Review - Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001 - Dir. Christophe Gans)

Continuing our birthday celebrations we come to the final entry in our Mark Dacascos Season, and it is one of my favourite films of all time.

The idea of mixing the genres of kung fu, horror, mystery and period french drama, whilst adding a savage stonking great wolf as a garnish may seem a tad foolish. But it works stunningly well, making for one of the most refreshingly original films I've ever seen.


Naturalist (not naturist - that would have been one genre too many. I don't think wolves play volleyball anyway) Gregoire de Fronsac, played by Samuel Le Bihan is sent by the King to the small french province of Gevaudan, along with his native American sidekick Mani (Mark Dacascos). Numerous deaths have been occurring and they have been attributed to a rather large wolf. Fronsac and Mani investigate this general unpleasantness. And hit people a lot. So what we basically have is a berzerk version of Hound of the Baskervilles (not a bad thing).

Gans certainly loves his slow motion and Dacascos has never looked cooler. Forget his Straight-to-DVD actioners. This is what he is truly capable of. There are so many well choreographed fights. His assailants, in true kung fu fashion, take their turn, coming at Mani with fists and various weapons, but he just sorts them. No messing. The sound effects are excessively loud and crunchy, further adding to the stylised nature of the fights. Bihan also gets to do a fair bit of scrapping and is not too shabby in the 'hitting people hard' departpartment.

There is love interest in the form of the gorgeous Émilie Dequenne (The Pack) and Monica Bellucci (Irreversible), just enough to add yet another dimension to the film. Both female leads are great but Dequenne is so great she should get her own season. Now, there's a thought... 

You also get Vincent Cassel as a really creepy villain. He's always good value for money and doesn't let the side down here. Supposedly, he put in a lot of training for his fight sequence and it shows.

Let's get the one negative out of the way. Surprise, surprise, it's the CGI. The wolf looks ropey and a bit too light and lacking in contrast compared to the backgrounds for my liking. Saying that, the close-ups (by Henson) using a practical wolf are premium quality (again, surprise, surprise).

For a film to be so full of disparate elements and still be coherent and top fun is a testament to Gans' skill as a director. (It's a shame Onimusha fell through. That would have been a treat.) He brings out the best in Mark Dacascos (see Crying Freeman) and it would be great to see them work together again. So do the dodgy effects knock the rating down at all? For sheer audacity, I'll let it off.
10/10
evlkeith

(Please note: It's well worth getting the Blu-ray because with the DVD you are limited to a plain stereo soundtrack if you opt for the french language version, the 5.1 sound is only available on the useless dubbed version. The Blu-ray has got the proper full surround experience. Way better. And not smelly.)


If you like this you could also try:
Crying Freeman, Drive, The Pack, the 2002 BBC version of Hound of the Baskervilles.

Review - Sanctuary (1998 - Dir Tibor Takács)

I couldn't resist this film when I saw it. Mark Dacascos paired with Tibor Takács (Hardcover, The Gate). And although it's not either of their greatest films, it grew on me.


I have to admit I didn't give it the best of chances on my first watch. I always started it late at night and ended up falling asleep watching it (a long day at work can be tiring, don't blame the film). I didn't completely get it the first time round. In my defence: a) it took me a good few sittings to get through it, b) it's quite complicated due to a fractured storyline that flashes back like nobody's business and finally c) I'm a thick northener.


Mark Dacascos plays Luke Kovak, an ex-Special Ops kind of guy who left the agency for which he worked, to become a priest. I know what you're thinking. A kung fu priest. Plus, seeing as though it's a Tibor Takács film, there may even be a stop-motion spider/nun hybrid for him to kick in the middles. But no. It is way more sensible than that. It's more akin to Bourne and Mission: Impossible. There are even aerial shots of the city so they must have had a bit of a budget to play with.

One thing that carries over from Takács' other films is the gorgeous, Bava-esque lighting. I love coloured lighting and it separates Sanctuary from other similar films. A scene of Luke in his tiny bedsit, lit by a passing train may be a cliche, especially with the camera shake, but it doesn't stop it from looking great. 


Dacascos doesn't get to do that much scrapping, which is a shame, but this is one of his finer acting performances. His relationship with Rachel Malcolm (Kylie Travis), a fellow operative, is one of the strengths of the film. And because he's now a priest it never strays into the more obvious romantic category. Almost, but not quite.


