King of Killers, Starring Frank Grillo and Alain Moussi

If Jorg Drakos were more like big tech or big unions, he would just bribe politicians to regulate his competition out of business. Instead, the notorious assassin plans to personally usher his rivals into an early retirement. Should any hitman survive his unlikely tournament, they win 10,000,000 dollars. That money would help Marcus Garan care for his sick daughter, Kimberly, but Drakos might also hold some answers regarding the murder of Garan’s wife in Kevin Grevioux’s King of Killers, which opens Friday in New York.

After his wife’s untimely demise, Garan walked away from contract killing, but he needs money fast for Kimberly’s heart surgery. According to mystery man Roman Korza’s initial pitch, Garan was supposedly hired to kill Drakos. Then he discovers Drakos has set up this little assassin convention for his own satisfaction, to decide who is really the best of the best. He has lured them to a Tokyo highrise (it looks more like a mid-sized building in Cleveland, but whatever), which he tricked-out with secret mirrors and traps. The idea is the draw numbers to face him, like the Minotaur in the labyrinth, one by one, but Garan quickly figures out they need to break the rules to survive.

King of Killers (that’s Drakos’s nickname) is based on Grevioux’s graphic novel, but the narrative itself is pretty straightforward, in a meatheaded kind of way. However, it builds to an improbable twist ending that implies some extraordinarily irresponsible risk-taking. Nevertheless, it clearly teases an intended sequel that I would be totally down for.

Despite its moronic attempts at cleverness, King of Killers still has some terrific fight scenes. Frankly, this is probably Alain Moussi’s best showcase since the underappreciated Kickboxer reboots. He definitely has the right chops for Garan. Likewise, Frank Grillo chews the scenery spectacularly as Drakos, who is way more amusing than most shadowy super-villains.

One Day as a Lion, Co-Starring Frank Grillo and J.K. Simmons

Pauly Russo would probably agree with Texans about why all their trees lean to the North. Adjusting to Oklahoma is a challenge for the Brooklyn mobster. The dry heat is annoying, but folks’ laidback sensibilities are even more so. His plan to whack a cowboy in no hurry to pay off his gambling debts leads to a lot of trouble for everyone in John Swab’s One Day as a Lion, which opens today in select theaters and releases Friday on VOD.

Jackie Powers is a big time loser, but it is actually his son Billy who is behind bars. Technically, it is juvy, but Powers knows if he can’t get his son out quickly, he will get chewed up by the system. To earn money for an attorney, Powers agrees to kill Walter Boggs, who owes Russo more than is good for business. Unfortunately, Powers makes a hash of it, accidentally killing an obnoxious short-order cook in the crossfire. Of course, Boggs is fine—and he will be ready for Russo when the gangster-creditor comes calling.

Assuming himself to be on the run, Powers tries to take Lola Brisky the diner waitress hostage, but he cannot really handle her either. However, Brisky sees an opportunity to use him for her advantage. If he can convince her judgmental but wealthy mother Valerie, “the Black Widow,” they are a couple, there could be money in it for both of them. To do so, they must evade Russo’s fixer, Dom Lorenzo, who needs Powers to give himself up, to take the heat off Russo’s outfit.

In the 1990s, when “indie film” was thought to mean something, screenwriter-star Scott Caan’s combination of hardboiled snarky dialogue and gritty gunplay would have been considered an important cinematic statement. Today, it’s the stuff of straight-to-VOD releases. Yet, this kind of material can be just as entertaining now as it was then.

To that end, Caan’s script is just okay, but three of his co-stars do a lot to elevate it. Frank Grillo and J.K. Simmons are perfectly cast and impeccably compliment each as the brash Russo and the sly, deadpan Boggs. The two do gangster attitude better than just about anyone.

Operation Seawolf, Starring Dolph Lundgren and Frank Grillo

By Presidential order, there were two U.S. Navy ships with majority African American crews during WWII, so the submarine chaser depicted in this film is not the total historical gaffe you might assume. The mission it is trying to foil is completely fictional, but not because the German U-boat corps would have had any issues targeting civilians. They just never made it this far in real-life. Time is running out for the Axis, but a strike on New York City could turn the tide of the war in Steven Luke’s Operation Seawolf, which releases Tuesday on DVD.

