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Lethal Force is filled with
gunplay, drilling, kung-fu, faceless goons, spurting geysers
of blood, an anti hero spewing catch phrases between clenched
teeth and a dummy being hit by a car three times before
standing up seemingly un-hurt and ready to kick
ass…
As you can see it’s not a good
movie. It’s a great movie.
Because for all of us drooling
fan boys, with our collection of imported Hong-Kong DVD’s and
what we think is an authentic Bruce Campbell chest
hair:
There’s Alvin Ecarma.
A guy who (or gal, the lab
tests have yet to be received) who was graceful enough to go
out and make the movie we’ve all been waiting for. The one
which would cause riots in the streets, senseless destruction
of every Sam Raimi cassette in sight and a seemingly un-heard
number of apostrophe’s in a movie review!
After his wife is murdered and his son is kidnapped, a
gangster is forced to betray his best friend –a deadly killer-
in this raucous, off-the-wall satitre/homage that is to action
films what SCREAM is to horror films.
That’s the plot. But it
doesn’t matter. Because what you came for is to be
entertained, and the sneaky little director somehow infused it
with everything we like to see in on the big screen. And while
he doesn't dedicate the film to it, the homage's are
surprisingly entertaining throughout. My favorite being the
“Heroic Bloodshed” homophobia gag. A fact of life that
everyone who's ever watched a John Woo film has asked himself
at least a dozen times …Even the “No-Bullshit-allowed” crowd I
watched this with was amused. This an even greater feat when
you consider most of them consider the cinematic globe starts
and ends with the word "Matrix".
The action scenes are swift
and exciting. There’s the fantastic “1 against 30” the “Down
but not out” fight and even a count to three which has become
the trademark for fan's of the spaghetti westerns. A head
explosion caps this all off making all the gore-hounds in the
theater nod in agreement. All we need is someone saying "Make
my day" and a woman popping out of a cake (Completely Naked!).
You have to give them credit when you realize that the 30
stuntmen were really 3 different people getting killed one
after the other. Again and Again and Again
But the problems isn't with
with the cast (Which give us the perfect “This is really
happening” performance”. This is coming from a guy who
'slightly' enjoys Troma
films.) but with the film stock that was used. Shot on
DV the picture suffers from what can only be explained in as
“Cheapness”. A friend of mine, who I ushered into his seat
near the middle of the picture left three minutes later:
Confused and disgusted of my choice of film. But never
fear! I caught him three day’s later and forced him
“Clock-Work orange” style to watch it.
He later admitted (Rather
groggily from a headache) that he liked it.
I’ll stop here. Because the
worst thing you could do is going is expecting the best action
movie ever. Yet, never before have I witnessed a movie which
gave me everything I’ve ever loved in such a neat, tidy,
package. This film is begging for a fully packed SE DVD
filled to the brim with outtakes, documentaries, a directors
commentary, the director’s short films and an added bonus of
the complete “Lethal Force” playset. Including the limited
edition “Cash Flagg Jr’s animal pal “Chow Yun the Monkey” …I
drool at the prospect.
SEE IT NOW!
For more info and screening
information visit the site at
DIVERGENT THINKING
PRODUCTIONS
A source through the pipeline has informed
me that "Lethal Force" was actually filmed on 16mm film. The
review copy was a dub taken from a lower
quality work-in-progress tape but the finished film has
been professionally mastered on broadcast quality equipment
for final distribution.. Secondly , the film has been picked
up for worldwide distribution with a North American video/DVD
release planned for the Fall under an as yet-to-be-determined
new title. Although nothing is settled yet, the special
features for the DVD will include "behind the scenes"
and audition featurettes and audio commentary with the
director, action director, fx/art director and line
producer. | 
