Issue de secours

"Hey, I know you!" is a phrase you are likely to say to yourself with each new character introduction while watching the new action/thriller Gridlocked. It is stuffed with familiar faces such as Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon), Stephen Lang (Avatar), Dominic Purcell (Prison Break), Saul Rubineck (Unforgiven), Vinnie Jones (Snatch) and Trish Stratus (WWE). It is a gaggle of competent bodies that lend their extensive talents to a film in the vein of John Woo's action adventures where bullets outnumber words on the script page.

Dominic Purcell plays former SWAT leader David Hendrix. David is a no nonsense bag 'em and tag 'em kinda guy. His job is his life and his life is put on the line in the daily pursuit of justice. David's rogue actions require muting when he is paired with movie action Brody Walker (Cody Hackman) who is court ordered to participate in police ride-alongs after his hard partying behavior jeopardizes his career.

The newly formed reluctant couple of David and Brody could not be further apart in their views on life in general but are thrust together mirroring Michael J. Fox and James Woods in 1991's The Hard Way. Brody attempts to win favor of the hardened Hendrix but the bonding lacks reciprocation. Hendrix does however take Brody to secret training lair where his fellow badass do-gooders practice their search and shoot skills.

The evening of fun and guns gets interrupted when a group of mercenaries infiltrate the training complex. Their objective is not immediately clear but their violent resolve is. Little is known of their purpose but they do share a connection with another handful of mercenaries lead by Korver (Lang) who has secured a nearby rural farmhouse much to the shigrinning death of its two inhabitants.

What ensues is a shootout. A shootout between the mercenaries that have breached the perimeter and the police, Hendrix and Brody inside. And then a shootout between more mercenaries and the police, Hendrix and Brody inside. And when Korver reveals his intentions, objectives become clear and bullets become commonplace.

Gridlocked transforms into a full blown shootout on par with a John Woo film. There is a stretch of bullet firing through the films third act that, had I had a counter, might just have set the record for the total number of shots fired within a 10-minute film span. Director Allan Ungar piles up a body count while unleashing an arsenal of unfathomable abandon.

Gridlocked is an action film true and through. There is a story to help jettison the firepower, but the story is worn and used with plot points used more admirably in better films. For what little original story is presented, Gridlocked takes its sweet ass time. Nearly an hour into the almost two hour adventure we still had no clue what the mercenaries were after. Luckily, the two main characters – particularly Purcell's Hendrix are interesting and compelling enough to help us wade through the urgency of the villain's purpose.

If you are the kind of individual who enjoy an all-out barrage of bullets then Gridlocked is the chicken soup to your flu like symptoms. Reminding us a lot of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 is a relentless rat-a-tat-tat echoing through a theatres sound system. An assault of the senses, Gridlocked is the no-holds-barred action film that effectively uses its confined setting to provide a highlight reels worth of bullet ballet.

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.

As a fan of 80s and 90s action movies, I had an absolute blast with this movie. Fans of that era/genre will no doubt love this movie and all that it has to offer. The film stars Dominic Purcell as David Hendrix, a hardcore, highly skilled detective forced to assist Hollywood actor Brody Walker (Cody Hackman) with his court-mandated sentence. After a recent run-in with law, Walker has been sentenced to ride along with a police officer instead of doing real time in prison. The gruff, no-nonsense Hendrix and the smart-ass, wise cracking Walker definitely butt heads, but are forced to put their differences aside when a criminal attack occurs at a police station.

This highly lovable throwback by writer/director Allan Ungar, who co-wrote the film with Rob Robol, wears its obvious influences on its sleeves, but has enough original and modern charms of its own. The film may deliver plenty of laughs, but the violence and action does get gruesome and realistic. Still, Ungar and Robol do great work in balancing the two, though a small amount of the jokes fell flat for me. The movie boasts an amazing cast in addition to Purcell and Hackman which includes Stephen Lang, Trish Stratus, Danny Glover, Vinnie Jones, and Saul Rubinek. If my positive review still hasn't persuaded anyone to seek it out, three words: Funky Cold Medina!

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.

"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+.