Captain Hans Kessler is a disillusioned old school officer, but even with his heavy drinking, he is the best man available for the last-ditch mission. However, it is hard for his new first officer to see it that way. Lt. Reinhart was demoted, to make way for Kessler. He is supposed to lead a wolfpack of U-boats close enough to the City to launch a V2 rocket attack from their decks, once they surface.

Fortunately, Commander Race Ingram knows their coming, so he will deploy the Tenth Fleet to stop them. For the first time ever, Capt. Samuel Gravely’s ship, based on the USS Mason (DE-529) will be part of the hunt. Luke fudges the historical record a little with that last part, but plenty of WWII films have taken greater dramatic license.

Dolph Lundgren gets to show more dramatic range than usual as Kessler. Indeed, he is perfectly cast as the commanding but world-weary (and super-blond) officer. On the other hand, Frank Grillo is grossly underutilized as Ingram, who basically spends the entire film in the war room, reading coded messages and barking orders. It wouldn’t really make sense for his character to come face-to-face with Kessler, but it is still disappointing Grillo and Lundgren appear in the same film, but never share a scene together.

Hiram A. Murray is similarly confined to the bridge of his ship playing Capt. Gravely. He also carries himself with a convincing military bearing, which rather makes sense, since he is a Marine Corp veteran. However, the sequences aboard Gravely’s Destroyer do not look as realistic as those within Kessler’s U-boat, which were shot inside the decommissioned and preserved USS Cod.

Stowaway, Co-Starring Frank Grillo

The Bella is not as big as those Russian oligarchs’ yachts with helicopter ports and bowling alleys, but it is still more boat than most people could handle or afford. It therefore comes as quite a surprise to Bella Denton when she inherits it from her estranged father and even more of a shock when it is hijacked with her aboard in Declan Whitebloom’s Stowaway (a.k.a. The Yacht), which is now playing in New York.

Denton has lived a hard punky life, but apparently her late father wanted to make up for it. According to his dodgy business partner, Ed Meeser, Bella is now the owner of the Bella—or at least she will be in the morning, once certain maritime probate issues are cleared. Therefore, she is not allowed to crash there overnight, but she does so anyway when she picks up free-spirited Michael at the marina bar.

Of course, it all comes down to a cat-and-mouse game between Denton and the mercenary brothers who hijacked the luxury yacht. However, she might have an ally in Lawson, her father’s loyal captain, whom the hijackers forced to assist their scheme.

Ruby Rose is becoming a specialist in direct-to-VOD action movies, with mixed results. The Doorman is a lot of fun and SAS: Red Notice also has its merits, but Vanquish is almost unwatchable. Unfortunately, Stowaway is closer in quality to the latter than the former two. Perhaps most problematically, Denton is not established as any kind of credibly trained action protag, just a former delinquent, who picked up a few moves in juvy.

Ian Hayden’s screenplay also takes way too long to get going and it lacks a big, satisfying action centerpiece. The key-art clearly implies Meeser is a bad guy, but even if viewers haven’t seen it, the small cast of characters makes it blindingly obvious. Plus, it is rather tiresome to see the Coast Guard portrayed as totally unintuitive incompetents.

Copshop: Grillo vs. Butler

The drunk tank always looked like such a safe place when Otis crashed there on the Andy Griffith Show. Unfortunately, a rather unsavory character will avail himself of such hospitality at the Gun Creek police station. Nobody will be safe as long as he is there, but his competition is even worse in Joe Carnahan’s Copshop, which is now playing in New York.

Val Young is a cop who knows guns, but Teddy Murretto still manages to sucker punch her during a routine call. At least he apologized immediately after. The people who were chasing him are highly motivated, so his is happy to temporarily settle for the safety of a police cell and treatment for his minor gun-shot wound. Soon thereafter, Bob Viddick barrels into Murretto’s abandoned car, so the investigating troopers will book him into the station too. It was all part of his plan to get close to Murretto.

