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.
Police Chief Damon Hickey is sort of like Chief Ironside, except he was on the
take when he was shot. In fact, he is the guy who divvies up the take, down to
crooked cops on the beat and up to the corrupt governor. The heat is on this fateful
night, so he needs his caregiver to revert to her old criminal ways in George
Gallo’s Vanquish, which opens today in select theaters and on-demand.
Victoria
and her ailing daughter Lily always thought Hickey looked out for them, so the
former drug mule is rather taken aback when he insists she make five cash
pickups on his behalf. She has gone straight, but he has taken her daughter hostage
(while being wheelchair-bound), so she reluctantly relents. Apparently, the
Feds have some highly incriminating recordings in their hands, thanks to the deep
informant Hickey’s men will soon kill, so he needs to go outside his
organization. Unfortunately, each job will bring her into contact with criminal
lowlifes she once knew, including the thugs who murdered her brother.
This
might be Morgan Freeman’s first villainous role since his breakout in Street
Smart, but he shows a complete lack of enthusiasm. Frankly, he looks like he
was drugged and forced to play the part against his will. On the other hand, this
is Ruby Rose’s third action film in less than 12 months, but Vanquish makes
The Doorman and SAS: Red Notice look like Casablanca and Citizen
Kane. (Maybe leaving Batwoman was a mistake, you think?)
Gallo
is probably best-known for writing Midnight Run and Bad Boys, but
you would not know it from the paucity of humor in Vanquish. It is also unpleasantly
murky looking, as if the entire production was improperly lit. Admittedly, this
is a rather violent film, but there are several dull chase sequences that are a
chore to sit through.
There has already been a “Die Hard on a train,” so that must make this “Under
Siege II in the Chunnel,” naturally with a British accent. Fortunately,
when a rogue mercenary outfit takes a Paris-bound train hostage, a
highly-skilled SAS commando also happens to be on-board. Tom Buckingham is
determined to bring them down and protect his [hopefully future] fiancée in
Magnus Martens’ SAS: Red Notice, adapted from Andy McNab’s novel, which
releases this Tuesday on-demand.
Tom
Buckingham is a blue blood more in the tradition of Elizabeth than Harry.
Despite his vast estates, he believes in doing his duty for queen and country
as a member of Special Air Service (SAS) counter-terrorism force. When his
country calls, he hauls, even if that means leaving behind the
not-always-so-understanding Dr. Sophie Hart. They are very different people,
but he still intends to propose in Paris, after completing his mostly
successful mission against the so-called “Black Swans.”
William
Lewis’ Swans were caught on cell-phone video torching a Georgian Republic
village to make way for a Britgaz pipeline. Of course, the British PM and his
deep-state military advisor George Clements hired them for the job, but they
publicly disavow all knowledge. The SAS executed a Red Notice on the Swans, but
they did not secure Lewis’s daughter and presumptive successor Grace, or her thuggish
brother (and pseudo-rival) Olly. No mere loose ends, the Lewis siblings take
over the Chunnel train as part of a complicated plot to embarrass the PM and
avenge their father, but they didn’t anticipate interference from a “player”
like Buckingham.
So,
in less than six months, Ruby Rose has gone from playing the Die Hard-style
hero in The Doorman to playing the Die Hard villain in Red
Notice. She chews the scenery serviceably as Grace Lewis, but she still can’t
match the great Tom Wilkinson’s slyness as Papa Black Swan.
It is a pre-war building with a battle-tested doorman. Sgt. Ali Orski was
decorated for valor, but the ambassador she was protecting was still
assassinated during a terrorist attack. It really wasn’t her fault, but she is
still tormented by guilt and flashbacks. Fate will give her a chance for
redemption, but the stakes will be higher, because her family will be directly in
harms way during Ryuhei Kitamura’s Die Hard-style The Doorman,
which releases on DVD tomorrow, following its premiere on the opening day of the
online genre festival, Nightstream.
After
her return, Orski wanted to keep to herself, but she can’t totally ghost her Uncle
Pat when he reaches out. Needing a job, she also lets him refer her for doorman
gig at a tony Central Park apartment building, but she soon realizes she has
been played. That happens to be where her late sister’s husband and children
live. It has been a while, but they recognize her—and young Lily Stanton is
especially keen to have her for holiday dinner, before the family leaves for an
extended stay in England.
It
turns out, the Stantons are one of only two tenants still in the building
during its scheduled renovations. Frankly, there were not supposed to be there—just
the elderly German husband and wife on the ground floor. Victor Dubois
certainly was expecting them or a resourceful loose cannon like Orski. He carefully
planned to take the old couple hostage to steal the art the now senile old man plundered
from the Stasi’s secret archives during the waning days of the GDR. Unfortunately,
he stashed the trove of paintings somewhere in their old flat, which is now
occupied by the Stantons.
You
get the idea, right? Yet somehow, this Die Hard-style movie carries four
writing credits: Lior Chefetz and Joe Swanson for the screenplay, as well as
Greg Williams Matt McAllester for the story. Regardless, they manage to use old
Manhattan in creative ways, devising secret doors, dumb waiters, and a hidden
speakeasy for Orski and her surly teen nephew Max to sneak through in their
attempts to evade Dubois’s hired guns.
Ruby
Rose is no Cynthia Rothrock or Michelle Yeoh, but she is still a pretty solid
action lead playing Orski. In fact, she has a convincing “cool aunt” thing
going on when protecting Lily and Max. However, Rupert Evans’
charisma-challenged portrayal of their dad, Jon Stanton, makes it dashed hard
to believe she could ever have had an illicit affair with her snotty,
pasty-white brother-in-law. Not surprisingly, the kids are completely annoying,
but Philip Whitchurch has some fine moments as grizzled Uncle Pat.
