Day Of Reckoning

There are days when i just want to unplug my brain cells and i just want to be entertained, where i don´t need a complicated plot and feel like im back in the 80´s or 90´s with similar films made by Cannon Films or PM Entertainment Group Films. What do i mean by this? These were two very famous distribution film companies that focused on violent action films. Who cared about logic answers when you could just kick down some FBI agents and blow up some trucks next to a diner? I know, that´s the best logical answer we sometimes need to feel happy in our lives. I can not tell you how much i love the classic PM Entertainment Group film classic known as Rage from 1995 with action star Gary Daniels. Especially the shopping mall scenes they are iconic. You have well dressed men shooting down people and stores everywhere with Uzi guns and other weapons. Stores are getting completlely drenched in bullets and bodies are flying everywhere. This is some of the best shopping mall scenes ever made in cinema history and that´s exactly how a Saturday should look like at a family reunion. Action films comes out every year and we do get some good releases, even if they are usually no classics such as films from the 80´s and 90´s. I still appreciate that they are still making old school action films because we need them. For example one film you should rent on VOD or pick up a physical copy of is the 2023 action film known as Shrapnel. This film tells the story of former Marine Sean Beckwith ( played by The Lost Boys actor Jason Patric ) who finds out his daughter have been kidnapped by the Mexican cartel, while she was sneaking over to the Mexican border to party with a good friend. Sean get help from his good friend Max Vohden ( Cam Gigandet ) to locate Sean´s daughter in Mexico, knowing they could all end up dead. Shrapnel is a good looking action film with good characters and solid action scenes. If you want a simple but effective action film this summer at home, you should give Shrapnel a chance. Speaking of action films i try to check out many different titles every year in this genre, while some of them are good there are a few bad ones as well. One title i have been wanting to see for a while is the film known as Day Of Reckoning. One of the reasons is because actor Billy Zane is included in the cast. I rented this film on VOD to see if it is any good in this genre. Is this the perfect film to enjoy after a summer barbecue or should Day Of Recknoning be completely forgotten about?

Small town Sheriff John Dorsey ( Zach Roering ) gets a visit from U.S. Marshal Butch Hayden ( Billy Zane ) who needs assistance from Sheriff John. Marshal Butch is on the lookout for criminal bank robber Kyle Musk ( Scott Adkins ) and Kyle´s wife Emily Rusk ( Cara Jade Myers ) is located in a farm. Butch want to try and make Kyle to come to the farm, set up a trap while they keep his wife a hostage. Sheriff John does not like this plan at all saying they are not allowed to work this way, it is against all protocals. Marshal Butch doesn´t care at all and he begins to plan his next move to make sure Kyle will be captured.

If you grew up watching straight to VHS action films with Gary Daniels in the 90´s such as the 1998 action film Recoil , you may appreciate the action film Day Of Reckoning. Even though the plot of these films are completely different from each other they both have one thing in common. These films have some heavy gun action scenes between police officers and criminals. Day Of Reckoning is basically a very traditional action film that includes corruption within the police force, bank robbery and family issues as well. Now, when you read this you might be thinking;- This doesn´t sound like a film that will give me anything with so many basic ingredients? I can tell you right now that the biggest reason why you should watch this film ( if you appreciate this genre ) is because of iconic actor Billy Zane ( yes the man who played The Phantom and who was in the original 1993 film Sniper with legendary Tom Berenger ) as Marshal Butch Hayden. The way Billy Zane portrait his character Marshal Butch makes him the most interesting character of this film. This is a man who clearly have health issues while he have no respect for any laws. I also appreciate actor Zach Roerig ( who i used to watch in the TV series The Vampire Diaries ) playing the character Sheriff John Dorsey. These men have very different opinions about how you should work within the police department, where Sheriff John believe in following laws as much as possible. Action actor Scott Adkins is in this film as well and i can say he deliver doing physical violence. Some of the action scenes look alright while some scenes look pretty generic. One of my biggest issues with this film is the length. 101 minutes long in a story that could have been 91 minutes instead and still work, there are some long unnecessary dialogue scenes that doesn´t help the main plot. I would still say this is a solid enough action film is you just want a easy plot that´s not complicated and feels like a throwback to VHS video violence. Director Shaun Silva ( who have directed a lot of music videos for artists and bands over many years ) gives us a film that is most likely loved by old school action lovers, growing up in the VHS rental stores era. Day Of Recknoning is good enough to make your summer evening a cozy popcorn moment, with a cold beer included.