Sanctuary never quite kicks into high gear (although there is a fairly tense sequence involving a golf cart, I'm not joking) but it is well worth a couple of watches, maybe more. It is book-ended by two sequences that potentially were setting up a cracking sequel. Sadly, a it has never emerged. I will carry on dreaming about what could have been... mmm, Spidernun...

Artist's impression.

6/10
evlkeith



If you like this you could also try:
Crying Freeman, Only the Strong, Hardcover, The Gate.

Review - Only the Strong (1993 - Dir Sheldon Lettich)

Capoeira porn.


That's it in a nutshell. If you're new to capoeria, it's Brazilian kung fu. Think of Eddy Gordo in Tekken. Or alternatively, think of someone doing a slinky little dance, then flailing their legs around wildly and kicking seven shades out of their opponent. That's capoeria.

The legendary Mark Dacascos plays Louis Stevens, an ex-special forces soldier, who has come back to the hood where he grew up. The teacher who put him on the straight and narrow, Mr Kerrigan (Geoffrey Lewis - Tango and Cash), has a problem. He's a teacher. And he has to teach the biggest bad bottoms in the whole of America. They spit, swear, bring knives to school and are generally unkind to small mammals (not necessarily shown in the film). Enter Louis who is going to teach them some capoeira moves and some respect.

Okay, you already know the rest of the plot already. But Only the Strong is top fun. When Dacascos starts doing his funny little capoeira dance I have to admit that I agree with the miscreants. It looks stupid. Not the coolest way to start a fight. But then when the legs start flying, it all becomes clear. Dacascos has some seriously cool moves. The fight choreography is also great; the final fight culminates in head kick after head kick. Very cool.


There has to be a villain for Dacascos to pit his skills against. He comes in the form of local drug lord Silverio, (Paco Christian Prieto) the cousin of one of Louis' students. At one point he offers money to Louis to train his men in the art of capoeira. Which is strange, seeing as though he is supposedly better than him. Wouldn't he just do it himself? Never mind. Inconsistencies are all part of the fun.

There has to be some love interest for Dacascos (as you can see, it is fairly formulaic). She comes in the form of fellow teacher Dianna (Stacey Travis - Phantasm II). She looks suspiciously like Brigitte Lahaie, the famous french porn star. Er... how do I know that slightly compromising fact? Think fast. Oh yeah! She's in Jean Rollin's Fascination. Phew.

This is definitely a film I will revisit. I think Crying Freeman is the better film, (I've maybe been harsh on that, only giving it 7/10, in fact I'm going to go and up it right this minute) but this is still cracking. Sadly, there's no region 2 release of Only the Strong yet. Someone release it sharpish. One very strange thing that this film throws up is that it was filmed nearly twenty years ago and Mark Dacascos only seems to have aged about ten years in the intervening years. Maybe all that leg flailing keeps him young. Or in my case, it just gave me a hernia and a prolapsed bowel.
7/10
evlkeith



If you like this you could also try:
Crying Freeman, Drive, Brotherhood of the Wolf.

Review - Scorcher (2002 - Dir. James Seale)

Think back to the sort of straight-to-DVD films that Channel 5 used to show in an evening: Scorcher is a prime example.


You might think that this is a criticism. Films of this ilk invariably have good intentions but are hampered by low budgets, poor quality scripts and Amiga level CGI effects. This is very true of Scorcher. Even so, it's fun and never dull. 


Ryan Beckett (Mark Dacascos) is a Colonel tasked with saving the world from becoming hotter than the extreme temperature that hot drinks are served at in football grounds around the country. Accompanying him on this merry little jape is scientist Julie McGrath (Tamara Davies) and a bunch of loosely sketched dodgy army characters (in a similar vein to Armageddon but with a hundredth of the personality). They have to detonate a nuclear warhead in downtown LA to stop the Earth's plates from shifting. I'm not a world renowned scientist (that may shock you), but I have a strange feeling that the science in this film probably makes no sense whatsoever. Oh well, never mind, at least Mark Dacasos gets to do some of his top ninja moves on people's unfortunate faces...

