Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we continue this run of the "Triple B" series by taking a look at the next entry that came out in 1992. That movie is "Hard Hunted".
Now, I'm gonna give you guys the basics of everything I know about this movie. It was written and directed by Andy Sidaris, it's the seventh entry in his "Triple B" series", and I know that our two female stars of the film are reprising their roles from the previous movies.
And yeah, that's pretty much what I know about it. I don't know anything about the plot. But then again, I have a feeling that it's not gonna be much of a strong point, especially if the previous film, "Do or Die", was any indication, since that one hardly had a plot to begin with. Mind you, I really enjoyed "Do or Die", so this one might continue the trend of being a really stupid action flick that has the Andy Sidaris charm added to it.
Now I have no idea if this thing is gonna be as interesting as any of the previous movies were, but that's what I'm here to find out. So really, guys, I'm just gonna jump right into this one and see what this movie has in store for me. So without further do, ladies and gentlemen, it is time to kick back, relax, and check out "Hard Hunted".
11 minutes later
You guys can't hear this for obvious reasons, but this song here kinda sucks. I'm not sure how to describe it, per se, all I can say is that it just really kinda sucks.
17 minutes later
OK, I have a question here, and it's something that's been bothering me about these movies. Why do people insist that shooting a flying vehicle from your own moving vehicle is a good idea? I've seen this done at least a few times in these movies and it's just been bugging me because 9 times of 10, it doesn't fucking work. The only time that it *might* work is if they pulled a random bazooka of sorts out of their asses. I know it's probably a trivial point, and it's most likely been done in other action movies, but I still have to question the logic behind it, you know what I mean?
7 minutes later
Well, guys, if there's one thing that's been consistent about Shane Abilene, aside from his horribly wooden acting, is that the guy still can't shoot for shit. I really wonder why he was given such a big ass magnum if he can't shoot it properly? I'm really curious here.
10 minutes later
So our villain, Kane, who I'll talk about later in the review, just stated that he's reacquired his property, which is the jade Buddha statue, and will drop Donna from 3000 feet in the air after she was kidnapped by his goons. Moments later, we're shown that the jade statue is no longer in his possession, which lead to Donna knocking out the guard who held her at gunpoint, taking back the jade statue, and also pulled a grenade out of nowhere before jumping out of the plane she was in, which also allowed the plane to blow up into smithereens. I think it's safe that Kane in this movie is incredibly retarded just by that one scene alone.
15 minutes later
OK, that's actually sorta cool. I've never seen someone take apart a gun like that and just put it back together. And considering that it was Donna, who may or may not have amnesia, the fact that she did it is really kinda impressive on her part.
3 minutes later
So wait a second here. So these two guys code names are Wile and Coyote. And they have a boat that has the word "ACME" written on it in bold letters. I'm...just speechless, guys, about how stupid that fucking sounds. And yet, for some reason, part of me believes that was meant to be intentional. So...props to them making an obvious reference obvious, I guess.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Hard Hunted". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Well, before I go more in depth about my thoughts on the movie, I'm gonna let you guys know now that this movie is honestly pretty dull. In fact, I'll even go so far as to admit that this is probably the weakest film I've seen from the "Triple B" series up to this point. It honestly is just not as interesting as the previous movies were. Evens films such as "Hard Ticket To Hawaii" and "Picasso Trigger" had a lot more going than this thing does. This movie is just kinda on the boring side of things.
I should probably talk more about this movie in depth and go into some of the problems that it has. I'll start with writing, because that's probably the biggest problem this movie suffers from the most. Now I will say, in terms of it being an Andy Sidaris film, this movie still has that charm to it. In which you have women and their big boobs, over-the-top action scenes, and you even have couple of long sex scenes here. All of that is there, and I would probably say that's all fine. However...I feel as if it dialed back it's ridiculousness a bit. Which is a stark contrast when compared to the previous film "Do or Die", which went all out on it's ridiculousness. This movie, though, felt like a tame version of that movie and it just kinda suffered because of it. Not only that, but the movie, as I've sorta mentioned already, feels really dull when compared to the previous movies because it just doesn't feel as interesting as the previous were.
Speaking of which, I want to talk about the plot for a little bit, because this movie's plot, on paper, sounds kinda interesting. So there's this jade Buddha statue that contains a trigger for a nuclear bomb, and one of the side agents named Mika ends up getting killed sometime after her cover is blown. Though before she's killed, she ends up getting the jade statue over to Donna and Nicole, which then leads to them escaping from a guy that tries to kill them with a helicopter. Then later on, Donna ends up getting kidnapped by Kane's thugs, because she's the one who has the jade statue, which then turns into a rescue mission to rescue Donna and either retrieve or destroy the trigger for the nuclear bomb. So there's some level of substance to be found here with it's story, however, the problem with this is that it's just not very interesting substance. I honesty kinda got bored around the last 20 minutes of the film or so because it seemed like it was just dragging itself out for a bit too long.
