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March 3, 2019

Movie Review: "Death Kiss" (2017; Millman Productions/Mosquito Entertainment/Uncorked Entertainment)



…”…I’m just a bill…yes, I’m only a bill…and someday I’m gonna be a law-w-w-w…oh, I hope and pray that I will, but today I am still…just a bill…”…

…no secret that in order to make for a good exploitation film…and we’re focusing on a pretty wide window, here…from the thrifty ‘30’s, to today’s torrid toddies…the classic exploitation film…well, it just has to have something to exploit, right?? A gimmick, for lack of a better word. And over the almost 100-year span of cult film history, gimmicky exploitation films have come and gone…the less enduring gimmicks, fading as surely as a film fades to black, but permanently (…hey, I’m looking at you, ‘Terror of Tiny Town’, ‘Zaat’ and ‘Lambada, the Forbidden Dance’, just to name a scant few of the come, gone and went’s)…

…however, it also stands to reason, with history having often dictated…given a well-written rendering, some dynamically memorable visuals & direction…not to mention, some accompanying performances to play alongside…well, that lil’ ol’ exploitation gimmick may well unexpectedly find itself nurtured and transmogrified into a genre…proudly and shamelessly rearing it’s muck-crusted visage into the sun…or rather onto the flickering screen of countless anytown cinematic cathedrals, indoor and outdoor…again, and again, and again…

…now, we could spend ages here, b’wees ‘n’ goils, listing and covering an endless string of cult film genres (…and truth be known, I almost did, in my own imitable, albeit exhausting fashion…uh, can you say ‘rewrite’??), from dusty grungy biker flicks, to the sex-crazed, catfight-instilling antics of women behind bars…from the far-northern offerings of Canuxploitation (…that’s Canada, to you and me), to the deep-southern reaches of ozploitation (…oh, those Aussies), and as far easterly as the home of the giallo, the spaghetti western, and the Nazi camp nasties…all of this and more, as seen from the countless steamy, musky-smelling aisles of the pitch-black inner-city grindhouse theater balconies…as well as the equally steamy and musky, albeit cramped confines of a free-wheein’ convertible at the local drive-in…

…interestingly enough, some of the more obscure and lesser exploitation genres were based directly upon specific things, specific places…even specific people and characters. Which might explain why in the ‘spaghetti western’ genre, we had countless, though mostly un-associated films on the Django and Sartana characters. Chum-chompin’ shark-spoitation, anyone?? Down home, red-necked, okie single-toothed, Kentucky- fried Hixsploitation?? Can’t get enough perversely sacrilegious, virginal deflowering Nunspoitation, right?? And leave us not forget about ass-kickin’, chop-socky Bruce-sploitation, or even Travolta-sploitation (…the single movie of which I covered herein, some years ago, with “John Travolto... da un insolito destino”…also known as “The Face with Two Left Feet”). Or how about…well, this
…Anna, a young and attractive single mother, having abruptly moved from the deliberating scourges of inner-city violence, to the seemingly peaceful, safe and reassuring country outskirts with her invalid, wheelchair-restricted daughter, is nonetheless made uneasy and cautious, when she receives mysterious packages in the mail, containing very large sums of money. As the packages continue to arrive, with no sign of who and where they might be from, Ana becomes gradually aware of an ever-vigilant and equally mysterious stranger in the distance, keenly watching the both of them with a certain elating and seemingly protective satisfaction…
…unbeknownst to Ana, this mysterious stranger…when he’s not holding a dedicated vigilance over her and her daughter…has ruthlessly staked a bloody and vengeful claim of private justice over the criminals, thieves and drug dealers in the neighboring city area, violently gunning them down in retributive cold blood, and taking their money. In the midst of relentlessly wading through a seemingly never-ending siege of slimy and grungy criminal element…with guns a-blazing, this urban terminator, slowly but surely, makes his way through the city’s crime-driven ranks, to the one nefarious perpetrator who appears to be in the center of it all…and there’s a very just, harrowing and specific reason why he’s seeking him out, at all costs…
…now, setting the wayback machine to…say, about early-to-mid ‘80’s, or so…specifically, back in Cannon Pictures reigning golden era of filmmaking…this budding reviewer and longtime fan of the great Charles Bronson, at the time, was made flashing privy via televised interviews, pictures and printed celebrity rags, of the incredible resemblance of Mr. Bronson, and his striking lookalike stand-in performer. In recalling, it was absolutely uncanny, the resemblance between the two…but for the time, the startling revelation was alas, a fleeting moment, and in all honesty, this cult film fan didn’t get a name, to match the lookalike face…