Viddick seems to operate according to some kind of hitman’s code, so Young might have been able to handle him. However, when Anthony Lamb, Viddick’s psychotic colleague also crashes the party, all bets are off.

Carnahan and co-screenwriter Kurt McLeod take the general situation of Rio Bravo, add the confined Die Hard-style action set-pieces and give them a Guy Ritchie-esque treatment—and frankly it all works like a well-oiled machine. The film eventually hinges on the question whether Young should trust an admitted killer like Viddick or an exploitative wheeler-dealer like Murretto, but the film and the audience both know she can only really rely on herself.

Frank Grillo is terrific oozing slime as Murretto. He should be a name-above-the-title star by now and maybe Copshop will bring him a step closer. Gerard Butler does usual tough guy thing as Viddick, but that is basically just what the doctor ordered. Grillo definitely brings more color and flamboyance, but they both more or less project an equal sense of danger. However, Alexis Louder out badasses everyone as Young, in what should turn out to be a star-making role.

In fact, the entire ensemble is quite distinctive, most definitely including Chad L. Coleman. He earns quite a bit of laughs as the overbearing Sgt. Duane Mitchell, but never at the expense of gritty cop cred. Toby Huss delivers a different sort outrageous gallows humor as Lamb, the off-the-rails assassin. It is quite a deep supporting cast, with memorable contributions also coming from Jose Cantillo, as Young’s buddy, Officer Pena and Ryan O’Nan, playing Huber, the mess-up on the Gun Creek PD.

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard: Also Starring Frank Grillo

Brexit just keeps looking better and better, doesn’t it? Currently, the UK is far out-performing the EU when it comes to vaccinations. It should also be safely out of the crosshairs when a Greek super-patriot hatches an apocalyptic scheme to avenge Brussels’ policies that humbled his country. Europe’s only hope rests in the three characters referenced in the title of Patrick Hughes’ The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, which is now playing in actual theaters.

In The Hitman’s Bodyguard, bodyguard Michael Bryce protected his old contract-killer nemesis long enough to testify against an Alexander Lukashenko-like dictator at The Hague, but he is still haunted by Darius Kincaid’s assassination of his most important client. His shrink wants him to move on to safer employment, but Kincaid’s wife Sonia pulls him back in to save her husband (against both of their wishes).

Even though Bryce has temporarily sworn off guns, he and Ms. Kincaid successfully rescue her hubby from the Euro gangster holding him. Inconveniently, they also kill him before Interpol Agent Bobby O’Neil can recover the sensitive European infrastructure information he acquired for the shadowy mastermind. It turns out the villain is Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Papdopolous, who needs a briefcase full of codes linked to an explosive device that winds up strapped to Sonia’s wrist.

Like its predecessor, HWB is definitely a meathead movie, but it is a rare sequel that manages to be funnier than the original. Obviously, Samuel L. Jackson does his F-bomb-dropping thing as Kincaid—and it is still works as well as ever. Ryan Reynolds probably gets even more laughs as the wildly neurotic Bryce. However, Salma Hayek (who was conspicuously under-utilized in the first film) steals the show as the spectacularly foul-mouthed and hair-trigger-tempered Sonia Kincaid. She is a riot, pretty much literally.

Cosmic Sin, Starring Bruce Willis & Frank Grillo

The "Dark Forest Theory” suggests any intelligent civilization in the universe should try to remain undetected from any potential rivals, who would most likely consider them an existential threat to their own survival and act accordingly. The military of the Earth-based Alliance generally subscribes to this theory. Unfortunately, the strange hive-like aliens clearly do as well. They appear to have a higher level of technology, but we have Bruce Willis and Frank Grillo, so its more or less equal in Edward Drake’s Cosmic Sin, which releases this Friday on VOD.

When a rebellion threatened to fracture the Alliance, Gen. James Ford put it down permanently by dropping a quantum Q-bomb. Ever since then, he was dishonorably discharged and derided as the “Blood General.” However, hawkish colonists on the edge of the frontier still regard him as a folk hero. Logically, when the outer colonies were attacked by an alien race, Gen. Ryle, the latest grizzled, hardnosed military commander recruits his predecessor to do whatever needs to be done.

