Left for Dead

I've seen my fair share of high and low-budget martial-arts films. Hundreds in fact. Hell, I love them so much that I have written countless reviews and help moderate one of the biggest forums on the net: kung fu fandom. Left for Dead grabbed me from the get-go.

I finished Left for Dead only a few short hours ago and I had to share my thoughts on this UK indie gem. It wasn't what I expected; it turned out a lot better, in fact. I thought this was gonna be another USA type indie film which is usually a Hollywood action film with bad acting and lots of needless, badly performed drama between action scenes. But Modern Life? has surpassed my expectations and that of the industry. I love the fact that they created their own world inside the film, i.e. Hope City, Metro City. The comic book feel does wonders for the film, and they use the freedom of this sub-genre very well.

The pacing is really good too. There is nothing I hate more than drama bogging down a good action film. There are some pretty iffy wife flashbacks of Glenn Salvage, and that was as much as I could take! Believe me, the combined running time of the opening and ending fights far surpass that of most films in the genre.

I'm not sure whether the film was shot in sequence but you'll notice how the fights just keep getting more exciting by the minute! The choreography in the chaotic end fight was a lot better than the rest of the film…or was the best simply kept for last? I can already see myself returning to the end sequences on a regular basis. Of course, good fighting consists of more than having a few good moves, and I think Glenn Salvage and Andy Prior looked a lot more determined at the end, and the action seemed a bit tighter – it works out very well when it comes together. The over-the-top death scenes were a great touch, and fit into this twisted world very well. And who can look down on a film featuring not only guns and fists, but Japanese katanas too? Watch out for the brief fight between Glenn Salvage and a blond swordswoman, very impressive.

Granted a lot of the acting was horrible, but the dialogue was more than just filler. There is a speech Kincaid gives his henchmen Dylon and Taylor for instance, about the Nazis, and it works surprisingly well. Yes, the film has its fair share of rough spots in the dialogue and acting department, but you wouldn't believe how good it looks considering the budget and DV equipment origins.

Some trivia: I saw Andy Prior was reading Bey Logan's (UK author and martial artist) book Hong Kong Action Cinema in Glenn's apartment. Some influences might be Highlander (sword scraping on the roof), The Matrix and Kiss of the Dragon. But mostly the action is so energetic that I could care less about where the ideas came from.

At the very least this film is a guilty pleasure. A lot of its success lies in the fact that it doesn't try to be realistic. The creators' imaginations ran wild and in the end I have to applaud the cast and crew.

LFD is the most unwittingly hilarious film I have seen for ages.

The painfully long opening scene is a dialogue-free killing spree peppered with pantomime deaths and schoolboy-like 'Aieee!' shrieks of terror.

An inexplicable (bad) fake-American narrator intones low voiced nonsense by way of introduction to 'the streets' (or a Brighton industrial estate to be precise).

Some of the overly-serious hard man facial expressions make Eastenders Mitchell twins look like Pacino in Taxi Driver.

The laughs just keep coming. A scene where two henchmen receive a stern ticking off by the yellow teethed grimacing boss reaches surreal heights of humour. In the background a man is chained to a fence and is being teased by a WWF looky-likey bloke pulling cartoon –character baddie faces and pointing at him threateningly. This goes on all through the overly long scene.

After our hero has been shot, he makes it back home to his flat where he fumbles in his bathroom cabinet, crashing amongst deodorant and other jars. The same shot of a blood stained hand, shaking and crashing (its owner out of shot) around the cabinet is seen twice within a couple of minutes. What was he thinking of ? This is no time for a shower.

Budget Jackie-Chan-meets-Bugsy Malone (without the songs) Worth a watch for the laughs alone.Heading for the so-bad-its-good genre.

The film the term 'So bad it's good!' was invented for. This film has all the hall marks of a very bad 80's action movie. The kind of film that was frequented by Jeff Speakman, Michael Dudikof and Jeff Wincott. The kind of film you rented because the cover had ninjas and fighting drawn so badly that it looked more like your grand ma than Chuck Norris.

The kind of film where the good guy gets shot, kicked, stabbed, beaten, blown up and yet still manages to take down the bad guys army of 200 highly trained soldiers.

The kind of film that had a name like 'American Ninja', 'The Perfect Weapon', 'Ninja Exterminator', 'Invasion USA', 'Eye Of The Tiger', 'Kick Boxer' and 'Missing In Action'.

The kind of film that I always chose at my local video shop over the higher budgeted star driven studio fair. The kind of film that, well, that I love so much.

Don't get me wrong. Like the films mentioned above (and the many I have failed to mention), this isn't a masterpiece in terms of production value, acting or (sometimes) editing or direction but in terms of bang for buck well this film does what it says on the tin. In spades.

And lets face it I never watched Segal movies for the character development or plot. I watched them because I knew, just for that hour and a half, that I'd get to see some tubby white guy kick the crud out of a bunch of bad guys in inventive and fun ways.

But the strange thing is, for all its faults and over long running time, this film does just what I wanted. It offers an 80's styled action film that is true to the genre and superb fun to watch.

So, in short, if your idea of a good film is Citizen Kane, Remains of the Day or Notting Hill this film is not for you.

If however, like me, you grew up on a staple diet of action movies, body counts and ninjas then you 'Left For Dead' is that rare find… a butt kicking, head stomping 80's styled action romp that makes for almost 2 hours of mindless fun, bloody, guts and over the top martial arts moves.

--eye--

Man this movie sucks i'm glad i didn't pay for it (netflix) but i did waste a movie that i could've watched from my que. The camera work is garbage along with the fight choreography these guys don't even make contact! once i saw that glenn salvage guy knock 2 guys down with a lousy hook kick that had NO sound effects i nearly spat my drink and turned the movie off which i did anyways 2 mins later. The muzzle flash's on the guns are poorly added in along with blood which they probably couldn't afford or knew how to make stage blood. The stupidest characters EVER! that one fat idiot with the 2 piece sword that he got off of karate depot that he clearly does not know how to use! i mean comeon doesn't he know he looks ridiculous? i wouldn't even have let them put my name in the credits if i were somehow in this movie. don't waste your time look else where. these actors should hide in shame.

Lets get one thing straight from the get go, this is a Martial Arts action film, so the plot is not all that important, however work should of been done on this aspect of the film, as it is lacking even considering the genre. But that said the action is what people will be most interested in. It is a mixed bag of fighting action. Some sections here and there are well done and its obvious there is a lot of talent in the film, however here come the faults…. The speed of the fights can be slow and lack energy, in part due to the performers and also the director. When a fight is shot in a certain way allowing you to see more of the action akin to Hong Kong style, camera speed is very important as it is easier to see the pace with longer cuts and wider angles. Quite a lot of the fighting falls into the 'pitter patter' form. There is not a lot of contact made and some people seem afraid to hit each other. This is a fight scene, not a toy fight and there is a distinct difference. There are quite a few misses in the fights when air can be seen, this is a kindergarten error, it also takes any viewer away from the sub-reality films create and an illusion is broken. Also two actors playing main parts are just painfully bad at fighting. One of them also looks some what similar to a hamster!

I know this may seem like a harsh review, but its true and I think its important not to sugar coat things to much, so giving the film makers a chance to improve.(well maybe not the hamster comment.