Rating: DDD

It Feeds

There are people all over the world who believe that evil spirits, also known as an entity can attach itself to a human and want to physically and mentally hurt the person it is attached to. Of course there are different evil entities in different religious beliefs, for example in Christianity they belive in demons, fallen angels while in Hinduism they believe in Pishacas ( demonic spirits ) associated with death and decay. If you want to know more about evil entities in different religions there are plenty of web pages giving you information on what they look like and what they are known for. I personally don´t necessarily believe in everything regarding evil entities, i have a hard time believing in something i can not physically see. But i do respect people with faith if they really believe that these entities does exist. In the cinema world we have seen a lot of films about evil entities and how they may affect different people, especially in the horror genre. Since there are a lot of horror films i could easily mention that includes the subject of evil entity, let´s just go with one film that i can highly recommend on Netflix. My personal pick is the 2017 Netflix horror film known as The Ritual from director David Bruckner ( the director who worked on the 2012 anthology horror film V/H/S, highly recommended ). A group of male friends travel to the North of Sweden to go hiking and to honor their friend Rob ( Paul Reid ) who suggested this hiking trip but was brutally murdered by criminals in a store being robbed. During their hiking trip to Kungsleden they decide to take another path than the marked trail, going through the forest instead. They locate a very old house there with strange symbols and on the second floor of the house an effigy of a decapitated human torso made of twigs, with hantlers for hands. In this old cabin they all feel a evil presence surrounding them. The Ritual is a great looking horror film with  great acting, some creepy atmospheric moments and i do like the design of this evil entity . Definetely one of director David Bruckner´s best films so far. Speaking of evil entity i have been planning to watch a horror film called It Feeds for a while and finally got to rent this film on VOD. Is this a much watch this summer or is the horror film It Feeds not as good as i was hoping it would be?

Cynthia Winstone ( Ashley Greene ) is a therapist and psychic trying to get people the help they need. Her daughter Jordan Winstone ( Ellie O´Brien ) is her assistant who makes sure each client feels welcome. One day completely unexpected a young woman named Riley Harris ( Shayelin Martin ) knock on their door in panic, begs Jordan that she really needs to see her mother. Cynthia accept the meeting and she soon realise that Riley have been cursed by a very evil entity.

It Feeds is a horror film that raises several questions after you have watched this film. Even if you may be able to help a lot of people, should you follow certain rules or should you help anyone even if you might push yourself too far? How far are you willing to go if your own child is chosen by this entity, would you risk your own life? This film reminded me of the 2010 horror film Insidious in several ways, there are some differences of course but the character Cynthia can both see and communicate with entities as the character Elise in the film Insidious. One big difference with Cynthia is that shes a therapist who works extra as a psychic, wich means she have helped clients  in different ways than paranormal investigator Elise Rainier ( played by actress Lin Shaye ) seen in Insidious. I feel that actress Ashley Greene ( worth watching in the Scott Adkins action film Accident Man ) gives a great performance as therapist Cynthia Winstone) and i appreciate that this film tries to go deep how difficult it can be working as a psychic. Actress Ellie O´Brien ( who fans of the TV series Murdoch Mysteries might recognize ) plays Cynthia´s daughter Jordan and i do feel it helped the plot of this film by making Jordan an important part of this story, where you can clearly see she wants to be a psychic like her mother helping people. I should mention actor  Shawn Ashmore ( who plays the character Bobby Drake in the X-Men franchise ) who gives a solid performance in It Feeds as the character Randall. The horror elements in It Feeds are for the most part effective and especially the evil entity, i do like the design of this evil creature as well as how clear this entity is to torture souls. While some scenes reminded me of Insidious there are still some nice surprising horror scenes to be found here. Director Chad Archibald have a good past of directing horror films such as Bite, The Heretics and I´ll Take Your Dead and he proves with It Feeds he still knows how to make good quality horror films. Definetely worth a watch this summer if you want a creepy entity horror film, It Feeds knows it´s rightful place in the horror community.