The plan, such as it is, involves an elite squad (including Ford and Ryle, so take that Picard, you armchair captain), strapping into quantum mecha suits and basting off to the war zone with another Q-bomb. To make the line-up even more unlikely, it will also include Ryle’s hard-charging soldier son Braxton and Ford’s judgmental scientist ex-wife, who radiates contempt for the military she serves. Fortunately, Sol Cantos, the leader of the remnant of human resistance they link up with is more on-board with the whole saving humanity program.

Drake also wrote the recent Willis vehicle Breach, so maybe someday in the future film scholars will write scholarly books about the great Breach-Cosmic Sin duology. If so, it will probably have to be the French. At least, Sin more unambiguously sides with humanity against the alien menace. Indeed, the Dark-Forest-Hunting aliens explicitly undermine touchy-feely liberal idealism with their own war-mongering words.

Boss Level: Frank Grillo Tears It Up

Pretty soon there will be a movie about an actor who gets stuck in a time-loop while making a film about someone stuck in a time-loop, so we can’t be sure whether it is the time-loop or the script repeating itself. That day is not today, but believe it or not, the time-loop gimmick can still feel fresh, if it involves enough action and attitude. That is exactly what happens in Joe Carnahan’s Boss Level, which premieres today on Hulu.

Roy Pulver is a bit confused by the motley crew of assassins that keep killing him, but even more so when he continues waking-up at 7:00 AM, to repeat the experience over and over again. He is former Special Forces, so he pretty formidable himself, but the constant grind of it all is starting to wear him down. Eventually, he realizes his genius scientist ex-wife Jemma Wells (whom he still loves, despite his frat boy behavior) may have put him into the mad science Macguffin  to right some kind of wrong.

Sadly, he cannot ask her about it, since she was just murdered while working late in the lab. However, he can still protect his son Joe, who only knows him as a family friend, at least until the world ends each evening, sending him right back to 7:00 AM again.

Boss Level wears its vintage video game inspiration on its sleeve, but it is much more than a nostalgic tribute to Streetfighter and the like. There is a whole lot of humor, heartfelt family values, and old school action baked in. As Pulver, Frank Grillo looks and acts like grittiness personified and he has really satisfying chemistry with Naomi Watts and Rio Grillo (maybe that one shouldn’t be too surprising) as Wells and young Joe, respectively.

Jiu Jitsu: Nic Cage, Tony Jaa, and Juju Chan Fight an Alien

You probably thought Jiu-jitsu originated in Japan, influenced, by Buddhist, Taoist, and Shinto teachings, later developing a Brazilian offshoot in the 1920s. Well, how wrong you were. Actually, an alien brought it to earth through a Stargate-like portal in Burma, where he taught it to humans, so he could fight a worthy champion when he returns every six years. If no champion presents himself, the alien just starts killing people until one presents themselves. Jake, a member of the chosen brotherhood used to know that secret history, until he was stricken with amnesia in Dmitri Logothetis’s Jiu Jitsu, which releases tomorrow on DVD.

Jake nearly died fleeing the alien, but an old fishing couple patched him up and dumped him at the American military outpost. Bet you didn’t know we had troops in Burma either. The local Army Intelligence officer is suspicious, but she can’t get anything out of him, because he truly lost his memory. Nevertheless, Kueng comes to break him out, Jake instinctively goes with him.

It is hard to enjoy the first forty minutes or so of Jiu Jitsu, because Jake and his comrades of the Jiu Jitsu Brotherhood spend most of their time fighting and possibly killing American servicemen. The Yanks aren’t even supposed to be the bad guys. It is just sloppy writing from Logothetis and James McGrath (who originally conceived the story as a graphic novel). Heck, the only officer aware of the extraterrestrial goings-on, Captain Sand played by Rick Yune, emerges as a sort of martyr figure, which just proves how confused the script gets.

Of course, it blatantly “borrows” elements from Predator, Mortal Kombat, and Beyond Skyline (which also co-starred Frank Grillo, but was much better in nearly every respect). However, Logothetis (who produced the Kickboxer reboots) fully stocks the film with talented marital arts performers. As a result, the final hour is pretty entertaining, because it gives just about everyone a chance to go toe-to-toe with “Brax,” the alien warrior.

