Hellfire, Starring Stphen Lang & Dolph Lundgren

He calls himself Nomada in much the same way Tishiro Mifune called himself “Sanjuro” in Yoijmbo. Obviously, this film won’t be as good, but what movie could be? Regardless, Nomada happens to be a Special Forces veteran, as well as the drifter who refuses to drift in Isaac Florentine’s Hellfire, which releases tomorrow on VOD.

The Vietnam veteran kept saying he was “just passing through,” but the more people like Sheriff Wiley tell him to pass through quicker, the more he wants to stick around. He takes it particularly badly from a dirtbag weasel like Clyde. He also takes exception to Clyde’s abusive treatment of Owen Hayes and his daughter Lena. In fact, Hayes is the one who christens Nomada’s nickname, while he works odd jobs in exchange for meals.

Of course, Nomada instinctively stands up to Clyde’s bullying, which leads to war. Fortunately, he can call in a favor with an old comrade for supplies. However, the problem runs deeper than Clyde. His mean old man, “Jermiah,” has forced the entire town into complicity with the family’s narcotics-supplying business.

Hellfire is a lot like a vintage A-Team episode, except the bullets actually hit people—dead. In fact, Jeremiah and Clyde perpetrate some horrendous crimes that might even shock frequent viewers of Florentine’s VOD action movies. Nomada also takes an inhuman degree of punishment, to a degree that stretches credulity. However, the down-and-dirty action sequences will impress with their grittiness.

Isaac Florentine’s Acts of Vengeance

Stoics never lose their cool. The pursuit of vengeance taking would therefore seem at odds with practice of stoicism, but anyone who can roughly merge them together will be one dangerous customer. A grieving father inspired by Marcus Aurelius will try to do exactly that in Isaac Florentine’s Acts of Vengeance (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

Presumably Frank Valera’s voice-overs are an interior monologue, because he has taken a secular vow of silence after the murder of his wife and young daughter. He ruefully admits he used to talk quite a bit as a slimy defense attorney. No, the irony that he used to defend criminals possibly like the ones who killed Sue and Olivia Valera is not lost on him. For a while, he tortures himself by acting as a human punching bag in underground steel cage fights. However, a chance encounter with the Emperor’s Meditations changes his perspective. It says: “Punish only those who are guilty of the crime.” Right, sounds like a plan.

Valera starts snooping around the post-industrial crime scene neighborhood, drawing the attention of the Russian mob. He will take out some frustration on their enforcers, becoming the protector of a nurse at a low-income clinic, who had been forced to supply them traffickable prescription drugs. However, the true identity of his wife’s killer will be a third act revelation most viewers will guess, simply due to the limited cast of characters.

Despite the unsurprising surprise, Acts is suitably lean and agile payback thriller. Florentine is one of the best in the business at rendering street-level action (frankly, he is overdue for a New York retrospective). Once again, his fight scenes are cleanly legible (no shaky cam here), but Florentine adds a further personal stamp by also appearing on-screen as Valera’s hard-nosed sensei.

The whole stoicism thing probably helps (no teary outbursts wanted or required), but Antonio Banderas still gives one of his best performances since at least The Skin I Live In (another revenge drama) and maybe going all the way back to Philadelphia. We definitely believe he is deeply wounded and extremely ticked off. He also shows some convincing moves in the fight scenes. That is all to the good, because Banderas is on screen nearly every second. Still, even in limited screen time, Robert Forster leaves his mark as Valera’s slightly disappointed father-in-law.

Viewers like us may well be of two minds with respect to the film’s ironic twist, but there is no denying its grit. Florentine does this kind of film better than anyone and he brought out Banderas’s A-game. It is also pretty darn literate for the genre. Acts of Vengeance is definitely worth seeing eventually, but whether you should wait for VOD or catch it in theaters depends on how enthusiastic you are about Banderas or Florentine and action payback cinema. It opens tomorrow (10/27) in New York, at the Village East.

Close Range: Scott Adkins vs. a Mexican Drug Cartel

Think Mexican drug cartel violence ends at our super well-guarded border? Colt MacReady knows better. Fortunately, the AWOL commando with authority issues is a match for any narco-terrorist outfit, but the situation his family finds themselves in is more real than we would like to admit. Regardless, bad guys are in for a big hurting in Isaac Florentine’s lean and mean Close Range (trailer here), which opens this Friday in select theaters.

MacReady’s widowed sister Angela Reynolds remarried the wrong sleazy drug smuggler. When he tried to skim a few bucks off his last payment, the cartel abducted his step-daughter Hailey. That would be MacReady’s niece Hailey. He might not be around much, but he still isn’t about to stand for that, so he rescues her in the slam-bang opening sequence.

