Touches You

Blistering performances.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Isaac Florentine + Scott Adkins is a must watch for me. Undisputed 3 is still to this day in my top 3 (easily) best martial arts movie and the Ninja Movies (also starring Adkins) are pretty cool. The guy knows how to film great action and honestly here i must say the hand to hand combat is pretty sharp once again.The little problem with this one is that there seem to be less hand to hand and focus more on gunfights. Those gunfights are not bad at all but there pretty cliché of the 80/90s type, lots and lots of ammunition wasted and this is where it kinda lost a bit of appeal to me. After having watch the excellent JOHN WICK with Keanue Reeves, i don't know if i can go back and watch tons of gunshots hitting walls and everything but the enemies. The protagonist is supposed to be some kind of elite soldier, but he does miss a lot and some shots that you would expect a marksman to hit. I can buy the thugs missing lots of bullets, but him? When it comes to acting and story, well the story is okay, it serve its purpose. Its nothing off the hook, very simple but effective, and as for the acting, its nothing stellar but it didn't bother me much. Its important to note i watched a french dubbed version and the dubbing was pretty ordinary, so i don't want to put too much emphasis on that on my review.So in the end, was i entertained? Yes. Would i had like more hand to hand combat? Yes, cause the ones in it, no matter if they where justified or not, where very cool. But overall the movie was nice enough, i wasn't bored, i liked the characters overall. I noticed some flaws yes but its a B action movie, so well? What else to expect.I still have lots of "new" Scott Adkins movie to watch yet, being in Quebec and watching mostly my movies in french does not make it easy so i will give this one a plus for the effort of being released here on blu ray in french. But i do hope much better for the next Boyka movie for sure.

Wow, this movies is like a roller-coaster ride. Not in a very good way, unfortunately. The action is varying to say the least. Some of it, mostly the fighting, is pretty cool. Not shaky, you see whats going on, decent choreography, pretty cool at times. Not overly edited, either.But the gunfight are not that good. Some of the shoot-outs just keep going, on and on, with no progress. The same shots recycled several times. Goes on for several minutes (felt like) then they change spots, and repeats the same thing. That's pretty dull. It reminded me of how in a video game, if you're in a gunfight, and your objective is to reach a checkpoint or something, but as long as you don't go forward, the gunfight just keeps happening, with no real progress. Get it? No, yes? Anyway, that's the feeling I got from some of the action scenes.However, super generic gunfights are followed by pretty awesome fights. (well, one or two times, at least one!) My guess is that the second unit director made some of the filler gunfights, and then the main director made the better ones. (Or maybe the other way around?)Close Range has a couple of sweet moments, the first action scene is probably maybe the best one, but mostly it's just very generic. Too much filler, dammit.

I'll start by saying that my 6 rating is not for anything lackluster in this movie. I just don't dole out high ratings for anything that isn't stellar, and action movies such as this rarely have all the pieces in place that would leave a person (me) emotionally blown away. An 8 would have me thinking about it for days and wanting to talk about it with everyone I know. A 9 would put me on my knees and deprive of me of sleep as it invaded my dreams. But this movie had me engaged and entertained from beginning to end. The opening is directed finely and trapped me right in. The rest isn't quite as artistic, but who cares, its action action action.This movie is precisely what you would expect and is a cut above your average action movie, on par with Jason Stratham films and comparable to his best.It is non-stop action and the hero is pretty good. As some others have commented, the acting is questionable, but I say it is good enough and my disbelief was thoroughly suspended throughout the movie (except maybe once for a second). Truth be told, there isn't time to think about it because the action is non stop. The Jujitsu, or whatever they use in the hand-to-hand fight scenes is pretty darn cool. The fight choreographers and stunt men put on a wicked show! Several times, I was thinking, "wow, that was a cool sequence." Mind you I watch MMA, not WWF or whatever they are calling All-Star Wrestling these days (and not to discredit myself, but I have been impressed by sequences on WWF where I have to wonder how many hours they practiced together to pull those moves off.) (Mickey Rourke - that was a 7 in my book, but not because of the "fighting" - never mind) Sorry for the multi-level digression. Yes, the fights are great. Dare I say Vikings and Game of Thrones might like these guys on their team.On the gun nerd front, I was elated that not everyone walked around holding their gun with their finger on the trigger (one of the sacred three gun safety rules). You see, there is plenty of time to put your finger on the trigger when the target is in sight. Next time watch where the soldiers have their fingers on CNN coverage (not that I watch that channel). Triple thumbs up on that. I should change my rating to 7 just because of that. On the other hand, our hero expends ammo unwisely. He is just blasting away. More of a pro would not pop off a round without a reasonable chance of connecting.I didn't hate the score like some others did. It wasn't Mozart or Eric Clapton (I still can't believe he said Prince was better than he), but I thought appropriate and not in any way distracting.If you like Jason Stratham movies, you will like this like I did.