…some 35 years later…specifically, a couple years ago…along came well under the radar, a trite albeit competent and engaging lil’ western-themed thriller, called “From Hell to the Wild West”. A notable, though negligible lil’ sliver of an exploitation flick, the clever storyline of which speculates what actually happened to Jack the Ripper, once his bloody and murderous reign of terror and death in the dark and murky alleys of Whitechapel, abruptly and mysteriously ceased in the late 1800’s. However, given the film’s poster art and home video cover art, it wasn’t as much the interesting storyline that stood out…but the striking-in-appearance casting of Hungarian-hailed actor Robert Kovacs Bronzi, as a determined old west lawman, on the hunt for a ruthless and bloodthirsty serial killer, plaguing the local prairie townships…

…so now, we have a name to a rather strikingly familiar face…
…2018’s ”Death Kiss”…Robert Bronzi’s second feature film, and the second of four films to date…despite not having any solid, or even outright original substance or storyline, save for the typical and stereotyped ‘cold-hearted vigilante’ movie genre standards, similar to those set forth by the likes and dynamics of late great Charles Bronson, back in his ‘Death Wish’ days…surprisingly enough, under the able direction of up & coming schlock director Rene Perez, plays out as sort of an offshoot of a Paul Kersey-like character’s nocturnal and lawless homicidal mayhem…kinda like ol’ Paul was in the midst of one of his typically ‘blow ‘em away with extreme prejudice’ vigilante rampages, when something ‘offscreen’ went drastically awry enough to instill the need for taking care of this lil’ sideline thing, before getting back to business…with we, the viewers, being fortunate witness privy to that abrupt detour…
…really, in melding movie fantasy with reality…when the final ‘Death Wish’ film credits scrolled down the screen, surely you would think that Paul Kersey himself couldn’t have taken a breather from his bang-bang, sole justice driven shenanigans…impatiently waiting until that next sequel flashed it’s opening title card?? (…uh, I think not…clearly, the man’s got better things to do, if you know what I mean…with the lasting hint of righteously rampant blood spray, followed by a flashing whiff of bullet cartridge sulfur)…
…but despite the generic ‘Death Wish’ like, cookie-cutter action and generic storyline clock works offered herein…well dammit, there’s just no looking away from how damn freaking ‘is it real or is it Memorex/not the Beatles, but an incredible simulation’ striking it is, in seeing ‘Charles Bronson’ back on the screen, even though it’s not actually ‘the man’ himself. In effect, actor Robert Bronzi has offered up a clearly exploitative opportunist gimmick, but at the same time, it seems a loving and respectful tribute to an urban action star, long missed by fans…

…rounding out the cast…Eva Hamilton is quite vulnerable, relatable and  sympathetic as Anna, a perceptive waif of a gal who not only instigated an abrupt move to the serene countryside, in a desperate effort to get away from the violently cold, cruel and heartless city streets, as well as provide a much more stable and loving family life for her daughter…a tragic victim of those cold and hardened streets…but also in hopes of finding penance for the tainted life she once led…a life that has instilled overwhelming guilt in Ana’s heart, in believing that the mistakes and misgivings of this past life were indirectly responsible for her daughter’s invalid condition…
…cast in the role of an angst radio talk show host (…in a sort of slightly ironic years-later performance which indirectly reflects back to his brother Alec’s supporting character play, in 1988’s ‘Talk Radio’), Daniel Baldwin chimes in, playing a sort of supportive over-the-air mouthpiece to Robert Bronzi’s/the stranger’s deadly nocturnal vengeance, deftly putting into words what violently drastic actions this righteously lawless ‘champion’ is engaging in, and the effects of those actions on the city populous...and truth be known, he may well have a personally informed connection with this dark instigator of private justice…
…Richard Tyson…one of the busiest, albeit very underappreciated character actors working today (…good gawd!! Is that…it that actually Buddy Revell, from 1987’s “Three o’clock High”??)…completes this associated circle of characters, retching out a colorful, though typically cold, hard criminal type…perverse and sadistic…who finds himself the invariable target of an equally cold and hard vigilante, without knowing in the onset why he’s being targeted…but of course, if there’s any truth or routine to films of this particular genre…well, he will know, and he will pay…
…”Death Kiss” may well be short on substance, but it makes up for it’s stunted fervor, in favor of some nicely standard character play, as well as an interestingly woven, albeit threadbare storyline, which does attain a moderately satisfying revelation in the end. It’s a low-rent ‘cliff notes’ variation on the old Charles Bronson ‘Death Wish’ motif, that’s engaging enough to warrant more than just a mere curious look, and…yeah, we’re beating a dead horse here…but damn, there’s just no getting over that freakin’ resemblance of Bronzi’s character…over and above merely being played by the numbers, using the exploitative Bronson template…
might there be a respectable amount of sustainable life and staying power in this gimmick?? Hey, Bronson-sploitation, anyone?? Eh, could be…ah hell, why not, right??.....


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