October Belongs to Horror #6: Dead Rising: Endgame

Dead Rising: Endgame
Legendary Digital Media, DR2 Productions, Contradiction Films, Sony Pictures Entertainment, USA, Canada, 2016.

Watching "Dead Rising: Watchtower" first is a must the plot will be difficult to grasp. Two years after the zombie outbreak of the first film military and pharmaceutical company Phenotrans are kidnapping people. Chase (Jesse Metcalfe) is trying to expose the conspiracy and find his former photographer Jordan (Keegan Connor Tracy) but he gets cold shoulder from his TV-channel who are afraid to publish the scoop. His workmates Sandra (Marie Avgeropoulos) and Jill (Jessica Harmon) have different opinions about continuing the crusade. Well, it is better do do something soon as naughty General Lyons (Dennis Haysbert) plans to destroy everyone who knows about the conspiracy.

Chase Carter

Sandra and Jill

Defected company scientis Hancock (Ian Tracey) tells about project Afterlife. Military plans to kill all the 1.5 million who are getting treatment for the zombie virus. Chase, Sandra, Hancock and weapons dealer Garth (Patrick Sabongui) form a team to save the infected. The clock is ticking and the heroes have to infiltrate a server farm in zombie-infested area. The zombies have previously been of the slow type, but now new genetically-altered bald-headed zombies appear, and boy are they fast. Scientist named Rand (Billy Zane) has been doing secret experiments. Jordan returns, but she is not her usual self and no wonder considering what has been done to her.

Let's go to work

Jordan

Rand

The sequel is less-like video game, the horror is a bit more effective and gorier. Still the improvised weapons are in use, but they seem more practical than the crazy gadgets of the first film. Over all the plot feels more serious, leaving less room for black comedy or cool boss fights which is a loss. Still there are good action scenes and Chase has evolved into zombie slayer who chops zombies like there is no tomorrow. The end fight is quite awesome. In the end Chuck Greene (Victor Webster) from game "Dead Rising 2" can be seen. I wouldn't be surprised if a sequel would follow, as the end leaves the plot lines hanging.

Chuck Greene

Rating: Good

Starring: Jesse Metcalfe, Marie Avgeropoulos, Ian Tracey, Keegan Connor Tracy, Jessica Harmon, Patrick Sabongui, Camille Sullivan, Jim Thorburn, Billy Zane, Dennis Haysbert, Teach Grant, Lee Majdoub, Sandy Robson, Donavon Stinson, Peter Kelamis, Ben Cotton, Viv Leacock, Luvia Petersen, Stephen Lobo, Dakota Guppy, Curtis Lum, Heather Roop, Jim Shield, Victor Webster, Sarah Lindsay, Joshua Roy, Peter Brown, Naomi Kyle

Director: Pat Williams

October Belongs to Horror #5: Dead Rising: Watchtower

Dead Rising: Watchtower
Legendary Digital Media, Contradiction Films, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Dead Rising Productions, USA, Canada, 2015.

Based on Capcom's video game series.

Reporter Chase Carter (Jesse Metcalfe) is making a scoop about zombie epidemic with photographer Jordan (Keegan Connor Tracy). The infected must use Zombrex-medicine once a day to avoid being turned into zombies. But the drug stops working and soon the street are full of hungry monsters. 

Chase Carter

Jordan

The army starts firebombing the city after time limit is reached. The survivor celebrity of the previous outbreak Frank West (Rob Riggle) comments the happenings in his bluntly realistic style so that the interviewer rolls her eyes. As a comical relief, Frank is a bit like Bruce Campbell's Ash. Jordan's side mission is to seek allies outside the quarantine area to help Chase get out. The goverment officials General Lyons (Dennis Haysbert) and Norton (Gary Jones) have their orders, but can either of them be trusted?

Frank West

General Lyons and Norton

Chase joins forces with Crystal (Meghan Ory) who has her own supply of Zombrex that works. There is a sinister conspiracy behind the recent outbreak. A bit of tragedy is brought by Maggie (Virginia Madsen) who is searching for her lost daughter. It will not end well...

Crystal

Maggie and the other heroes assess the situation

The story goes on with familiar structure of video games. There are occasional boss fights and improvised weapons such as power tools attached to mallets, chainsaws and shovel-swords. The highlights include fights against Bonzo the Zombie Clown (C. Ernst Harth) and psychotic biker gang leader Logan (Aleks Paunovic).

