The Midnight Man

I was drawn to this film by the actress Brinna Kelly after watching her in 'The Fare'. I'm not quite sure that she's much of an actress yet I find her intriguing. She has an oriental attractiveness with an alluring presence. Grady, the assassin, seemed quite inept at times. Bungling his hits and getting out of scrapes by the mistakes of his captors. The film was entertaining and fun in a sort of B-movie way.

I can't see any reason why DC Hamilton and Brinna Kelly aren't household names yet. Both of the films I've seen that they've worked on together - this and "The Fare" - are outstanding in both writing and low-budget directing. I'm sold; they are both the real deal. This is an excellent little crime drama with a cool, unusual hook to it.

Hamilton knows how to get good performances out of actors, which is not as easy as it seems. And the art of making a tiny budget look great on screen is pretty rare too. This film definitely pulls that off.

Finally, let's especially hope that Brinna Kelly gets a lot more writing work before she's pulled in to full-time acting. She's obviously good at that, with a glamorous look and compelling personality, but she's an even better writer. Original story ideas combined with compelling characters - that's a rare thing to come by these days. This is highly recommended.

This film tells the story of a man who cannot feel any pain due to a generic condition. He becomes a successful crime gangster as a result. One day, he is sent to kill four of his own mates, and everything breaks loose.

"The Midnight Man" is an action film with a twist! It is such an obvious choice for an action film in retrospect, and the idea really works. Why I haven't seen films like this, I do not know. The main guy, Grady, is real tough but he is also sensitive. His relationship with Zan is convincing too. They are both very good, and make the film more enjoyable and convincing. It has a lot of fights and action, but it doesn't appear senselessly violent. I enjoyed watching it.

In a world where action movies become more visceral, more demanding in their production and cinematography, "The Midnight Man" employs a sluggishly poor combat. Nevertheless, it also offers a few funny exchanges with solid script and presentable acting performance. The end product is a somewhat enjoyably one night stand with glaring flaws which are forgivable depending on your expectation.

Grady (Will Kemp) is a fixer for a mob boss with unique ability to not feel pain. In one bad night, he must eliminate four targets that may have more connection than he thinks. There's a shade of Ryan Reynolds here, as Will Kemp dons a similar witty agent while running from one bizarre situation to the next. He gets the jester part right, although there's some shoddy moments when trying to emulate a hardened criminal.

Brinna Kelly as Zan, the unlucky paramedic who got caught in the crossfire, is a fairly decent love interest and weird partner. Usually, this kind of Jason Statham's Transporter suave romance doesn't pay off, but the acting and chemistry makes it work more often than not. The supporting cast like Doug Jones and William Forsythe also deliver on the outlandishly named and portrayed characters.

The problem, and it's a rather significant one, comes when it tries to do action sequences. It's utterly horrible, bordering on Bollywood level. This makes the sturdy, flamboyant or charismatic characters into feeble men trying to deliver a punch and fail. At a couple of points it becomes ridiculous, which perhaps might be serendipitous or even intentional, but it betrays the serious thriller tone it just builds for five minutes.

Messy and sketchy, but hilariously entertaining at times. it's a sloppy trudge through a peculiar night elevated by its clever and humorous script.

The Midnight Man is a reasonable B-Grade action flick.The background story includes some genuine originality too.

An assassin who cannot feel pain or sensory pleasures, such as touch. Its a rather different premise, that's turned on its head, with interesting results.

The selection of a good cast of seasoned, mostly television based actors really lifts this film. There's a decent amount of moderately funny, mostly gallows humour, on offer from the lead and supporting cast to off set the action scenes.

Perhaps the only downside to this film is it does languish somewhat in the middle. There is a discernible loss of the pace which could have been fixed with a more considered storyline and a little more action and less idle chat.

All in all, I liked The Midnight Man. Its in no way exceptional but it is watchable and for the most part, entertaining. Six out of ten from me.