Striking Range

"Striking Range" has been a film I have been following for quite sometime- This usually works as a disadvantage because after so long I get let down with the end result. When the first seven minutes of the film was released on youtube I became very skeptical of the film. From the shaky camera work to the dialog I was like -"WTF"? It isn't surprising many people shared my opinion.

However the movie came out and I went ahead and rented it. sat through those seven minutes again and Im very glad I did because what follows is a very good film. The acting improved vastly as did the action and suspense. It was all quite interesting.

There are flaws of course- but knowing the budget and work that went into this ( via Internet and Indie Slate.) they are very easy to over look. My main issue was the purpose of one central character and while it does lend to one of the morals of the film ,it does kinda throw the viewer a bit off focus.

There's a lot good though- The moral of the story for one- ideals , agendas and power- what that can do to someone even if its not your own. The acting was Super. Honestly I have never really paid attention to Lou other than a brief TV series he did a while back...which was so-so. But he is very good as Vash. Another stand out is Glen Moreshower from 24-very good and Of course Yancy Butler great as always.

But seriously this film was low budget and you can't even really tell especially when you compare it with fims with a trillion dollar budget (you would be surprised.) that look very shoe string. this is high quality. and while it isn't the best thing ever it is waaaayyyy better than its current ranking.

"Striking Range" is a entertaining action-filled movie. The plot: "Vash" (Phillips) is a mercenary, who is asked to guard Ted Billings (Glenn Morshower) because he has a hi-tech WMD. "Vash" doesn't like the guy, but then he gets his money's worth because criminals from all sides are after him.

What's interesting about this movie is that it takes the time to flesh out some character development. Phillips is very good in the role. Yancy Butler plays his ex-girlfriend. She gets her time to shine. Jeff Speakman plays one of the villains and gets to utilize his martial arts ability. Speakman is a big guy and he moves fast. The whole movie is one big action sequence. The beginning is little lame, but once that gets out of the way, It's B-movie fun till the end.

In the end: If you like L.D.P., you'll enjoy this. Non-fans will also like the non-stop action.

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STRIKING RANGE delivers what it promises, a shoot 'em up action flick packed with twists and exit wound gore. Lou Diamond Phillips gives a committed performance as a cash strapped gun for hire with a moral code that includes never challenging the US Government and never taking a bullet for a client (which is a good thing since most of his assignments appear to be protecting shady businessmen).

In STRIKING RANGE, Phillips and his three-person crew are charged with bodyguarding a "next generation" weapons maker who turns out to be an unscrupulous dealer who has no compunction against selling to the highest bidder. Naturally, squinty-eyed rogues, led by martial artist/actor Jeff Speakman, demand the latest weapons gizmo with a five-finger discount. This is where Team Phillips steps up to the challenge. However, a mysterious third party throws a hat into the ring putting the executive protection crew in a circle of crosshairs and ballistic mayhem.

The movie is a lot of fun, but by no means perfect. The opening sequence is a head scratcher as Phillips and his crew (including an excellent Tom Wright) casually banter about video games as they go on a search and destroy mission in an office building. The scene feels contrived and woefully unrealistic as we're asked to believe these guys need to alleviate boredom in the midst of a hostage rescue. And I'm still wondering what happened to Sharon, the poor executive they intentionally shoot to get the Bad Guy standing behind her. Quibbles aside, the low budget film looks great, shot in 35MM with fluid Steadicam moves, we also get nifty pyrotechnics, and a NRA member's wet dream in a variety of firearms. Thespians are first rate, giving us raw emotion in a scene where Phillips and Wright nearly come to blows as they argue about their failing executive protection business. Music cues nostalgically evoke 80's TV show "Miami Vice" at its highlight.

STRIKING RANGE doesn't offer anything new, but it gets its job done and it certainly gets a lot of bang for the buck.

When his career began, Lou Diamond Phillips promised so much as an actor, that I have continued to see his films hoping that this promise would be fulfilled. But, while Phillips' acting is as good as ever, he has just made one bad film after another, so, until he or his agent learn what to look for in a script, I'm afraid "Striking Range" is the last time I'll be seeing Phillips for a while.

This is an action film, and the actions scenes are OK. But the script really reeks. line by line the dialog is OK, but the story is a real mess. The idea of tossing a psycho-killer into the mix of a conflict between two mercenary groups might have seemed good on paper, but it's a bad strategy: psycho-killers have to be explained at some point in a film, because otherwise their motivations come off as silly. I know that sounds bizarre, but what I mean is that the explanation helps the audience suspend their disbelief in why anybody would want to kill people simply because they work at some office or attend some school or stopped at the wrong restaurant for dinner. This disbelief is essential to our sense of morality - it is why the violence of real psycho-killers, like the Columbine boys, is so horrifying and why we take such strong measures to counter it: we simply cannot believe anyone could be that vile.

Since the writer of this film has left himself little time to develop the psycho-killer aspect of the plot, he has to resort to cheap tricks, stereotypes, and cliché to make the whole thing work somehow. The psycho-killer comes across as a parody.

Meanwhile a plot twist seems to resolve the mercenary conflict - except that it doesn't, it's so wholly unprepared and obviously artificial. We want clues to this sort of thing, so we can look back on the film to say "I should have seen that coming," but we can't do this here, no one could have seen it coming, it doesn't make sense.

And what is the thematic connection between the mercenary conflicts and the psycho-killer's? Even Sigmund Freud couldn't tell you; I don't think there is any.

the writer here needs psychoanalysis for coming up with this hodgepodge, and Phillips needs it to try to figure out how he could throw away his mature career on such hooey.

Four stars for the action scenes, the rest gets - blah!

This is, without a doubt, one of Lou's worst film. "Red Water" was better than this. Just horrendous. Even Lou's acting was bad...and it is usually decent.

I love Lou like the next guy, but I could not tolerate more than 40 minutes of this film - and that was the most tedious experience I have ever felt while dealing with a shoot 'em up flick. Ever.

I can not in good faith recommend this film to anyone. I am sorry if the director reads this, or anyone involved with the project, but this movie was just bad.

The worst, most inane, dialog of all time. Shifty and lame script that is all over the place. Bad acting, as well.

Not a pleasant experience.