Rating: DDD

Bone Face

Let us go back to the summer of 1996 for a moment. It was the month of June and i was hanging out with Pierre who worked at the rental video store known as Videomix. Pierre knew i always wanted to check out new horror releases on VHS so he would show me lists of what films are coming out on rental. I especially remember one specific day in June of 1996 because it was the Swedish VHS premiere week of the slasher horror film Children Of The Corn III - Urban Harvest. I remember as he packed up the VHS copies of this film he also had a poster of this film that he put up on the wall. I had already booked my rental copy of this film since i was a huge fan of the previous films, especially the first film. I actually owned both of the Children Of The Corn movies on VHS so clearly this was my kind of franchise. I remember watching this third film i was feeling that the level of quality had change. There were some fun killing scenes to be found in Children Of The Corn III but compared to the original film i did feel disappointed. Just a couple of years ago i rewatched Children Of The Corn trilogy on the Arrow Video blu ray box just to look at this trilogy again to see if my feelings had changed. I will say i appreciate that they tried a different approach on the third film taking place in Chicago city, that definetely brought something fresh into this genre while keeping some classic ingredients. And the fact that this film also have a adoption story included into the plot is also a nice detail. At the end of the day i can still recommend Children Of The Corn III if you want to watch a descent 90´s slasher, as long as you don´t expect it to be as good as the original film. I try to watch slasher horror films released every year in case i find some interesting titles. One of the horror slasher film posters that caught my attention this year was the poster of the independent horror film Bone Face. It looked like something in my taste and the film title sounded lovely indeed. I decided to rent this film on VOD and give it a chance. Is this the slasher horror film to watch this summer or is Bone Face a lazy attempt to cash in on slasher horror fans?

A masked killer known as Boneface slaughters several campers in a small town. At a local diner Sheriff Cronin ( Jeremy London ) and Deputy McCully ( Elena Sanchez ) enter the diner tellling all the guests that no one is leaving since everyone could be a suspect. As they begin to go through ech suspect over night, it becomes both a challenge and frustrating when some of the diner guests are not always helpful or friendly.

At first i thought this would be a very traditional slasher film but let me tell you, this is not what you might expect. This is actually more a murder mystery thriller a few slasher horror elements in certain scenes. This film feels more like a different version of the Agatha Christy novel Murder On The Orient Express, expect all suspects are kept inside an old diner. I have to say this is actually a nice surprise to see a completely different take in the slasher horror genre, making a different film that goes in a different path. And i have to say i do feel the murder mystery works pretty good as Sheriff Cronin ( played by actor Jeremy London who i remember from the 2009 film Wolvesbayne ) and Deputy McCully ( played by actress Elena Sanchez ) question all the guests at the diner. Since this film have a lot of characters in this diner you might think that we don´t get to know their personalities that good. But i have to say considering the amount of characters we actually get to know some of them. For example actor Artrial Clark ( who you should see in the 2016 war drama Free States Of Jones ) plays the character Ray, a theatre projectionist who loves horror B movies and even read a horror novel at this diner. It was very easy to enjoy Artrial´s performance as Ray because he seems like a good man, plus he loves horror films with a clear passion for low budget films. I do enjoy the performance from actor Jeremy London as Sheriff Cronin, the kind of sheriff you would want in a situation like this. The acting in general is pretty good and i do think this film looks good from a technical perspective. Since this is a PG13 horror film there is not a lot of violence or blood but that´s ok, i still think the film works anyway. Bone Face may not be appreciated by some slasher horror fans for being different in this genre. I appreciate the effort of this film and i do feel we need more films in this genre doing something different like Bone Face does. Director Michael Donovan Horn´s directorial debut full feature film is a fresh breath of air in a genre that was in need of someting different. Bone Face is without a doubt worth renting on VOD this summer.

