The Lockdown

The Lockdown: I have been occupied throughout the week because I seem to have completed more tasks set for me this week than in the last two months, and with the Big Bad Film Fest having concluded, I am still behind on some of my reviews in that area, but now that Tiger Style Media’s second feature The Lockdown is out on Digital today, I thought I would give The Lockdown a watch because it had some nice action in the trailer and it also stars some of my favorites such as Leo Howard, Caity Lotz and genre icon Michale Biehn.

The first one, Art of Eight Limbs containing Ludi Lin of Mortal Kombat, I have to say was a little bit of a disappointment, so my expectations were rather modest here given the talent involved, I was looking for improvement. I appreciate what Tiger Style Media is trying to do here and I hope they succeed in their ambition to resuscitate that DTV martial arts action which used to be popular a long time ago, but for now, the titles are rather ambiguous.

It is safe to state that The Lockdown which sees Ryan Jaeger, who produced Art of Eight Limbs, in the director’s chair this time as well is a significant advance with some good action, and a more touching plot that deals with love, death and family. In terms of story, this is directed in a sense that is closer to reality than the James Bond/Enter the Dragon assemblage of the first movie. Not that there was anything amiss in that, however I think this case of two American siblings who find themselves in quite a nasty mess and have no option but fight their way out, was more interesting, and that was more emotional rather than physical.

The American crime drama movie The Lockdown stars Caity Lotz and Leo Howard as the Hightower siblings Charlie and Jack respectively. Charlie’s profession is one of a journalist who is focused on eradicating homelessness in the United States, while Jack is working hard to manage his father’s gym after the demise of their mother, her only focus.

Most of Charlie and Jackson’s life had been co parented by Max and other parties, however he is currantly serving a drug trafficking sentence in one of the most soal less prisons in Myanmar. However, the problem is that Jack has trouble getting Max’s signature because he needs it to distribute the business he and Charlie put all his effort in to Co-operating with a former champion trainer.

In this case, Jack somehow still believes that dad will one day come back but as for Charlie, she is through with him because it is his fault that he left and pretty much abandoned them throughout their lives in The Lockdown. Since, Charlie has been suspended from work for beating up a few thugs whose only profession was ‘picking on’ a few homeless people, she is willing to go to Myanmar with Jack to work on their dad and have him sign the papers. Did I forget to mention that said prison has thriving business of illegal fight to death and entertain the crowds and that Max has his own kids tricked into fighting for his freedom? Yes, there’s that as well.

So, when they get there, they well, get busted for drug possession and are placed in prison by the evil warden Cetan (Hon Ping Tang) who actually manages these fights and even has both of his sons helping to promote it. It’s a family business so whatever keeps them close I always say. Being prisoners, the siblings have no choice but to fight but not only in the ring because every day in a prison where people go ‘missing’ easily, is a fight to the finish.

As with Art of Eight Limbs, this film also respects the filmed image as a memory of the boldest and most unforgettable martial arts, which occupied the shelves of video rental and “grindhouse” cinema. The storyline is as comically illogical as it was in the 90’s, but in the 90’s as well, that was one of the reasons why it was exciting to watch them.

It was always interesting to see the hero or heroine, or the combination of both effectively take out hordes of antagonists with their signature moves and as the film progressed towards a simple conclusion where many bones would be smashed. The greater the number of encounters the better the final product and the more violent the fight sequences the better.

I am pleased to inform you that the first two-thirds of The Lockdown suffices, at least it did for me, and one of the main reasons was the chemistry shared between the two leads who portrayed brother and sister. It was also a relief that they were siblings because that eliminated the possibility of any love interests that could interfere with the core idea of the film.

Right from the first scene, Lotz and Howard are very nice and warm actors, and we will not be bored even between all the noise and destruction because enough time has been shown that they need to get over all the troubles and come out clean.

It also helps that Howard happens to be a martial artist and is quite good with the action, and so gets a chance to take part in the action drama, while Lotz gets to show that she can properly party with the best of them too. I bet that there were some stunt pros used here and there but for the most part, those were all the actors doing the beating.

