Death Grip Review

[Lionclaw]

I don't write many reviews but I was compelled to do one on Death Grip because I was really looking forward to seeing it.

*******MAJOR PLOT DEVICE SPOILED, ESPECIALLY IN THE 3rd PARAGRAPH******

Movie:

Honestly, the trailer deceived me. I expected an hour and thirty minute long martial arts extravaganza. The final product seemed to be an attempt to move away from the typical b action movie and actually develop a story and characters.

In short, Kenny (Eric Jacobus/The main character) checks his brother Mark, who's autistic, out of a care home. Shortly after Mark steals a coin that a cult is after eventually leading to his kidnapping. The rest of the movie mainly follows Kenny (with his crazy imagination) and his attempt to find Mark and the coin. Which isn't a bad thing....

Surprisingly, the acting is pretty much good all around with Nathan Hoskins' (Mark) performance standing out the most. What I liked about the movie was that although it has a serious undertone there are many instances of clever humor. Death Grip is definitely not an average martial arts movie which leads me to my main problem with the movie. About half the action which was nicely choreographed ended up being a total figment of Kenny's imagination. Instead of the expected perfectly crisp martial arts display present in most martial arts movies, the real fight scenes in the movie are purposely sloppy with many instances of the main character getting beat up (Which mirrors what probably would happen in real life). He is not a one man army as depicted in his head and in many martial arts movies in the past and probably future.

The movie seems to almost make fun of mainstream martial arts choreography just to sucker punch the audience. While this move can be praised for setting itself apart it is very ballsy move and I felt a bit cheated. The first couple of times I found out some fights were not real I found it funny, but as it continued It started getting to me. My feeling after watching Death Grip is a bit similar to my viewing of Next and realizing the whole movie didn't happen. While these choices are artistic it almost makes the "fights in his head" useless once one realizes they didn't happen. It just doesn't give you the same jolt of excitement and satisfaction as if they did occur in the movie's world.

In summation this is a very good attempt for an independent movie but the imagined fight scenes were a mood killer for me. Looking forward to future releases from the stunt people, though.

My Rating: 7/10

[DarthKato]

@Lionclaw

Good review, Lionclaw. Even though you didn't really seem to have liked this film, what you said about it kind of has sparked my intrest in seeing it. I am always trying to find films like this that stray from he norm. I might check it out.

[trueth]

This saddens me a bit.

[Lionclaw]

Originally Posted by DarthKato

@Lionclaw

Good review, Lionclaw. Even though you didn't really seem to have liked this film, what you said about it kind of has sparked my intrest in seeing it. I am always trying to find films like this that stray from he norm. I might check it out.

That reminds me, I forgot to rate it, lol. I did like it...just not as much as I thought I would judging from the trailers and clips.

[stuntpeople]

Thanks for the review, and I get what you're saying. We basically did the Sherlock Holmes thing, where the main character imagines the fight, except in our case we have him screw up, rather than be a superhero. People generally find all these moments funny and interesting, playing on their expectations like a magic trick, but not everyone's into magic. To our credit, the movie's realistic, but also, not everyone likes that. That's okay, I took a risk in doing it, since it's never really been done, so it's out there now. Hope you'll all still see it, maybe you'll be into it. You can get the DVD at http://stuntpeoplestore.bigcartel.com/.

Thanks again!
Eric

[odioustrident]

Haven't seen it yet.. but you definitely put some fresh knife choreography on the screen.

[One Armed Boxer]

Interesting review, I'm still awaiting on the arrival of mine. To be honest though I wish you'd put a big huge SPOILER warning before this line you wrote -

About half the action which was nicely choreographed ended up being a total figment of Kenny's imagination. Instead of the expected perfectly crisp martial arts display present in most martial arts movies, the real fight scenes in the movie are purposely sloppy with many instances of the main character getting beat up

This is clearly a daring choice of Eric and the gang, and I wish I could go into it not knowing about this aspect, but there's no chance of that now.

However it doesn't put me off at all, the plot device has been used before. In fact in one of my favorite movies (all be it in the completely different genre of wuxia), 'Hero', most of the highlight fights are in fact fantasy....Jet Li vs Donnie Yen, Jet Li vs Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Jet Li versus Maggie Cheung, Maggie Cheung vs Zhang Ziyi....but the fact that they're not real does nothing to diminish the power and beauty of them.

I'll be looking forward to see how the technique is used in 'Death Grip'....hopefully very soon!

[Lionclaw]

Originally Posted by One Armed Boxer

Interesting review, I'm still awaiting on the arrival of mine. To be honest though I wish you'd put a big huge SPOILER warning before this line you wrote -



This is clearly a daring choice of Eric and the gang, and I wish I could go into it not knowing about this aspect, but there's no chance of that now.

However it doesn't put me off at all, the plot device has been used before. In fact in one of my favorite movies (all be it in the completely different genre of wuxia), 'Hero', most of the highlight fights are in fact fantasy....Jet Li vs Donnie Yen, Jet Li vs Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Jet Li versus Maggie Cheung, Maggie Cheung vs Zhang Ziyi....but the fact that they're not real does nothing to diminish the power and beauty of them.

I'll be looking forward to see how the technique is used in 'Death Grip'....hopefully very soon!

Im truly sorry for possibly ruining your movie experience. I thought "some spoilers" was a warning enough. But, now that you mention it Hero was slightly similar but the execution and artistic fashion made me appreciate the take on fights. Or maybe its the fact that Jet lied a lot and you don't know for sure what exactly happened. Death Grip is still worth the watch. I'll add some better spoilers because I might lessen the impact of the cleverly placed humor.

[stuntpeople]

I'm certain you'll still be able to enjoy it, even knowing that the dreaming sequences, or "Kenny Vision", exist in the movie, because we don't use them all the time, and it's not obvious when we do. It's not just some gag. Kenny's not daydreaming wondering, "If I use this martial art move against this style, then this will happen." The dream sequences pose bigger questions, like "If you're fighting 15 dumb, thuggish cult members, how do you win?". The solution is an obvious one that I've only seen once before. Bits of game theory or public choice theory, make their way into one of the fight scenes.

So if you're watching the film expecting Ong Bak 4 (keep in mind this movie has six major fight setups, here's one), and not expecting story or character growth, the dreams might bug you. If you watch it for the characters and story arc AND action, and allow yourself get immersed in an action film, the fights will fulfill, as will the story. There's even an entire hidden plotline. I talk about it in the commentary, if you care. I'll happily supplement hints via email.

Anyone here can get their money back if they don't like the movie. I just ask you to return the DVD or BD and I'll give a full refund. That's my guarantee.

[odioustrident]

Originally Posted by stuntpeople

here's one)

Holy shit! To be honest... years back I never thought you guys would become this professional . The cuts, angles and exchanges all come together as a cohesive presentation. Great work.