DVD REVIEW: Bonded By Blood (2010)

BONDED BY BLOOD (2010) 

Release Date: February 1st 2011

LABEL: Revolver Entertainment
DURATION: 92 Min.
RATING: Unrated
REGION CODE: Region 1
DIRECTOR: Sacha Bennet
TAGLINE: The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Fucking Truth!

CAST: Vincent Regan, Tamer Hassan, Dave Legeno, Adam Deacon PLOT: In 1995, drug suppliers and career criminals Tony Tucker, Patrick Tate and Craig Rolfe were blasted to death by a shot gun whilst waiting in a Range Rover in Rettendon, Essex. BONDED BY BLOOD charts their rise to becoming the most prolific drug dealers and feared criminals in the south of England, maintaining the hold on their empire with fear and violence until their untimely death.

FILM: BONDED BY BLOOD is a British crime thriller based on the 2006 memoir written by Bernard O'Mahoney detailing the rise and fall of three British drug peddlers found slain in a Range Rover on a snowy road in Essex, England. Apparently the real-life events were quite the to-do in 1995 as there are a handful of books and no-less than three films about the infamous Essex Boys.

The film begins with a blast, several actually, as two men armed with 12 gauge shotguns plug several large holes into Darren (Deacon). What has led to this brutal event? The following 92 minutes inform us what brought this bit of violence up him in a fractured bit of narrative as told by Darren. Before you know it were back a few years earlier as Darren is serving out a short prison term when he aligns himself with smuggler extraordinaire Mickey Steele (Regan) and his muscle man Jack Whomes (Legeno). Soon after the trio align themselves with yet another trio comprised of the hulking drug peddler Pat Tate (Hassan), and the fast-talking Tony Tucker (Stone) and Craig Rolf (Maskell) and form an alliance that develops into a successful drug peddling ring once outside the prison walls. What follows is a fast-paced telling of their rise to power and grisly deaths. Steele's trio smuggles the drugs into the country and Tate and Tucker peddle their wares while consuming a great number of the narcotics themselves. Their a nasty and brutal bunch of blokes that terrorize the drug addled underworld. Stone as the vile Tucker is a site to behold as he chews up the scenery like Britain's own Tony Montana. Hassan as the brutish Tate is no softie either and spends most of the film coked outta of his mind. In quick order the two trios find themselves at odds resulting in each looking to wipe the other off the face of the Earth. Who do we as viewers root for? The best we get is the snot-nosed Darren and the smuggler with a heart of gold Steele. What soft spot we have for these character is short-lived though.

Is this a great gangster flick? No, its too flashy and the script is shallow. The dialogue while snappy loses it's potency when the turn of a phrase is lost in the thick Cockney translations and the characters are just downright unlikable which is probably pretty damn accurate so I guess that's an unfair critique. I must say that this film does for "cunt" what SCARFACE (1983) did for "fuck". On the plus side its thick with vulgarity, spotted with nudity and there's no shortage of the ultra-violence. If you're looking for action, drugs, stabbings, shootings, whores, and dueling egos it's got it. Plus it doesn't glamorize the filth that peddles drugs either.

DVD: Bonded By Blood is presented in a sweet looking 16x9 enhanced 2.35: aspect ratio transfer with the option of a 2.0 stereo or more robust 5.1 surround sound. Great image quality, nice and crisp. I bet this would look fantastic on Blu-ray with  TrueHD 5.1 surround. No subtitle option which is a shame as  a lot of the dialogue is delivered in rapid fire Cockney and I'm sure I missed a few tasty bit of dialogue. That said, the word "cunt" was quite clear and well enunciated throughout the entire length of the film. A generous amount of bonus features are included, mostly fun and spirited featurettes plus a decent feature-length commentary.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Commentary with Sacha Bennett, Terry Stone and Dan Toland (96:06)

- Cast and Crew interviews (12:41)
- Interview with Bernard O’Mahoney (9:02)
- Behind-The-Scenes Featurette (3:11)
- B-Roll footage (21:58)
- Bonded By Blood premiere and after-party (2:06)
- The C Word (0:56)
- Welcome To Tony Tucker’s Mansion (1:45)

 
VERDICT: BONDED BY BLOOD is a nasty slice of British gangster cinema that's a bit slick and short on substance but not substance abuse. I give it a Red Box or Netflix  recommendation. Slick though it may be it's good fun and has a tasty soundtrack. Worth the price of admission if only for image Tate grabbing a hand-job from a whore dressed in a nurse's uniform while driving a high speed in gold Porsche. Wonderful.
**1/2 (2.5 out of 5 stars)

DVD REVIEW: Death of a Snowman (1978)

DEATH OF A SNOWMAN (1978)

STUDIO: Synapse Films
REGION: 0
RATED: Unrated
GENRE: Blaxploitation, Crime
RUNNING TIME: 86 Min.
DIRECTOR: Christopher Rowley
Country of Origin: South Africa
CAST: Nigel Davenport (Lt. Ben Deel), Ken Gampu (Steve Chaka), Peter Dyneley (Captain), Madala Mphahlel (Luthor "Snowman" Daniels), Bima Stagg (Johnson)
TAGLINE: Rougher and Tougher Than Anything You Have Seen Before.