What is your opinion of Michael Biehn. The man is a standout performer in genre films and has appeared in some of the top that action and sci-fi movies offer. He is no longer young, however, his screen’s stovepipe always remains high and he kind of elevates the basest of materials by his very presence.

As Biehn depicts Max, as a character who has no scruples and would sell even his own children, but the trip through the course of the ‘creation’ has other spheres that point towards a flood of redemption toward the end. It’s pretty damn cool that I got to meet him at NYCC a few years back and I pestered him with all sorts of questions regarding his films before he wrote on the Hicks photo, “stay frosty”. Absolutely priceless.

I have said this before, however, the first 2/3 of the film are pleasurable since we are introduced to the characters Charlie and Jack and we are provided with plenty of bare handed fight choreography which is a notch higher than what was showcased in the initial Tiger Style Media movie. There is more ferocity and speed in the action part and Howard proves to be more useful in these types of films. His looks do not also make him look bad since he has a boy next door type of look to match his amazing and extreme okinawa martial arts skills. He is not massive, but he has a good physique and is more than adequate for a martial arts action movie.

When it comes to her acting, Lotz is as good as any, however, she also comes off as a warm and unassuming person much like Charlie. Now, Charlie is just the journalist so when placed in head spins world, she has to become a realist, and real people are far from perfect and are definitely not invincible. She’s just an average lady who happens to also have self-defense skills so when the punches and kicks start, there is doubt if she will survive.

Not to worry though as it turns out Lotz is able to keep up with Howard and beat up a number of unfortunate onscreen characters including the first scene with veteran villain Ron Smoorenburg from ‘Triple threat’ and the previously mentioned for Smoorenburg. Lotz has been performing a great deal of great work lately and was even present in the fascinating movie Hongkong Dog that recently came out at the Big Bad Film Fest.

While there are some beautiful scenes in Thailand and Bangkok for the audience and fans of 90s action flicks, as expected most of the movie is set in a prison which does have a die-hard kind of us feel to it and all the action is placed in one location, which is rather expected and not a big deal. The action is certainly not set in the most peaceful of countries; similar to Ludi Lin’s entry, the story is set in Myanmar which is a somewhat interesting choice considering that Kingdom is essentially regarded as hell on earth.

The fight action is certainly good and believable with Lotz and Howard partaking in most of the fun in the majority of the scenes. The fight choreography and action direction is provided by 4 different top-of-the-line Thai stunt teams, which results in a multimedia product that contains the awesomely insane, mixed with a bit of combat sports, richer joint and body twisting and lots more. The slaughter is very well executed and doesn’t suffer from having too much heavy post production work done on it and at least most of the time the camera is steady when the fighters go into action.

The styles used once again range from traditional, such as the devastating knees and elbows from Muay Thai, to what would be considered modern, such as what might be seen in an extreme combat sport with aerial moves, flashiness, and even some ground and pound typical for MMA. The film does lack true real fighting villains in the characters for each star to fight against in the ring though, and realistically, they do end up being quite forgettable when everything is done.

The conclusion is where the movie really falls apart as it fumbles about trying to bring the film to its conclusion. Charlie and Jack do tackle their respective tournament champions, but apart from few enjoyable scenes, there is really no conflict or tension and even the outcomes that were surprising but believable, the film in general is off the mark impression due to the absence of a heroic and raucous finish. I anticipated a massive breakout sequence during which our heroes would have battled a stream of guards but all I was treated to was, well it was quite disappointing.

Perhaps Jaeger and co. were attempting to wrap up these incidents in a more believable way but then if this was supposed to be a real ‘nostalgia’ for the 90’s then where was my jumbo chaos. Nevertheless, there are exciting battles to be had and the majority of the foregoing elements in The Lockdown film had all the necessary action undertaken with caution to ensure that the abilities of the participants were properly displayed.

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