'Fistful Of Vengeance' (2022) Movie Review - © 2022 Dan's Movie Report - Danny Templegod

 

Above Image: Poster for 'Fistful of Vengeance' (C) 2022 Netflix - All rights reserved, image not monetized

 

Greetings valued Dan's Movie Report readers. Although I watched 'Fistful of Vengeance' awhile back, I decided to re-watch and assess my views. After the Netflix 'Wu Assassins' dropped I fully expected a season 2, then I actually thought a movie would work, I mean part of the story closed, and yet parts were open.

'Fistful of Vengeance' is essentially a final episode of the saga, yet can work as a stand alone movie. I have to make a statement about this prior to my review. Due to the Covid situation many things had to change, as the original location of Canada had strict requirements and regulations. My main complaint here is that the entire first season budget and now this movie was too small for what it wanted to do, this is not a knock on any of the film makers especially Roel Reine, the director who did an amazing job for what he had to work with. That said, my main issue here is the story seemed rushed.

'Fistful of Vengeance' sees the return of Iko Uwanis as Kai, Lewis Tan as Lu Xin and JuJu Chan-Szeto as Zan. The film opens with a cover of 'In The Air tonight' and the entire first season is summarized in a few moments, but the creators assumed if you are watching this film, the first season has already been consumed. We get right into the action interspersed between conversation. Bangkok, Thailand is the setting, the story flails out from there.

With only 90 minutes to tell a story, 'Fistful of Vengeance' relies more on flash than story to search for Jenny's killer. This is a good continuation of ideas, then Dr Pan comes in and they discuss the story of Pan Gu, again a solid plot point. He states that Pan Gu went mad with power, this the Wu Assassin was called down to strike the first man. O.K., this set up is solid, yet at this new entity Ku An Qi, a new powerful person so Lu Xin is tasked to take her out.

OK with that set up, I was like wait minute, what about JuJu's Zan charter. This is my main issue with the story, it is like they try to start a whole new story when I was like Zan escaped at the end of the last season. Why not use that?

Writing aside, for what they had to work with 'Fistful of Vengeance' is a decent effort. The movie has elements of action and drama, a buildup to the action. Director Roel Reine really shines as he is able to draw some solid emotional scenes and an amazing fight at the end, Well placed camera work, solid musical score and editing are Roel's specialty and it shows,

Iko Uwanis and Lewis Tan chew scenery and have some great dialogue, and decent action. The first 20 minutes of the film a scant minute is spent on an action scene, which occurs in a moving van. This establishes the story. The lack of real action during this time is where another few minutes of movie is preferable.

The newcomers to the cast Pearl Thusi as Zama Zulu, Francesca Corney as Preeya, and Yayaying Rhatha Phongam as Ku An Qi add an air of sultry bad ass. Once again, Roel is great pushing for a balance of female main stars getting in on the action and meaty dialogue. All three ladies really made the film fun and entertaining, great style and panache. Pearl adds an air of commanding presence as well.

Since Roel has shot in Thailand several times he makes the most of the scenery with a well shot boat chase sequence complete with multiple camera angles, reminding me of his other film 'Hard Target 2'.

JuJu shines again as Zan in action, style and acting diabolical, though I wish the story was more focused on her, Perhaps if they had a second season each of the four ladies would have had their own feature episode. She has a really spectacular fight at the end, well shot, well lit, actually she does not make an appearance until after the 30 minute mark, with a solid fight.

Not spoiling the rest of the plot, I will just say that Ku An Qi character is really cool and well conceived. The movie is violent, truculent, and crazy. Even with the small budget, the film manages to end the story of 'Wu Assassins' leaving little doubt.

Overall I liked 'Fistful of Vengeance', minor gripes aside with story and budget, the film is on Netflix and worthy of a watch, rating a 6 out of 10.

Check out the official Netflix trailer: 

For Further information go to www.netflix.com

Please check out my detailed JuJu Chan-Szeto interview for 'Wu Assassins' TV series @ http://dansmoviereport.blogspot.com/2019/08/actress-juju-chan-chats-wu-assassins-c.html

Seize The Night: Carpe Noctem (2022) Movie Review © 2022 Dan's Movie Report – Danny Templegod (Spoiler Free)

 

Above: Poster for the film from the official Facebook Page. All rights reserved, used for promotional use only, not monetized.

