Showing posts with label Kane Hodder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kane Hodder. Show all posts

5.01.2013

#327 -- Dead Noon (2007)

Director: Andrew Wiest
Rating: 2 / 5

Oh, how they rope me in. I found this on Demand, and I thought the idea was somewhat interesting. Nothing I'd be dying to watch, though. When I scrolled down a little bit and saw Kane Hodder's name, I was completely sold. They get me like that every time. But don't let them fool you too; Kane is hardly in the movie at all, and even his awesomeness couldn't save it.

The back story on these folks is interesting enough, but somehow they just failed to deliver. So, back in the old West days, a sheriff finds his partner, Frank, sleeping with his wife. He kills his wife, every member of Frank's posse, and then sets out to kill Frank himself. He succeeds, and Frank ends up in Hell. While in Hell, he plays poker games with who I assume was the Sheriff. They always have the same deal: if Frank wins, he gets to go back to Earth. Frank usually loses, but this time he gets what he wants. So Frank walks right out of Hell and goes on a killing spree, searching for the last remaining relatives of the Sheriff's, so he can end their bloodline once and for all.

Pretty cool, huh? No. Frank and his resurrected posse go about killing everyone, and it's just mindless slayings. There's no real structure to it. For the most part, it'll leave you feeling confused. Once you realize that he's searching for the rest of the bloodline, it makes a little bit of sense; but not much. So, we're following Logan and Stuart, brothers and great-great-grandson's of the sheriff. They're cops too, and they're out searching for whoever has been killing all these people. Along with some chick (who happens to be much better with a gun than both of them combined), they're hoping they'll be able to stop Frank. They finally learn what Frank's all about, and it doesn't seem to bother them all that much. And, that's pretty much it. There's a fight scene at the end, and a shoot-out, and then - finally - it's over.



So, where does Kane Hodder come into play? Well, at the beginning he's got some girl held hostage, and he's telling her this story. She's all beat up and we can only assume that he means her harm. I'm going to spoil the ending now. Not that you care. The movie spoils itself by being so terrible. So, Kane ends up being a demon himself, and he's here to finish what Frank couldn't: ending the bloodline. The girl was supposed to have been Logan's daughter, which is what she thought all her life, but apparently she was Frank's daughter. I'm not really sure how that happened; I guess he raped Logan's wife. It wasn't explained at all. So, that's it. Kane's in the movie for maybe ten minutes altogether. And here's an interesting fact that I found on IMDB-- he wasn't even in the movie at all originally. The movie was made, and when a company decided to buy it for some reason, they added those scenes in. They also re-edited it, and worked some magic to make it better. So, originally, it was actually worse. Good grief.

Kane actually is the best thing about this movie. I usually say that just because I love him, but here it's actually true. The other actors were horrible; the effects were stupid, and the story was jumbled and made no sense most of the time. Usually, I can ignore bad effects. I'm no low budget hater. But I can only ignore that if everything else is done well which, here, it absolutely is not. Altogether, it's just a flat-out horrible movie. That one extra  point I gave it in my rating was for Kane, of course. He's wonderful, as usual. You should see it if you, like me, are a huge Kane fan. Otherwise, just skip it. You'll thank me, I promise.

11.29.2012

#245 -- Dark Wolf (2003)

Rating: 2.5 / 5
Director: Richard Friedman

I didn't really know what to expect from this movie going into it. On the surface (before you watch it, that is) it seems pretty cool. It features my favorite bad guy, Kane Hodder, and it was directed by the same guy who directed the Friday the 13th TV series. It claims to be a sexy and terrifying movie about a werewolf looking for a mate. So it definitely sounds promising. But does it deliver? No, not really.

The story is interesting enough, I guess, but it wasn't executed in a way that made it fun to watch. So, let's take a look at the plot. Apparently there are two different kinds of werewolves, pure bred and hybrid. I couldn't really tell the difference other than that the supposed hybrid looked like a full-on wolf, while the so-called pure blood looked like a half human/half wolf (which seems backwards, if you ask me.) So, the hybrid wolf, or the "dark wolf" needed a mate so that he could get rid of the pure blood race altogether, and then eventually the humans as well. Or something like that. From what I could gather, there was only one purebred left, and that was a cute little waitress named Josie. She's informed by a police officer (who also doubles as a werewolf hunter) that the dark wolf is hunting her, and he makes it his job to protect her (well, actually, her old protector getting killed made it his job). He also tells her that anyone she touches will be hunted down and killed, because the dark wolf will follow her scent. So there's plenty of people getting killed in bloody ways.

I think the only thing people will find appealing about the movie is the nudity. It starts off with boob shots, and there's even a million-year long scene where two naked chicks in body paint make out with each other. I guess that's why it calls itself sexy. And I'm pretty sure that, when the dark wolf finally found Josie, he started humping her. So if you're into wolf on girl
action, then you might like that bit too. But other than that, it's a poorly made movie. Like I said, the story was okay. The gore was pretty decent as well, though too much of the actual killing was hidden, or the kills they showed just lacked the necessary oompf. The werewolf makeup looked cheesy. So cheesy, in fact, that they didn't even want us to see that much of it. It was mostly just close-up shots of its eyes. But I can deal with a cheesy, rubber costume. What got me were the transformation scenes. They were 100% animated, and it looked like it belonged in a bad video game.

So, if you must, watch this movie for the same reason I did--Kane Hodder, and he was great of course. All of the actors actually did a great job with what they had to work with. They weren't the problem. Blame it on bad CGI and dullness.