Tom wrote:I wasn't overly keen on this one to be honest. If it were anyone else but Dolph directing I think I'd have dug it a little more but I feel like there's no growth from him as a filmmaker by doing a project like this that's so generic.
Yeah, it's better than 95% of the DTV action out there.
But it felt too dated for me. A lot of the drama is quite clunky, particularly in showing the growth of a character who borders on alt-right at the beginning, has a couple of enchiladas in Mexico and is cured.
It's not Dolph's best performance. Just in terms of the human side and the co-star, I preferred Castle Falls. Missionary Man and Icarus are both technically more flawed I'd say, and further away from what D envisioned, but I felt they were a little more interesting in what they were aspiring to be.
It's watchable, but probably my least favourite Dolph directorial effort. It feels too much like wanting to compete in a high jump competition and setting the bar at 2ft high. Distributors sadly dictate what he's able to do, but I'd much prefer Nordic Light, even knowing that's unlikely to ever get greenlit unless he has to make it under Steve Luke-level limitations.
I'd be curious if Dolph had aspirations to do something a little different, rather than repeating the modern western or revenge angle. Maybe more hi-concept, or artistic or dramatic. Showdown at the Grand is the type of the thing I'd like to see more of.
Well-stated, Tom. Like you, I was also pretty disappointed in the final product. I think it was probably due to the fact that I had been hearing about this film and its development for the better part of a decade. I had spoken with Michael Worth a couple times, and he had mentioned that this had over ten different drafts and scripts floating around. So I think I built it up to be something much better than what it really was. But in the end, this suffered from the fact that it was overly generic. Once the credits started rolling, I sat back and wondered, "They spent ten years writing this?" Maybe if it at least kept the transgender witness story angle intact, then that would have been an extra ingredient to help this one stand out. But as is, there was absolutely nothing about this one to help it stand above any of the other dozens of similar films. On the plus side, Dolph's acting was really quite good, as was the actress who played the witness. But overall, I left with a bit of a shrug. Sadly, despite the film only a few months old, it's already become quite forgotten... A sad casualty of so much free streaming content available.
