Four brutal new DVD releases

‘What do you do?’

‘I drive.’

Adapted from James Sallis’ 2005 novel of the same name, Drive (Icon) is the story of a Hollywood stuntman (Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson) who moonlights as a getaway-driver-for-hire when the cameras stop rolling. A loner by nature, the Driver finds himself falling for his next door neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan, An Education), and his life becomes even more complicated when Driver agrees to team up with Irene’s jailbird husband to pull off a small-scale heist to help him pay back a debt. In time-honoured fashion, the scam goes boss-eyed, and Driver finds himself embroiled in an increasingly bloody tug-of-war between a number of LA’s most dangerous criminals. Determined to protect Irene and her young son from the flak heading their way, Driver decides to tackle his enemies head-on.

James Sallis’ existential noir source material is one of the most perfectly distilled crime novels of the last decade, and Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson, Valhalla Rising) takes the brave decision to slice off what little excess weight remained, and reduce the movie to its absolute core. Situated in the same seedy, timeless LA wasteland as Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Drive depicts a deadly world of trigger-happy heists, shell-suits and morally-compromised anti-heroes.

Gosling is sensational as the toothpick-chewing stunt driver whose shy nature conceals a violent temper, and he is joined by small screen luminaries such as Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) and Ron Perlman (Sons of Anarchy) in memorable bit-parts. Regardless of the hype that accompanied Drive, director Winding Refn’s movies are all essential viewing, and although he has squirmed out of the way of mainstream temptation in the past, Drive sees him crash into the Hollywood A-list on his own terms. Despite its sleek, stylish feel and art-house sensibility, Drive is an incredibly violent movie, full of episodes of iconic savagery. All in all, a marvellous, menacing treat, that bodes well for Gosling and Winding Refn’s upcoming Logan’s Run remake!

Co-written by Taxi Driver screenwriter Paul Schrader, 1977’s Rolling Thunder (StudioCanal) stars William Devane (best known to modern audiences as Defence Secretary James Heller in ’24’) as Major Charles Rane, a Vietnam veteran who has endured a living hell after spending seven years incarcerated in the notorious ‘Hanoi Hilton’. He returns to his Texas hometown with his friend Sergeant Vohden (an improbably young Tommy Lee Jones), a mere shadow of his former self. Uncomfortable with his new status as a local celebrity, he struggles to adapt to civilian life, finding his wife engaged to another man, while his son doesn’t remember him at all. As a token of the town’s gratitude for his service, Rane is presented with a red Cadillac and 2555 silver dollars -one for every day he was held captive, plus one for luck -but his happiness is short-lived when a vicious gang of redneck and Mexican thugs show up at his house to steal the silver coins, horribly disfiguring him in the process.

Reputed to be one of Quentin Tarantino’s favourite films -he named his short-lived cult movie distribution company ‘Rolling Thunder Pictures’ as a tribute -it is easy to see why Rolling Thunder gets QT hot under the collar, and its sadistic, blood-soaked vengeance mission was echoed years later in his own Kill Bill double-whammy. The film was originally produced and scheduled for release by Twentieth Century Fox, only for the level of violence in the final cut to prove off-putting to the Fox bigwigs, who sold it on to American International Pictures instead. The film’s negative reputation lived on for many years, and slightly bizarrely, it has only ever been released on DVD in Spain until now. Although the carnage seems pretty tame by today’s standards, Rolling Thunder holds up pretty well, despite a few clumsy narrative mis-steps. That said, it’s well worth persevering for the brutal climactic showdown in a Juarez whorehouse -which recalls Schrader’s work on Taxi Driver a year earlier. All in all, a memorably bleak curio that definitely warrants its belated arrival on home video.

Set in Santiago, Chile in 1973, Post-Mortem (Network) tells the story of Mario Cornejo, a morgue assistant with the unavoidably grim responsibility for typing up autopsy reports performed by the coroners. Set against the backdrop of Chile’s bloody military coup, the first half of the film follows the cadaverous-looking Mario as he becomes involved in a slightly queasy affair with a washed-up showgirl from the nearby cabaret. However, as it reaches its mid-way point, the film swerves into decidedly queasier territory, as Mario’s day-job takes a turn for the macabre, with the coup now in full-flow.

Chilean director Pablo Larraín’s last film, Tony Manero, earned a rapturous critical response following its premiere at the Cannes Director’s Fortnight, with D&CFilm labelling it a bleakly amusing Chilean movie about a glum 50-something sociopath who dreams of becoming Chile’s answer to John Travolta. Post-Mortem is arguably a more ambitious film than Tony Manero, but for all Larrain’s visual flair, the movie lacks Tony Manero’s immediacy, even if it goes on to plumb even darker depths. Whereas Tony Manero took a surreal delight in the antics of a murderous John Travolta wannabe, Post-Mortem is a far queasier affair, with little of the earlier film’s dark humour. Although it is unlikely to tap into the same audience that latched onto Manero, Post-Mortem reaffirms Larrain’s position at the forefront of the Latin American cinema movement, and allows character actor Alfredo Castro (leading man Raul in Tony Manero) another admirably warped role to sink his teeth into.

Based on the enduringly popular Belgian comic book series Largo Winch, The Burma Conspiracy (StudioCanal) picks up where 2010’s entertaining Largo Winch: Deadly Revenge left off. Reformed playboy Largo (Tomer Sisley) is now the newly appointed CEO of his father’s global conglomerate, the W Group. However, when he announces that he intends to sell the company and funnel the proceeds into a humanitarian foundation, his laudable aims are derailed, when he finds himself hauled in front of a UN tribunal and accused of participating in crimes against humanity in war-torn Burma. In true Largo Winch style, our intrepid hero is forced to embark on a globe-trotting adventure to clear his name and wrestle his father’s company back from the brink Yawn.

Despite its slick bend of Bourne-esque action and intrigue -by way of Rambo 4’s bloody Burmese setting -The Burma Conspiracy lacks its predecessor’s compulsive energy, and the relentless boardroom shenanigans overshadow the sporadically enjoyable array of fight scenes. Sharon Stone -whose career seemingly tanked with the disastrous Basic Instinct 2 -pops up in an incongruous supporting role (much like Kristin Scott Thomas did in the first Largo Winch movie), and adds little to the proceedings apart from her household name. Tomer Sisley offers another confident lead performance as the heroic Largo, but it won’t quite be enough to convince floating voters of the film’s merits. After a surprisingly enjoyable first outing, this laboured second act sees the franchise badly underwhelm, and unless the producers can unearth a more entertaining plot, future instalments seem pretty unlikely. Desperately average.

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Tom Leins

• Tom Leins spent two years working as a film critic for national movie magazine DVD Monthly. Since the magazine closed down in 2009 he has contributed to a variety of websites, not least Devon & Cornwall Film, which showcases 'Sex, Leins & Videotape', his entertaining DVD round-up. Tom's short fiction has been widely published online, and he is currently working on his first novel. To find out more visit: Things To Do In Devon When You're Dead. http://www.thingstodoindevonwhenyouredead.wordpress.com/

Latest posts by Tom Leins (see all)

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