Zero Tolerance (2015)

 

Zero Tolerance (2015)- * *1\2

Directed by: Kaos

Starring: Kane Kosugi, Nina Paosut, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Dustin Nguygen, Scott Adkins, and Gary Daniels 

When a girl named Angel (Paosut) turns up dead, Bangkok cop Peter (Boonthanakit) travels to Ho Chi Minh city to track down her estranged father, Johnny (Nguyen). Together, the two men go back to Bangkok and proceed to search the seedier areas of the city in search of answers as to Angel's death. Along the way, characters such as Steven (Adkins), Sammy (Daniels), and Kane (Kosugi) come and go, but will the mystery of Angel's death be revealed?



Well, we had to see this movie for the cast alone. While Adkins and Daniels don't share any scenes together (and there's a good reason for that that we will get to in a moment), they are both here, as is Kane Kosugi, action stalwarts all. And while the film is reasonably professionally directed and shot (if some scenes are underlit as many modern films tend to be), it loses focus and direction a lot of the time. It also could have used a heck of a lot more action, but that makes sense, because...



If the presence of Scott Adkins in the film seems a bit out of joint, there's a very good reason for that. Apparently, Zero Tolerance started life as a film called Angels (2012), and you can still see this version if you want. It was a passion project for director Kaos, and more of a drama. Then some of the money people told him that this Angels movie, as good as it may be, would be a tough sell in the film marketplace. So footage with Adkins was integrated into the pre-existing Angels film, and a total re-edit was done, and in the end a completely new film was fashioned called Zero Tolerance.

Just exactly why this movie is called Zero Tolerance, we don't exactly know, especially because few movies can compete with the awesome Robert Patrick Zero Tolerance (1994). So, if you name your movie after a superior film, you're just asking to look worse by comparison. Nevertheless, there are some bright spots along the way, such as Peter's young tot of a son proclaiming, "the lead singer of our band sucks!", the classic warehouse deal gone wrong featuring some of the Adkins footage, and Gary Daniels's wild Hawaiian shirt. This seems especially at odds with the intense dramatic performance Daniels gives, which ranks highly as one of his best acting moments ever. Yes, we would have liked some classic Daniels fights, but at least he got to shine in the drama department.

Director Wych Kaosayananda, alternately known as Wych Kaos, or, in the case of his Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever (2002), simply just Kaos, has been working with fan favorite Mark Dacascos a lot lately, in such films as The Driver (2019) and, of course, One Night in Bangkok (2020), which also features Kane Kosugi. Despite the...interesting...history regarding Zero Tolerance's editing process, he manages to turn in something watchable. But that's all. It's not great and there are a lot of problems here. So, in the end, it's probably a one-time watch for Adkins and Daniels fans.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Also check out a write-up by our buddies The Video Vacuum and  DTVC!

Eliminators (2016)

 

Eliminators (2016)- * * *

Directed by: James Nunn

Starring: Scott Adkins, Wade Barrett and Lily Stubbs

A man known only as Thomas (Adkins) is living somewhere in the suburbs of London with his young daughter Carly (Stubbs). Thomas works as a security guard and has a solid middle-class life. All that is interrupted, however, when a gang of none-too-bright toughs break into his house, assuming he has some hidden drugs stashed away somewhere. It turns out that the no-goodniks got the wrong address - in more ways than one. Thomas's combat skills come out and the baddies are done for.


The story makes the national media, Thomas is arrested, and Carly goes into state care. It's revealed that Thomas is a former US Fed who was put in the witness protection program. Now that the baddies know who he is, they send "Europe's most ruthless assassin" after Thomas, a sinister man named Bishop (is it Stu Bennett or Wade Barrett? No one really knows for sure). Now, with the police, the gangster baddies, and seemingly all of London against him, can Thomas use the skills he developed in his former life to get his current life back? He has to find Carly before it's too late, but will he?


Not to be confused with the Eliminators from 1986, this Eliminators sees fan favorite Scott Adkins reunite with director James Nunn after Green Street 3 (2013). Based on this track record of their work history together, it shows that Nunn knows what Adkins fans will like and expect, and he delivers that. Eliminators is well-acted, well-shot (if a bit dark at times), and the action scenes are high-quality stuff. Movie highlights include the two brawls between Adkins and Bennett/Barrett, and the fights and chases in London at night. Good usage is made of some UK locations.

As is typical for action films, the hero has both a daughter he has to save and a hidden past. Adkins makes both of those storylines work well. Plus, it's an improvement over Legacy of Lies (2020) and Abduction (2019), which aren't really at the top of the Adkins must-see list. While Adkins looks somewhat like Ben Affleck this time around, the three main characters - Adkins, Barrett, and the cop on their trail - all look very similar. They have similarly-shaped heads and similar hair. If Adkins had more beard stubble, they could almost be triplets.


The drama in between the action scenes provides the emotion for the film, and productions from the UK seem to excel at this sort of thing. Of course, this is contrasted by the wrestling moves of Barrett, which are quite evident in his fighting style. Director Nunn went on to direct more wrestlers in other WWE Studios productions such as The Marine 5: Battleground (2017) and The Marine 6: Close Quarters (2018). How many installments are there in The Marine series? No one may ever know...


In the end, while Eliminators becomes a bit more standard around the hour mark, we would still recommend it, especially to Adkins fans. While certainly not perfect, it delivers the goods in a lot of ways and provides some good, solid DTV entertainment for 95 minutes.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Also check out a write-up from our buddy, DTVC!