Name: April Rain (2014)
IMDb: link to IMDb
Genres: Action Country of Origin: USA.
Cast: Ming-Na Wen as Hillary Miller, Luke Goss as John Sikes, Vincent Spano as Ron Thomas, Ally Walker as Linda Sikes, Deniz Akdeniz as Tariq Akbar, Jake Lawson as Yousef, Ryan Guzman as Alex Stone, Brittany Beery as Katrina, Teresa de Fonte as Lisa, Miranda Frigon as Rita, Anne Marie Howard as Reporter, Dragos Beldie as Sammy, Jewel Christian as Agnus, Adrian L. Tudor as Mikhail Kotov, Andrew Keegan as Nick Kotov, Doug Savant as Ken Singleton.
Written and directed by: Luciano Saber.
The initial tableaux: A transaction between crime groups goes bad quickly. One group kills the other. There are repercussions, like disposing of a body, and sniffing out any government spies. The local cops show up for a moment, and are eliminated. One undercover agent calls for help, and we meet more of the local SIU (Special Investigations Unit) team. The emphasis shifts from mob crime to terrorism.
Delineation of conflicts: Terrorists (foreign and domestic) want to kill people and blow things up. The SIU tries to stop this. Local police are clueless and largely not involved. Wives are enraged with their cheating husbands. Tariq has a beautiful wife, a good job, a nice house, and local friends, but he hears the call of terror, which is clearly more important to him than all the other factors put together.
Resolution: Lots of people get killed, which simplifies the game going forward somewhat. This film ended because the credits showed up. That is, it looked like a sequel was expected to be made.
One line summary: SIU versus motley crew of terrorists.
Statistics:
a. Cinematography: 8/10 Clear images, well-shot, well-lit.
b. Sound: 4/10 I could hear the actors speak their lines, but sometimes the voices were hollow or muffled. Background foley and music are well balanced in terms of leveling. The rousing, positive music played during one of the climactic shoot outs while people were dying left and right was jarring.
c. Acting: 2/10 I've seen Luke Goss, Vincent Spano, Ming-Na Wen, Ally Walker, and Miranda Frigon in much better properties. Most of the other less well-known actors were pretty bad, but Deniz Akdeniz and Jake Lawson was incredibly bad, as in never should have been hired.
d. Screenplay: 3/10 The slow motion chase on Vespas was just ridiculous. Many of the conversations made little to no sense. The shifts from scenes featuring actors to those including non-actors adds some little needed chaos. The film did not come to an end. It just stopped narration; then the credits rolled.
Final rating: 4/10
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