
This week has been more hectic than normal, as I have done more reviews in this week alone than in the past two months. The Big Bad Film Fest has just ended and I am behind; however, I came across Tiger Style Media’s second effort, The Lockdown, which releases today on Digital, and decided to check it out because the trailer featured some pretty good fight scenes as well as some of my favorite actors, Leo Howard, Caity Lotz, and the genre’s own Michale Biehn. Disappointing in a way for me was the first flick, Art of Eight Limbs with Ludi Lin from Mortal Kombat, hence my hope for a step up here with the talent involved. I like what Tiger Style Media is doing here and hope they continue with the DTV style of martial arts action films; however, so far, the titles have been a mixed bag with a few bright spots.
I would say that The Lockdown in which Ryan Jaeger who produced Art of Eight Limbs sits in the director’s chair this time around offers some great excitement in its action and a more compelling narrative that is all about love, loss, and family. As far as the plot goes, this one is a bit more relatable than the James Bond Enter the Dragon of their first movie. Not that there was anything wrong with that. But I think the more realistic concept of the American brother-sister combination who are in deep trouble and have to battle their way out of the triangles was more realistic and had more emotional impact to complement the physical ones.
The Lockdown features Caity Lotz (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) as Charlie and Leo Howard (GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra) as Jack Hightower, the siblings in the movie. Charlie is a journalist taking a stand against homelessness in the United States, while their mother is dead and Jack is trying to manage the father’s gym. Too much focus was given to their mother’s death that Max (Biehn), the father of Charlie and Jack, has had no insights into their lives as he is a drug trafficker locked in a Myanmar jail. The only issue is that Jack is dependent on Max’s signature to sign the business he is so desperately yearning for over to him and Charlie and thankfully, Max is still alive since he was a well-respected trainer in his prime.
Jack still clings to the idea of a father’s recognition in the future but Charlie wants nothing to do with him because he does nothing but tell people how he struggled to provide for them all all his life and when it really counted, he left them. Charlie is now on suspension from her place of work because she beat up some crooks who were bullying a bunch of poor people and just about everyone turned a blind eye to it. So with other plans failing, she goes with Jack to Myanmar to try and convince their father to sign the papers Jack showed him. Oh did I forget to mention that this particular prison specializes in hosting death matches for entertainment purposes and that Max is using his own kids as combatants in his bid for freedom? Right, there is that as well.
As it turns out, both of them make their entrance into the prison system and get recast in the roles of drug addicts, only to find themselves behind bars again. Drug possession, God frees us, is simply like a LinkedIn account for a brutal warden, Cetan (Hon Ping Tang), and boy do the politics and violence get ugly here. There are even two other children involved within the family, who also help Warden Cetan in conducting fights as it has become marketing! More ways to keep the family intimate. When they enter the facility, brother and sister hence do not just simply sit at home and watch movies after dinner, they fight, and it is not even a figurative statement, every day is as nightmarish as one witnessing prison shows.
The film seems to be yet another homage like the Art of Eight Limbs, to the vintage martial arts tape-wielding heroines striking down hordes of ninjas movies most of us are fond of. The storyline is ludicrous, again as it was in the 90s – But, in many ways, that’s also what made it entertaining to watch. The plot was only there to justify watching the hero/heroines destroy heaps of henchmen with incredible and deadly signature moves before some bone-crunching grand finish. More action is always better, and more violent deliberate action makes it even better.
It gives me pleasure to mention that the first 2/3 of The Lockdown does please at least it did for me and one of the main reasons was for the two leads who are outstanding together as brother and sister. WAs almost nice in a way that they were siblings so there were no chances for romantic elements which would have delayed the action. Immediately we like Lotz and Howard and we had enough scenes with them amidst all the chaos that we wanted them to get out of the mess. Of course, it helps that Howard is a martial artist so he is more than good in the action and Lotz gets to show that she knows how to throw down with the best of them. I’m sure there were stun pros used here and ther but for the most part, it’s them doing all the beating.
What do you have to say about Michael Biehn. The man is an icon in the genre of films and has starred in some of the best action and sci-fi films. He may be older now, but he still has a commanding presence that captivates the screen and his impact is potent enough to improve even the driest of materials. As Biehn’s character Max, Biehn plays him as a character without a soul; he is a man who would betray even his children, but his character arc has layers that lead up to his redemption toward the end. I think it is still pretty cool that I had the honor of meeting him at NYCC a few years ago and I was able to talk to him about all his movies prior to him signing a Hicks photo where he wrote: “stay frosty”. It’s priceless.
As I pointed out, the first two-thirds of the movie are quite entertaining, as we are introduced to Charlie and Jack, and moreover, thanks to the numerous poorly choreographed fights, we see improvements on the previous Tiger Style Media’s action design. The pace here is much faster and more brutal and Howard demonstrates why he ought to take center stage in more of such films. He also happens to be very attractive and has this boyish charm that goes really well with his martial arts talent. He’s not big but he is fit and is more than able to do what is required for a martial arts action film.
Lotz is just as good and from Charlie she gets the same utmost appreciation and relatability as well. As a journalist who is thrown into such exceptional circumstances, Lotz does not play her perfectly or show her as indestructible. She is an ordinary woman who has a few skills to defend herself and so when the punches and kicks begin, the viewers are unsure whether she\’s going to make it. But there is no need to worry as Lotz springs into action and keeps pace with Howard throughout and defeats a few hapless victims including Smoorenburg who she does battle with at the start. Smoorenburg is extremely busy nowadays and even stars in the thrilling Bangkok Dog which recently debuted at the Big Bad Film Festival.
They filmed lovely shots in Thailand and Bangkok and once again, as witnessed in the 90\’s, most of the activity remains in the prison therefore films die hard where action is predominantly JSW Spares. It’s the Norman for the course and it is in fact not a deal breaker. In fact, just like Ludi Lin\’s entry, the action in Burma also takes place in Myanmar which is quite intriguing as that country is in essence considered hell.
Lotz and Howard, among others, seem to reap the most rewards in terms of fight action as this is certainly solid and legit-worthy. The choreography and action design, also courtesy of some of the best Thai stunt teams in the business, are a fusion of extreme and tricks with a bit of MMA and many other intricately designed joint and body movements to create a well-rounded effect. The same goes for the brutal carnage which is captured nicely without being overly edited and at least the camera is mostly stable during the moments of action performed by the actors. Again, the disciplines vary from more traditional knee and elbow strikes from Muay Thai to modern-day extreme fighting which includes an aerial attack and a splash of MMA’s ground and pound. The film’s narrative does however suffer due to the absence of proper in ring combatant antagonists for all the stars to defeat at the end and these characters as a result aren’t very impactful.
The climactic sequence ups the ante but unfortunately, the movie is past the point of no return. Charlie and Jack do get their bouts but apart from some imaginative staging of fights, there is no real drama and even with the resolutions, which are unexpected but plausible, somehow the movie fails to deliver a spectacular and exhilarating ending. I was hoping for our heroes to break out and go through relentless guards but instead, what I was met with was far from impressive. Maybe Jaeger and the company were aiming for a more realistic interpretation but surely if this were a homage to the 90‘s this was not how things were to be. However, this is not all there is, there are some intriguing battles to be won and as for most of the earlier parts of the film, rather gracefully there was action done that did not look like it was meant to be a highlight.
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