{"id":22518,"date":"2016-09-28T02:16:49","date_gmt":"2016-09-28T06:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=22518"},"modified":"2016-09-28T02:17:16","modified_gmt":"2016-09-28T06:17:16","slug":"level-up-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/28\/level-up-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Level Up (2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"levelup\"<\/a>A group of masked thugs grab Matt and tell him to do as they say or he\u2019ll never see his girlfriend Anna again.\u00a0 As they give him orders by text message, Matt is pushed to see how far he\u2019s ready to go to save the woman he loves. Based on an original idea by Andrew Orr, written by Adam Randall and Gary Young, and directed by Randall, the film is like a type of scavenger hunt\/chase through London through which the lead learns about his tormentors and about himself.\u00a0 The bad guys created here are never really explained.\u00a0 The chase the film creates is interesting and how the lead deals with everything thrown at him is in a realistic manner while keeping the attention of the viewer.<\/p>\n

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The story is not exactly super complex but it works and has enough mystery to keep one guessing throughout. The whole film revolves around the character of Matt, a slacker needing focus, played by Josh Bowman who gives off good slacker vibes with a laziness about him and just the right level of annoyance at first. \u00a0His performance adjusts with his character\u2019s evolution and he becomes more assertive, more confident as the film progresses.\u00a0 Most of the other characters are small or wearing the granny-est of ski masks.\u00a0 There is however another man stuck kind a similar situation as the leas, referred to as The Businessman in the credits and played by William Houston who gives an unrestrained, almost desperate performance.<\/p>\n

His performance works well as an opposite to Bowman\u2019s. In Level Up, the music by Plaid is almost like an extra character.\u00a0 It adds urgency and feels like it\u2019s pushing the lead to go faster, work harder, not give up.\u00a0 Also, as opposed to most movies, it doesn\u2019t really feel like a score or a soundtrack.\u00a0 It\u2019s its own entity and it sticks out for better or work, which is the former for this reviewer.<\/p>\n

Another extra character in this film is the city of London.\u00a0 The film doesn\u2019t go for the usual landmarks and tourist attractions.\u00a0 The locations are more varied with typical London houses and flats, old buildings and new modern ones.\u00a0 The city gets properly explored which for someone having been there, it almost becomes a game of spotting favorite places and new ones to see next time.<\/p>\n

Also, typically London are the CCTV systems in place and used by the bad guys to track their victims, or players, through the maze of the city.\u00a0 These images paired with the more traditional images with cinematography by Eben Bolter showing some scenes in tight, close-up shots add to the chases and city running by giving off a look and vibe that are dynamic and push the story forward.\u00a0 This is all highlighted by the editing by Kate Coggins which is fast-paced but not a bunch of quick cuts.\u00a0 The actions feels fast but is also visible, something many action films of the last few years fail to do.<\/p>\n

The film sports some special effects and more visual effects, both of which are good.\u00a0 The special effects by Alistair Anderson and Alexander Gunn are fairly minimal but look quite good on screen.\u00a0 The visual effects by Stuart Brown replicate video games rather well.\u00a0 They are not hugely fantastic but their point is not to blend in, but to show the video game view in their scenes.<\/p>\n

Level Up is a fun action film with great shots of London which is very well used as a location.\u00a0 Its music and effects work while the use of the CCTV is timely and appropriate to the location.\u00a0 The action keeps the interest and the way it is shot lets you see it as it happens.\u00a0 The story\u2019s themes of love, testing oneself, regrets, and moving forward create more than a simple chase film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of masked thugs grab Matt and tell him to do as they say or he\u2019ll never see his girlfriend Anna again.\u00a0 As they give him orders by text message, Matt is pushed to see how far he\u2019s ready to go to save the woman he loves. Based on an original idea by Andrew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58,240,367,391,590,1087],"class_list":["post-22518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-crime","tag-foreign","tag-gangster","tag-l","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22520,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22518\/revisions\/22520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}