Bounty Hunters (2011/MPI DVD)/Mandrill (2009/Magnolia/MagNet
Blu-ray)/Poolboy: Drowning Out The Fury
(2011/Screen Media DVD)
Picture: C/B/C Sound: C+/B/C+ Extras: C/C/D Main
Features: C-/C+/C-
The
action genre has become such a bad joke in itself, ruined by a combination of
bad formula and even worse digital video effects, so trying to spoof it (even
with all three entries leaning on martial arts) is a losing battle as the
following releases discovered one way or the other.
Patrick
Breatry’s Bounty Hunters (2011) at
least knows it is silly and features one-time professional wrestler Trish
Stratus as the head of a for-hire team just trying to make some money
delivering professional guard services.
Of course, this does not always work out as they expect and they run
into “the mob” which complicates everything.
Some of the fights work and Stratus has some appeal, but this is just
too silly and script-thin to fill even the 79 minutes this runs with credits,
but they at least seem to be having fun even when we are not. Extras include on camera interview with
Stratus, a trailer and behind the scenes piece.
More
ambitious and somewhat successful is Ernesto Diaz Espinoza’s Mandrill (2009) which wants to send up
urban action films of the 1970s and has an extended fixation on the James Bond
films. Marko Zaror (among those in the
third undisputed release reviewed
elsewhere on this site) is the title assassin, who is cool, slick and works for
millions of dollars a hit. Zaror is able
to deliver the action and the film has fun with this, but it is also still
doing things that are too familiar and there is no doubt the makers also want
to capitalize on the OSS 117 films
with The Artist star Jean Dujardin
had a few hits with reviving a few years ago.
This is
as successful as the first of those films (also reviewed elsewhere on this
site) subtitled Cairo,
Nest Of Spies and I did laugh. The
makers obviously love the bond films too, but in the last reel, they do not
know where to go. However, if you think you’d
enjoy this, it is worth a look. Extras
include a trailer, Behind The Scenes featurette and a look at how several fight
sequences were put together.
Finally
we have Garrett Barwith’s Poolboy:
Drowning Out The Fury (2011) which is out to specifically spoof the
reactionary 1980s action films, including their Vietnam Syndrome issues, but
this gets very silly very quickly and never recovers, and that is being nice
about it. Not that it is bad horrible,
but still awful and a missed opportunity.
Kevin Sorbo goes further than he has before sending his image up as the
title character, but the script is a mess and the dumb device of the film being
“lost” and hosted by a fictitious idiot director who helmed it is a massive
error that comes across as desperate filler.
Even with Danny Trejo and Jason Mewes showing up, this does not work and
is only for the extremely curious. There
are no extras.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Bounty
and Poolboy are softer than new
productions should be including detail issues, staircasing and motion blur,
making one doubt a Blu-ray would be an improvement. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition
image transfer on Mandrill on the
other hand may be stylized to look like a 1970s film, but this is not overdone (for
a change) and looks really good and that was a pleasant surprise. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on Bounty has soundfield limits and
location audio issues, so it is not any better than the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo on Poolboy with much the same
issues. On the other hand, the DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is on Mandrill
is solid, warm and has a consistent soundfield throughout, even when the audio
is manipulated to sound weak in scenes.
- Nicholas Sheffo