Greetings valued Dan's Movie Report readers. All the way back in 2018 and 2019, Actress/Singer Nina Bergman was telling me about this cool new film called Carpe Noctem.  The the film is out now! and the film is now on Amazon and Itunes, for about 4 dollars to rent and 10 dollars to buy, at least on Amazon.

Before I review 'Seize the Night', I will say I cannot stand when reviewers spoil, or reveal major plot points of a film. This one is especially important not to reveal. Plot from IMDB: Over the course of one night, a whirlwind romance between a drug dealer and a mysterious singer takes them on a collision course with a dangerous mind-control ..

This film is a drama, through and through, no explosions, car chases or big shootouts. Trust me this is a great thing. Writers Pasha Gerard and Jhan Harp create a verbose yet ultimately epic tale of lies, deceit, fueled by the pursuit of a drag called a Suggestive. Lead stars Pasha as GB and Nina Bergman as GG deliver rousing performances of their troubled, characters, addiction and other nasty things come up, no spoilers! Nina Bergman, a Vegan, and non-drinker, drug user, or smoker, really acted her ass off. That said she has seen first hand what issues can arise on her tours with Letter From The Fire. I actually draw a parallel to her own character in this film as a singer of a fictional band named Sin5 and her real life touring experience. With the tragic recently death of Taylor Hawkins, once again a drug mystery surrounds a musician's death. Nina crushes the role, and probably has the most dialogue of any film in her career, and excels at it. Pasha also really amps up the emotions without overacting a delicate balance, well done!

'Seize the Night' has a slow burn build, yet, never feels boring as there are always clever characters in the film to liven things up. Jonathan Erickson Eisley as ruthless shady business man, John always looking for an angle to take advantage of his clients, adds an air of villain, yet oddly sympathetic. Matt Miller as Agent

is completely out of his mind, once again no spoilers. Alain Rono as Furry, again no spoilers, but what a weird scene! Trust me, it is the path taken that makes 'Seize the Night' clever and dynamic.Nothing is what it seems and characters can appear when the audience is least expecting them, once again, no spoilers!

Composer Karel Havlicek sets the mood and tone. The music rises and falls based on the seriousness and complexity of the scene. Watch for Nina Bergman to sing a few songs on the movie as well! The music never interfered with the copious dialogue, but when it was needed it hit like a arrow at a target in a bale of hay.

Special kudos go to Cinematographer Daniel Button he has do deal with a huge variety of challenging situations with regards to various settings and lighting. The camera seemed to be a extension of the characters especially during some drug fueled incidents, again no spoilers.

With a runtime of 86 minutes, Seize the Night never waivers, no wasted scenes, I kind of wanted more, yet upon a second watch realize that this amount of dialogue, usually would fill a movie of over 100 minutes, and was not needed to be extended.

Overall, 'Seize the Night' is rather incredible given the budget, I would really like to see this film make some sort of indie festival run with the stars on hand taking about it. What else is there to say, buy it! Seize the Night rates a rousing, sharp, yet tender masterpiece a 9 out of 10!!

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9193690/?r

Facebook: https://business.facebook.com/carpenoctemmovie/

Official Site: http://www.carpenoctem.film/

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SiB4HFQ9Lo

Kindly check out my most recent interview of Nina Bergman: http://dansmoviereport.blogspot.com/2019/08/actresssinger-nina-bergman-exclusive.html

Watch for more exclusives from this fantastic film coming later in 2022!

