Thanks to our free trial of Showtime, I've been able to watch some cool flicks like Last Vegas, Judge Dredd, Starring Adam West, The Death of Superman Lives and Prophet's Prey. Over the weekend, new western from Denmark The Salvation premiered and was a fitting end to my days of horses, dusters and guns that started with Dolph Lundgren's Missionary Man and continued with Amazon's new pilot Edge. The angular and weirdcool Mikkelsen has been on my radar since 2004's underrated men on a mission flick, King Arthur. That opened me up to his excellent work in the likes ofdrug dealing drama Pusher, cannibal black comedy The Green Butchers, life affecting melodrama After the Wedding, WWII action drama Flame and Citron and supernatural thriller The Door among others. He made a splash stateside as the villain in 2006's Casino Royale before popping up in Clash of the Titans and cult show Hannibal while earning raves in the excellent drama The Hunt. In The Salvation, Kristian Levring directs from a script from himself and Anders Thomas Jensen. Set in the 1870's, Jon (Mikkelsen) and brother Peter (Mikael Persbrandt) are two brothers who fought a losing war in Denmark then came to America for a new start. It's been 7 years since Jon had to leave his wife and kid as the film opens with them arriving at the train station. But their coach ride back to town carries a couple of fresh out of prison brutes and after a tense standoff, Jon is tossed from the wagon. His wife and son are killed but he shoots those mofos dead in return. Immediately this wasn't going to be some quasi arthouse update of Death Wish where a regular guy is pushed to the brink and reacts. We get Mads pushed into a corner he can't get out of without risking harm to his wife and son even though he almost gets the drop on the two former convicts. If this were a Dolph flick, he would have shot those sumbitches without warning.
Only problem is, convict's big bad brother Henry Delarue (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) runs the town Jon lives outside of and squeezes the locals into giving him up. After escaping Delarue's clutches, Jon uncovers a land grabbing scheme and must bring justice to the scared people who have seen their wives, husbands and relatives all mercilessly killed. Royale co-star Eva Green shows up as Madelaine, mute wife to the deceased Delarue who may or may not be an ally. Shot in South Africa, The Salvation is a beautiful film that takes full advantage of the dusty desert with vibrant cinematography and good use of the day and night visuals. Mikkelsen always excels at playing the upright and pure force versus the physical tough guy nature of Dolph or Max Martini. Here he plays a man capable of violence but it's not his chosen response until totally necessary. Morgan gets to play suave yet cruel while Green brings her usual mean-hot style to the table and gets to take care of business by the end. The violence is straight forward with people getting shot and beat in a non-sensationalist style but with plenty of blood and pain on display. An excellent flick and a fascinating take on the genre. At a quick 92 minutes, the film really kept things moving yet didn't feel rushed. There's so much detail and nuance in the characters, costumes and settings that a second viewing may be required on another sleepy Sunday afternoon.
Stumbled across a random Facebook post showing off a violent clip from a new Amazon pilot, Edge. It caught my eye for many reasons; it was a western, it was really violent, it starred Max Martini (Pacific Rim & Sabotage) and directed by Shane Black. With those ingredients, how could you go wrong? Apparently it's Pilot season on Amazon where they produce a handful then viewers rate/vote/review to help them decide which series to move forward with. Based on a series of novels by George G. Gilman, Edge opens up with the murder of Jamie Hedges (Nate Warren), brother to thought dead Union solider Josiah Hedges aka Edge. Big Brother shows up to town, under the harsh rule of Big Bill (William Sadler). His son Little Bill served with Edge along with former comrade turned baddie Harknett (Ryan Kwanten). Edge gets hired on to help shepard the town, learning who's in control while meeting the locals like trophy wife Pilar (Alicja Bachleda) and Pinkerton detective masquerading as a working girl Beth (Yvonne Strahovski).
By the end of the 60 minute pilot, Edge has wasted plenty of fools with a straight razor, six shooter and a gattling gun. The violence is amped up and earns it's MA rating. Lots of blood, dismemberment, head shots, brutal beatings and a branch through the abdomen. The final shootout gets a bit over the top with Edge running across roofs and awnings, flying through the air and blasting every baddie in sight. Along with blood you also get Martini's muscular butt shot and some breasts so all bases are covered. Written by Black and former partner Fred Dekker, the show switches between hardcore violence and funny quips about dogs, sex and whatnot. Martini looks near unrecognizable with a mess of hair covering up his face and grumbles out his dialog but it's good to see the likable supporting player in the lead. Production value is high end with a great looking western town, huge natural vistas, dusty and crusty attire along with a couple of explosions. The episode's epilogue sets up the series as baddie Harknett is a sadist and a racist on the hunt for a fortune, ensuring his paths will cross with Edge once again. With no interest in any other Amazon show besides Ron Perlman's vigilante drama Hand of God, here's hoping we get more Edge.
It was a nice and relaxing weekend where I caught up on some cleaning, reading and of course, movies. After talking about Dolph Lundgren emulating Clint Eastwood earlier this week, it was time for some Dolph directing with his Pale Rider and High Plains Drifter quasi remake Missionary Man from 2007. After falling into directing with 2004's The Defender when Sidney Furie fell ill and the big Swede had to fill in, Dolph would go the Eastwood route for several more films with 2005's The Russian Specialist being a highlight. For Missionary Man, Lundgren stars, directs and co-wrote the script for the low budget, modern day western. Set in a small town in Texas, Ryder (Lundgren) shows up on an iron horse aka a motorcycle and heads to the bar where he downs tequila, straight up; no salt, no lime, like water then beats the shit out of a pack of thugs outside who are beating up a junkie native who owes some money. You see local big dog John Reno (Matthew Tompkins) has his eyes set on building a casino on nearby native tribal people's land and he's gonna get it whether they like it or not. But now the peaceful locals and shit swallowing Sheriffs have some back up with Dolph around and start standing up for themselves. Of course Reno wants Ryder on his side but the violent man of faith is already on Team Jesus. Reno calls in some back up muscle and biker boys lead by Jarfe (John Enos III) show up who may or may not know who Ryder is.
Shot with a rumored $2 million budget in Waxahachie, Texas for prolific actor turned producer Andrew Stevens, Missionary Man holds up as an excellent piece of DTV action for Lundgren. You get him playing a mysterious badass who visits to pay respects to a dead friend from the military and ends up saving the small town. There's fist fights, shootouts, explosions and shotgun blasts to the face galore all done in a slightly overwrought, nearly black and white style. Some of the editing is choppy as you don't really see some of the hand to hand moves and Dolph could have cooled with the slow motion. The film pays homage or cribs from Pale Rider, High Plains Drifter and Billy Jack among other flicks with story bits and dialog. Dolph is still a towering presence here as he breaks faces with fists and knees then wastes fools with a sawed off shotgun. You even get some fact based drama out of the local tribes people struggling with the asshole white folk/gangsters and as they adopt Dolph into the clan. At a brisk 93 minutes, it's hard to get bored and you get some decent sized set pieces like a night time shootout and an ending where Dolph takes out a dozen thugs one at a time in the streets and alleys with ropes, guns and fisticuffs. Friend and frequent co-star James Chalke shows up as the Sheriff and UFC fighter Brad Imes appears as a thug who has a change of heart after getting his nose busted by Dolph.
Missionary Man would continue an uptick in quality for Dolph after a string of low budget, barely cobbled together efforts like Jill Rips, Agent Red, Storm Catcher and Retrograde. Taking more control of his career creatively, higher profile fare like Universal Soldier: Regeneration, The Killing Machine and Command Performance followed before getting the call from buddy Stallone for big screen return hit, The Expendables.
