Video Corner #1

You’re not going to be buying this for top quality acting, dialogue, originality… this is traditional B-Movie action at it’s finest. Sean Patrick Flanery plays Tom Armstrong, an FBI agent, who leaves the force after his wife is killed by a deranged assassin. However, several years later, Armstrong returns to help the FBI track down the killer and seek justice. This 24-esque movie ticks all the boxes – hero with painful past, mad killer with no morals, new found love interest (in the form of Carmen Sorano) and finally the hero putting his painful past to an end by killing the psycho. This is a great fun picture from Robert Kurtzman (Wishmaster), that doesn’t take itself too seriously and knows it’s going to end up in the bargain bin at your nearest supermarket. Sean Patrick Flanery (who we sadly do not see enough of these days) is on top form and brings a little bit of star quality to the movie, while Sopranos star Joe Pantoliano, is the perfect psychopathic villain. This is perfect Saturday night ‘switch off and enjoy’ entertainment, that’s worth a watch.  

Death Race 2000 was a underrated classic exploring many of 1970s America’s fears for the future, while also managing to explore the idea of All-Americanism, whilst also being a successful and engaging action flick.  While 2008’s remake with Jason Statham and Ian McShane, focusses far more on the action – which to its credit was done well. Death Race 2 (how original…) continues on the action theme and once again follows the idea of prisoners competing in death matches for the entertainment of the viewing public. This explores the origins of the infamous racer ‘Frankenstein’ who features in the two previous movies (David Carradine). This time he’s played by Bros singer, turned actor Luke Goss. To his credit, Goss shows us the human side of Frankenstein, which has never been explored. The fight scenes are well directed, as are the racing scenes and the supporting cast of Danny Trejo, Ving Rhames and Sean Bean enhance the interest of the film. Trejo stepping into a similar role as Ian McShane in the first. Again, like Deadly Impact, this is not going to win any awards, but for any fan of the previous movies it’s certainly worth checking out – an improvement on the 2008 movie.

  

Here’s one that’s so enjoyable. Cashing in on the far far far overdone ‘Demon Child’ subgenre of the horror world, Case 39 follows social worker, Emily Jenkins (what a original name) who fights for  (and eventually gains) care of a supposedly abused child. However, as everyone around her starts to die, she get’s a little suspicious of her new co-habitant. Unlike the other two movies I’ve mentioned, this is not overly entertaining – it’s stereotypical, contrived drivel with a wasted cast and very few scares. I think Renee Zellweger wanted to show she was still here, and skipped on reading the script (was there even a script?). Ian McShane, bless him, is the only vaguely interesting thing about this film – not because the character is original or exciting, purely because it’s Ian McShane.  The ‘demon child’ idea only worked in The Omen series, and a few exceptions. This is just bland bland bland. There’s a particularly cringe-worthy scene where Bradley Cooper spits out thousands of extremely cheap CGI hornets from his mouth, then later smashes his head on a sink. We also see Ian McShane’s character in the hilarious “Oh I’m safe now I’m in my car, better look behind me and see what that growling noise is. Ahh it’s the evil _____ that was chasing me”. I do not encourage this, well  unless you have a demon child, but there is a rather hilarious scene where demon girl’s parents put her in their oven. Muhahaha. Almost as entertaining as Ian McKellen’s attempt to oven bake a cat in Apt Pupil.