Rating: DDD

Control Freak

There are several different categories within the genre known as horror. You have categories such as found footage, paranormal, slasher, grindhouse, psychological, zombies, creature feature and much more. That is the beauty of the genre of horror that there is something for everyone to enjoy, no matter what specific category you enjoy within horror films. And then we have a category that may not be mentioned very often but do have some quality classics. I am especially thinking about the category known as body horror. Within this category you find many different kind of body horror classics such as John Carpenter´s The Thing, David Cronenberg´s The Fly, Hellraiser, Re- Animator, Society and many more. Let us talk for a moment about a horror film that belongs within the catgory of boddy horror. And that is the 2021 Taiwanese horror film known as The Sadness from director Rob Jabbaz. Now, if you love lots of gory scenes with bodies being ripped apart, this is the film you have always wanted to see. The Sadness have some extremely brutal scenes so if you are a sensitive person, i would tell you to stay away from this film. The story takes place in Taipei where we meet young couple Jim ( Berant Zhu ) and Kat ( Regina Lei ) when Jim is about to drop off Kat at the trainstation driving their moped. They pass a bloody crime scene but don´t really think much more about it. Jim goes to a café where he witness a blood-soaked old woman assaults other cafe customers, spitting thick mucus on one of them. The man she spat on suddenly turn into a insane killer murdering his own brother. It seems a virus have spread turning humans into brutal killers. The Sadness may be a very gory film but i have to say i do think the story is really effective. The acting is really good from the whole cast and the film looks brilliant on a technical level. I would suggest that you pick up a blu ray copy of The Sadness from distribution company Vinegar Syndrome and you will find some very interesting special features as well inluded. Speaking of body horror there was a horror film released on Hulu and Disney + this spring in this category known as Control Freak. What i especially noticed by the trailer of Control Freak is actress Kelly Marie Tran who plays the character Rose Tico in the Star Wars franchise. Since i am a fan of body horror in general of course i had to see this film on Disney +. Is this a must watch for horror fans this summer or should you skip this one and watch The Sadness on blu ray from Vinegar Syndrome instead?

Valerie "Val" Nguyen ( Kelly Marie Tran ) is a successfull motivational speaker who inspire people worldwide, and she really loves to help people of all ages. But lately she have been acting strange scratching the back of her head more and more for each day. At first it may not look very strange, but as she begin to scratch deeper and deeper into her head, it becomes very clear that Valerie is struggling of a very serious compulsive urge. Her boyfriend Robbie ( Miles Robbins ) who wants to have a family with her is getting worried, while he is also mad that shes trying to hide her behavior from him. While Valerie is struggling more and more she makes contact with her father Sang Nguyen ( Toan Le ), a former drug addicted soldier who lives as a monk. Her father seems to know what is really causing her compulsive urge.

One of the most interesting details about a film such as Contol Freak is that you have to figure out if the main character known as Valerie is suffering from a mental illness, or is she chosen by a parasitic ghost that feeds on human hosts? As we see her scratching her head until she injure yourself, it becomes very clear she can not control her behavior. Actress Kelly Marie Tran as the main character Valerie gives a strong acting performance, and what i especially notice is that she capture the personality struggling with compulsive behavior. I think Valerie show a realistic side of a person who tries to lie about her behavior, as if this is not any problem. The scenes where she really show the problems reveal itself is where Kelly manage to show this behavior with body activities and facial expressions. If i compare this performance with Kelly´s character in Star Wars then i would say her acting performance feels stronger in Control Freak. Actor Miles Robbins ( who is the son of legendary actors Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon ) also gives a solid performance as Valerie´s boyfriend Robbie. I feel he gives this character a realistic approach, how do you handle the situation where your partner is struggling mentally and deal with everything?  Another interesting detail about this film is that Valerie is a famous motivational speaker. It becomes very clear that this inspiational speaker image slowly destroy itself with Valerie´s behavior, and this film manage to balance this very well with effective body horror scenes. The parasitic ghost scenes feel quite effective in the scenes where it seems Valerie conronts this evil spirit. I do appreciate the religious tone of Buddhism is conncted to the story, it matches well with the connection to the ghost. Im actually pleasantly surprised how good this film is in the body horror category, not a future classic in any way but director Shal Ngo ( director of quite a lot short films in the past ) have made a very stylish, well made psychological horror film with Control Freak. Definetely worth a watch on Hulu or Disney+ if you are a horror fan in general.

