Monday, June 22, 2015

Film Review: Vendetta (2015)


Well, the time has come yet again for me to do a review on a film by the Twisted Twins Jen and Sylvia Soska. This time the girls have thankfully left the horror genre behind them and have moved on to the action drama genre with their second film for WWE films, Vendetta.
Vendetta stars Dean Cane (Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman) as Detective Mason Danvers. Mason captures tough gangster Victor Abbot (played by WWE wrestler Paul “The Big Show” Wight) but when Abbot and his brother are released on a technicality, Abbot viciously tortures and kills Detective Danvers’ pregnant wife. Abbot is caught before Danvers, who arrived just after Abbot killed his wife gets a chance to get revenge and shoot him.
So Danvers goes and kills Abbot’s brother and a couple other drug dealers and gets himself arrested. Danvers is sent to the same prison as Abbot and put in general population. At this point the film becomes a series of fight scenes as Abbot (who somehow now runs the prison) sends convicts to kill Danvers and Danvers one by one takes out Abbots lieutenants as he works his way up to killing Abbot.
Unfortunately, I had a bunch of issues with this film. The script that was written by Justin Shady is full of blatant technical errors and plot glitches that should make any real prison film fan scratch their head. A couple of the most obvious would be the main plot point of Danvers being sent to the same prison as the man who tortured and murdered his wife.  No judicial agency is going to do something as idiotic as this, and don’t tell me that was the only prison he could be sent to. Another script flaw was the fact that Danvers was put in general population. There is no way that any prison would put a former cop in general population. That would be a death sentence because every convict in the place would be gunning for him. I can back this up because I did my homework and conferred with a friend of mine named Matt who is in fact a prison guard at a prison that is the same size as in the film. Matt and I discerned a number of outrageous errors in this film. Another was the fact that the warden assigned Danvers a just at the prison laundry, not a risk they would do with a former cop. Also, when Danvers is working in the laundry there is not a guard in sight which actually leads to a group of six prisoners nearly beating Danvers to death. Also, coincidentally, it turns out one of the guards is an old friend of Danvers and right out in the exercise area in front of the prisoners chews the shit with Danvers and tells him that the warden is working with Abbot. Right, like any intelligent guard would be stupid enough to tell that out loud with the other prisoners watching and listening. Also, to show the bad writing the guard survives till the end of the film. Excuse? Oh, and there is the amusing prison policy (which is unique to this prison) that prisoners can leave the exercise area and go back to their cells unescorted or watched by guards. This is obvious because one of Abbot’s men goes back to his cell only to be killed by Danvers who was waiting for him there. Seriously, both Justin Shady and this production in general drastically needed a technical advisor.
Another annoying thing about this film was the fight scenes. Not because they weren’t bloody enough. Oh no, Jen and Sylvia learned from the kick in their teeth they got from both reviewers and fans in regard to See No Evil 2 and threw the blood around. The problem was the fight scenes look way overly staged. You could actually see that the punches didn’t impact. Also in a number of shots the bad guys would fall the wrong way. Shoot, the one fight scene that wins my prize for most lame is one where Danvers uses a push broom to choke one of Abbots men. Now, hold back your laughter…Danvers uses the brush end and presses it down on the guy’s throat. The guy flays his arms and over acts the gagging. Then, after an unbelievable amount of time, Danvers switches to using the handle. Oh, my flippin’ god. The only good kill in this film except the killing of Danvers wife, and that could have been shot better, was a killing where Danvers uses a plastic pen that he fashions into a knife and stabs one of Abbot’s men to death. In that scene Danvers gets a stream of blood in his face from the shaft of the pen which is sticking out of the guy’s neck. Come on girls!
As for the camera work and lighting, I did like some of the colored lighting in the early parts of the film, but through the second half it seemed standard and uninspired. I’m sorry to say the camera work seemed rather uninspired too. I’ve seen forth year film students that set better angles than I saw in this film. The only scene where I can honesty say the girls did it right was in the warehouse scene where Danvers initially captures Abbot. In that one scene the Soskas managed to use the angles and lighting in a dramatic way.
When I saw the trailer for this film I was ready to applaud Jen and Sylvia Soska. Thankfully they had moved on from horror, which I can not under express that they could not do. I remembered how well they did the action scenes in Dead Hooker in a Trunk and looked forward to seeing a little of that early Soska magic on the screen. Unfortunately, all I saw when I saw Vendetta was a disappointing mess. I honestly felt sorry for the girls. There was so much of this they had no control over due to the fact that they are stuck working for a control freak like Vince McMahon. I’m pretty sure Vince just gave them the script and said shoot it. I even think most of the cast was already hired before they were even assigned. Hell, like all WWE directors, the Soskas didn’t even get the chance to even edit the damned film, which itself was sloppy and uninspired.
Given all this, all I can suggest is on their next film the Soskas put some budget to getting an on set advisor. The faults and idiot mistakes in this film are like nails on a chalkboard. It was the same with See No Evil 2 with people working in a coroner’s office and doing autopsies in plain clothes rather than in scrubs…Oh and the blue embalming fluid instead of yellow to name just a couple of things. My friend that works as a mortician nearly gagged on his popcorn while he watching it.
So, I can only in good judgment give this film two and a half stars. Do your homework next time, ladies….

