American Muscle

Grindhouse has become the cool thing to do ever since Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez made it popular again with their double feature Death Proof/Planet Terror. Those movies spawned a lot of ''homages'' throughout the years which have been deemed ''throwbacks'' to the exploitations of the 70's and 80's but most of the time just come across as stylized comedies. Some have managed to come close to capturing the movies of yesteryear and retain their essence but they're still essentially comedic homages more than anything, but brilliantly and respectfully done (Grindhouse, Hobo With A Shotgun, Dear God No, Black Dynamite), where as others have been very entertaining, stylish romps (Drive Angry), and others have just tried too hard and came up short (Bounty Killer, Machete Kills, Bitch Slap). All of these movies have screamed at us, ''Look At Me, I'm A Grindhouse Movie,'' I've found enjoyment in most of the modern, self-proclaimed, Neo-Grindhouse movies, even the ones that do come up short, but I've often craved something truly authentic. American Muscle does have an element of being a deliberate homage to the drive in movies from the golden era. It is very stylish, slightly comedic and written as a tribute, but what makes it more true to those movies is how unapologetic it is. There's no winking at the audience here. It's just a straight up balls to the wall action flick full of gratuitous sex, violence, drugs and cars. It is stylish but it's probably the grittiest of the modern Grindhouse features since Dear God No.

American Muscle is a revenge thriller about a man named John Falcon, who has just been released from prison. With vengeance in mind, he sets out to kill everyone who had a hand in sending him there and finding his wife, who happens to be a junkie. Along the way he has sex with every woman he encounters. Everyone he meets who he doesn't bone just gets added to the body count. Essentially, all this movie consists of is sex and violence with a few flashbacks of people doing drugs, having sex and committing acts of violence. There isn't much in the way of deep story or fleshed out characters. We know John's motives, why he's doing what he's doing and the rest is his violent rampage unfolding. Boyhood this is not, but it's one of the most fun movies you'll see this year provided you don't have high standards and you enjoy senseless sex and violence. If you don't love it your grandmother definitely will.

One of the better modern Grindhouse movies.

I watched this film with several friends, who are all fans of horror and genuine grind house films. I was the only one who lasted throughout the entire crap-fest.

The lead character John Falcon (whose name coincidently is a tad too similar to the writer, John Fallon), gets out of prison after 10 years. His only desires are to get revenge on those who put him there, and to get back to his wife.

Seems reasonable enough. This is where the film stops making any semblance of sense and becomes just gratuitous sex and violence, along with terrible acting and atrocious writing.

If a man is desperate to get back to his wife,then why does he have sex with any woman he encounters? This makes zero sense. Even more so, his wife is having sex with anyone she meets. And I do mean anyone. Male and female. So if she is such a slut, then why is Fallon, err, I mean Falcon, so eager to return to her?

Another problem I had was how all of the women are depicted in this film. All of them are made out to be whores, only looking for sex. All of them. John Fallon has some serious issues with women, to say the least, which is his business and that is fine. Just please leave that out of your screenplays.

I was hoping this atrocity would be saved by Todd Farmer, cast in a role which I thought he would shine in. Instead, he fell short and came across as meek when he was supposed to be a bad ass. Perhaps the sub par acting of the others in this "film" affected his performance. Either way, it just fell apart long before it was over.

This film tries way too hard to be a grind house revenge film. To call it such is a huge insult to the genre. Nick Principe as the doppelganger for Fallon falls hideously short in convincing us that he is a ruthless killing machine. His acting is wooden, and his appearance as a sex symbol is laughable at best. And that voice? Never has there been a more annoying attempt at "toughness" voice-over since Christian Bale's Dark Knight. I have heard this guy speak in films. He should have used his own voice rather than try too hard to be a tough guy. But I doubt even that would have saved this film.

If you are a fan of Fallon or Principe, you may enjoy this. If you enjoy gratuitous violence and sleazy sex with bad acting, it may be for you. But if you are expecting some kind of storyline and decent acting, keep looking. Perhaps try the film Faster, which this one so closely resembles that Tony and Joe Gayton should take note. Imitation is a form of flattery,but not in this case. This film is garbage.

"You owe…you pay."

"American Muscle" is a simple revenge film (the terms exploitation and grind-house are commonly used) and you certainly won't expect a creative storyline and memorable performances. The only purpose of such a type of film is to create a violent flick as quickly as possible and with a limited budget. There certainly is an audience for such films and I myself sometimes like watching such a go-for-it-without-thinking pulp film. This gritty film also focuses on brute force, bloody settlements and some female nudity. But what annoyed me the most after a certain time, was the totally nonsensical and vastly simplistic content. Most of the characters their muscle development isn't proportional to the development of the brains. Sometimes the shown stupidity in here, made me laugh spontaneously.

