Greetings valued Dan's Movie report readers. Recently Cinedigm dropped the brand new trailer for the action film Acceleration
Plot summary: DesVladik Zorich (Dolph Lundgren), a villainous crime lord, is
double-crossed by his most trusted operative Rhona (Natalie Burn).
Vladik's propensity for power, control, and violence drives him to
kidnap Rhona's son forcing her to participate in a twisted plan to
eliminate one of Vladik's enemies. To keep her on a short leash, Vladik
sets out the 'rules' to his 'game' and overseas Rhona's every move as
she navigates the darkened streets of Los Angeles. As her son's life
hangs in the balance, Rhona struggles to eliminate the most violent and
depraved delinquents, however, Vladik underestimates the power of a
mother's love and finds himself losing control. Connect with the film on social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AccelerationTheMovie/ Written by: Michael Merino
Directed by: Michael Merino & Daniel Zirilli
Starring: Sean Patrick Flanery, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Liddell, Natalie Burn, Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson, and Danny Trejo
Acceleration is scheduled for a November 8th Release on streaming and limited theatrical. DVD/Blu-Ray December 17th:
Greetings
valued Dan's Movie Report and action-flix.com readers. Hard to
believe it was over 5 yrs ago that I first covered Transit 17, please
check out this post. Actress Zara Phythian took time out of her busy
schedule to film a promo as well – see above.
Fast
forward to October 2019, finally Transit 17 is unleashed! First to
VOD second to DVD in December! Incidentally ,watch for a DVD contest
around Christmas! Now on to the review.
Transit
17 is an eclectic mix of zombie and action film genre with a bit of a
SYFY, and road movie thrown in for good measure. The story that is
established in the beginning, is pretty basic, but sets up a quest
that has a good adventure element. Much of the population has been
infected by a virus that turns them into zombies soon after a bite.
The team has to locate a 15 yr old girl who was bitten a month ago
yet still shows no signs of the virus. Her rich fathered vowed to use
her to find a cure for the infection. The path is fraught with
Zombies and Sniffers, a military outfit who seem to actually support
the zombification of the area. The crew have to use a variety of
weapons including a grenade and an old Volvo, HA! Serious, part of
the way they actually use a Volvo for their destination, thankfully
they peel out in it and we see it goes fast.
The
crew initially is transported around on a 6 wheel vehicle called The
Pig, looks like something right out of Prometheus. This is kind of a
homage to Land of the Dead where they plowed through a town in the
same sort of vehicle. Land of the Dead though had so many zombies!
This vehicle is basically transport, and I thought running over a
couple zombies on the way would not have been a bad thing haha, but
this truck breaks down by overheating, not by hitting a zombie. OK,
yes that is different.
Many
of the cast including Zara Phythian, Silvio Simac, and Lee Charles
are now established action stars. Back in 2014, when this was filmed
they were hitting their initial strides and it is nice to see once
they get involved. Actually the highlight fight between Lee Charles
character Brad and Silvio's Commander character the leader of the
Sniffers is pretty bad ass.
Above: Guy Bleyaert pulls out his boom stick!
Guy
Bleyaert pulls triple duty as writer, director, and lead actor. Guy
is to be commended for pushing very hard on the film, yet I feel that
his cast members needed to display more emotion or to be directed to
do so. Often when someone wears many hats an aspect of the production
can be slightly hampered. Guy's thick accent, is a bit rough, yet
because it is a grizzled veteran named Tex he plays it works, as his
character is supposed to have 'seen it all'.
I
liked Kimberly Stahl as Deena, yet (minor spoiler) she is only in a
very small part of the film. She turns in her sleep and wakes up due
to Zara finding and they tussle, the outcome obvious, no big twist,
but she did a good job in her limited role.
Speaking
of sound and voices, the ADR is quite clear in Transit 17, people
speak loud and it is easy to understand all the dialogue. I feel the
film itself needed more urgency. People are talking relaxed, when
they should be breathless. I wanted a bit more zombie or infected
interaction as well.
The
actual shots and filming is very good for an indie film. There is a
large scope to the action and most of the best scenes are outside.
The camera work is great, and people are clearly seen thanks to the
thoughtful lighting. The film has a pro feel, not cheap, there is use
of green screen in a few parts, but the tech looks detailed and
intricate.
Above: Zara Phythian rocks the big guns in Transit 17.
A
special mention to actress Zara Phythian, she gives her maximum
effort. Her character Eve, is sort of a female Rambo, and gets to mix
it up with the boys, Her action moves are very smooth and her
dialogue is clear.. Zara though, as hard as she worked, needed to be
pushed with additional aggressiveness and anger. She needed tighter
direction, and more characters to interact with not just guns to
fire.
Although
it seems I do not like Transit 17, or am nitpicking, I actually
enjoyed the film. Transit 17 has a variety of mixed theme elements. There
is something for horror , SYFY and action fans. Despite my minor
gripes and the very short 84 minute run time, the film rates a solid
7 out of 10. Worthy of a rent or buy!