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Lord Dickwad and friends




A friend of mine a few days ago sent me a rant done by one of the trolls, aka Morse Bashers, aka cyberstalkers, aka cyber bullies that are constantly spouting their filth and the same long worn out propaganda started by the likes of Mike White, Josh Hadley, and Alex Jowsky. Honestly the pathetic loser who I will call Lord Dickwad, because every small man needs a huge title to give himself weight, though this guy is fat enough on his own (not fun when it is fired back at you Lord Dickwad???)

Anyway, Lord Dickwad wasted a whole five pages spouting off old propaganda that has been long since disproved. Also like any good troll and cyberstalker he twisted the truth and even tried to turn my putting out the olive leaf to The Soskas as something wrong.

Oh and he even tried to pull that shit that I hate women. Well, most of my female friends, including DRo (or as most horror fans know her as Debbie Rochon) and JA Steel, Maria Olson, Tiffany Shepis, and a number of others, will have a good laugh over that. They know as most people who actually know me that I don’t hate any particular race, gender, or sexual orientation. I hate ego case assholes, and low life scumball losers like you.
Also, you and others say my opinions on the Soskas' American Mary, See No Evil 2 , and their section of ABCs of Death are purely based on my dislike of them. Wrong. If you weren’t so busy trashing others and being a scumball asshole you might have read the dozens of reviews by reviewers that are not drinking buddies of the Soskas. They say American Mary is full of plot holes and bad writing as well as tanks in the last twenty minutes. Also, there are so many bad reviews on See No Evil 2 that the Soskas are drowning in negative reviews. Even Dread Central which is literally stuck up the Soskas’ asses put in their review that See No Evil 2 was a cookie cutter horror film that was lacking in real gore. But then they went pussy and said that Oh it wasn’t Jen or Sylvia’s fault since they didn’t write the film and had very little say on the editing. Yeah, that’s right, it took a year for Vince McMahon’s editing crew fix that clusterfuck into something barely watchable. Shit, most people are saying it is the worst film to come out of WWE next to, of course, this year’s other clusterfuck Leprechaun Origin. And, of course, there is ABCs of Death 2. Most reviewers specifically mention the Soskas’ section of ABCs of Death as the worst written, cryptic, and worst produced of the lot, and that is 25 other short pieces.

Also, you mouth off about how you are so superior to me because you go to conventions and make friends. Well, when I was at Epic Con I made a lot of friends and won the respect of a lot of people including a number of my haters who actually turned away from the cheap propaganda you preach and actually got to know me as a person. Since going to that convention my fan mail had tripled and people are buying my books and sending them to me to be autographed. So you and you buddies have failed to sink me and my books.

The truth is this is not just a response to you Lord Dickwad, this is to all you petty dickward that spend time writing blogs against me or posting troll reviews on my books when you have never read any of them. You are all just immature bullies and scumballs. You act like school yard bullies. You lack real talent so you attack those who do or those who are brave enough to have an opinion and don’t like the scum pit you and people like you have made of horror. My suggestion to you and your fellows is grow up. Shit, man you look like Doctor Plox from Enterprise, and I believe you are about fifty-two years old. It is time to get out of high school and act like a fucking adult. The thing is people like you are a joke. You are all transparent as shit. You are all pathetic losers who are not happy with your lives and have a chip on your shoulder. You see someone like me who is brave enough to express his opinions and you try to “Put him in his place”, which means attacking me and painting me in a negative manner. You foster lies and twist the truth to the point that it doesn’t even resemble itself. Man, you have way to much time on your hands and way too much sexual frustration. Call me obsessive? Look in the mirror at yourself. You are spending your time writing page after page of hate and it is going to do nothing. I’m not going to change. You aren’t going to shut me up. And, you are not going to destroy me. What is going to happen is your audience is going to get bored, like they have with all my haters and they will turn on you. Eventually, if you are smart, you will walk away and disappear, like so many before you. You are all truly pathetic.

And, no, Lord Dickwad, I will not go on your pathetically constructed blog and comment. I’m not stupid enough to go into your territory. That would make it too easy for you.


Now, of course, one of your fellows will make sure you know about this post, maybe the coward ANONYMOUS. Yes I know you are involved too. Well, anyway this is all the time I’m going to waste on the likes of you. Do the smart thing and walk away, because it gets brutal when the feeders turn on you…..