Erm... he doesn't. He gets to do the odd little bit of grappling, but you wouldn't know from watching this film that he's a death machine in human form, capable of causing pain equal to one thousand paper cuts. In intimate areas. As ever, he's a likeable kind of guy, apart from the dubiously scripted first ten minutes. Even though his acting is never totally convincing, especially in emotional scenes, you're with him all the way. Scorcher reads like a veritable who's who of straight-to-DVD actors (who have previously appeared in fairly big films): the underused, sleepwalking Rutger Hauer as the president (?), John Rhys-Davies as Julie's dad, Mark Rolston (Aliens) as the villainous Special Agent Kellaway and G.W. Bailey (Police Academy) as Mr Combustible Pants, General Moore. Together they lend an air of respectabilty and watchability to the proceedings (sadly any acting talents they may have are lost due to the script).

I've already touched on the dire effects earlier - a classy snowstorm followed by flames shooting up from cracks in a glacier is a particular lowlight - but the music deserves just as much credit for sending this straight to the bargain bins. When it's bombastic standard action fare, it's okay. When it's underscoring emotional scenes, it's shocking. It makes the acting look worse, amazingly. This is proved later on when a tender scene is sans music; it is way more effective. 

Watch this with low expectations and a willingness to gloss over its many faults and you may actually quite enjoy it. If you're lucky.
4/10
evlkeith



If you like this you could also try:
The Core, Alien Agent, Drive, Crying Freeman.

Review - Crying Freeman (1995 - Dir. Christophe Gans)

Mark Dacascos (Drive) directed by Christophe Gans (Brotherhood of the Wolf, Silent Hill). If that doesn't make you want to watch Crying Freeman, I don't know what will. Christophe Gans previously directed a section of the horror anthology Necronomicon, but this is his first full length film and it is a lot better than you would expect for a low budget, manga/anime to live-action conversion.

The legendary Mark Dacascos, plays the titular Crying Freeman, Yo, the sole assassin of a shady group called 'The Sons of the Dragon'. Inducted into his role without his consent, he turns out to be a natural killer and the myth of his invincibility grows around him. Dacascos does get to partake in quite a bit of killing during the course of the film. He moves with such deadly intent, closing in for the kill, that I could readily believe he is an assassin in real life. Possibly. Give him a gun, and it's like watching a top games player attain a perfect score on a level. He seems to know where every one of his assailants is coming from and there is no hesitation, and no mistakes, as he dispatches each one. 

What does Christophe Gans bring to the proceedings then? There are some stunning images that you just wouldn't expect from a film of its type (and budget). The masked Freeman leaping through the air in slow motion, shooting some ne'er do wells mid-air whilst cars explode in the background is probably the highlight. Brilliant. There is also a really cool shot of a de-shirted Freeman, showing off his massive dragon tattoo, stood in front of a huge statue, as he readies his sword. You can see that Gans has a love for films like this. At times it plays like a straight Yakuza film and at others it is more akin to Hong Kong fantasies, such as, Heroic Trio. The whole film is played straight and the serious tone is ably assisted by the excellent score from Patrick O'Hearn.

Not satisfied with being an action film with a smidgen of fantasy spice, it's also a love film. Emu O'Hara (Julie Condra - Mark Dacascos' real-life wife, they met on this film) witnesses The Freeman on one of his killing jaunts and so, he is sent to kill her. Interestingly, she actually wants him to kill her. You find out why through some narration. Normally, narration can be shocking - see the original cut of Dark City as a prime example of narration spoiling a film by severely dumbing it down - but in this it embellishes the story in a way that you couldn't otherwise know or work out. 


Many other familiar faces crop up in Crying Freeman: Masaya Kato (Drive), Rae Dawn Chong (Commando), Mako (Conan The Destroyer) and Tcheky Karyo (The Core - one of my guilty pleasures), so you know you're in safe hands. All in all, a good film that I keep coming back to. I just wish it was in widescreen. It feels like it should be. Maybe when it comes out on Blu-ray (yeah, right).


And yes, I did notice that our heroine is called Emu, pronounced 'ee-moo'. It's not as if she goes around attacking Michael Parkinson, so don't get your hopes up.
8/10
evlkeith




If you like this you could also try:
Brotherhood of the Wolf, Drive, Hard Boiled, The Killer.

The film's not in Spanish. I just couldn't resist this trailer.