Hounds of War

This is a bog standard B movie actioner with a surprisingly good cast. It is also pretty dark at times and cynical about politicians. The fight scenes are pretty good and the supporting cast is packed with minor martial artists from round the world.

Frank Grillo is always good value and Robert Patrick reprises his bad guy role from Season 3 of Reacher. He really does a good slime ball!

It clocks in at 90 minutes and is set in Malta which makes a change, although Accident man 2 was also filmed there so maybe they offer tax breaks. The only thing it lacks is Scott Adkins doing his terrible American accent to make it the perfect Friday night no brainer!

I think I'm being generous with this rating. Hounds Of War the latest film from prominent DTV director Issac Florentine and the second Grillo film of the year so far following Lights Out, is derivative, poorly paced and worst of all boring.

Robert Patrick can play roles like this in his sleep at this point. Same could be said for Rhona Mitra. Mitra and Grillo are supposed to play an ex couple here but without this movie telling you that you likely wouldn't know, since they have virtually no chemistry at all in their scenes together. Grillo even though he's the lead barely has any screen time or lines of dialogue for some odd reason. The action scenes feel drawn out and like pure visual noise to draw out the runtime and make up for the fact that this movie barely has a story.

Grillo has another movie, Long Gone Heroes also releasing this week. Hopefully it's better than this.

Colonel Hart (Robert Patrick) directs operative Ryder (Frank Grillo) and his comrades on a mission in Libya. It's a trap. The task force is massacred. Sole survivor Ryder recruits Selina (Rhona Mitra) and goes on a revenge mission.

This is strictly an action B-movie. The writing is clunky. The story is simple to the point of simplistic. I'm not getting lost here, but I am getting bored. This movie is boring whenever there is no action. There is some interesting action, but nothing ground-shaking. There is a nice chase through the narrow streets of Malta, but like everything else in this movie, there are some clunky stuff whenever the action stops.

Despite the stale beginning and above average combat/action, the film has a unique storyline. There are some parts of the film that have some ups and downs, but mostly ups since Frank Grillo performed beautifully in some scenes during the film, whereas there are some characters that really need atleast a storyline for us to get a grasp of their presence.

I would have preferred the dialogues to be a little more enticing and fresh, but unfortunately some aren't that fresh. The overall pacing of the film is quite uneven, with some scenes dragging on while others feel rushed. This inconsistency can make it difficult for viewers to stay fully engaged throughout the entire movie.

However, the action sequences do provide some much-needed excitement and help to keep the momentum going. However, there are some scenes that are really entertaining and the action sequences are thrilling. All in all, the film is an enjoyable experience..

I was actually looking forward to watching this. Frank Grillo movies are decent for the most part and after seeing Isaac Florentine was the director I figured it would be on the lower budget side but with good/solid action sequences. I've always enjoyed Florentine/Adkins collaborations. Unfortunately this one fell short. The action just felt choppy and off the mark. It had its moments but all the hand-to-hand, well, wasn't good. Replace Frank with Scott Adkins and it most likely would have been better. It's entertaining enough but it's one I don't think I'd sit down and watch again. It's to bad, I really wanted to like it.