Logan

Bonzo the Zombie Clown

These are useful for cutting down zombies

As a video game movie this is faithful to the world of the original games, satisfying the video game fans. There is not much new added to the genre but otherwise the story is passable. Over the top zombie mayhem is good although sometimes also quite tasteless even for considering the zombie topic. The action has some well designed scenes such as long one-shot scene where Chase escapes zombies climbing over cars and a school bus. Also the combo weapons are wacky and inventive. Entertaining stuff although the almost two-hour duration could have been condensed. The cast has familiar faces from TV shows, pretty co-stars and Jesse Metcalfe fits the role of hotshot reporter hero. The movie ends in a way that sequel is inevitable.

Rating: Good

Starring: Jesse Metcalfe, Meghan Ory, Virginia Madsen, Keegan Connor Tracy, Aleks Paunovic, Dennis Haysbert, Gary Jones, Carrie Genzel, Rob Riggle, Reese Alexander, Harley Morenstein, Julia Benson, Peter Benson, Darren Dolynski, Patrick Sabongui, Travis MacDonald, Michael Bean, Sachin Sahel, Khaira Ledeyo, James Yi, Colton Quan, Manny Jacinto, David Lyle, Gaston Morrison, Todd Thomson, C. Ernst Harth, Taya Clyne, Nickolas Baric, Ed Brando, Paul Lazenby, Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska, Mark Wilmot 

Director: Zach Lipovsky

Movie Review: Avengers Grimm

Avengers Grimm
The Asylum, USA, 2015. 

Naughty wizard Rumpelstiltskin (Casper Van Dien) has raised a rebellion to destroy a magic kingdom. The King has been murdered so vengeance runs cold. Queen Snow White (Lauren Parkinson) escapes through Magic Mirror to real world taking Rumpelstiltskin with him. 

Rumpelstiltskin

Snow White

Cinderella (Milynn Sarley), Sleeping Beauty (Marah Fairclough) and Rapunzel (Rileah Vanderbilt) follow and also lone wolf Red Riding Hood (Elizabeth Peterson) who is hunting the evil Wolf (Kimo Leopoldo). In the human world Rumpelstiltskin has already corrupted the police force. Wolf murders some tough guys in a bar and frames Red Riding hood. Gang boss Iron John (Lou Ferrigno) is not happy for losing his men. He becomes a pawn in the game of good vs evil when Rumpelstiltskin turns him into Iron Man. Can the Princesses stop Rumpelstiltskin before he corrupts the world?

Wolf

Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Rapunzel

Red Riding Hood

The Princesses are tough fighters and have special powers. Snow White can freeze things. Sleeping Beauty can make people sleep. Rapunzel has a flailing hair. Cinderella can cast transforming spells. Red Riding Hood has a bow with Rambo's arsenal of different arrows. Too bad their personalities are not very different from each other to make them more interesting. Now Snow White and Red Riding Hood are the most vengeful, and Cinderella the most empathetic, the rest being somewhere between. Casper van Dien has his guarenteed style, so Casper fans rejoice. Surprisingly Lou Ferrigno's character is the most interesting.

Iron John

As far the special effects go, Asylum is evolving to having TV-level effects and some of the action scenes are pretty good so you don't have to dig out your eyes out with a spoon. Clearly there has been more ambitious touch here. "Once Upon a Time" and "Avengers" combined would make an interesting film in the hands of right folks, too bad that the story here is so generic. So it is not good or original enough to be a good film, but not bad enough to make it funny, leaving it into average territory of low budget direct to video films. Close but no cigar.

Rating: Average

Starring: Casper Van Dien, Lauren Parkinson, Lou Ferrigno, Milynn Sarley, Marah Fairclough, Rileah Vanderbilt, Elizabeth Peterson, Kimo Leopoldo, Andrew E. Tilles, Justine Herron, Henry Foster Brown, Jonathan Medina, Jonathan Nation, Daniel Nemes, Andrew Pinon, Pete Capella, Cale Schultz, Adam Night, Kevin Yarbrough, DuJuan Korei, Bryan Dietzman, Beach Eastwood, Brian Gilleece, Brandon Greenawalt, Justy Hutchins, Paul Kearschner, Ryan Mckenney, Corey Weber, Chris Yong, Nickolas Nielsen
Director: Jeremy M. Inman

Movie Review: The Trial of the Incredible Hulk

The Trial of the Incredible Hulk
Bixby-Brandon Productions, New World International, USA, Canada, 1989.