Rating: DDD

Ash

There is something special about films that combine the genres known as horror and science fiction. We have seen some great examples of that in cinema when certain director´s combined these genres such as Ridley Scott´s 1979 sci fi horror film Alien, John Carpernter´s The Thing, Predator, Fire In The Sky ( a film not that many talk about unfortunately ), John Carpenter´s They Live and several more titles. I could easily talk about all of the titles that i mentioned for a number of reasons. Some of these films have some really good character development, they also have great looking practical make up effects as well as simple and effective story telling. Then we have the sci fi horror films that were huge box office bombs at the time they were running in cinemas worldwide but turned out to be worth a watch on physical media or VOD. A perfect example of this is the 2009 sci fi horror film Pandorum from director Christian Alvart. If you have seen James Cameron´s classic 1986 sci fi horror film Aliens then you will most likely see that this film have influences similar to Aliens. Since humans have overpopulated Earth and used most of the planet´s resources, humanity builds an interstellar ark, the Elysium. It carries 60.000 people on a 123-year trip to colonize Tanis, an Earth-like planet. The passengers are placed in hypersleep, and some of the crew are awake at certain moments to maintain the ship. Several years later, two members of the flight crew, Corporal Bower ( Ben Foster ) and Lieutenant Payton ( Dennis Quaid ), awaken. They are about to find out that they have a different lifeform on board the Elysium. What makes the film Pandorum enjoyable is the combination of a sci fi action film and the humanoid creatures attacking the crew. In a way it feels like a B movie but the budget is clearly bigger than most B movies. I personally believe Pandorum might be a cult film in the future and you should check it out, especially on physical media. Earlier this year i saw a sci fi horror film going around film festivals called Ash from director Flying Lotus, this seemed to have some kind of alien theme and this is definetely my kind of genre within the horror community. I decided to check this film out on Amazon Prime hoping it would surprise me. Is this the sci fi horror film you need this summer or should you choose the 2009 film Pandorum instead?

Riya ( Eiza González ) wakes up in a space research station on the planet known as Ash. There seems to have been a battle across the space station, where she finds dead bodies lying in different rooms as she seems to get flashback memories, not entirely sure if she is involved somehow. As she look around for clues to get a bigger picture what caused all of this, the truth will change the full image completely.

One thing you should know before watching Ash is that this is not a film where you have a lot of things happening. The film takes it´s time to try and explain a certain timeline that includes the main character Ryia ( played by actress Eiza González who i recognized from the TV series From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series ) because she have trouble remembering everything. In a way you could probably call this a slow burn film since it doesn´t rush into anything and tries to actually tell a story instead of just using CGI effects. What i appreciate about this is that you get a different depth in a sci fi horror film, it´s not all about facing a dangerous lifeform, this film also tries to go on a deeper level and focus on the story instead. If you would rather have a more violent driven sci fi film then this might not be for you. But hang on for a moment, there are some violent scenes in this film so you just got to be patient. Let´s get into some of the details i appreciate about Ash and i have to say i love the colorful look of the planet. It almost looks like a painting that moves the colors around the amtmosphere. I also appreciate the story part of the main character Ryia trying to remember what happened, who killed all the people she woke up discovering? Actress Eiza González does a good performance as Ryia and almost feels like a younger version of Ripley from Alien in certain scenes, where you feel the empowerment of strong women. Aaron Paul ( who is brilliant as the character Jesse Pinkman in classic TV series Breaking Bad ) gives a solid performance in this film as the character Brion. The Medbot robot who can fix your body from injuries and wounds is clearly the future of health care we need. The alien parasite looks pretty cool from a design perspective. Of course there is something i need to mention that is negative, there are a couple of scenes where we get a bit too much dialogue that didn´t feel necessary. Director Flying Lotus ( who directed the odd but wonderful 2017 film Kuso ) is from a technical standpoint a good film maker. Ash is clearly a love letter to those who grew up watching 80´s sci fi horror and in general this film manage to capture that magical VHS feeling of the past. Definetely worth a watch on Amazon Prime this summer.