Frankly, this a better showcase for Tony Jaa than he has had in a while. (Too often, he has just appeared as a guest star in a cool fight, only to get killed off or written out of the rest of the film, as in Paradox). At least, he figures prominently in the third act here. Likewise, Juju Chan gets a chance to show off her chops. Technically, she also provides a love interest for Jake, but that is not really developed until the third act either. Unfortunately, Grillo’s big solo fight is surprisingly short, but up-and-coming martial arts thesp Marrese Crump makes the most of his duel with Brax—it is impressive work, probably making him the biggest winner of the film (if not his ill-fated character, Forbes).

Beyond Skyline: The Sequel We Didn’t Know We Needed

Technically, the stunning Hindu temple compound Prambanan is in Indonesia, not Laos, but that is a mere detail. Wherever it is, it shelters one of the most effective remnants of human resistance after the alien invasion. Yet, they are still mostly concentrating on simple survival until an extremely ticked-off LA cop is inadvertently dropped into their midst in Liam O’Donnell’s Beyond Skyline (trailer here), which is now playing in New York.

Nobody really loved Skyline in 2010, but some observers were impressed by the visual dazzle rendered by the Hydraulx special effects house founded by the co-directors, the Strause Brothers. This time, the Strauses concentrated on VFX and producing duties, allowing O’Donnell (a co-screenwriter and co-producer of the first installment) to take over the director’s chair. It turns out, this is a much better distribution of labor, because Beyond is a gleeful helping of meathead sci-fi.

Mark Corley has been on leave from the LAPD since the death of his beloved wife Rose, but he still periodically pulls himself out of the bottle and into the station to bail-out his lashing-out “new adult” son Trent. They were headed home on the subway when the aliens started sucking all the people out of Los Angeles. Soon, they regroup with Audrey the conductor and a couple of Corley’s colleagues, but despite their best efforts, they still get whisked into the mother ship.

As viewers of the original know, abducted humans have their brains removed and inserted into robotic exo-skeletons, so they can serve as slave drones. However, the dude from Skyline ’10 fully maintained his consciousness and agency. When Corley blunders into him, he is still protecting his wife, whose pregnancy has been unnaturally accelerated by the aliens. In fact, Corley will deliver the fast-growing baby girl, pledging to protect her.

Thanks to alienified Jarrod, they bring the mother ship down right smack-dab in the center of the Golden Triangle. As the alien ship regenerates itself, Corley and Audrey forge an alliance with Sua and Kanya, sibling drug-runners turned resistance leaders. They have an extensive network of shelters underneath Prambanan. They also have a lot of guns, but the secret to mankind’s survival might very well be found in the genetically altered child’s blood.

Beyond Skyline really is the sequel we didn’t think we needed or wanted, but turned out to be exponentially better than the original. There have been plenty of sequels that were better the originals they followed, but the Skyline duology might represent the greatest increase in quality and entertainment value. It is easy to understand why from the one-sheet, which does not lie—Frank Grillo, along with Iko Uwais and Yayan “Mad Dog” Ruhian from The Raid lay a martial arts beat down on the aliens. Plus, Singapore TV star Pamelyn Chee gets to show off some action chops as Kanya.

Grillo was born to play damaged hardnosed characters like Corley, but he also develops some nice chemistry with Bojana Novakovic’s Audrey. He also has some nice moments with Jacob Vargas playing his former partner. Uwais and Ruhian do not have much opportunity to emote and develop character as Sua and the corrupt “Chief,” but they sure have the moves. Yet, Chee manages to make Kanya fully dimensional and tragically believable, despite all the bedlam exploding around them.

Look, Beyond Skyline is maybe not the only science fiction sequel opening this weekend, but it is guaranteed to blow away your expectations. O’Donnell also deserves credit from learning from the first film’s mistakes. No more shaky cam, so you can see steady full body shots of the fight choreography. Unlike the first film’s downbeat ending, Beyond ends on a note worthy of a John Williams fanfare. Recommended as just a lot of healthy, completely illogical fun, Beyond Skyline is now playing in New York, at the Cinema Village.

