For the last thirteen years AJ (Triple H) has been behind bars, convicted of manslaughter for killing a man who intended to kill his best friend, Jack (Michael Rapaport) a high-strung low-level mobster. Now released, AJ wants nothing more than to start a small business and live a life free of crime. Unfortunately, within hours of leaving prison, Jack involves AJ in an accidental shooting leaving a man dead.

Here’s the first official poster:

They got Parker Posey to be in this? Hmm. Apparently, it’ll be in theaters and probably on VOD September 9th.

Source: MovieWeb

As per Variety: “The plot for the film penned by David Cohen, revolves around a ruthless gang that takes a young couple hostage in an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. When the captive girl is killed, the tables are unexpectedly turned, and the gang finds itself outsmarted by a seasoned killer.”

The film will star Luke Evans (The Three Musketeers, Immortals), with Ryuhei Kitamura (Midnight Meat Train) directing.

No other word on casting or release has been announced. WWE Films’ debut was in horror too, with See No Evil that featured Kane. Thoughts?

Source: Arrow

You can follow the film on Facebook here.

Source: Official Site

The Film:

When I popped this movie into my Blu Ray player I had a quick flash of panic. I couldn’t help but think to myself, ‘oh man, I never saw the first one. What if I’m completely lost.’ Well, I was definitely completely lost but trust me, it was not because I had missed the original.  I’m pretty sure this was an old rejected script. Probably one that they had tucked away from when they were looking for a script about a marine to stick John Cena into a few years back. I can just imagine those crafty producers reading this script and thinking ‘nah, this one is too much like Die Hard.’ And the story was actually remarkably similar to Die Hard minus the tension, originality, and acting talent.

I honestly couldn’t tell you one descriptive feature about the main character, Joe, that isn’t superficial. Um….he’s buff, he’s… good at shooting guns, he’s… a marine. Really that’s all we know about him. Almost immediately I didn’t care who he was or why he was doing what he was doing. The general plot is that his wife works in PR or something for this rich American businessman that is opening up a luxury resort in Thailand.  And uh oh, you’ll never guess, terrorists show up. Well good thing there is a marine there. And apparently being a marine gives you borderline super human speed, strength and agility.

There was absolutely no build up, the movie opens with him sniping someone from on top of a building. I don’t really know why, I suppose it was an attempt at a back-story. Then bam, some vague undefined period of time goes by then he and his wife are at the resort. I actually was rooting for the terrorists, not just because I really wanted to see Ted DiBiase get shot in his face, but because the Thai freedom fighters were battling their oppression by the white man and big business. These businessmen had destroyed their culture then had the nerve to claim that they helped them out by giving them jobs and industry, a much more compelling motivation than the marine’s cliché damsel in distress situation.

You may be thinking that I should lighten up because sometimes good action can be predictable, a statement that I whole-heartedly agree with, but not even the action was interesting. The fight scenes were extremely over choreographed, it just all felt so planned. Even the fighting was too predictable often becoming a WWE match complete with all the classic wrestling maneuvers. The more I think about this movie the more I hate it.

The Blu Ray

Ok so I can’t really complain about the video or audio quality, they weren’t above average but definitely not bad. The actual production value of the disc was adequate. Unfortunately, it was as painful to watch the special features, as it was the movie itself so I would not recommend doing it. They include:

Behind the Scenes There are about 25 minutes of behind the scene featurettes that have interviews with Ted DiBiase and director Roel Reine. A lot of it is them talking about how great their vacation to Thailand was and how awesome it was to work with everybody. I know, it sounds riveting right.

Extended Scenes It saddens me to think that as mediocre as this movie was there were scenes that just weren’t good enough. Yikes.

Montage thingy I don’t know what to call this but there is a montage with all sorts of unused footage that didn’t make it into the movie. It’s like watching deleted scenes but with the fun of a montage.

Conclusion: If you’re an action junkie who thinks that this straight to DVD flick featuring your favorite wrestler might be worth checking out then think again. Usually, when I don’t particularly enjoy a movie I can at least say that it has some sort of potential to be a decent movie but in this case it just shouldn’t exist. It may be the worst movie I’ve seen this year.

