A ragtag group of criminals hits a jewelry store for a massive number of diamonds, when things take a violent turn, they are forced to run and hid while one of their own turns on them.
From a story by Jeff Miller, written by Ben Demaree, and directed by Mark Savage, Bring Him Back Dead is a serviceable heist action film with some fun action sequences. In terms of low-to-mid range budget action film, this one has a lot to offer and knows what it wants, how it wants it, and how to make the most of any situation. The film here is entertaining and keeps things moving at a fairly fast pace. There are quite a few characters, so there’s plenty fodder for fights and kills. The story in and of itself is quite simple in that a group of criminals depend on everyone doing their part to pull off a heist, post heist one of their members turns on them, then they decide to eliminate said person. This is something we’ve seen tons of times in different ways, and as a concept, it works. Here the film takes them to the forest and away from civilization, something that adds to the escape element of the film and gives some interesting locations for face offs between different characters.
The cast here is a bit of a who’s who of mid-range action these days with Louis Mandylor, Daniel Baldwin, and Gary Daniels top billed. Baldwin has a part that is more or less an extended cameo, but Mandylor and Daniels get plenty of screentime, even squaring off in a fight that is both appropriate here and fun to watch. Acting-wise the performances are decent and give what the film needs. As a viewer, it’s not exactly clear from the start who the good guys, or rather the less-bad guys, and the bad guys are. Everyone central to the story is connected to the heist in one way or another and not exactly as victims. The film makes the most of this and uses that setting to give the actors something to work with in terms of keeping parts of their characters hidden until needed. The performances here work for the content, the story, and the context.
Here the cinematography by Ryan Patrick O’Hara, the editing, and the music by Glen Gabriel are pretty exactly as expected. This is a direct to VOD film and it looks and sounds just fine, a few images here and there look better than the rest, but what is important there is that the film lets the viewer see the action. There’s no hyper-active editing so to speak and the film is here to showcase exactly what the viewer is here for, the action, the fights, the chases. This film understands what it is doing and what its audience wants.
Bring Him Back Dead is a decent mid-range action film that is enjoyable and has some fun action sequences. It keeps the best for the end of course and it is not afraid to give viewers and fans of its lead cast what they came for.