PLOT: Master criminals meet violent death in Johannesburg, South Africa, a city wrought with organized crime. Steve Chaka (Ken Gampu), an ambitious news reporter, learns that these deaths are from the hands of an all-black vigilante group known only as “War on Crime”. Teaming up with Lt. Ben Deel (Nigel Davenport, CHARIOTS OF FIRE, A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS) of the local police department, Chaka investigates anonymous tips regarding future “hits” and ends up fighting for his life to uncover the truth behind the vigilante killings! 

FILM: DEATH OF A SNOWMAN aka SOUL PATROL aka BLACK TRASH is a  gritty grindhouse crime thriller that takes place in the crime-infested city of Johannesburg, South Africa. It's the late-70's and newspaper reporter Steve Chaka (Ken Gampu) is following anonymous leads given to him by a mysterious figure calling himself 'War On Crime' (Madala Mphahlel) who's wiping out organized-crime under the guise of a vigilante cleaning-up the crime plagued city. What's really going on is that he's a heroin pusher merely eliminating the competition one by one with the help of some white assassins. The film has all the earmarks of a sleazy 70's exploitation film -  worn print, scratchy audio, rough editing, awesomely  crude dialogue and a pretty swanky 70's soundtrack. The film starts off on the good foot as tow truck slams into the car of a crime boss and the gunman emerges from the truck and pumps a few rifle shots into the car. Cue the disco tunes and roll opening credits.

There's a good cast of characters including Chaka the ambitious crime-beat reporter looking to get to the bottom of the War On Crime mystery. Chaka is good friends with Lt. Ben Deel played by Nigel Davenport (CHARIOTS OF FIRE, A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS) who works alongside Chaka on the case despite the fact that his Capt. suspects Chaka may in fact be War On Crime. Their friendship is not overly developed but enough so that you understand their mutual trust. The film's writer Bima Stagg gives a decent turn as the shaggy-bearded, laid-back hitman Johnson who espouses some fun second rate Zen-like wisdom like a stoned philosophy major who carries an over-sized hand cannon ("Each man kills the thing he loves, to coin a phrase."). Stagg is also the writer of the Thomas Jayne vehicle STANDER (2003), another South African set film telling of the true story of African police officer turnbed bank robber Andre Stander, another good watch there.

The film is full of sweaty action including Lt. Deel giving chase by car to one of the War On Crime's henchman (who looked like AC/DC's Bon Scott ) who's just blasted a suspect Deel is tailing which leads to a foot chase and  the two lobbying shots back and forth putting a young girl in the crossfire. The car chase and gun play are not particularly well filmed but it's shot fast and loose and makes for an entertaining watch. Eventually Chaka discovers the true nature of War On Crime and that he's being used as a smoke screen in the press which pisses him off to the point that he himself becomes a bad-ass vigilante that culminates in a one-man killing spree that leads to an thrilling final confrontation between Chaka and the War On Crime.  The final few minutes of the film take place in a warehouse and are shamefully under lit which makes the action difficult to follow who's doing what to whom but it's pretty bad-ass regardless. Even Chaka's father takes up an axe and starts swinging away, fun stuff.

DVD: Thanks to Synapse Films we get DEATH OF A SNOWMAN (1978) in an anamorphic widescreen 1.66:1 aspect ratio transfer that looks ...pretty worn and dinged-up to be honest with a mono soundtrack. These grindhouse prints weren't treated with a lot of respect so I guess we're just lucky to have 'em. The only supplemental material is a theatrical trailer. The DVD is Region 0 and playable in all regions. Would have loved to seen some interviews or a featurette on shooting a blaxploitation film in South Africa at the time, but ya get what ya get, right?


VERDICT: DEATH OF A SNOWMAN is action-packed and very entertaining which is what one hopes for with grindhouse cinema.  It probably tries to be a bit too serious for it's own good but still manages satisfy. Sure, it's trashy cinema but it's a cool rough and tumble romp. A recommend from me. *** (3 out of 5 stars)

- McBASTARD