The Film: Rating: 0.5 out of 5 stars

The Blu-ray:Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Out of respect, the cause has not been stated, while the family’s made it clear it wasn’t cancer. Captain Lou was hospitalized Monday for an undisclosed medical problem and sent home for hospice care.

Much love from all the cats here at KillerFilm goes out to the family of the Captain.

Source: Fox News (the actual channel, not internets.)

Consider me not one of the 16.5 million Americans that practice yoga. I never saw the reason to stretch, fold, and conform into a bizarre labyrinth of impossible positions that weren’t from the Karma Sutra. I am personally all for peace and gaining a calmness within myself, but seeing these half-baked New Age type of people with their attempts at understanding the world, one’s self, and God, just doesn’t do anything for me. That’s why, someone like this film’s lead, Nick Rosen, is perfect for such a person like myself (and I know I’m not alone).

Filmmaker Kate Churchill had an idea: take a seemingly normal man, one that is open to the possibilities of what yoga could bring to himself, and send him on a journey spanning 6 months. It’s a great scenario for a documentary, one we’ve seen numerous times, but the film’s real power isn’t this structure and the attempt to organize Nick into enlightenment, but the real discussion of yoga and finally its meaning. The film follows Nick into a variety of different practices of yoga, with the hope that he finds one that will bring him spiritual peace and, fingers crossed, enlightenment. The thing with yoga is that it is so commercial, a multi-billion dollar industry, here in the states, that most of the first part of the film seems like a kaleidoscope of business ideas. We even get a brief, hilarious segment with former WWE/WCW wrestler Diamond Dallas Page and his methods.

When Churchill takes Nick to India, things turn for us and Nick. He has a willingness to learn and understand, but his constant reaffirmation that he isn’t spiritual or religious, is very important to the film. Churchill makes it clear within minutes that she’s been practicing yoga for over 7 years, and that’s fine, but we the audience needed Nick, so it was either brilliance in finding him or pure luck, but Enlighten Up! needed someone like Nick to make some sort of sense of all of the religious and philosophical babble.

His encounters with some gurus, especially Norman Allen and Gurusharananda, are the films absolute heart and soul. God gets tossed around a lot to yogis. Practice this or that, could enlighten you to God. Nick’s skepticism really counter-balances these seemingly off-the-cuff remarks. It’s one thing to say, but it is another to do. Nick is probably more like most modern Americans under the age of 35 now days; he’s open-minded, but cautious, and not really religious, but not opposed to a belief system. This is a perfect notion for coming into this world, and once he talks to Gurusharananda, everything comes full circle. Nick is skeptic, Churchill the director is a believer in yoga, and they clash, which is an interesting by product of what she was trying to do. It might be a light-hearted journey into the world of yoga, but in the end, Nick and Churchill find some sort of resolution, through themselves in ideas presented to them through this journey. Enlighten Up! is a peaceful film, but it won’t change your perspective, a key reason to this film’s success. If anything, it presents ideas worthy of self-reflect, and is a great primer course for the only real quest in yoga: the journey.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The Flick

How hard can a flick that proudly sports the WWE logo and features wrestling superstar John Cena rock?  Pretty darn hard.  Going into 12 Rounds I expected a smoldering pile of poo, but to my surprise the flick held my interest, was a lot of fun, and introduced me to a new action hero. 

Cena plays Danny Fisher, a New Orleans police officer that chases down an arms dealer Miles Jackson (Aidan Gillen) on foot (said arms dealer is in a BMW) and brings him to justice.  Only the arms dealer’s girlfriend is killed during the pursuit, an unfortunate accident that makes him extremely mad.  One year later Miles escapes and pulls Danny into a dangerous game of cat and mouse that uses the streets of New Orleans as its game-board.  Danny must complete 12 Rounds of death defying tasks if he ever wants to see the love of his life again. 