Of course, the cartel is hot on their trial, but their corrupt tool, Sheriff Jasper Calloway slows down MacReady and his family until the out of sorts Garcia Cartel arrives. Despite the wreckage MacReady left in Mexico, old man Fernando Garcia assumes a handful of guys can handle MacReady while he holds Angela and Hailey hostage. Right, good luck with that plan.

Close Range is not exactly what you would call pretentious, but it delivers plenty of old school, hardnosed action. This is what Scott Adkins and Isaac Florentine do better than any other tandem working in film today—and in Close Range they just do it without a lot worrying about character development or other extraneous business. Frankly, Adkins’ glowering presence is all the character establishment we really need. Imagine how awesome the next Batman movie would have been if he had been cast instead of Ben Affleck. We are all still bitterly disappointed about that, since his widely reported screen test gave us so much false hope.

To be fair, the criminally underrated Nick Chinlund manages to dig out an effective character development arc for the cowardly Calloway. When he and Adkins’ MacReady have their final face-off, it is as serious as a heart attack. For what it’s worth, Caitlin Keats and Madison Lawlor deal with Florentine’s furious pace and constant hail of bullets gamely enough, even if these were not the roles they had in mind during their time at the Actor’s Studio or wherever they trained.

It really is a pleasure to watch an unfussy action film, in which the fights and shoot-outs are clearly framed and pristinely watchable. Adkins has the chops and Florentine knows how to show them off. Anyone who grew up with Cannon’s Chuck Norris, JCVD, and Michael Dudikoff movies will have a nostalgic good time with it (sort of in the tradition of Avenging Force). Recommended for genre fans, Close Range is now available on VOD and opens this Friday (12/11) at the Arena Cinema in Los Angeles.

Assassin’s Bullet: La Femme Sofia

Someone is killing Europe’s top Islamist terrorists.  This is a problem for American intelligence bureaucrats, because it makes them look bad.  The vigilante has taken out priority targets they could not even find and therefore must be stopped, post-haste.  That assignment falls to a former FBI agent assigned to America’s Bulgarian embassy in Isaac Florentine’s Assassin’s Bullet (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Still wracked with guilt over his wife’s death, Robert Diggs is taking a timeout from life in Bulgaria.  Happy overseeing on in-country educational initiatives, Diggs is reluctant to get back into investigative work.  However, Ambassador Ashdown is a political appointee very aware he is in over his head and in need of Diggs’ services.  Reluctantly, Diggs starts tracking the vigilante, who is obviously also the English teacher at the Embassy-sponsored high school, as well as the belly dancer who has been come-hither dancing for Diggs at his favorite night club.

The good news about Bullet is that it has no tears for the vigilante’s prey.  Her motivation is clear: terrorists murdered her family.  Had they lived, her targets would have only spread more death and misery.  It even unambiguously associates the keffiyeh scarf with terrorism, which makes it a pretty dumb choice of accessory for Diggs during the climatic third act.  The bad news is a spoiler that will not be much of a surprise: there is some shadowy villainy going on at the highest levels of the American diplomatic-intelligence services.

So Bullet isn’t really a great movie, but it is sort of a shame you can hardly see serviceable B-movies like this in the theaters very much anymore.  Back in the day, this totally would have been worth a trip to the drive-in or the bargain cinema.  In fact, on a technical level, Bullet is a surprisingly polished production.  Florentine stage-manages a couple of nifty little fight scenes.  Of course, that is his specialty, having previously helmed the Scott Adkins Undisputed series and the Power Rangers, for both the big and small screens (don’t scoff at that gig, they don’t entrust important franchises like that to hacks).  Shot on location, Florentine made the most of the exotic Sofia sites and cinematographer Ross W. Clarkson gives it all a moody, mysterious sheen.

The real mixed bag here is the cast.  Christian Slater is more or less okay as the earnest Diggs and co-scenarist Elika Portnoy is sort of, kind of okay as the mystery woman.  At least, Donald Sutherland does not disappoint doing his stately roguish thing as the Ambassador.  Yet, the high point might be Timothy Spall, clearly enjoying the ambiguity of the friendly but inscrutable Dr. Kahn, a part that would have had Donald Pleasance’s name all over it in years past.

As it happens, Bullet’s DVD release is already scheduled to follow hard on the heels of its New York opening.  Make of that what you will.  Frankly, it ought to find an audience through more affordable means of distribution.  It is not classic, but some considerable filmmaking talent went into it (most definitely including the contributions of Florentine, Clarkson, and Spall).  Eventually recommended for B-movie lovers at B-movies prices, Assassin’s Bullet opens this Friday (8/3) in New York at the Cinema Village.