Daughter of the Wolf: Gina Carano Faces Wolves and Richard Dreyfuss

Wolves hunt in packs. MMA stars battle mano a mano or in cages, whereas cranky old people fight with everybody. All three will go at each other in David Hackl’s wilderness-revenge genre-outing, Daughter of the Wolf, which opens this Friday in Brooklyn.

Sometime back in the day, Clair Hamilton’s father did wrong by the psychotic backwoods clan patriarch known simply as “Father,” so his family of dubiously adopted rejects has kidnapped her boring pre-teen son Charlie, demanding her secret cash inheritance as ransom. Of course, Father has no intention of returning the surly boy. However, a Special Forces veteran like Hamilton will not be a pushover. With the reluctant help of one of Father’s “sons,” Hamilton will track the vengeful old codger and her son, while hungry, baying wolves circle both parties.

Admittedly, Hackl is no Caroll Ballard (and this film is no Never Cry Wolf), but Into the Grizzly Maze was a seriously entertaining B-movie, so it is rather disappointing Daughter does not have similar energy and attitude. Even with a credible action lead like Gina Carano, the film mostly plods along lifelessly. The tiresome semi-estranged mother-son relationship certainly does not help. There are also plenty of questionable motivations and decision-making that undermine audience’s willingness to suspend disbelief.

Carano has chops and decent screen presence, but Daughter is definitely a step backwards for her. As Father, Richard Dreyfuss (the Oscar-winning star of Goodbye Girl and Jaws) chews more scenery than Pac-Man, but the tone of his performance is more strident than entertaining. Beyond the two marquee antagonists, it is rather difficult to tell unshaven, greasy-haired thugs apart from each other.

Frankly, most viewers will root for the wolves. They are probably the most sympathetic characters. Hackl and the animal-wrangling team stage some reasonably impressive wolf-pack attacks, but that is about all the film has going for it.

Even though Carano is the lead and on-screen most of the time, Daughter makes poor use of her martial arts skills, which is really its biggest scene. As a result, it is far likelier to frustrate her fans, rather than satisfying them. Mostly disappointing, Daughter of the Wolf opens Friday (6/14) in Brooklyn, at the Kent Theatre.

Scorched Earth: Gina Carano, Bounty Hunter

In the post-apocalyptic future, the West will be Old again. Bounty-hunter Attica Gage rides out of New Montana, tracking down outlaws for money and silver, the key ingredient for life-preserving air filters. Gage goes undercover in Elijah Jackson’s decency-defying enclave of outlaws for the sake of bounties, but she will stay to extract some old school vengeance in Peter Howitt’s Scorched Earth (trailer here), which releases in select theaters and on iTunes this Friday.

In the future, water and silver are the most precious commodities on Earth, whereas oil is not in such demand anymore ever since motor vehicles were banned to prevent any further warming emissions. There are still idiots driving around out there, like the first loser-bounty we see Gage collar. Her second will be much tougher prey. Initially, she is disappointed she had to kill the notorious Chavo, resulting in an automatic halving of the bounty, but since they are roughly the same build, it allows her to “safely” assume the outlaw’s identity to infiltrate Jackson’s bandit town. Okay, so it really isn’t such a safe scheme. Her mentor, Doc, a former bounty hunter slowed by age and injury, is dead set against, but she goes in anyway.

Scorched Earth serves up a fair amount of B-movie fun, but it never fully capitalizes on Gina Carano’s muay thai and mixed martial arts chops. Currently, she is perched somewhere between an “A” and “B” list action star, because she has the skills and the presence, but she has yet to truly score a breakout role. This isn’t it either, but it is still amusing to see her riffing on Spaghetti Western tropes (she even drags a coffin behind her horse during the opening sequences).

Weirdly, Carano’s best fight scene comes early on, when she faces off against Luvia Petersen’s Chavo. Frankly, as villains go, Jackson and his chief henchman Leer are pretty blah (whereas Chavo had some flair). However, one of the most appealing aspects of the film is the platonic teacher-protégé relationship shared by Gage and Doc. John Hannah (from Four Weddings and a Funeral) is drily sardonic and pleasantly understated as the gun-slinging sawbones (“doctor” would be too strong a word for him).

Howitt previously directed Hannah in Sliding Doors, the re-conception of Kieslowski’s Blind Chance, featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, which in terms of time and tone seems so long ago and so far away from Scorched. However, we have to give him credit for staging a nifty climatic shootout.

For Carano fans and connoisseurs of day-and-date action movie releases, Scorched Earth is likely to become a familiar guilty pleasure. It is far from transcendent, but it delivers what it promises and should wear well over time. Recommended as a VOD indulgence, Scorched Earth hits theaters and iTunes this Friday (2/2).

