Didn't have time to die down, pretty good "One Shot" with Scott Adkins, as another film was released with the hardest working action actor of our time. So, "Castle Falls".
SYNOPSIS
After decades of neglect, Castle Heights Hospital, a symbol of the city's segregated past, was loaded with dynamite and ready for demolition. But no one knows that the jailed gang leader has hidden $3 million in cash in an abandoned building that he stole from his rivals. Now the money is needed by three desperate parties: a former fighter (Adkins) who finds it while working as part of a demolition crew; a prison guard (Lundgren) willing to do anything to pay for his daughter's cancer treatment; a ruthless gang claiming to be the rightful owners of money. Demolition charges are set, everyone moves away, and the "Castle" is due to fall in 90 minutes. The clock is ticking. Who will find the money and will they make it out alive?
REVIEW
"Castle Falls" - this is the seventh job Dolph Lundgren as a director and the fourth, where the icon of the 90s action genre is accompanied by a modern icon of the genre Scott Adkins.
It so happened that this year two films in the style of the first have already been released. "Die Hard", where the main location for events becomes a multi-story building. A "Castle Falls" is the third. And if Indian "Sanak" with Vidyut Jamwal and Malaysian "Jay 2: Retaliation" look like full-fledged blockbusters from their countries, then "Castle Falls" it looks as if the actors filmed it with their own money as a bet: would they film it in a week? Moreover, they did the filming and editing using their phones, forgetting about color correction in the confusion. Well, okay... I'm exaggerating a little.
But the fans Scott Adkins We’re probably already used to seeing the best modern action actor in cheap films that are shot at two or three a year. Actually, this moment is the secret of Scott’s productivity - he is filmed absolutely everywhere where he can and where he can’t. Nevertheless, between passable film products, he consistently produces good B-category films, and Adkins’ fans, no matter what, wait for the release of his films, no matter how cheap and cheerful they are.
What is it about Scott that captivates? The fact is that Adkins, regardless of the film's budget, always brings good acting to the film, and obviously has a lot of fun in the process, and is not just making money as Bruce Willis in the last 10 years. And there’s no need to even talk about Scott’s excellent physical training - this is, as it were, by default his main quality as an action actor. In this aspect, at the beginning of his career, he pushed most of the American action stars of the past down the pedestal. Adkins represents the perfect balance between fighting skills and acting. These two components are always interesting to watch.
In this case, "Castle Falls" is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting acting works of a Briton. He plays neither a prisoner, nor a cop, nor an invulnerable intelligence agent or a former Navy SEAL, nor an assassin, but a simple guy - an MMA fighter with a not very successful career, trying to get out of a deplorable financial situation. Scott brought all the necessary qualities to this character: simplicity, humanity, lack of show-off, pathos and a little humor. In general, everything for which you can empathize and sympathize with the character.
The same can be said about the character. Dolph Lundgren - he, being a simple prison guard, is endowed with natural human qualities and does everything possible to save his sick daughter. Those who are tired of endless thieves, criminals, killers and scum as the main characters will like these two.
ACTION
This is far from the best work of the tandem Scott Adkins and fight director Tim Man in terms of fight choreography. But I still liked the action. The battles here are close to reality, without any “Boykavian” tricks and camera refinements, which is an ideal solution for this film. Visual show-off would have made this film look a little more ridiculous, but everything turned out natural: from the characters to the action scenes. From the first action scene to the main action in "Castle" a lot of time will pass, but in this case this is not a drawback, since the plot develops quite interestingly, albeit slowly. And the film does not have the task of holding the viewer’s attention through far-fetched and inappropriate fights a la “they just got stuck in a bar”, “an unknown girl was attacked by bandits in an alley, she needs to be saved.” The story in the film comes first and the action makes sense, where the fighting skills are successfully woven into the story rather than the story being the excuse for them. This is screenwriting competence. Very good balance.
SUMMARY
Taking into account budgetary constraints and the circumstances of the pandemic, I consider the result to be satisfactory. The film has some kind of lamp, old-school quality, when two different heroes are forced to unite in a confrontation with a third party. Both heroes evoke sympathy with their believability and Adkins’ hero looks vulnerable not only in combat but also in human terms, just like Dolph’s hero. And a constantly ticking timer on a dynamite-charged building creates a certain amount of suspense, which adds spice to the viewing experience. What's missing from this year's other tough nuts. The action film balances action and drama well. For any film, the ending is a rather significant factor in the aftertaste, so, in this case, this aftertaste is correct and pleasant, although a little sad.
Although this film does not have the same humor and chemistry between the characters as, for example, in "Collectors" Jesse Johnson, it's still nice to see these two fighting legends working together and playing to each other's strengths. They both do a good job individually and together, showcasing their acting and action hero skills. With a good budget and great opportunities, "Castle Falls" could have become a masterpiece of the genre, but unfortunately, the film just resembles a very good previs, a demo version. This movie can be described as a small film with a big heart.
For me personally, this is one of Adkins and Lundgren's best films, and one of the best this year, despite its shortcomings. This is the case when you don’t want to pay attention to them. And in the 2021 “Die Hard Nuts” competition, for me the best one too, although "Sanak" и "Jay 2" In terms of technical qualities, it is several heads higher. But they lack the lamp quality "Castle Falls" and they are extremely drawn out in timing, which is unacceptable for such simple plots.
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Tags: Castle Falls, Dolph Lundgren, Scott Adkins, Tim Man
Tags: Castle Falls, Dolph Lundgren, Scott Adkins, Tim Man
Well, Scott Adkins is still an actor. But on the whole I agree. The magic of his films is very similar to the magic of Steven Seagal's films. With the latter you know for sure that there will be another piece of crap with fat Seagal, cheap shootouts, poor fights, but we watch it anyway.