Action

Cold Blood Legacy: A Psychological Joust Between Two Strangers With Their Own Secrets

Published

4 years ago

December 18, 2019

I had a stand-off with a wolf earlier,
and he has tasted human blood…
yours.

Jean Reno. The ever-calm actor is usually associated with roles such as a police detective, a gangster or an assassin. The quiet-looking Frenchman has a specific appearance that fits perfectly with such roles. Strange but true. I have only recently seen the film “Léon: The Professional“. Without a doubt the very best that Jean Reno has demonstrated on the silver screen. An experienced assassin who, as a loner, takes care of the little girl Mathilda and teaches her the tricks of the trade. A cult film “avant la lettre”. In “Cold Blood Legacy” Jean Reno plays a similar character. A professional and devious person who does his jobs in a well-argued manner. And with that, the most positive thing about this film is said.

Ouch, straight-to-video.

“Cold Blood Legacy” is a straight-to-video film, which is already a hint as to what you can expect. Nothing good, I fear. Yes, Henry (Jean Reno) radiates authority and calmness. He carefully weighs each word he’s going to say. And he reads philosophical books thoroughly such as “The Art of War”. He also knows enough about injuries and how to treat them. And finally, he seems to be skilled in survival techniques. Survival techniques that are necessary when you live at an isolated winter spot far from civilization and surrounded by unapproachable nature. In short, it’s once again a pleasure to see Jean Reno at work.

The rest is abominably bad.

Unfortunately, Reno’s brilliant acting isn’t enough to make this film a success. The rest is abominably bad, to say the least. Not only is the story itself terribly boring and not interesting. Some interpretations are also ridiculously bad. The two police detectives Kappa (Joe Anderson) and Davies (Ihor Ciszkewycz) in particular, probably will win the Challenge Cup for “Most lousy characters”. Although this is more due to the script than the qualities of the actors themselves. David Gyasi’s character is also open to criticism. The purpose of his role in this film remained a mystery to me. But it’s primarily the story where it’s going wrong. It all isn’t really clear. And above all, it seems as if it’s a combination of storylines and impressions that have been crammed into one story in a confusing way.

A forgettable movie.

Still some positive comments. Sarah Lind’s acting is convincing enough, even though she does that almost the entire film from a horizontal position. The interaction between her and Henry sometimes makes the film fascinating to watch. A psychological joust between two strangers with their own secrets. And as I said before, Henry proves that he’s an expert in the medical field. And apparently he’s an expert in the field of torture techniques as well. Furthermore, the film is peppered with beautiful nature images of this winter landscape. A wooden cabin surrounded by snowy peaks, pine trees and an immensely frozen lake. However, don’t expect any tension or gripping action scenes. The film is simply lifeless and boring. And at the end of the film, everything still remained unclear and blurry. The fact that I didn’t remember the next day what it was about, was a logical consequence. Hopefully, Jean Reno will shine again in a solid action thriller somewhere in the future.

You can watch “Cold Blood Legacy” on amazon.com “Prime Video“

My rating 3/10
Links: IMDB

FILM RATING

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Action

Godzilla Minus One | Official Trailer #2

Post war Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb

Published

3 weeks ago

November 6, 2023

Staff

Genre:

Action, Adventure, Drama

Release Date:

December 1, 2023

Director:

Takashi Yamazaki

Cast:

Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada

Plot Summary:

Post war Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb

FILM RATING

Action

The Continental Review: Not The Prequel We Needed

Published

2 months ago

October 4, 2023

Kevin Verma

Ever since Lionsgate greenlit this series in early 2017, fans of the franchise have been eagerly anticipating to see how the John Wick universe expands. 4 movies in, the John Wick franchise is widely known as one of the greatest action movie franchises of all time with our titular character (a.k.a Baba Yaga) becoming one of the most iconic and bad-ass figures ever in Hollywood. The Continental: From The World of John Wick is a prequel series that tells the story of Winston Scott and how he became the manager of New York’s The Continental branch.

The miniseries was developed by Greg Coolidge, Kirk Ward and Shawn Simmons. It is executive produced by Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese, Derek Kolstad, David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, the director of all four John Wick movies. It is structured as a 3-night event told through three 90-minute episodes. The series was originally supposed to air on Starz, but the network sold it to Peacock in 2022. After 6 years in development, it finally aired on Peacock this September.

A lot has been made of the subtitle of the project ever since it was announced. The fact that the makers needed to include it says a lot about the show. It almost felt like the prime marketing asset for it many times as the other promotional material didn’t necessarily create a lot of hype for the show. Albert Hughes directed the first and third episodes, while Charlotte Branstrom directed the second, and disappointingly both directors do not bring the same novelty or creative prowess that Chad Stahelski managed to bring in the John Wick movies.

The show also surprisingly lacks any real star power. This franchise is one of Lionsgate’s most prized assets, so you would imagine that they would make sure to get a big cast and crew for this prequel miniseries, but they didn’t. Colin Woodell as Winston Scott is the clear standout among the cast despite delivering only a decent performance, which says a lot about the acting standards in this 3-episode miniseries. Many have criticized the casting of Mel Gibson in the series, but I personally had no issue with his performance and he’s also the most recognizable member of the cast despite having no real audience pull anymore.

The writing doesn’t offer too much to ponder upon or any seriously shocking turns in the story as most of the focus is on making the product as epic, badass and action-packed as possible. Some of the characters had some interesting layers to them, especially Charon (Ayomide Adegun) and Lou (Jessica Allain). Lemmy (Adam Shapiro) provides some much-needed comic relief with his witty dialogues. The structuring of the story works really well as a 3-night event which sets the high stakes and sets a standard of intensity for the narrative.

But the thing that people were most looking forward to, was the action and how it fared against John Wick. Unfortunately, that department was inconsistent as well. Ben Robson’s fight sequence in the early part of the first episode was great and it makes you optimistic that the action would get better from here on, but it never does. Most of the action blocks here involve explosions and guns rather than the hand-to-hand combat John Wick franchise is known for. Some of the action was awesome and some of it sadly wasn’t.

The Continental: From the World of John Wick brings a lot of glamour as it tries to expand its world but fails to engage with its paper-thin plot. The characters are mostly dull with a formulaic villain and misses the presence of a magnetic protagonist like Wick. A prequel about Wick’s backstory would’ve been much more interesting than this inconsistent prequel event saved by its style and some great action. It has almost enough to be its own thing but doesn’t quite have enough to match its parent movies.

The Continental: From the World of John Wick premieres on Peacock in the US and Prime Video in the UK and Australia on 22 September, with new episodes weekly.