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Reviews
Guardian of the Realm (2004)
Great low-budget action film that does a lot of things better than the studios
Guardian is what I always looked and hoped for when I was as kid - a buried treasure, a hidden surprise. Remember when you took a chance and rented those films with the questionable covers, and nine out of ten times, you got burned? Not this time. Guardian is obviously a labor of love, by people who love the movies, and that love, passion, and fun shows in every frame of it.
Yes, the flick is low-budget, but it does amazing things with what amounts to pro-sumer equipment that most anyone has access to. Young filmmakers, take note: you will spend many viewings trying to figure out how they did some of this stuff. Most films operating at this level are simple dramas with talking heads, or make no attempt at large-scale stunts or effects, but not the guys who made this flick - they went nuts. Check out the references to Johnny Quest, Anime, Mad Max, Chop-Socky, Ghostbusters, South Park, and if you look very closely, even Blade Runner!
Never mind all of that, however - just enjoy the flick. Glen Levy is charming and aerodynamic, Tanya Dempsey gives a star-making performance and is one of the most beautiful actresses to come along in a long time, and Lana Piryan is dead-sexy, with an accent that makes you really not care if you get possessed by a demon or not. The rest of the supporting cast is either funny, handsome, or sexy, and the plot, although a bit derivative of other things, is very well constructed, and some of the dialogue is quite funny. There is a gag involving a bottle of ketchup that has to be seen to be believed.
Guardian may be the first low-budget, indie feature that I have seen try a "Hollywood" style approach to everything, instead of hedging its' bets every step of the way. Not perfect by any means, but the best "B" flick I've seen in a long time, and hopefully not the last feature that Ted Smith will make. "Stay sharp - like a razor."
Drive (1997)
Years ahead of its time, DRIVE beat Hollywood to the punch
This film showed, years ahead of the rest, that Hong Kong style action could be translated to the U.S. in a way that would prove to be very mainstream.
Originally completed in 1996, if the shortsighted distributors hadn't played filmmaker and cut up Wang's original version this might have been a solid theatrical hit in the U.S. and beaten RUSH HOUR, BLADE, THE MATRIX, and others to the screen by years. When you finally watch DRIVE, don't think it resembles these other films - they resemble IT.
Also, go back and check out Wang's GUYVER:DARK HERO and you'll see he's been preaching the Hong Kong gospel for a while. Then go check out THE POWER RANGERS MOVIE and see how much of GUYVER:DARK HERO they ripped off.
Admittedly, Wang draws much from his Hong Kong inspirations, so you might be tempted to say he ripped THEM off, when in fact he was translating and interpreting for a new audience. And in most cases, he's done it the best of anyone so far.