20140423: Drama Review--The Mark 2 Redemption

The Mark 2: Redemption

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, NR, 94 minutes, drama, action, thriller.
2. IMDB: 5.9/10.0 from 98 audience ratings.  Spoken word is English.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 'No scores yet.'
4. Netflix: 3.4/5.0 from 95,583 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: James Chankin.
6. Starring: Craig Sheffer as Chad Turner, Eric Roberts as Cooper, Sonia Couling as Dao, Johann Helf as Warren, Gary Daniels as Joseph Pike, Ivan Kamaras as Phillip Turk, Sahajak Boonthanakit as Dr. Siriwat.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The sequel takes up immediately after the point where the first film ended.


2. Pike got free and continues to look for Chad at the behest of Phillip Turk.  Turk is emerging as a world leader.  Cooper has been imprisoned by Pike, and Cooper unexpectedly gives his captors a strong clue (Chad's brother's last location) to Chad's current whereabouts.


3. Pike's forces close in on Chad as he prepares to depart his brother's last home. Chad finds a way to locate Dr Siriwat, who was a leader in the chip program.  He tries for a meeting, but is intercepted by Pike's men.


4. Do they find Dao's sister alive?  Does Chad survive having the chip inside him?  Will Turk get control of Chad?  Can anyone undermine Pike's pursuit?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: The sequel was slightly (but not significantly) better than the original.
2. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 6/10 The camera work was better than in the first film. There were fewer minutes of shaky camera, for instance. The flashbacks were unpleasant to look at from the choice of filtering techniques.


2. Sound: 6/10 The voices of many of the actors seemed hollow.  The incidental music was a bit florid for my taste.


3. Acting: 3/10 Wretched.  The male leads, Sheffer, Gary Daniels, Ivan Kamaras, were all terrible.  Eric Roberts was better, but only in a small part.  Sonia Couling and Johann Helf were also somewhat better.  Most of the actors in the bit parts were quite bad.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 The dialog was repeatedly awkward where Christian messages were forcibly injected.  As a tool to convince people of a point of view, I think this movie was a failure.  As with the first film, there was not much story stretched over 94 minutes. Some of the chase scenes looked like very poor imitations of the fourth Bourne film. The ending more than hinted at a sequel.


5. SFX: 5/10 Neither convincing nor horribly bad; just so-so.