Rating: DDD 

Revenge Of The Boogeyman

Independent movies are incredibly important in today´s society. Without independent films we would not have the same level of creativity and passionate film makers as we unfortunately don´t have within the big studios of Hollywood. This is why i support independent film makers to be able to create films on limited budget who actually care about their project. One independent film distribution company who is well known on the independent scene is known as Breaking Glass Pictures. Over many years i have tried to see several of their releases both on VOD and in some cases on DVD as well. There are several titles that i feel worth checking out released by Breaking Glass Pictures such as The Special, Halloween Party, Butchers and The Mad Hatter. These are just some good recommendations that are worth a watch but let´s talk about one specific film that Breaking Glass Pictures released during the pandemic on DVD. And that is the 2019 horror film Exit O from director E.B. Hughes. I actually bought this film during the pandemic since i ordered basically everything online during this time. This film tells the story of a young couple Billy ( Gabe Fazio ) and Lisa ( Augie Duke ) who are spending a weekend in an old hotel that Billy have stayed at in his childhood. This weekend will not only turn out completely different than Billy and Lisa expected, where especially Billy is in for a shocking truth. As a supernatural horror film with some surprising twists i feel that Exit O does a great job telling a solid story, and i do appreciate the acting performances in general. Worth checking out if you are a fan of independent horror. Last year i reviewed an anthology horror film called Beware The Boogeyman telling 4 different stories, in my opinion the best film that Breaking Glass Pictures have released so far. So here we have a sequel called Revenge Of The Boogeyman and i was of course excited to check it out. Is this just as good as the first film or does this film fail to reach the same level of quality the first film have?

Calvin ( Calvin Morie McCarthy ) is a struggling addict who decides to go on a cabin weekend with his friends Tim ( Tim Coyle ) and Jax ( Jax Callington ). What may have started as an ordinary weekend is about to turn into a nightmare.

One of the things i noticed right away with Revenge Of The Boogeyman is that this is not an anthology horror film like Beware The Boogeyman. I do appreciate that they tried a different approach with this sequel instead of just making a similar film as the firs one. However, there is a big problem with this sequel that damage the film in some ways and that is the comedy tone in certain scenes. They attempt to act funny and to be completely honest that doesn´t work at all. I do think horror and comedy can work well if you combine these genres in an effective such as the Evil Dead franchise. In this film though it just don´t match well with the story of the Boogeyman. There are three positive details at least and first i have to say i appreciate the look of the Boogeyman. He kind of looks like Carrot Top combined with the cave troll from The Lord Of The Rings after using extremely high doses of botox. I do think the acting from Calvie Morie McCarthyy ( who you might recognize from the independent horror film Exocism in Utero ) is pretty good considering this is a low budget horror film. The practical make up killing scenes have some gory moments. That´s pretty much it when it comes to the positive. The rest of the film is a mixed bag of so called funny scenes mixed with the Boogeyman killing at a few moments. This film could have been a worthy sequel if they skipped so many of the comedy scenes and focused on the story of the Boogeyman. And why is the Boogeyman so little in this film? Director Erik Skybak ( who also directed the independent horror film Exorcism in Utero ) tries too hard making a funny horror film that failed to entertain me as much as i was hoping for. Watch this one only if you enjoy the first film but i can´t recommend this one. Not completely terrible but could have been much better. Revenge Of The Boogeyman proves that sequels does not always succeed.

