Review: Castle Falls

A desperate prison guard (Dolph Lundgren) with a terminally ill daughter hears from an incarcerated gang leader that he hid $3 Million in cash inside an abandoned building that he stole from a rival criminal gang. He sets about entering the building and nabbing the cash to pay for his kid’s cancer treatment (Said kid being played by Lundgren’s own daughter Ida). Adding a fly into the ointment the building (formerly a hospital) is rigged with explosives and set for demolition very soon. Scott Adkins plays a down-on-his-luck ex-MMA fighter now making a buck as part of the building’s demolition crew when he stumbles upon the cash and sees literal dollar signs. Meanwhile, as these two men are about to collide and the explosives set to detonate, outside a ruthless gang of crims (led by Scott Hunter) are about to enter the building. They aim to claim the cash for themselves as Hunter’s brother was the true owner of the loot.

 

Not-bad, if somewhat poor man’s version of Walter Hill’s “Trespass” directed by and starring Dolph Lundgren (who previously directed the similarly not-bad “Command Performance”), both films obviously owing to the popular Bogart film “The Treasure of Sierra Madre”. Director-star Lundgren and fellow arse-kicker Scott Adkins are no Bill Paxton and William Sadler, but this 2021 film is at least a step-up from their previous pairing, the lame adventure flick “Legendary”. The film takes a while to set things in motion, which may annoy some but I appreciated it to some extent. That said, the sense of urgency provided by the rigged explosives does clash a bit with that slow-ish plot and character set-up early on.

 

Both leads are good, though I always think Lundgren makes more a more interesting villain than hero, and he's definitely a good guy here or at least he’s understandably motivated. Still he’s actually a decent actor and effective here nonetheless. Unfortunately, it ultimately doesn’t have enough action, and despite being 6 foot 4, veteran stunt performer Scott Hunter has zero intimidation factor as the lead villain. He lacks presence despite his size and that neck tattoo looks ridiculous on him. Even worse is henchwoman Kim DeLonghi in a woefully unconvincing ‘bad girl’ turn. These issues are enough to stop the film from being worthy of a recommendation, despite good work by Lundgren and Adkins. When we do get some action, it’s good fun with aging Lundgren still big and strong enough to hold his own. Adkins has a less interesting role than the director-star but gets the better of the action, kicking henchmen down elevator shafts and so on. A big plus is that the film gets in and out in under 90 minutes, which is nice.

 

Scripted by Andrew Knauer (the slightly underwhelming Schwarzenegger vehicle “The Last Stand”), it’s certainly serviceable if not a whole lot more than that. One best left to fans of the two leads, this one is OK but won’t offer much to anyone else.

 

Rating: C+

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chilly t
Read more

Review: Boyka: Undisputed

Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) is out of prison and fighting for a living, with ambitions for the ‘Most Complete Fighter’ to make a real name for himself. However, after an opponent dies during a fight, the deeply religious Boyka starts to have a crisis of conscience. He tries to make amends with the man’s widow, which eventually pits him against a local gangster (Alon Moni Aboutboul, quite good). Anything with Scott Adkins will generally get me interested, and although this series peaked with the superlative “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , this 2017 film from director Todor Chapkanov (director of the SyFy movies “Copperhead” and “Ghost Town” ) is no slouch in a series yet to deliver anything less than solid entertainment. Producer Isaac Florentine is missed in the director’s chair, but Chapkanov gives us at the very least the series’ most dramatically ambitious entry, as Adkins’ ‘most complete fighter’ Yuri Boyka continues on his journey to redemption here. In this one, the
Read more

Review: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).   I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja” , but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine ( “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , “Undisputed III: Redemption” , “Ninja” ) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than the f
Read more