If your into explosions, and running, lots and lots of running, then it doesn’t get much better than this Michael Bay influenced bombfest.  Cena and Gillen inflict more damage on the city of New Orleans than hurricane Katrina did but it’s all in the name of good fun.  Director Renny Harlin provides viewers of his film with a pretty impressive blanket of dust, smoke, and fire.  I was impressed with the way the director stitched together all the action sequences. But it was Gillen that really sold the flick.  He was perfect as the flicks villain and while the rest of the cast was strong he outshines all of them.  Cena was pretty good as the super cop and I’m actually stoked to see where he goes from here.  

Overall, 12 Rounds was a fun ride.  It’s not going to win an Oscar but it is definitely a killer film.

The Blu-ray

Audio/Visual – This is an awesome blu-ray.  The flick looked spectacular on on my HD TV, the colors are brilliant and the sound is design is solid.  The 5.1 mix is clean and provides a really amazing experience for anyone watching it on a home theatre system.

Special Features

Disc 1

Theatrical/Unrated – There are two different versions of 12 Rounds on this disc, the theatrical cut, and the unrated extreme cut, which is supposed to be more extreme but truthfully wasn’t all that different from the theatrical cut except for a little foul language and maybe a little more smoke.  

2 Alternate Endings with Optional Commentaries – I’m thankful these alternate endings are in fact alternate because neither of them are quite as cool as the one that made it into the flick.  The commentaries were decent but not really necessary.

Streetcar Crossing: Film with Caution – This is a pretty cool feature that details the difficulties of shooting the incredible street car sequence.  I had a great time with this feature, it’s totally worth multiple viewings.  

12 Bonus Round Featurettes – A group of awesome short featurettes that cover different behind the scenes aspects of the production.  

Never-Before-Cena Gag Reel – This is a pretty standard gag reel.  Not my favorite feature on this disc but I’m sure Cena fans will dig it.

A Crash Course – This is pretty cool feature that focuses on the stunts that Cena performs in the flick.  

Round and Round with Renny and John – An interview with director and actor.  Not my favorite feature but still entertaining.  

Besides these solid features there are also Viral Videos, Unrated Commentary  with Renny Harlin, Writer David Kunka, and John Cena.  

Disc 2

Digital Copy of 12 Rounds – If your into watching movies on your computer or on portable media players then this might be for you, but in my book this is a pretty useless feature.  

The Flick: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The Blu-ray: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Don’t forget to support Killer Film by clicking on the DVD covers of any of the above DVDs to purchase them from Amazon, because every DVD sold from this site sends a little coin our way and that coin helps us stay online.

Welcome to New Release Tuesday for June 30^th! For all of your ordering needs, just click on the cover art to go to Amazon.com!

Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li

This will be debatable but this new version of the classic Capcom game is no better, maybe worse in certain regards, than the early ’90s Jean Claude Van Damme film. Waste of cool characters (like Vega), silly plot, and direct-to-DVD level production values, this is a stinker. Also on Blu Ray. Jon says: Avoid Donny says:

Two Lovers

I sadly missed out on this when it came to the theaters, but what was billed as Joaquin Phoenix’s last film, got quickly over-shadowed by his new zoned out, long beard, sunglass wearing, rap star look. Also on Blu Ray. Jon says: Rent Donny says:

Tokyo!

Three stories all centered in Tokyo, Japan, all directed by three awesome directors: Michel Gondry, Bong Joon-ho, and Leos Carax., and missed by me again in the theaters. What’s wrong with me this year? I’m eager to check it out ASAP. Also on Blu Ray. Jon says: Rent Donny says:

12 Rounds

Did anybody see this WWE/John Cena action film? RT gave it a 27%, but I was hard pressed to find anyone who saw it. Also on Blu Ray. Jon says: Avoid Donny says:

The Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience

Yes, we are covering the Jonas Brothers right here on Killer Film. It’s for our teeny bopper readers…wait, we got those? Also on Blu Ray. Jon says: Avoid Donny says:

New to Blu

Do the Right Thing

Flawless

Well, June is over. Decent month, really good if you’re a Blu Ray or Criterion fan. Keep it here at Killer Film for all of our reviews and news on these discs and more!