Submitted By China: Wolf Warrior 2

Tired of America serving as the “world’s policeman?” Perhaps you would like to have China sub in for a while. Wu Jing is so eager to show us what that might look like, it is downright scary. Yet, somehow, he manages to greatly improve on the first outing for PLA sniper-commando Leng Feng. Things get more personal when his fiancée vanishes while on assignment in Wu’s blockbuster Wolf Warrior 2 (trailer here), China’s no-chance-whatsoever official foreign language Academy Award submission, which releases today on DVD and BluRay.

Believe it or not, Wolfy 2 includes maybe a thimble full of critical domestic social commentary—maybe. As the film opens, Leng Feng and his brothers-in-arms are delivering the ashes of their fallen comrade to his home, only to find his family blocking their shrine from a real estate tycoon’s bulldozer. When the sleazebag threatens to make the surviving relatives’ lives miserable, our favorite Wolf Warrior fixes his attitude problem permanently.

Cashiered out of service and convicted of manslaughter, Leng Feng is unable to protect Long Xiaoyun, his former commanding officer and love-of-his-life, when she is ambushed in Africa. All he has left of her is a bullet with a distinctive decorative design. After his release, he disappears into Africa, hoping to match the vanity bullet to a bad guy. Much to his surprise, he gets emotionally involved with several locals, especially his “godson,” Tundu.

When mercenaries hired by a coup-plotting general start running amok, Leng Feng is there to go rogue. With the unofficial support of the PLA, the ex-Wolf Warrior sets off to rescue Dr. Chen, the modern-day Albert Schweitzer who founded the “Chinese-Invested Hospital” (that seems to be its official name) and then liberate the workers at a Chinese factory under siege, including Tundu’s mother. However, instead of Dr. Chen, he winds up with his colleague, Dr. Rachel Prescott Smith, but old Leng seems to find this a fair trade.

Although Wolfy 2 features an honest to goodness flag-waving scene, it still is not nearly jingoistic as its predecessor (the marketing campaign is another story, since it included key art with Wu flipping the world the bird and the tag line: “anyone who offends China, no matter how remote, must be exterminated.”). Still, it is hard to argue with Leng Feng when he tells Dr. Smith the U.S. Marines have up and evacuated, leaving utter bedlam behind. What can we expect, when we have steadily disengaged from the world, over the last eight-plus years?

Of course, most viewers will be more interested in the action, so they will be happy to hear Wu steps it up considerably from the first film. Action directors Sam Hargrave and Wai-leung Wong stage some gritty, adrenaline-charged fight scenes, but it is the way-over-the-top tank battles that really make the film.

Ironically, Wu Jing is more charismatic and likable this time around, even though his character is supposed to be more jaded and disillusioned with life. He also has all the moves and a deceptively thin, but super-cut physique, making him one of the most credible action stars working today. Frank Grillo brings more gusto as the latest western nemesis than Scott Adkins, but it is former wrestler Oleg Prudius and crossover stunt-performer Heidi Moneymaker who really add villainous flair as hench-mercs, Bear and Athena (you’ll be able to guess which is which). Yu Nan appears briefly as the ill-fated Long, but Chinese American Celine Jade develops better rapport with Wu as Dr. RPS. However, Wu Gang does the most to keep the film grounded as He Jianguo, the factory’s world-weary PLA-veteran security director.

In WW2, Wu blows up crap pretty good. He also gives us a peak of the world we have been sliding into. For eight years, we had a policy of isolationism through multilateralism—meaning if anyone might object to the use American power, we would duly defer. Now we have a more honest “America First” brand of isolationism, but it is just as likely to put China in charge mediating the world’s disputes. Wu Jing says they are ready and Jade has a hard time disagreeing. Recommended for the action, not the messaging (but perhaps as a wake-up call), Wolf Warrior 2 is now available on DVD and BluRay.