The film will be available on various VOD platforms on October 22nd Transit 17 will be available on digital for an SRP of $4.99 -
$9.99 from platforms including iTunes, Vudu, Playstation, Xbox, Amazon
Instant, Google Play, FandangoNow, Hoopla and Overdrive as well as 200+
cable affiliates including Comcast, Spectrum, Charter, Cox, Verizon,
Frontier, Suddenlink, Mediacom, Google Fiber, and Dish. Watch for the film December 17th, 2019 on DVD! Watch for a new Zara interview in the coming months!
Greetings
valued Dan's Movie Report and www.action-flix.com readers. As you know I
enjoy films from all over the world and I knew thanks to my friend
and action supporter Ron Smoorenburg he told me about this amazing
Bollywood Epic! War is only playing at about 300 theaters in the
United States, I know it will hit Amazon Prime in a few months but
this is a theater film all the way. A word of caution, the film is
also showing at those D-Box screens, initially I payed the extra for
the seat until I tested out a sample, it basically is a ride and the
seat moves around, I cannot justify the double price, nor siting
being jostled badly for 3 hours!
War is
an amalgamation of a variety of diverse styles. It had elements of
Bollywood, but actually this is more like a Hollywood action film.
Shot all over the world including Australia, Portugal, Finland, the
film reminded me of a James Bond flick, yet had the science fiction
aspect and military aspect. Film wise, a mixture of Face-Off,
GoldenEye, and Fast and Furious! Yep it is that crazy! The 2 hour and
34 minute flick has only two dance numbers! Yep, and one comes in
after a huge action sequence and has some really cool moves in it.
The second one is after intermission, and it is slower, yet has many
sexy girls minus Saris, all western clothing! I will have to say WAR
is made for a global, not just Indian audience.
What
you have are two main characters the experienced soldier played
adeptly and gritty by Hrithik Roshan (Kabir) he has to deal and
accept a new recruit whose father was a traitor and turned in by his
mother. Amazing young talent Tiger Shroff plays the upstart (Kalid)
wanting to get out from under his fathers traitor ways.
The
cool thing about War is the audience is allowed to go back in time to
tell what leads up to the events that happen in the beginning and
learn so much about the two main protagonists and or antagonists ha!
The twists and turns of WAR are as dynamic as the action! We see the
very young Kalid at school being bullied as his father is a traitor.
His mom comes on the scene and meets him at the military base, a
heartwarming scene yet a cautionary tale.
Nothing
is what it seems in WAR. Trust me, with each exotic location, you
never know where or where a team of bad or good guys will come from.
The true highlights are the extended scenes, I mean the action
sequences are long and well planned out. From the opening drug den
bad guy take down to the epic and I mean EPIC car chase that leads
into a massive fight. Some sequences are like double or triple the
length of Hollywood films!
The
supporting cast on WAR is extensive, yet this adds to the scope of
the film. Plus by assembling an international cast of action and
stunt performers each one adds their own flair to WAR. Brahim Chab is
involved as well as Ron Smoorenburg and what is really cool is
basically in each location they have stunt coordinator for that
location. The adept Kristina Basket a SAG USA stunt performer is also
in the fray.
Getting
back to the dialogue, dancing and story of WAR, there is a decent
amount of dialogue, but when the action ramps up the dialogue ramps
down. No overly loquacious diatribes in WAR. People speak clearly
even if I do not understand the language, the vocal mix is strong.
The two dance numbers I mentioned earlier are actually very good, I
hope that Bollywood adapt this two to three max numbers of dance
numbers in their action properties. That was my issue with Sultan as
amazing s it was damn frustrating to have the worse timing and so
many dance interludes. The story is at times hard to follow, as the
timeline shifts back a couple of years then back six months, there is
a warning but unless you see the very beginning of the film, where
you see the person getting shot, you wont know who or what they are
talking about, same goes with the middle right before the
intermission, no I am not going to spoil it. The final 1 hour, is
just balls to the wall action as the second musical number is right
after intermission. Think ICBM, ice breaker, transport plane, a
secret intelligence code breaking and hard drive expert hacking
woman, who on the day prior to her wedding she does the work and then
haha offers to elope without her husband!I do wish some of the ladies got into the action instead of just the tech and the dancing, that said this is a guys movie, doing guy war things!
Yes
this moving picture is all about the moving, in the context of the
action, and metallic suction magnets to grip onto a speeding plane.
Can any of this happen, or is it a fantasy? Well agents do go rogue
and military men often sadly shoot other military men, this is a real
possibility. The other thing is no way would he survive the landing
from one plane to another hah, but check in and check your brain at
the door, leave your action cortex in the lobby and get to a theater.
I saw it will be on Amazon prime in 4k soon as well so if you have to
wait, make sure to stream it in the highest resolution, with the
loudest speakers, on your 105 inch TV! Enough of my crazy ramblings
haha this ends now with WAR a damn near perfect 9 out of 10! The film
has already broken box office records in India, check the trailer
below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ0mzXRk-oM
