The Direct to Video Connoisseur

I'm a huge fan of action, horror, sci-fi, and comedy, especially of the Direct to Video variety. In this blog I review some of my favorites and not so favorites, and encourage people to comment and add to the discussion. For announcements and updates, don't forget to Follow us on Twitter and Like our Facebook page. If you're the director, producer, distributor, etc. of a low-budget feature length film and you'd like to send me a copy to review, you can contact me at dtvconnoisseur[at]yahoo.com. I'd love to check out what you got. And check out my book, Chad in Accounting, over on Amazon.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Marked Man (1995)

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Piper and Miles? Count me in. I scooped this on VHS from Amazon after I found out it existed. How can you not want to see a movie with two great DTVC Hall of Famers? I know I couldn't... not want to... I mean...

Marked Man has Piper as a dude who accidentally killed the drunk driver who ran over his fiancee. In jail, he witnesses a murder, is framed for it, and has to break out and clear his name. Miles is the baddie who set Piper up, and he wants to make sure he stays set up. Eventually, after a lot of chasing and fight scenes, Piper gets his hand on a video tape that exonerates him.

This movie is much better than Dead Tides in that it has way more Miles in it. It's worse than Tides because it doesn't have any Trevor Goddard in it. 6 of one, half a dozen of another, that's what I say. This movie is a level below Dead Tides in movie quality, closer more to Piper's hit Terminal Rush. It's not far off from the Bruce Penhall Spike variety, and if it didn't have Piper and Miles, it would've sucked ass.

In one scene, Piper stumbles on a dead guy in a house. In a strange turn of events, the mail man stumbles on Piper with the body. Now, I don't mean like the door was left open or the mail man heard a noise. He walked into the dead guy's house. Whose mail man does this? I hope mine doesn't. What's the mail man screening process like? How does a guy like this get a job in a government agency? Moreover, did one or more of the film makers have a mail man who acted like this? Anyway, due to the snooping mail man, which the movie seemed to be fine with, Piper was stuck defending himself from another frame-up job.

That was the over-arching problem with this movie. Too much repetition. Too many chase scenes that went too long. Too many fight scenes that were good for the first five minutes, but were eventually too long too. Every time someone was killed it was dumped on Piper. If I wasn't so excited to see him and Miles, this would've been too boring.

The Miles factor was great. I almost wished he would win. If Piper wasn't the good guy, I would have. I don't know how this guy doesn't get more work. Film makers don't have the foresight and vision to see how MST3K could have made his career, not hurt it. They should replace Will Smith with him for the next Bad Boys movie. That might actually make it good.

This movie is worth buying. You should be able to find it at a used video store for like a buck or two. It may be difficult to find to rent, because it's kind of obscure. That's too bad, believe me. If you like bad action, this is the movie for you. You got Piper, you got Miles, and you got a bad plot with a lot of bad action. Go for it.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113776/

No comments:

Post a Comment