationships and alliances. I suppose that Statham is meant to the be hero of the movie, but it’s hard to really get behind his motivations. Likewise, Clive Owen as the Feather Men’s wetwork manager never emerges as a hero or villain, but rather just a soft character with no real passion.
There are some neat action sequences, and it was cool to see Statham and Owen (and Owen’s mustache) go head-to-head in a couple scenes. But in the end, I felt nothing for “Killer Elite.” Had it been a direct-to-video presentation starring John Cena and Randy Couture, I would have been more forgiving because these guys tend to make crap anyway. But a theatrical release with the star power behind this movie should have delivered something much better.
The Blu-ray comes with a bonus DVD and Digital Copy disc, along with pocketBLU access. Special features are rather thin, amounting to only a dozen or so deleted and extended scenes.
THE SCORPION KING 3: BATTLE FOR REDEMPTION
Blu-ray Review by Kevin Carr
MOVIE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5 stars)
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me whether I rate direct-to-video movies on the same scale as I do theatrical releases. My honest answer is no, simply because when a movie goes straight to video, there’s an understanding about its quality. Similarly, when I have a chance to review one of The Asylum’s movies, which are notorious for being low-rent rip-offs of bigger films, I’m not expecting the best that Hollywood can offer.
Sometimes I am surprised at a direct-to-video release. This can occur with an independent film which was picked up and passed through the Dimension Films meat grinder (such as “Cypher,” a great little indie flick from Vincenzo Natali that Dimension buried after acquiring it). Others can be set for theatrical releases but never get one (such as the delightful genre homage “Trick or Treat” or New Line Cinema’s “Amusement”). But these are the exceptions to the rule.
It is less common to find a movie that was made strictly for a direct-to-video audience that is in essence a lame movie but for some reason I find really enjoyable. “The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption” is one of those movies. It has every element you’d expect from a Uwe Boll film, including Ron Perlman and Billy Zane as stars in a sword-and-sandal non-epic. However, for all the warts it has, “The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption” is surprisingly fun.
With Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson long gone from the franchise, UFC star Dave Bautista steps in as Mathayus, the titular character. With his kingdom fallen, Mathayus becomes an assassin for hire, agreeing to find a missing heir and overthrow an evil tyrant.
This is hardly award-winning material here, and there are tons of problems with it. But beyond the laugh-out-loud bad acting of Bautista and the B-list stars whose names grace the cover box, it’s a fun movie. Films like these are less about depth of character and more about delivering a fun action experience. And here’s where the film actually shines.
Sure, the wannabe “Braveheart” battle moments are clearly staged with a couple dozen soldiers shot in a creative fashion, but these scenes also include battle elephants and honest-to-god trebuchets launching fireballs a hundred yards away. It is this bizarre inclusion of impressive action that really sold the movie for me.
Additionally, the characters were entertaining and funny enough, even if they were a bit two-dimensional. But after seeing plenty of movies and television series this year which expected you to cheer for awful, horrible people, it’s a welcome refreshment.
“The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption” comes with a bonus DVD and Digital Copy disc, along with pocketBLU access. Special features include deleted and extended scenes, a deleted shot montage, a gag reel, a making-of featurette, commentary track, D-Box Motion and the featurette “Preparing for Battle.”
SID & NANCY
Blu-ray Review
by Kevin Carr
MOVIE: **** (out of 5 stars)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5 stars)
I’m not an avid punk rock fan (though I find some of the songs surprisingly compelling), and I was just a young kid when Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols were at their height. I get the general upstart concept of punk rock, but I see the silliness it presents, which only works as a counterculture measure when there’s an upstanding culture to give the finger to.
However, even as someone who has never had any desire to inhibit this culture, I found Alex Cox’s biopic about Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen to be fascinating and disturbingly real. At its heart, “Sid & Nancy” is a love story about two alarmingly self-destructive people who live fast and die young in the heyday of the British punk rock scene.
The triumph of “Sid & Nancy” is the fact that Cox doesn’t glamorize the punk rock scene, or the rock star scene for that matter. At the same time, he doesn’t condemn it. Even a film like “Trainspotting,” which gave an unflinching look at heroin addiction, had a certain message to it. However, “Sid & Nancy” showed these young lovers in their element without actually passing judgement on them. From their early relationship in England where they plow through the streets not caring about the pain they inflict on society and each other, to their tragic end in New York, these characters embody the anger and confusion of leading a movement the consumed. them.
Even though the film features the story behind The Sex Pistols, it’s hardly a movie about a rock group. Instead, it’s an impassioned love story in the ugliest of settings.
As much as Alex Cox does his best work as a director with this film, the film’s success is also due to the brilliant acting of a young Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious and a less-young-but-still-brilliant Chloe Webb. Both manage to be revolting and empathetic at the same time. Webb, who has the more challenging role over overcoming the “Nauseating Nancy” moniker, is able to explode on screen with violent emotion but still give us a glimpse into what Vicious saw in her. Forget Jack and Rose from “Titanic”; forget Doctor Zhivago and Larissa; even forget Lady and the Tramp. This love story between Sid and Nancy is one of the most fascinating ones you’ll ever see.
The 25th anniversary Collector’s Edition Blu-ray of “Sid & Nancy” includes the theatrical trailer and two interesting 15-minute documentaries, “For the Love of Punk” and “Junk Love.” These featurettes take both a historic and contemporary look at the subject matter, often showing the general disdain for Nancy Spungen and the sympathetic remembrance of Sid Vicious. Less objective than they should be, they offer an interesting view of how these characters are remembered, both through the film and in music history.
