Movie Review - Six Gun Savior

Six Gun Savior

2016

The Cast

This is a mixed bag of the good the bad and the downright ugly.  It's a real hit and miss affair... and, unfortunately, is mostly miss.

The story isn't anything we've not seen before.  The Devil buys the soul of our hero and sets him out on a tour of duty chasing down his adversaries.  Of course, since this is good old Lucifer we're talking about, there are a few double crosses along the way.  Not too bad a tale, though as I said, nothing new.

The Good...  I really did enjoy Robert's portrayal of Ol'Scratch himself.  He gives off an air of jubilance and arrogance, which suits Beelzebub well.  Kove gives a strong performance as "The Mentor", which is a pretty well thought out character as he's as cunning and tricky as a fox.  Shame he only appears halfway through.  Then there's Maya Tremblay as Muna, the female shaman.  Though she's silent for the most part, she's still a strong enough actress to give a character to her portrayal.

The Bad...  Rose as Liz Russell is the apotheosis of this film.  When we first meet her she is pretty terrible... then a couple of scenes later, she's quite good... throughout the film her acting ability jumps between the two, making the film awkward and disjointed.  The directing is just too average.  It's not terrible but it's not good either.  The horse chases could have been handled a lot better than they were.  The same can be said about the fight sequences too.  They needed to be better choreographed and acted and filmed.  This is where the film is let down the most as these are meant to be exciting but they're not that interesting or invigorating to watch.  The music... the director opted for a classic western overture feel.  Which may have worked had they had a full orchestra.  Then there's the pace of the film.  I always thought westerns played too slowly and that was why I loved the spaghetti style better.  But this is a supernatural western and as such should have been eerier, tenser, and more atmospheric... but it just felt like a second-rate '50's western, which in this case is bad.

The Ugly... Oh, My God, I don't know which was worse, Matthew Ziff's wooden acting, as the antihero, Kyle "Hawk" Hawkins, or his weak Clint Eastwood accent, which he slipped into when he needed to play the hardened hero.   Though, even Matthew Ziff looked like an Oscar nominee for "Best Actor" when he played opposite his mom Lorraine Ziff, who plays the bad girl Zathera; a supernatural being with the ability to pull a person's life-force from them and has the ability to shape-shift.  The other thing that was off was the second evil-smiting team.  There really wasn't any need for these to be in the film at all.  It just appeared a way to get Russ, who played Ezekiel Roak, into the film.  It also seemed that we should know these people and have an already formed opinion about them.  If that's not the case then they could be planning a spin-off movie with these characters.  Either way, it just reeked like a month old Stilton, left out in the sun.

So if you're a fan of westerns, with a supernatural twist, this may be up your street... though I would recommend you wait for a snow day and only then if you've exhausted all other viewing possibilities.

I give this flick a Good, Bad, and Ugly 4.75 out of 10.

The Trailer

 

Movie Review - Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty

2014

The Cast

Apart from the terrible acting from an okay cast and some dodgy directing, this isn't too bad a story.  As a film though, it's only average.

Though the cast has B-Movie king Casper Van Dien (who directed this flick), Catherine Oxenberg, and Michael York listed, their worth in this film is minimal.  The real bad thing is their lack of spirit is tangible.  Poor York is the narrator and appears to have literally phoned his part in.  There's no emotion or feeling in his voice; something which is a basic requirement in a narrator.  Even though, Van Dein and Oxenberg, as Sleeping Beauties regal parents, are asleep for the majority of the movie they actually appear to be sleepwalking in their "awake" scenes.

Even Olivia D'Abo who has a meatier role as the evil witch, Queen Tambria, ofttimes appears to be a somnambulist.  The best actors in this little play are the Kings whipping boy, Barrow (Finn Jones) and the Prince Jayson (Edward Lewis French) along with his heavy Gruner (Gil Kolirin), and his soldiers.

What this film really appears to be is an exercise in how many Van Dien's you can get on the screen in one film... that would be all of them.  Most families would have a picnic... the Van Diens make a movie.

The one thing that did surprise me was the location.  For one, it actually worked.  It even reminded me a little of the Hammer House Of Horror sets of far-off European principalities - it even came with a graveyard and earth clawing walking dead.  Even the inside locations were decent.  It was a delight to see proper stone walls.  I would love to live in that mansion come castle.

That said, there were a lot of gaping holes in the story that Dien should have ironed out when filming.  For example, there's one scene where Prince Jayson sends Barrow up the castle walls to secure a rope through the only open window.  Instead of getting him to check the place out while he's up there, he orders him to come straight down and they will camp in the courtyard, for the night.  Then later the next day, they're being chased by dead warriors and climb the rope to escape only to find it leads to a balcony, with no entrance into the castle... hhhmmm, if only somebody had looked around before then they wouldn't be in this predicament.  I cannot believe they were so stupid back then.  This is bad writing and directing.

There are some nice beasties in the film, though you can see when the budget started to run low.  The lake monster is pretty good, as is the one which scales the outside of the building the first night they're there.  However, near the climax of the film, the same monster is looking pretty funny and quite unrealistic as it prowls the dungeons.

On the whole, this film could have been a hell of a lot better had the "Quality" cast put the effort into their portrayals of their characters... the story had been tightened and all the holes filled... and ropey special effects thrown onto the cutting room floor.  You shouldn't rely on CGI if the budget won't carry it, find another way round to entertain the audience.

If there's very little on the telly and it's miserable outside then you could give this a try.  It'll waste an hour and a half.

I give this a snoozy could be better than average 4.75 out of 10.

The Trailer