Demonic, Produced by James Wan

A swampy Baton Rouge location will make any haunted house scarier, but this one happens to have an especially nasty ritualistic history. You know it must be frightening, because it carries the imprimatur of James Wan, arguable the most successful horror filmmaker of the last ten years. To make even creepier, it boasts an alleged real deal predator as an executive producer—Harvey Weinstein of course. His brother Bob was always the go-to guy for their Dimension genre releases, so his grossness really shouldn’t tarnish this rather scrappy exercise in supernatural horror. History is out to repeat itself in Will Canon’s Demonic (trailer here), which releases today on DVD.

In 1988, Martha Livingston killed four of her friends and then committed suicide as part of a Satanic ritual. Sometime around the present day, six young people visited her spooky old house, hoping to raise the spirits of her victims. We would know this was a spectacularly bad idea, even if the film’s flashback structure did not reveal three of them are already dead. First on the scene, Det. Mark Lewis discovers the deeply disturbed John, who could either be a victim or the perp. It turns out he has a close connection to the previous murders. His mother was the one that got away in 1988. His pregnant girlfriend Michelle and her jerky ghost-chasing ex also happen to be the two who are presently unaccounted for.

Soon, he will turn over his interrogation to police head-shrinker Dr. Elizabeth Klein, with whom he was supposed to have a date that night. The horrific events will unfold for viewers through John’s flashbacks and the bits and piece of footage restored from the team’s many surveillance cameras.

It is baffling why TWC-Dimension gave Dimension such shabby distribution, especially since it comes with the Wan branding. Despite the stupid twentynothings, this is a pretty good horror film for adults, because of the professional demeanor and personal chemistry shared by Lewis and Klein. Frank Grillo and Maria Bello are both terrific as our intrepid investigators. They act like grown-ups but still have very attractive yet seasoned screen presences.

As for the immature victims, they are mostly functional grist for the mill, but Aaron Yoo adds some awkward eccentricity as their socially stunted computer guy. It also should be stipulated, the surprise survivor who turns out to be the evil entity helps make the most of the terrifying revelation.

Unlike most supernatural horror films, Demonic adds elements of the mystery genre rather adroitly. Klein and Lewis are also unusually strong genre characters, so it is too bad Demonic’s theatrical release was squandered, thereby making a franchise based around them highly unlikely. Sure, the ending is a little nuts, but that is how it goes with haunted house-possession movies. Recommended for horror fans, Demonic releases today on DVD.

The Crash: Hacking the Markets to Save the Markets

As a private citizen, J.P. Morgan quelled the Panic of 1907 and basically saved the American financial system. In 1910, he participated in the Jekyll Island meetings that ultimately led to the creation of the Federal Reserve, so he wouldn’t have to go through that hassle again. Ever since then, the Fed has been the focus of conspiracy theories from the right and the left. Fuel will be added to the Occupy-Birchian flames when Aram Rappaport’s The Crash (trailer here) opens this Friday in New York.

The markets have been hacked—all of them, even the Miami MIAX. Thanks to the gloating terrorist chatter, the Treasury Department knows they only have a few days to avert a market meltdown. Out of desperation, Sec. Sarah Schwab (now there's a financial name) cuts a deal with bad boy money man Guy Clifton to save our butts. He was once the golden boy for bailing out the city of Chicago, but he is currently facing prosecution for hacking the NYSE, which indeed he did.

Of course, he didn’t do it alone. With the government’s blessing, Clifton recruits the same team of programmers, coders, and magical typists to put together a similar operation, but on a grander scale. Technically, it often his wife Shannon who does the recruiting, because many of his former associates are not too keen to work with him again. She is not thrilled with him either, but it would not help their critically ill daughter Creason’s survivability chances if her father went to prison.

We quickly learn the mastermind behind all the hacks is none other than Fed Chairman Del Banco (his name is literally “the Bank”), his own oily self, in cahoots with the big banks that took bailout money. In fact, the whole scheme is really TARP II. The bailed-out banks will short everything including the kitchen sink leading up to the crash, after which they will bargain hunt like mad. In return, they agree to keep interest rates low and credit flowing. It is an intriguing scheme that arguably makes the film hard to pigeon-hole in traditional right-left terms. It is also great fun to watch the reliably entertaining Christopher McDonald chew the scenery as Del Banco.

