Another day another direct to video action flick. his one was actually pretty good with more emphasis on character and story than the actual action part of the film. Robert Davi, Roddy Piper and Marshal Teague star in the film The Bad Pack. Check out my review after the jump....
Continuing my
venture into the dark and seedy world of direct to video Action
movies, last night's film was a kick ass little ditty by the name of
THE BAD PACK. I know it sounds like a 60s Roger Corman biker flick
but this was actually pretty cool flick. It's pretty much a remake of
the Magnificent Seven even down to the setting, a small Texas border
town. As everyone is well aware, the Mag 7 was a remake of Akira
Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and it's spawned a whole host of remakes and
homages from Mag 7 to Medieval Brit actioner Ironclad. The Bad Pack
joins it's ranks. It's not a major player in the action genre because
it's let down by some badly staged action sequences and the final
shoot out which is mishandled but the build up is good.
Essentially the plot
follows a group of mercenaries hired to protect and fight off a
right-wing redneck Militia who have been attacking, killing and
raping the people of this small Texan settlement. Two of the
villagers arrive in L.A to hire a merc they read about in a magazine
because all mercs advertise in magazines, this is common knowledge.
It turns out the advertised soldier for hire is an old alcoholic and
he turns them down, they're pointed in the direction of the
mysterious McQue. The Villagers offer him $14,000 but he turns them
down, however, a black guy who mysteriously appears who we shall call
low-budget Argyle (Die Hard People!) and ties to persuade McQue to
take the deal, then the villagers tell him that the Militia have
millions of dollars in their compound, take out the bad guys and grab
their cash. McQue agrees and starts assembling his crew.
There has never been
a case of a DTV action flick needing to be longer, at 81 minutes, The
Bad Pack is far too short to tell this type of story, had it been a
bit longer, maybe 20-30 minutes longer, they could have looked more
into the characters, played more on the rivalry between McQue and the
leader of The Militia and put more effort into the action sequences.
One of the oddest moments of the film is where Vernon Wells turns up
as a biker, threatens McQue and he's never seen again, it's a very
surreal moment and doesn't add anything to the film as we're never
taken back to that moment or that moment is never acted upon. I have
to give credit to writer/director Brent Huff who's screenplay does
have some pretty good dialogue between characters and the actors are
actually all talented. One of them is a sort of Howlin' Mad Murdock
type, come to think of it, the whole film have a very A-Team feel to
it.
Now for the cast. A
film like this shouldn't boast a cast led by the ever reliable Robert
Davi, here playing McQue, the leader of the Bad Pack, Davi brings a
mysterious and stoic style to McQue, the man has seen war, he's been
smack dab right in the middle of it and his performance is way above
the standard that The Bad Pack deserves. Following Davi, we have
Rowdy Roddy Piper, yes siree, Mr John Nada himself, playing a driver
who does about 2 minutes of driving and very little action which is a
gross misuse of mr Piper. There's a very small role for Clifton
Collins Jr under the name Clifton Gonzales-Gonzales where he plays a
villager. Cliff Collins is a great actor so it's worth checking it
out for him. Others are man mountain Ralf Moeller, Marshall “I
used to fuck guys like you in prison” Teague as the main
villain and the absolutely stunning Shawn Huff (it's a woman) who
plays the female member of the Pack. All of the actors do their best
and the performances pay off.
As for the action,
there's very little, there's a good hour before we get any proper
explosive action, there's a few hand to hand combat scenes that a
staged very badly and a motorcycle raid on the village which is over
in a few minutes and then nothing until the Bad Pack assault the
militia compound. The final compound assault is a bit lackluster in
all honesty, they should have staged the finale in the village, it
would have made for a much more exciting set piece. There's some
motorcycle explosions and some gun fire but it's all a bit of a let
down. The action scenes were co-ordinated by a man called John
Stewart who seems to struggle with even the basic set pieces. Had the
film gotten a larger budget and a better stunt co-ordinator, The Bad
Pack could have been something special because it's all there in the
script, it just seems like someone tore out 30 or so pages.
All in all, The Bad
Pack is a decent watch, it's a cut above other DTV action flicks in
the actors and the dialogue but it's not the best example if you want
to show someone how the non Hollywood Studio's handle action. Three
stars from this guy....
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