In the modern social and political climate, Patrick Rea’s “Justice Served” is going to play well and perhaps stir up some much needed controversy. While director Rea delivers his usual slick special effects and morbid tone, “Justice Served” is a brilliant commentary on society and how far we’ve come. Society is nothing but people exploiting people, exploiting people, we’re devils and devil’s advocates. Director Rea creates a backward world where the society we witness is shockingly not that different than what we’re seeing today.
Tag Archives: Crime
Overdrive (2017) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2017]
A duo of car thief brothers runs into trouble after making a deal with a local crime boss in the South of France.
Written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas and directed by Antonio Negret, Overdrive is a fun car heist film with exhilarating chases, twists, turns, and beautiful vintage cars. It takes a few cues from The Fast and the Furious, Gone in 60 Seconds, the Transporter series, etc and makes them all its own. The use of the car is definitely a plot device, but it works quite well here. The characters are not particularly deep, but as the film is mostly action car porn, it doesn’t really matter in the end. What matters is that they are believable enough to take the viewer through the story and its twists and turns while being entertaining and fun to watch. This film is one of those that is made for the fun of it and not to pass on some kind of grand message, something that is perfectly fine and well done here.
The Bye Bye Man (2017)
It’s “The Bye Bye Man,” or as I call it “Honey, We Ripped Off Slenderman.” In all honesty, “The Bye Bye Man” actually looks like a weak Senator Palpatine cosplayer who died from toxic poisoning from his face make up and became a demon who likes to rip off his shtick from The Babadook, Freddy Krueger, and your every day mime. I’ve experienced scarier stories in young adult sections at public libraries, and could come up with a monster ten times more imposing, and with a name that doesn’t automatically inspire me to chortle under my breath. A movie this bad could only inspire me to gather my thoughts of bewilderment in an itemized list.
Le Serpent aux mille coupures (Thousand Cuts) (2017) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2017]
A man on the run hides in a farm house, taking the family living there hostage. As the search for him intensifies, dead bodies start to pile up. Who is he and what has he done, who is killing these other people and why.
Based on the books by DOA and adapted for this film by DOA and director Eric Valette, Le Serpent aux mille coupures is a tense French polar, a sort of Thriller the French way. The film takes its premise, adds extra bad guys, and pushes the limits a bit while still keeping a fairly simple way of going at things. This creates a tension and suspense while the police and others are looking for a killer who tortures horribly his victims before killing them, while the man in hiding may or may not be this killer. All the tension comes from how the story unfolds even after the audience knows who is doing what, something that is a sign of strong writing and directing.
Jailbreak (2017) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2017]
A special police team is sent to transfer a high risk prisoner from holding to a local prison where the Butterfly clan should not be able to get to him. Once at the prison, things go south fast and the team members find themselves in a fight for their lives.
68 Kill (2017) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2017]
A man living in an abusive relationship is put through the ringer and finds his inner strength to survive and move on following a wild and crazy night and day.
Based on the novel by Bryan Smith, written and directed by Trent Haaga, 68 Kill is an insane ride filled by crazy, lunatic characters. The whole thing seems completely nuts and ludicrous but it works. Somehow, Haaga took all the most ridiculous characters and situations and makes them work in a sort of white-trash opera. Here all the characters do dumb things for dumb reasons and they almost all are assholes and lunatics, yet the film is crazy fun to watch and has a story that moves at a good, fast pace and leads to a satisfactory ending. Haaga took all of the most unlikely elements to make one of those film that should not work yet does so beautifully.
You Only Live Once (Sólo se vive una vez) (2017) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2017]
After witnessing a crime, a con man goes on the run and hides as an orthodox Jew, bringing his problems to an unsuspecting community.
Based on a story by Sergio Esquenazi, written by Esquenazi and Axel Kuschevatzky, and directed by Federico Cueva, You Only Live Once is one of those completely insane action comedy films that should not work but does. The film is filled with a series of crazy ideas and turns into a partial comedy of error while also being a good thriller-ish comedy. The story takes odd turn after odd turn until the very last frame to say the least. Oddly enough, the entire insanity works, which shows good writing and talented directing. Of course, a few jokes or attempts at jokes do fall flat and a few are offensive, but the film has so much going on that it’s easy to be entertained by it.