"High Voltage" director Isaac Florentine's straightforward, formulaic, B-movie melodrama "Close Ranger" qualifies as a nimble, fast-paced thriller that displays Scott Adkins' enviable martial arts skills. Our resilient hero contends against all odds, with a murderous Mexican drug cartel. Adkins served as executive producer of this predictable but exciting low-budget, nonsense brimming with stock stereotypes. Florentine and Adkins stage several adrenaline-laced shootouts, close-quarters combat encounters, and vehicle chases. Of course, you've seen all this done before, but it is carried out this time with a modicum of style. Incidentally, the indestructible Adkins hero imitates Rambo in his skillful ability to outwit his adversaries, and he shows no compunctions against killing his enemies even when they don't have guns in their fists. At the same time, Adkins' hero is anti-heroic because he is a fugitive. Nick Chinlund makes a corrupt, nasty sheriff, and Tony Perez earns out wrath as a slimy villain. Tal Lazar's dynamic cinematography is always in the right place to capture the gritty action. "Close Range" boils down to a search for a flash drive that means everything to the chief villain."Close Range" unfolds with this preface: "In ancient Japan, a soldier was called a Samurai, meaning 'the one who serves.' When the Samurai became masterless, he was called a Ronin. Some Ronin became wanders helping those in need. Others became outlaws. A few were both." The mayhem erupts in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Colton MacReady (Scott Adkins of "Expendables 2") ambles into an official building that bears the seal Poder Judicial De La Federacion. Armed with nothing more than a small knife that masquerades as a belt buckle, he kills at least ten Mexicans, stabbing them to death, and then rescues a girl, Hailey (Madison Lawlor of "Brush with Danger"), who had been taken hostage but not harmed by her captors. Cartel leader Fernando Gracia (Tony Perez of "Gang Related") has the underling who fled the fracas to warn him about it killed not only because he abandoned his compadres but also because he lost a flash drive on the key chain. After she escapes captivity, Hailey wants to know why they took her hostage. Colton suggests that Hailey ask her step-dad as they cruise back into Santa Cruz County, Arizona. Later, we learn from a cartel lieutenant that Hailey was their "go-between in Nogales." When Walt Reynolds (Jake La Botz of "Rambo") supplied them with narcotics at his farm, one of the cartel henchmen thought the package felt light so they abducted the girl. They took the girl. Meantime, Gracia contacts the man on his payroll in Arizona, Sheriff Jasper Calloway (Nick Chinlund of "Eraser"), who feels reluctant about working for Garcia. Calloway identifies Colton as Walt's wife's brother. "He was a soldier," Calloway tells Garcia, "but nobody has seen him around for a few years. He's been on the run." Garcia vows to deliver justice for the deaths of his hombres and his gang, known as The Bulletproof Cartel, races across the border in their ominous black SUVs at Nogales. No sooner has Colton brought Hailey back home to his sister, Angela (Caitlin Keats of "Kiss of the Damned"), than Angela's scumbag husband arrives and rants about Colton's daredevil heroics and explains that he had the situation under control. Consequently, scenarists Chad Law and Shane Dax Taylor lay out all the narrative essentials in the first 2o minutes of this concise 85-minute epic about its hero, villains, henchmen, and their objectives. Forty-eight minutes into the action, we learn that Garcia wants the flash drive that Victor wore looped around his neck because it contains everything, names, bank accounts, stash house locations, etc. Indeed, the foolish Garcia made the mistake of putting all his private information about his drug operations on that flash drive. Calloway and his deputies arrive at Reynolds' farm, but his deputies are unable to arrest Colton. Later, when they try again, the Cartel has arrived. Garcia has shot Walt in the head at point blank range, and his henchmen have iced both ignorant deputies who didn't know that Calloway was on Garcia's payroll. Naturally, Garcia's men are no match for Colton who can out gun them, out kick them, etc. Eventually, Colton rescues Angela and Hailey and the three of them hole up in their ranch house while the Mexican lay siege to the place. No matter how many gunmen that Garcia sends into the ranch house, they cannot cut down Colton. The finale between Colton and Calloway has a touch of Sergio Leone with all its close-ups and dramatic suspense.Although it amounts to a low-budget shoot'em up saga, "Close Range" remains sufficiently invigorating to maintain attention throughout its 85 minutes. The biggest complaint is its hopeless adherence conventions. Character blast away with a hopeless number of bullets and hit their targets. The hero pours lead into a doorway when he should be firing at either side of the door where his assailants await him. The choreography of the personal combat fights is above-average. Florentine doesn't wear out his welcome, and "Close Range" is good to the last shot despite its shortcomings. Fans of the genre should be disappointed.