David 'Belson' a.k.a Banner (Bill Bixby) has gone incognito and lives doing odd jobs. Work is hard and the boss is a sadist. As living in the country is not good for his anger management, he visits New York City. But in no time he gets in trouble again. 

David Banner

Hulk

Crime lord Wilson Fisk (John Rhys-Davies) a.k.a Kingpin has arranged a jewelry heist. Two Kingpin's thugs harass a woman named Ellie Mendez (Marta DuBois) in subway, so Banner gets angry and turns into Hulk (Lou Ferrigno) tossing the evil-doers like sacks of potatoes. As an  innocent bystander is killed by a stray bullet, the cops arrest David who is conveniently at the crime scene. Also Ellie is threatened so she has to testify against Banner. Blind lawyer Matt Murdock (Rex Smith) wants to help him. Matt has a superhuman hearing and his alter ego is crime fighter Daredevil.

Wilson Fisk

Ellie Mendez

Matt Murdock

The crooks are trying to kill both Ellie and David, so Daredevil must keep them both alive. Banner is going to trial but the excitement is too much. Hulk can be seen destroying a court room but that wouldn't be proper behaviour for a comic hero so it was all just a dream. Still David thinks that would really happen and so Hulk escapes jail.

Daredevil

Nasty Nurse (Linda Darlow)

Kingpin's assistant Edgar (Nicholas Hormann)

The story is better than in the previous film. The Marvel Universe starts to expand, making steps that the big budget films followed years later. But more than a Hulk-movie this is Daredevil's movie. And so Hulk is absent from the final battle letting Daredevil do the action. Besides being a Hulk-movie it was planned to be a pilot for planned Daredevil series. Pretty assistant Christa Klein (Nancy Everhard) would have become the romantic interest for Daredevil if the series had ever been made. The action is good and John-Rhys Davies has the essence of the powerful gangster boss. Lou Ferrigno has a mute role again, showing a bit more strength than in "The Incredible Hulk Returns" The melancholic mood of the previous Hulk-movie remains in the end.

Christa Klein

Hulk's creator Stan Lee can be seen in the jury.

Rating:  Good

Starring: Bill Bixby, Lou Ferrigno, Marta DuBois, Nancy Everhard, Nicholas Hormann, Richard Cummings Jr., Joseph Mascolo, John Rhys-Davies, Rex Smith, Linda Darlow, John Novak, Dwight Koss, Meredith Bain Woodward, Mark Acheson, Richard Newman, Don MacKay, Doug Abrahams, Mitchell Kosterman, Beatrice Zeilinger, Ken Camroux-Taylor, Charles Andre, John 'Bear' Curtis, Stan Lee, Michael O'Hare
Director: Bill Bixby

Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk Returns

The Incredible Hulk Returns
Bixby-Brandon Productions, New World Television, USA, 1988. 

The TV-series "The Incredible Hulk" was followed by trilogy of TV-movies. At the moment I have two of those.

David Banner (Bill Bixby) (not Bruce as in the comics) has been living peacefully for a few years. Thinking about his girlfriend Maggie (Lee Purcell) has kept the angry side persona Hulk from appearing. But one day David plans to use new revolutionary Gamma Transponder to destroy Hulk once and for all. 

Maggie and David Banner

Gamma Transponder

Donald Blake

But before he can do that, Donald Blake (Steve Levitt) visits him and shows an old hammer he found in Norway. It is more than just a cool souvenir, as Blake can use the hammer to call a mighty viking warrior Thor (Eric Allan Kramer). Odin has ordered Thor to do heroic acts before he can enter Valhalla. Still Donald has similar problems as David, as Thor has become a part of his personality.  Perplexed by modern technology, Thor breaks expensive equipment in the laboratory. That makes David turn into a green monster man Hulk (Lou Ferrigno). Hulk angry!

Hulk

Thor

After mutual buttkicking, Thor and Hulk decide to be friends. In the 1980s there are no monsters to battle, so Blake takes homesick Thor to the biker bar. This is how to have fun in the 1980s! Chugging beer, flirting with girls and picking a random bar fight makes Thor feel at home. As a small sideplot nosy reporter Jack McGee (Jack Colvin) tries to expose Hulk's identity but Thor helps David remain incognito.