Rating: DD

G20

Over my 47 years i have seen several American presidents take office at the White House in Washington DC. The earliest memory i have of my first moment of seeing the American president was on Swedish TV back in 1981 and that was Ronald Reagan. He was elected President on November 4, 1980 but i was too young to remember that ( i was 3 years old at that time ). So why do i remember seeing President Reagan just a year later? My grandfather Ingvar watched a lot of news coverage regarding the assassination attempt of President Reagan in 1981 and he wanted to know the latest details. Obviously i was too young to understand at that time what have happened so when i was a litte bit older in 1986 ( i was 9 years old at this time ) i read about this assassination attempt in a history magazine at our local library. That´s when i had flashbacks from the TV news coverage of President Reagan in 1981 but i only remembered a few images. Since the 80´s a lot of things happened with different Presidents and who can forget the President Bill Clinton scandal in 1998 where he had sex with White House intern Monica Lewinsky? A classic American historical moment that sold a lot of gossip magazines and news papers worldwide. Did you know that Monica moved to London in 2005 and studied social psychology at the London School of Economincs? Since then she have done a lot of different things and of course will always be marked over this 1998 scandal. Speaking of Presidents in the year 1997 director Wolfgang Petersen ( director of the 1984 children movie classic The NeverEnding Story ) released his action film Air Force Down with legendary actor Harrison Ford as U.S. President James Marshall. This is definetely one of the best action films with a President kicking terrorist ass and Harrison Ford did a great performance. Legendary actor Gary Oldman as the Russian terrorist leader Egor also gives a wonderful acting performance. Air Force One is one of those 90´s action movies that came at a perfect time when action movies were very entertaining and you should definetely check it out on streaming or physical media. I woud also recommend the 2013 action film Olympus Has Fallen with Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart ( where Aaaron plays President Benjamin ). This spring a new action film was released on Amazon Prime where female President Danielle Sutton ( played by actress Viola Davis who i always remember from the 2009 vigilante action thriller Law Abiding Citizen ) kicks terrorist ass in the action film G20. I thought it would be interesting to see a female President showing her combat skills so i decided to give this film a chance. Is this the action film to watch this summer or is G20 as predictable as Smokie´s full discography ( where all the albums sounds the same ) ?.

President Sutton ( Viola Davis ) travel to South Africa with her husband Derek Sutton ( Anthony Anderson ) and their two children Serena Sutton ( Marsai Martin ) and Demetrius Sutton (Christopher Farrar ). Sutton have to attend the G20 summit meeting leaders from all over the world. But this G20 summit is suddenly stopped as a group of terrorists lead by their leader Rutledge ( Anthony Starr ). He have specific demands and want to capture President Sutton to be able to complete his mission. What Rutledge doesn´t know is that Sutton knows how to deal with terrorists, especially if she needs to use more violent tactics.

If you were hoping that G20 was going to be an action film that reminds us of action films such as Die Hard and Air Force Down then this is the film for you. It is not a classic such as the films i mentioned, but what G20 does that is a bit different is bringing out a female President who does not only hold speeches, she actually fight and handle different guns as well. Other than that there are no big surprises in this film. That does not mean this is a terribe film, i think i should be honest though and let you know this is a very basic action film. So let us get into the positive about G20 and i have to say it is a good idea to hold this terrorist attack at a political event for world leaders. If you want to make an impact and put fear into highly respected people then the G20 meeting in South Africa is definetely the right location. The characters of this film is a bit of a mixed bag, a couple of the characters function while others are pretty forgettable. I do think the strength of this film comes from the performance of actress Viola Davis as President Sutton. Not only is she rough and not afraid to face fear, she is also willing to protect innocent lives that crosses her path. Viola have no problem doing a physical action performance and you can tell she must have had fun making this film. I do appreciate actor Anthony Starr ( who you recognize from the very popular TV series The Boys ) as the main villain Rutledge. Some of the action scenes look alright and to see Viola Davis fight against big men is quite charming. To the negative i have to say the crypto money part of the story didn´t interest me at all. I would have prefered a different approach by these terrorists, because not all of us care about crypto money or crypto currency. I would still say that G20 is an action film that manage to entertain me for trying to go old school with physical fights and gun battles. Director Patricia Riggen ( who directed the interesting film The 33, based on the true story of a copper mine in Chile collapsing with workers stuck inside ) may not deliver an action film that may be remembered for bringing anything new, but she still manage to bring back old school action that VHS fans may appreciate. If you just want to be entertained with violence this summer, give G20 a chance on Amazon Prime.

Rating: DDD