10.13.2009

Reckoning day


Directed, produced and edited by Julian Gilbey, Reckoning Day was released on the 11th of September this year.

Fans of British gangland cinema will remember Rise of the Foot soldier, also directed by Gilbey-and if you liked that then let me assure you.....you won't like this.

With gritty scenes of relentless violence the film is a slap in the face for those not desensitized to needless gore-within the first few minutes of the film several people are shot in the face, some at point blank range. I am not particularly affected by violence, but I do find this level of violence accompanied with the cheesy one liners more irritating than shocking in the way I'm sure it was meant to be.

The opening scene shows scrolling blood coloured text over a gritty black and white backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. The brief textual introduction sets the feature up to be a cat-and-mouse type thriller and while there are chase-like themes underlying this film, these seem not to be between the characters and rather between the viewer and the storyline which is tediously hard to keep up with.

The cinematography throughout the film is nothing short of awful, and it seems as though the camera crew had only just discovered the zoom upon shooting, and decided to overuse it completely. Dizzying pans coupled with confusing angles disregarding the 180 degree rule leave you feeling entirely disorientated during the shootout scenes (which embody probably around 80% of the film).

The lead protagonist Echo Delta (or Ed as the script writers kindly shortened it to for those of us who had a little too-much on to remember a name over one syllable) is a greasy American surveillance operator who is frankly annoying. This badly acted role is the acting debut of Roman Karpynec and hopefully it will also be his last.

The script is shoddy and not thought out at all-one minute Echo Delta knows nothing of the drug 'Unseen Force' or it's effects, and literally 5-10 seconds later in the same conversation he is lecturing another character on the socioeconomic effects of the drug in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The overall quality of the script writing is summarised accurately by the bra-less nipple showing woman in the film who says to the villain "That sounds so rehearsed Charlie" when he says "never sell what you can't take back" after killing about 200 people for two syringes of the super drug.

A film using grainy picture quality to make it gritty is fine, but this film is shot in near static like conditions, and any hope that you will only have to endure this eye-straining experience fades with the opening scene as the strap line informs that this is no longer a flashback.

The flimsy back story which attempts to carry the violence vaguely mentions in passing something about a fictional drug with is X times strong than PCP or something. The writers were modest enough to name this drug after their production company 'Unseen force'-something which with any luck this film will remain.


Watch or Not? : Not

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