The Pact (2022) TV Series - Season 1- Review © 2022 Dan's Movie Report – Danny Templegod

 

Above: Poster for 'The Pact' (C0 2022 Katara Studios

Greetings valued Dan's Movie Report readers. Thanks to Actresses Natassia Malthe and Ada Dumitru, I was made aware of a science fiction/mystery six part series called 'The Pact' The series was shot all the way back in late 2018 and early 2019. Obviously with the onset of the pandemic, 'The Pact' kind of lay dormant a bit. Initially I would have hoped it landed on Netflix or Sci-Fi Channel, yet after watching it, The Roku channel provides a perfect home, as they own the streaming rights to the U.S. U.K. And Canada. This gives exclusivity and enough time to build an audience as the early territories just released on March 26^th, and the rest of the world will roll out in July. What is interesting is unlike Netflix, this particular series is available to all of the residents of the three countries free of charge, not behind a pay wall, and on the internet with a laptop you do not even have to register for an account. Kind of like the Tubi TV content, except with essentially no commercials, perhaps a break here or there. Important t to not, although The Roku Channel has over 50 million viewers, it may be hard to track as you do not have to register to watch much of the content.

On to the review of 'The Pact'... The show spins a yarn about a mysterious fog that causes people to go insane. Miasma is the affliction and it behaves in the way a mind altering hallucinogenic drug. In one harrowing scene a man and a woman meet and the man holds her hand while she is holding the gun and begs her to kill him. It seems to affect people slightly differently, no spoilers. HAHA!

At a total runtime of around 240 minutes, it is about as long as two feature length films, yet seems to be stretched out. Obviously the story creators Bobby Barbacioru and Gareth Brookes have a gift to weave an intricate tale of forlorn and sadness, yet the pace is more 'Walking Dead' than breakneck speed. Essentially 'The Pact' is like an extended Road film, without the car chases! I would say 'The Pact' is more visceral than action oriented although later on in the series, there is some pretty cool action – (no spoilers) The two creators are in the process of finishing up a new series 'Three knee Deep' which also stars Louis Mandylor and Ada Dumitru. 

 

 Above Image: Natassia Malthe as Freya in 'The Pact' (C) 2022 Katara Studios

Speaking of acting, I thought the cast was well directed, and no performance seemed over the top or wooden. Highlights include Natassia Malthie's 'Freya' empathetic, and emotional particular harrowing scene in a forest (no spoilers!) Ada Dumitu's 'Gash' has some crazy blue war paint ala Olga Kurylenko in 'Centurion', and she seems quite violent and rather salacious, ha again no spoilers! Louis Mandylor is his usual consummate professional self delivering an undulating intensity.

As far as the scenery, camera and sound work. Much of the series is shot outside so it has a bigger feel than perhaps the budget was. The lighting, camera work were solid. The series seemed to sound better in headphones, especially to pick up the nuanced sounds going on around the characters. Musical scoring was eerie and appropriate for the source material.

Minor gripes about the length, actually I think this series might have worked as a stand alone movie, yet, I totally understand what the creators were going for. The reason why I state this is there are areas of production that seem like they are slightly elongated to allow for an entire 6 episode series. 'Peaky Blinders' did 6 episode series, but with the gangster plot something was always happening, Again I actually enjoy this relaxed pace, but I fully understand that it may not be everyone's cup of tea. Secondly, minor spoiler well not really as it is on IMDB, Dumitru's 'Gash' character is basically in only one episode, and I feel she adds a powerful spark, well in the next series with the same creators 'Three Knee Deep' she is one of the main character, a serial killer!

 

Above: Ada Dumitru strikes a salacious pose on set of 'The Pact'
Photo by Dragos Barbacioru

Overall, you can never go wrong with testing the waters on a free series, I recommend watching it in one or two nights to get the full effect, minor grips aside 'The Pact (2022)' rates a solid 7.5 out of 10, kind of has that weird cool vibe, note to parents with kids under 12, there is a large amount of swearing and adult themed violence and behavior.

Watch the series now: https://therokuchannel.roku.com/watch/c8f4e853876358e29a19670dc09716c6

If the direct link is not working, please open the main Roku Channel website or download the Android or IOS app.

'The Pact' IMDB page: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10189204/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_5

Facebook of Production Company Katara Studios: https://www.facebook.com/KataraStudios

Ada Dumitru Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adadumitruu/

 

Watch for further coverage of the show including interviews with Natassia Malthe and Ada Dumitru, on your home for exclusive content, Dan's Movie Report