Kickboxer: Vengeance—Van Damme Reboots His Own Franchise

Evidently, underground cage fighting is the national sport of Thailand. That makes Tong Po, the reigning cage champion a national hero. Kurt Sloane cannot let it stand when the brutal wall of muscle kills his Olympic Champion brother Eric in the [illegal] ring, but the corrupt cops will never bring Tong Po to justice. Sloane will have to take it to him instead in John Stockwell’s Kickboxer: Vengeance (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

If this set-up sounds familiar, you most likely remember the original fan-favorite Kickboxer from 1989. However, Jean-Claude Van Damme no longer plays the vengeance seeking Kurt Sloane. He is now Durand, the expat Muay Thai master, who trained Eric for his tragic bout. Admittedly, that should not inspire a heck of a lot of confidence, but the surviving Sloane sibling still turns to Durand as he prepares to take on Tong Po. Sloane also develops a romantic relationship with Liu, the only honest cop in Bangkok, who saves his bacon on a number of occasions.

Based on previous Kickboxer films, we would expect everything will eventually be settled in a climatic cage match. Stockwell runs true to form in that respect, but he still keeps things snappy. The big fight is a dozy, but there are also winking hat-tips for fans of the original to pick up on sprinkled throughout.

Fifty-five-year-old JCVD still looks massively cut, but he sort of acts his age this time around. In fact, Durand the snarky Zen master is a perfect fit for his quirky persona. Canadian stunt performer Alain Moussi has the appropriate physicality for Sloane, but his screen presence is somewhat pedestrian. In contrast, Dave Bautista has the presence of King Kong as Tong Po.

Among the who’s-who-of-MMA supporting cast, Georges St-Pierre scores the biggest laughs and flashes his chops in a few appealingly energetic fight scenes. Bafflingly, Gina Carano is completely wasted as Eric Sloane’s crooked fight promoter. However, the Thai-fluent Sara Malakul Lane continues to show tremendous poise and movie star potential as Liu. Yet, many martial arts fans will most remember the late Darren Shahlavi’s appearances as the ill-fated Eric Sloane. Probably best known as Twister in Ip Man 2, he had the skills and the intensity to be the next Scott Adkins, but sadly fate would not allow it.

It is not called Kickboxer: Vengeance for nothing. Even if you are unfamiliar with the previous films, the title really ought to tell you everything you need to know. Stockwell’s unfussy, adrenaline and testosterone-charged approach delivers some highly cinematic beatdowns. Highly recommended for martial arts fans (but somewhat less so for discerning cineastes), Kickboxer: Vengeance opens this Friday (9/2) in select theaters and on VOD platforms.

In the Blood: Gina Carano Misplaces Her Husband

You would think two recovering addicts would go to a tightly controlled “Club Med” environment for their honeymoon. Instead, the Grants visit the most corrupt island in the Caribbean. They stay on the wagon, but even more serious problems develop. When the new Mr. disappears, the new Mrs. will unleash all her street-fighting skills to find him in John Stockwell’s In the Blood (trailer here), the newest vehicle for MMA star Gina Carano, which opens this Friday.

Ava’s father Casey was an original hardcase, who taught her how to fight good and hard. Even during her strung out days, following his untimely demise, she could take care of her would be predators. She cleaned up when she met the well-heeled Derek Grant in rehab. His father is not exactly thrilled with their union, but has stopped fighting it. Aside from a little dust-up in a club, their honeymoon is all very sweet and romantic—until the zip-line accident.

Unfortunately, that is not even the worst of it. Mysteriously, the ambulance carrying Grant to the central hospital never arrives with the patient. Of course, the fat and lazy police chief is happy to shift suspicion onto his ex-junkie wife, finding a receptive ear in old man Grant. Determined to find her husband, Ava Grant sets out to give the Jack Bauer treatment to every lying witness and corrupt cop in her path.

In the Blood is a pretty straight forward martial arts programmer, but it maintains Carano’s viability as an action star. There are several down-and-dirty fight sequences that nicely showcase her chops. She also gets nice support from a colorful cast of supporting characters, including Luis Guzmán and Danny Trejo (who kills it in his final scene). It is also impressive to see Stephen Lang continues to get rougher and tougher with age during his brief flashback scenes as dear old dad. As a Twilight alumnus, Cam Gigandet does not inspire much confidence, but he manages to scratch out some okay chemistry with Carano.

For genre fans, In the Blood could be considered the rough equivalent of early Van Damme films. The plots were never extraordinary, but they were serviceable enough to build up his credibility as an action star and a romantic lead. In the Blood serves the same function for Carano, even with its unfortunate and potentially spoilery title. Stockwell does an okay job framing the action, but he is no Isaac Florentine, let alone a Dante Lam or Wilson Yip.

Still, Carano delivers on her end. She has screen presence and chops. In the Blood will not take her to the next level, but it will keep her existing fanbase engaged and ready for more. Enjoyable as a quality B-movie with serious MMA aptitude, In the Blood is recommended for genre enthusiasts when it opens this Friday (4/4) in New York.