Reviews: Albert Pyun Twosome: Blast; Crazy Six

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019
Images from the Internet

 Albert Pyun, for those young’ns who don’t know, is a director who specializes in both action and sci-fi genres, and is still actively churning out films. That being said, his career had seen better days before the Millennium, with such classics as Cyborg (1989), the Wrecking Crew (2000) and Dollman (1991). Both of the films reviewed below came out the same year, in 1997.

Blast

Directed by Albert Pyun
Moonstone Entertainment / Imperial Entertainment /
Filmwerks / MVD Marquee Collection
105 minutes, 1997 / 2018
www.mvdvisual.com

There are three key elements to this film, tapped from other sources. The first is obvious: this is a direct tie-in of the classic Die Hard (1988), but rather than a tall building, as hinted by the Blu-ray’s cover, it’s an attack by terrorists on the Atlanta Olympic Games. More on that in a sec. Also, in this story the hero (vas Van Damme busy? Too expensive? Too egocentric?) Jack (Linden Ashby) is an ex­-Martial Arts Bronze Medal winner who is sidelined by an injury, while his ex-wife, Diane (Kimberly Warren), is the coach of the Women’s swimming team, and is in the occupied building being threatened. This should also sound familiar to Die Hard fans.



Linden Ashby

Second, as this is pre-9/11, the opening title cards let us know that there were FBI stings on possible terror action at the real Atlanta games, and one was found credible. Blast is explained as a what-if story of what might have happened had they not been caught, as at the Munich Games when Palestinian terrorists murdered Israeli athletes, which is the third part of bringing this story together.

The bare bones of the plot is that a group of terrorists of various nationalities are led by the Russian, Omodo (Andrew Divoff), essentially in the Hans Gruber role. They set bombs throughout the Aquatic Center where the American team of female athletes are practicing, but of course not before the young lasses have the chance to don their bathing suits (including Shannon Elizabeth in one of her early roles). HHHpwowpowHHardWhat is the goal of these terrorists? Well, odds are you’ll figure it out before Interpol.

Along the way we meet eccentric terrorist expert Mr. Leo (Rutger Hauer, seemingly to be channelling a The Island of Dr. Moreau-era Marlon Brando) who has been following our baddie for a while, and the police commissioner (Tim Thomerson, who is well-underused here in basically an extended cameo donning a Southern accent).



Andrew Divoff,  Kimberly Warren

While it’s obvious this is not the same budget level as Die Hard, Pyun does well to keep the story moving along with fisticuffs, gun fire, and some digitally layered explosions, the latter of which real look fake, but hey, 1997 technology, eh wot?

There are definitely some shortcomings, such as few of the actors here have the personality or appeal of the Die Hard characters (yes, the comparisons continue), and there’s no Yippie-ki-yay-type quotables, but on the other hand, the film moves along in a rapidly paced manner, keeping the attention going.

Speaking of which, it was nice to see a woman in one of the leading bad-guy roles, and while Warren is no Bonnie Bedelia, she eventually manages to hold her own. As for the swim team, they seem to just there for the swimsuits and to be hostages.

For a Blu-ray, there actually aren’t that many extras, being only chapters and a quartet of MVD Marquee Collection trailers, including the one for this film. I’m not complaining; all those extras take time.

Only thing that pissed me off, though, was that I was going to make a reference here about “the Burning of Atlanta,” and the film beat me to it. Snap. Anyhoo, this is pretty solid action flick that’s solid meat’n’taters.

 

Crazy Six

Directed by Albert Pyun
Moonstone Entertainment / Imperial Entertainment /
Filmwerks / MVD Marquee Collection
94 minutes, 1997 / 2018
www.mvdvisual.com

This is a crime drama, but honestly, the tone is solid Western, in the same way For a Fistful of Dollars (1964) was a Western that was a crime drama. But rather than the Old West or even Italy, this film takes place in the ruins of the USSR, 10 years after little Ronnie took credit for “tearing down this wall.”

Beyond the Fall of the Bloc, according to the storyline (and no too far from the truth), crime and corruption quickly replaced the totalitarian regime before it. Of course, many players on the international field have shown up to take a slice of the pie. As we all know that a slice is never enough.



Rob Lowe

It’s quite the cast in this film, such as Burt Reynolds (d. 2018) as a Texan – Stetson included – who is a police detective over there (say what?), Ice-T as the head of a drug dealing crew, and Mario van Peebles (I’m a fan of his dad, but I digress…) who runs a prostitution ring out of his club; and yet, the lead actor and titular character (aka Billy) is junkie and thief Rob Lowe, who was riding a bit higher on the star status at the time. While still acting regularly, he’s cropping up more in B-films. But now back to this review.

Where the Blast was pretty straight forward in story and technique, Pyun shows his artistic side with this release. Between shadows, editing, and especially the primary colors of lighting, he takes us on a grander tale of a robbery gone badly, and the result of that: never rob a drug dealing gang, please. Within the story they always say it’s an easy mark, but it always turns out bad.

Lots of shoot-em-ups, knives and fisticuffs abound (some things stay consistent between films), but add the element of drugs (crack, in this case), and watch the camera lilt about. On one hand, this shows that Pyun has an artistic edge that does not get expressed very often in his action releases, but honestly, on the other hand, in this case it feels heavy handed and convoluted. The story suffers a bit as we wait through the miasma of style to get to the next beating or firing of lots of hand guns by many people usually in a tight space (such as a single room). It’s hard to tell who is killing whom, sometimes.



Ivana Milicevic

This is not a bad film, but honestly it doesn’t feel very successful in what it was trying to achieve, because it was being pulled in too many directions. I mean the opening shot feels like it’s right out of Pulp Fiction (1994), mixed with Italian giallo (lighting) and like I said, the crime/Western genre mix. While I respect what Pyun was trying to do, the characters don’t really achieve much as far as personalities go, and it’s Ice-T that comes across as most solid. Reynolds looks like he’s making his grocery list as he recites his lines, Van Peebles has this cliché dandy French accent, and Lowe’s junkie is so toned down I was hoping his character would switch to Meth so he wouldn’t stumble around so much. The two women in the film, the constant smoking Ivana Milicevic and Blanka Kleinova fare better as characters, and are both stunningly beautiful, so there’s always that.

Again, for a Blu-ray, there are just chapters and a quintet of MVD Marquee Collection trailers, including the one for this film.