Proving good guys can be colorful too, Frank Grillo and Minnie Driver share some terrific tart-tongued chemistry as Guy and Shannon Clifton. They are almost Nick & Nora-like. However, the whole subplot involving the terminally ill daughter (who naturally starts a relationship with Clifton’s resentful ex-protégé is needlessly manipulative). John Leguizamo is just cringe-inducing as the wheelchair bound cyber-jockey George Diebold (just like the voting machines) and Maggie Q is scandalously wasted as his long-suffering nurse.

In the closing titles, The Crash reminds us there has been a financial crisis approximately every ten years since the Fed was established. That is technically true, but aside from the Great Depression, we haven’t seen bank runs and chaos like the Panic of 1907 since then. Regardless, Grillo, Driver, and McDonald elevate the paranoid LaRouche-Democracy Now subject matter. It is sort of all over the place, but it is always watchable. For fans of Paul Erdman thrillers (whose faults it shares), The Crash opens this Friday (1/13) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

Kingdom: MMA Family Values

This is one family drama that could not take place in New York, because that pesky ban on mixed martial arts bouts remains in effect. Instead, the Kulina family weighs-in in Venice, California, where hardnoses and stoners live in close proximity. Time will tell whether the family that cage-fights together, stays together in creator-showrunner Byron Balasco’s Kingdom (promo here), which premieres on DirecTV’s Audience Network this coming Wednesday.

Alvey Kulina came up in the wild and woolly days of MMA, faring just well enough to earn a small but devoted fanbase. Retired from the ring, but still seriously bad, Kulina now owns and operates Navy St. MMA, where he trains the general public and potential contenders alike. Currently, the best fighter in his gym is his youngest son, Nate. Kulina’s eldest son Jay also used to train at Navy St., but his father gave him the boot because of his bad attitude and hard partying.

Into their lives some drama will fall when Ryan Wheeler is released from prison. Kulina used to manage the natural born fighter, but Wheeler abruptly dumped him just as his career ignited. When Wheeler’s drug-fueled rage landed him a stint up the river, his girlfriend Lisa Prince understandably cut her losses. Regretfully, he came to realize she was probably “the one,” but she has since become involved with Alvey Kulina. So yeah, awkward. There also happen to be a couple of drug dealers out for revenge after the beatdown old man Kulina lays on them in the opening minutes of the show. He’s such a badass, he hardly gives it any thought, but they seem rather put out by it.

Without question, Frank Grillo (from Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Warrior) is the key piece to this puzzle. He has all kinds of grit and presence as the senior Kulina, bringing legit action chops to the party as well. Frankly, Kingdom is a perfect example why you need to see a fair number of episodes before passing judgment on a series, because Jay Kulina is like fingernails on the blackboard in the first episode, but in the next three installments, Jonathan Tucker gets a solid handle on the character, making his irresponsible self-destructiveness sympathetic and sometimes even fun.

Likewise, Kiele Sanchez’s Prince initially only seems to be around to lecture Alvey regarding money issues as Navy St.’s business manager, but she develops in insightful ways, particularly with respects to the older Kulina siblings. There is an understanding she probably has more in common with the Kulina brothers, but finds herself a maternal role, by virtue of her relationship with the father. Unfortunately, Nick Jonas’s moody energy-killing brooding is still pretty boring, but there is time to figure out something better for Nate to do.

Frankly, given Prince’s proactive nature and the surprisingly high ratio of interpersonal drama to MMA, Kingdom appears to be targeting women as much as men. There are certainly plenty of shirtless guys, but there is also some well staged MMA sequences and the occasional bit of female nudity, in order to establish its cable-satellite edginess.

Not surprisingly, as a blend of MMA and family melodrama, Kingdom is somewhat uneven, but briskly watchable, firmly held together by Grillo’s grizzled coolness. At risk of abusing metaphors, you might argue it wins a split decision. Sort of a slightly guilty pleasure for fans of the sport, Kingdom premieres this Wednesday (10/8) on DirecTV’s Audience Network.