Jack McGee

But the superheroes need something important to do. Spies try to steal the Gamma Transponder. Jack (Tim Thomerson) and his henchmen Mike (Charles Napier) and Barner (Carl Ciarfalio) get pounded by Hulk first, but then they decide to kidnap David and Maggie. The bad boys manage only to kidnap the later as David turns into Hulk and also Thor comes to help.

Mike, Jack and Barner

Hulk & Thor

As this is and not a modern ADHD-adventure, the style is quite different. The superpowers are quite limited nad Thor is not a God but a strong Viking warrior. This is a clasical style TV-scifi drama with moodiness of David Banner being balanced by jovial Thor. Lou Ferrigno does very little acting here, his work is to look angry and do the action scenes, with Bill Bixby taking care of the drama. The overall tone is quite melancholic with David never cetting along with his angry side, whereas Donald and Thor find a balance. Also it was a new idea to put two Marvel superheroes in the same film. Fans of vintage TV-shows and classical style superhero stories should enjoy this.

Rating: Good

Starring: Bill Bixby, Lou Ferrigno, Jack Colvin, Lee Purcell, Charles Napier, John Gabriel, Jay Baker, Tim Thomerson, Eric Allan Kramer, Steve Levitt, William Riley, Tom Finnegan, Donald Willis, Carl Ciarfalio, Bobby McLaughlin, Burke Denis, Nick Costa, Peisha Arten, William Malone, Joan Douglas, John Novak
Directors: Nicholas Corea, Bill Bixby

Movie Review: Kill Zombie! a.k.a Zombibi

Kill Zombie! a.k.a Zombibi a.k.a. Shouf Shouf Zombibi
Launch Works, Talent United Film & TV, The Netherlands, 2012.

Aziz (Yahya Gaier) is a office worker who gets a date with her dream girl Tess (Nadia Poeschmann). Aziz's no-good brother Mo (Mimoun Ouled Radi) gets him fired. Also a fight at Mo's party gets them in slammer with tough but dumb guys Jeffrey (Sergio Hasselbaink) and Nolan (Uriah Arnhem). There is also a man in suit named Joris (Noel Deelen). In consequence Aziz's date is ruined. Sad. 

Tess and Aziz

While the boys sit in cell a falling space station causes a zombie apocalypse. Tough cop Kim (Gigi Ravelli) and the guys try to survive. Tess is trapped in the office buidling so she must be saved. But Joris has big plans about bank robbery. With the law gone nothing can go wrong, right?

Joris, Mo, Nolan, Aziz and Jeffrey

Kim

"Zombieland" and "Shaun of the Dead" inspired several zombie-comedies, some good and some worse. Another non-English zombie-film that benefited from the ethnic setting was Cuban horror-comedy "Juan of the Dead." Dutch splatter-comedy has gory action although zombie blood is green. The oddball characters are quite fun.  Aziz is the regular good guy who has a goofy brother Mo. Kim is a tough and gorgeous lady cop. Nolan gets his fingers stuck in bowling ball, but finds it a good weapon to smash zombie heads. Jeffrey on the other hand prefers using highly unpractical weapons.

Even less practical weapon than it seems

Zombie playground

The Kebab-guys the Barachi's (Yesser Roshdy and Iliass Ojja) are kick-ass but why on-earth they had a tame zombie in their trunk? Who cares, it was still a funny scene. The jumpy transitions leave some things open, but the plot itself treads on the familiar territory. The Dutch setting, weird humour and the absurdity of the situations spice up the story and make it fun to watch although it often feels nodding too much to the other similar films. Some Dutch celebrities appear: Dutch singer Ben Saunders has a bad day and Dutch newscaster Jan de Hoop is impersonated by imitator Carlo Boszhard.

The Barachi's

Ben Saunders

Rating: Good

Starring: Yahya Gaier, Mimoun Ouled Radi, Gigi Ravelli, Sergio Hasselbaink, Uriah Arnhem, Noel Deelen, Nadia Poeschmann, Carlo Boszhard, Yesser Roshdy, Iliass Ojja, Frans van Deursen, Kees Boot, Wart Kamps, Tim Kamps, Loek Peters, Michiel Romeyn, Edo Brunner, Remy Bonjasky, Rik Sinkeldam, Ben Saunders, Kenan Raven, Patrick Neumann, Theo Struijk, Isabel Toren, Wouter Braaf, Jan Doense, Bernd Neunzling 

Directors: Martijn Smits, Erwin van den Eshof