The story is dead simple. John Falcon (Nick Principe) has been released after a prison sentence of 10 years. As soon as he leaves the gate, he has only one goal and that's to take revenge on those who ensured him to end up behind bars. He also wants his wife Darling (Robin Sydney) back by his side. Darling is a naive girl with a drug problem. Despite John's attempts to keep her from the deadly stuff, it seemed as if she's the one who caused that John received those years of imprisonment. The path John's following, leads directly to the members of the responsible gang of which his brother Sam (Todd Farmer) is the leader.

So what we get to see is a seventies-looking brutal film full of unfussy sadistic violence and massacres. The fake blood gushes through the film, the bloody bullet wounds are imaged frequently unscrupulously and you can gawk almost every 5 minutes at some female nude. Frankly however, most of them better left their clothes on, because they weren't really appetizing to look at anyway. Besides the desirable-looking dancers in the striptease-bar where John walks in during his trip, most look like unkempt sluts who get drugs as a reward after they've let themselves being used. John's concern about Darling wasn't really sincere in my opinion, since he has sex with every woman he come across his path (It seems to me that in that area there are living a bunch of women who aren't hard to get at all. Or they lack something in certain areas, if you catch my drift). Apparently the love between him and Darling isn't something he takes too seriously.

Nick Principe needs no effort to look unsympathetic. He's a real bad-ass, with a body the size of an antique wardrobe and with pumped up, tattooed muscles. He isn't very talkative. His conversations are usually limited and his dialogs concise out of a few phrases he pronounces muttering. He rumbles through the desert scenery as a terminator. Nothing and no one can stop him. The fact that the intellectual level of his opponents isn't higher than that of a cactus that has been standing all day in the blazing desert sun, helps too of course. For sure the most dumb ones were the biker gang members, who accepted the assignment to kill John and send him to the happy hunting grounds. They could as well have a target cell painted on their obese body, while carrying a sign with the slogan "Please aim below in the bull's-eye." The only one who gets an award for the most courageous person of all, is one of the bimbos from Sam's entourage (an old-fashioned alternativo with a huge, inverted brush on her head), who despite being a light weight and having a muscle-less stature, takes it up against John. Respect.

The real fans of this genre will probably enjoy this film. However this rugged film was a bit too simplistic and at times completely idiotic. Some fights were nicely put on the screen (despite the amateurish shooting skills again) and other scenes were plain ridiculous. Most dialogs are negligible and meaningless (the toilet scene is a typical example). The reason for the entire revenge expedition and the cause of John ending up in prison wasn't obvious. However, there are some positive points. The playing time is roughly 77 minutes long so it's really a film you can watch in between. The best fragment was in the desert landscape where iron works stood around. But sadly enough, this was ruined by a lousy, silly-looking shoot-out. "American muscle" looks much like the scantily dressed women in this film. There is the attempt to make it look interesting, but ultimately the end result is ugly, insignificant and only good for a one time use.

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..is the reason why I gave this 1 out of 10. And that is quite fair as it's really the only attractive thing about the whole damn production. The movie was slow, very slow. The action lacked everything an actionscene needs. The effects were all computer generated including some very badly done muzzle flashes (even I can do better..) and very very amateur. And worst of all : The lead actor couldn't even act to save his own life. He just tries to look mean all the time and it just doesn't come across. There are occasional shots (not even scenes) where he comes off less bad. But I'm talking occasional seconds here and there. The director is either scared of this man as well or he's just a 12 year old kid who's just finished his school project. That's what most of this reminded me of. Give some dimwit a bag of money and a box of cameratricks and let him film the script his 8 year old brother wrote.

I started watching this knowing what to expect, hoping for some gratuitous violence, occasional ridiculous sexscene and downright cool crap. I was hoping for a grindhouse type production. Well. Hellride sucked, but it's a complete masterpiece compared to this turd. An absolute waste of time.

I have to agree with Maurice Grant's review.

The screenwriter knew exactly what he was writing and the director did a great job capturing the scenes, the faces - and well, other stuff. I truly got what I was looking for this evening while actually not expecting it. The movie is well cut too with perfect length, technically quite well done without pretending to be some kind of pseudo-70s movie. It's filmed in HD, it's clear, the colors are precise and great. I guess the director likes the work of his colleague from the TV show "Breaking Bad", while carrying it a bit farer in this movie.

I can't help myself but it felt like the whole crew had fun doing this movie, while they still kept bloody serious and honest about the genre. The actors might hate me for saying this but I've a heart for them. They did pretty well too, showing a honest performance and were playing well along.

There are bad bad movies, there are really terrible bad movies - and there are good "bad" movies. This one belongs to the last. Just hit the nail for my taste.