DVD: Hunt To Kill

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Anchor Bay Home Entertainment

Directed by Keoni Waxman
Written by Frank Hannah
Starring Steve Austin, Gil Bellows, Gary Daniels, Michael Eklund, Emilie Ullerup, Marie Avgeropoulos

Much like most of the movies starring American wrestling superstar "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, although you might expect otherwise, his acting skill is not the biggest problem.

The movie follows a well-worn plot that has been the subject of many actions movies before this one. The star is made to guide a group of criminals through rough terrain because they are dragging his daughter along for the journey at gunpoint. Simple enough and everyone knows it's only a matter of time (approximately 75% of the movie's length) before he starts killing them one by one in imaginative ways which befit his character (if we're lucky). And it plays out more or less as you would expect, right down to people who we're meant to assume are dead getting back up for another round. Why throw out one action movie tradition when you've touched upon all of the rest? At least there's no token love interest.

As for the acting, such that it is, Eric Roberts makes an all-too-brief cameo in the opening few minute which sadly stands as the best turn of the movie. Emilie Ullerup somehow manages to be worse as one of the criminals than she is as Ashley in sci-fi series 'Sanctuary', Marie Avgeropoulos is so obviously too old to be playing Austin's teenage daughter Kim that she can never make "Daddy" ring true, and why British-born kick boxer-turned-action star Gary Daniels quite feels the need to over-do his English accent is a mystery. Presumably director Keoni Waxman thought his normal voice was too subtle for American audiences to realise he was English.

One thing Austin can never be faulted for in his acting is his effort. He always seems to try hard despite being in a string of low-budget, badly scripted action-by-numbers DVD releases. Besides Austin's admirable efforts the only real acting going on comes from Gil Bellows as murderous leader Banks, but his script is truly dreadful at times, and the ever-eccentric Michael Eklund as tech geek Geary. In both cases though they're forced to over act in the majority of their scenes, especially Bellows.

Like Austin's other recent DVD release 'The Stranger', 'Hunt To Kill' is watchable on one of those lazy evenings when you just want to watch something without having to think too hard, and since no one involved in writing this movie did, it stands to reason that you don't have to either. There are better, there are worse, take it for what it is.

“ low-budget, badly scripted action-by-numbers ”

Special Features: None.

TECHNICAL DETAILS
DVD Release Date: October 11, 2010
Studio: NGN Productions
Feature Running Time: 93 mins
Certificate: 15
Language(s): English
Subtitles: None
Other Format(s): Blu-Ray

DVD: The Stranger

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Anchor Bay Home Entertainment

Directed by Robert Lieberman
Written by Quinn Scott
Starring Steve Austin, Adam Beach, Erica Cerra, Ron Lea

It's very easy to start 'The Stranger' with the assumption that it will be low-budget-terrible. Firstly, it's a straight-to-DVD action movie, and good ones of those are very rare. Secondly the lead is professional wrestling star "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Again, an actor who has crossed over from another entertainment profession who can actually act is rare. Lastly, no other actor is mentioned on the cover, meaning there's no one in the movie significant enough to be noted alongside Austin.

However, basing assessment of the quality of this movie on Austin's ability is grossly unfair. Given a dreadful script, appalling supporting actors (particularly Adam Beach) and cinematography reminiscent of a student film club project, Austin's performance is remarkable. He holds his own amongst a legion of amateurs behind and in front of the camera and although the plot isn't as original as it tries to claim it is watchable, building to the inevitable conclusion seen hundreds of times before.

There's not enough here to give the movie a good rating, which Austin almost deserves for holding the whole thing together against the odds, and it's therefore difficult to recommend this to anyone except Austin fans who will enjoy seeing him put in a good turn. It has to be said though, if you're looking for a bit of no-brain action entertainment, there are better movies out there.

“ a legion of amateurs behind and in front of the camera ”

Special Features: The Stranger: Behind The Scenes / Trailer

TECHNICAL DETAILS
DVD Release Date: August 9, 2010
Studio: NGN Productions
Feature Running Time: 87 mins
Special Features Running Time: 7 mins
Certificate: 15
Language(s): English
Subtitles: None
Other Format(s): Blu-Ray

Alan Pearce - Who's Side Are They On?

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Gibson Square Books Ltd.


For Alan Pearce to say he wrote this book could be a case for trading standards. All this is, really, all this is, is a collection of Daily Mail-worthy sidebars about things that have happened to people. All one-off, all unusual in some way, and all collected with the blatant attempt to try to prove that Government and authority are against us rather than with us.

There's no doubt that in certain areas the police, the government, and so on do things to benefit themselves, but this book challenges none of them. Nothing in here indicates a trend in behaviour, any particular policies, or holds any other semblance of proof or integrity. One person, in one small local area, wronged by one police officer does not mean the entire force is crooked. Amusing little anecdote it may be, but the point of this book was meant to be to demonstrate the PC-fueled decline of the country, and it doesn't do that any better than the Daily Star does.

And if it weren't bad enough that none of the material here is at all indicative of the state of the nation, the "author" hasn't even bothered writing anything. Everything here has been lifted from other sources. Maybe re-edited a little, but all the same it's a collection of clippings, not a book.

No political, social or economic commentary, no analysis, not even any satire. Just a cut-and-paste job of dumbed-down, lowest-common-denomenator stuff at its most blatant... and one look at the Amazon product page for this book will demonstrate all the people it's fooled so far. At least the author and publisher can collectively claim their little con-job worked!

“ a collection of clippings, not a book ”

PUBLICATION DETAILS
First Hardback Publication Date: November 3, 2009
First Paperback Publication Date: N/A
Publisher: Gibson Square Books Ltd.
Pages: 224
Language(s): English