And that's another thing I wanted to comment on. The pacing in this movie is just not very good. Now granted, this has been sort of a problem with a couple of previous films from Andy Sidaris, but at least with those, they were still able to keep my interest, and the pacing issues there were minor at best. This thing, though, felt like it was over all the place. You had sex scenes which, if this were any other film that wasn't made by Andy Sidaris, I probably would've said something like they could've trimmed down these scenes and the pacing would've been slightly better. But the biggest pace breaker for me is the scene involving these two agents, who are nicknamed Wile and Coyote. I am not kidding you, guys, that is what they are called here. And they also have a boat which has the word ACME written on it. It's not only on their boat, but one of them is carrying a fucking SMG that also has the word ACME written in big letters, too! I shit you not, guys, that is the level of ridiculousness that this film goes for.
And what's sad about this is that it also disrupts the movie's pacing to a screeching halt. Basically, they were sent by Kane to take out Lucas and Edy, and surprise surprise, they failed miserably in a very cartoon-like fashion. And like I said, it's the one of the only bits goofiness that this movie goes for. There is still some cheesy lines here too, which adds a little bit more to the Sidaris charm. But sadly, it's not enough to save this movie. Because you had six movies of varying quality, and each one of those films has something in it that will make you want to keep watching them. This seventh movie, however, while it does have some fun moments, like I already mentioned, it feels really tame when compared to all of those movies. So yeah, the writing here is definitely a step down here. Which, for an action movie, will probably not matter very much to people who just want to see the action going on. But for a more serious story, it's just not as interesting at it could've been.
So now that I've said what I said about the writing. Let's get into the acting. And the first thing I need to talk about is the villain of the movie Kane. For those of you reading this for the first tine, Kane was the villain of the previous Andy Sidaris film "Do or Die". And he was also played by Mr. Miyagi's own Pat Morita. And he's back here, too. Well...sort of. See, for some reason, from between "Do or Die" to "Hard Hunted", Kane went from being an old Asian guy to a young Caucasian British guy. Don't ask me how that happened, I'm not an expert on the change of genetics and age. Now it's very well possible that they couldn't get back Pat Morita to reprise his role, but you mean to tell me that you couldn't get *anybody* else that resembled Pat Morita in anyway, shape, or form? Now, I probably shouldn't be too mad at this, because the guy playing Kane here goes by the name of Geoffrey Moore. Who also happens to be the son of legendary Bond actor Roger Moore. Yes, I honestly did not even know that Roger Moore's son was even into acting. I don't even know if he's even gotten roles after this. But despite that, Geoffrey does turn in a halfway decent job. Mind you, it's very uncanny to see him replace an obviously Asian actor playing the villain beforehand, but I still can't entirely blame his performance here. So, it's kind of a double-edge sword here when it comes to our villain in question.
As for the rest of the acting, well, like before with a lot of Andy Sidaris's films, the acting is something that you're either gonna get use to at this point or not. I say this, being that this is the seventh film in a series of movies that had actors that weren't really all that good to begin with. And I'm mostly referring to the Playboy Playmate models, such as Dona Speir, who's acting is still pretty terrible. If you're someone like myself who has seen all of the previous movies and knows that the acting isn't really that good, then you might already know what to expect. If this is your first film, then it's gonna throw you off a bit. Like I already said, I've gotten use to most of this terrible acting from our reprising cast members, as I've just sorta rolled with it at this point. Unless there are new cast members added to these movies, then I'm not gonna have a whole lot else to say about the acting. It's just what it is, really.
Same thing goes for special effects. There's really not a whole lot I can say about the special effects, other than what I've said about them in the previous couple of films. Squib work for guns, pyrotechnics, and what little blood effects are here. It's the same thing here with the same amount of low budget you're gonna have to expect from these particular movies.
Camerawork here is pretty good for low budget standards. The lighting here is lit fine. The sound-mix is mostly competent, save for a maybe brief moment when we're first reintroduced to Donna and Nicole. But like I said, it's very brief, so I don't have much else to say about it. Music here is not really that great, but that's mainly because I'm not a particular fan of the songs that were used here. Otherwise, the score here is pretty forgettable.
So ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Hard Hunted"? If you are a fan of these particular movies and you haven't seen this one, then I would say maybe go for it. I'm more than tempted to say that you could skip it, personally speaking, since I think this is the first one that sorta let me down a bit. Now that isn't to say that you couldn't enjoy it yourself. Like I said, it has most of everything that is covered in the Andy Sidaris charm, however, like I also mentioned beforehand, it feels really tame when compared to the previous movies. So don't expect very much out of this one. But yeah, I can somewhat recommend it, if you want to see all of the "Triple B" movies from Andy Sidaris, but I would say this one is more skippable than anything else. So now, I think I'm gonna go and watch a James Bond movie. Specifically, one starring Roger Moore himself. I'm gonna go see if I can find my copy of "Moonraker" somewhere. I haven't watched that one in a long time, as it was one of the very first Bond films my Dad introduced me to. So I'm gonna go do that next once I get done with this review.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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