Gridlocked

This is a passable action thriller. As many review have indicated, it is pretty much a Attack on Precinct 13 storyline. Once it gets going, the action is pretty consistent. Why only 5 stars? One unnecessary character was tasked with blurting out non-funny comedic one liners. Very few films can mix gun action and comedy successful, while maintaining the required tension(DieHard and Lethal Weapon did it best). This movie did not. So too many scenes where you are trying to slightly be concerned with someone's safety, dumb one-liner is inserted for no reason at all(think JarJar Blinks). Outside of that, it could have been a decent action movie.

As it started out I was pleasantly surprised, the first 35 minutes is genuinely entertaining and I was starting to think it was cool to see Dominic Purcell in something good again.

But in the second third the plot just get stuck... or gridlocked if you will, set in the same building throughout and it becomes rather dull with little action and I'm sure this bit was meant to be intense and unsettling, but the acting really prevents that from happening.

Don't get me wrong, the actors are fine when it comes to the action bits and funnier parts but yeah they don't really have the dramatic skills to make the second third interesting.

Luckily it picks up a bit in the last third, but man... By then it was hard to start getting the same excitement you had in the beginning, so yeah could definitely done with some more excessive editing.

The ending opens up for a potential sequel, which I honestly wouldn't mind seeing but just hoping for they'll set it on a little more locations than they did this one.

Cool soundtrack though, some old school rap from Tone Loc and others.

"Do you even know who this man really is?" David Hendrix (Purcell) is a former leader of SWAT who is now working the streets. When troubled movie star Brody Walker (Hackman) needs to take part in a ride along to not only save his career but stay out of jail David agrees to take him. Personalities clash, but when the training facility is attacked David and the rest of the force must not only fend off the attackers, but deal with past issues that threaten everyone. There isn't really a whole lot to say about this movie. It is a predictable B action movie but does have some pretty good action and is entertaining all the way through. Purcell is becoming a pretty reliable movie star and his movies are usually exciting. This has shades of Assault on Precinct 13 but isn't quite as good. On the other hand with all of the low budget action choices this is definitely one of the better ones. Overall, nothing amazing and not anything to rush out and see, but it is entertaining and watchable. I've seen worse from this genre. I give it a C+.

"Brodie Walker" (Cody Hackman) is a spoiled movie star who keeps getting into trouble with the law to the extent that it is seriously affecting his ability to acquire any new roles in the film industry. "David Hendrix" (Dominic Purcell) is the leader of a SWAT team who was injured on duty and has to get medical approval in order to return to duty. So while working for the police department doing various tasks he gets assigned one particular job that nobody would voluntarily accept-having to escort Brodie Walker on patrol while he is serving on a court-appointed referral program designed to test his ability to stay out of trouble. As if this wasn't bad enough some dangerous criminals decide to raid the SWAT training site which happens to have some valuable bonds being held there in a secret storage room. And these criminals have thought of everything-or at least that is what they believe. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a pretty good action film which, unfortunately, suffered from too many unrealistic scenarios to be taken seriously. But that's Hollywood I suppose. Still, if a person is interested in action simply for the sake of action then I suppose this film is as good as anything else in that category. Average.

I originally heard of Gridlocked through the website Twitch, who had said that it was like a throw back to 90's action movie. They were not wrong. Felt like I was watching an old PM Entertainment movie. The only thing missing was an appearance from Jeff Wincott.

Originally I was a bit apprehensive, as star Dominic Purcell has not got the best track record. No fault to him, as he is always a welcome presence, but his films of late have been poor. This may be down to the fact that they have mainly been directed or produced by Uwe Boll.

Luckily there are no such drawbacks this time round, with great production values, and excellent action scenes, this is definitely one of the better DTV actioners I have seen in a while.

Performance wise, Purcell is his usual reliable self as the lead. Stephen Lang is great as the villain, although could have had a bit more screen time. Danny Glover gets limited screen time for his usual too old for this role. WWE superstar Trish Stratus still looks great and gets a number of decent action scenes, and Vinnie Jones is thrown in for good measure.

The only drawback is Cody Hackman, as the film star that has to work with Purcell as part of his Community Service. He can be slightly annoying, and the fact that he is playing an A list movie star, it would have been better to get someone that has movie star quality. This is a minor problem, and with the rest of the movie being of higher quality than usual, its not much of a complaint. Surprisingly Hackman is a karate champion, but he actually doesn't really participate in a lot of the action in the film.

There is a slight slow build to the siege part of the film, but once it begins it doesn't let up, with there being a number of violent shootouts taking place. The film definitely earns its R rating. The Director is going to be someone I will be keeping an aye on.