BRUTAL ANDROID SOLDIERS

UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (2012)
D. JOHN HYAMS
MAGNET RELEASING

This was a huge surprise. We popped this on expecting some silly action thrills, nothing too heady or taxing. What we got was an action movie by way of Gasper Noe. Everything in this production is bigger, bolder, more wild and deeply dark. The opening scene sucker punches you and it rarely lets up from there.

Martial artist Scott Atkins is the actual lead this time around, playing a special forces soldier. He has a great family and loves his job. That is until Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme playing the villain here) storms his house, murders his family and leaves him for dead. When our hero gets out of the hospital some months later he goes after the paramilitary group that killed his family. 

The story is actually a great deal more complex than that. But where the movie excels is in the direction and cinematography department. Which should come as no surprise since director John Hyams is the son of Peter Hyams (who in fact directed Van Damme in TIMECOP). The camera prowls and climbs, often sitting right behind character's heads just like in ENTER THE VOID. Nothing is ever covered from an expected vantage point. But when it comes time for the fight scenes the movie really shines. None of that Hollywood seven million cuts in one scene business. These are covered well but with minimal editing so you can get the feel and impact of the violence. Another trick Hyams uses is to use "ramp motion" where the footage starts at normal speed, slows way down, then speeds up when someone makes contact, then back to normal speed. He also does the old MONTY PYTHON trick of cutting out a frame or two upon the impact of a punch. It makes it look like it landed, very hard. 

The movie is also hyper violent. So violent in fact that the movie had to be re-edited to get an R rating. This hasn't happened for a while since the MPAA loosens their grip a little bit. So that actually shows you how brutal this is. 

Dolph Lungren is back in a couple of scenes still playing a super soldier, and Van Damme is just tearing up the screen as the bad guy. If you had told me even ten years ago Van Damme would make good on his career AND deliver good performances, I would ha said you were crazy. But here its (see his other recent film 6 BULLETS for more of Van Damme carrying his weight). Scott Atdkins is surprisingly decent as a leading man too.

Basically if you are an action fan of any sort it is criminal to miss this movie.

Review © Andrew Copp

RED BAND TRAILER

A Fist full of AGGRESSION

THE AGGRESSION SCALE (2012)
D. STEVEN C. MILLER
ANCHOR BAY ENT. 
2.35 - 1

This tightly wound little thriller literally hits the ground running when hit-man Lloyd (Dana Ashbrook from TWIN  PEAKS) enters a suburban home and calmly blows the person out the front door with as shotgun in front of their kids. After a couple more equally bloody and unsettling murders we come to find out he is working for local mob boss Mr. Bellevance (Ray Wise). Seems someone has absconded with $500,000 of his money and he is none to happy about it. If Lloyd doesn't get the money in 48 hours, he gets put under the ground.

Then we meet slowly fracturing, newly thrown together family. Bill (Boyd Kestner)and Maggie (Lisa Rotondi) have just gotten married and are moving their two teen aged children up to a new house to start over. The kids are not happy about it. The daughter Lauren (Fabianne Therese) is a typical spoiled bitch who is complaining about everything. But their son Owen (Ryan Hartwig) is a different sort of child, clearly autistic and introverted, he never utters a word throughout the film. But we get wind early on that something is brewing inside of him when he kills a spider with a makeshift blowgun...

Before long Lloyd and his brutal gang of thugs (Including Derek Meyers from the FRIDAY THE 13th remake and THE HILLS HAVE EYES remake) are there killing their way through the supporting cast, but what they didn't count on was the Owen is actually the concern of the title.

What transpires id that this young boy with extreme autism, is actually as dangerous, if not more so, than these thugs and killers. That he has been training himself for survival strategies and this whole situation becomes an extremely bloody game for him.

It would be easy to dismiss THE AGGRESSION SCALE as HOME ALONE for adults. That is the easiest short hand for it. But that also cheapens what is one of the freshest, most exciting thrillers I have watched since HANNA (2011). Constantly exciting, lean and to the point, viciously brutal and uncompromising, it is edge of your seat stuff. Sure there are missteps along the way. Owen's actions are sometimes way too exacting, with him having the forethought to do things that ONLY make sense if he were to know the script itself. The daughter, Lauren, gets really annoying with her teenage angst early on, but thankfully the films spends very little time with that before getting to the action. 

The movie is getting really bad reviews on the IMDB, which just furthers my opinion that the people who leave comments and reviews there are trolls. Check this one out, it is well worth your time.  Review © Andrew Copp