Investigated New York detective James Knight is forced to make a deal with the city police. In exchange for a police badge and complete forgiveness, he must stop a gang of thugs dressed as Santa Claus.
4k movies reviews
Once a year a stick shoots, doesn’t it? Maybe no one believed that Edward Drake, a lover of badass hackwork, could surprise everyone and show something beyond what he had already filmed in his short career, but he still tried to achieve in the sequel to the very cheap James Knight trilogy the full authenticity of the main character of the villain. I have to say that Paul Johansson’s character is the best thing to come out of “Deliverance” all the way through, because this nasty guy drags the entire scrappy and simplistic plot on his mighty shoulders. But that’s not all, because this is where Drake manages to supply the nasty raider with motivation for once.
Of course, one might say that a retired serviceman pissed off at his country and tossed into the reaches of civilian life as scrapped material is a musty mauvais ton, because this sort of ear-splitting no longer impresses anyone. That’s partly true, but in this case there has been progress, for before that all the antagonists in Drake’s tricks were complete dunces, chumps and fools. In “Atonement”, the scriptwriters have squeezed everything they could out of their poor imagination, and the result is a desperate scoundrel who decided to organize a financial terror on New Year’s Eve in New York and to gut the local authorities like a walnut.
There is a little bit of common sense in the speeches of the ex-Marine, who formed a gang of thawed cons, soldiers and other unpleasant personalities, but it is presented in such a way that all scenes in which the state system is denounced, its shortcomings and weighty minuses will be overshadowed by the death of innocent people. Somehow Edward Drake has chosen to add strange touches to the portrait of a villain who commits outright madness and commits a fierce lawlessness in the middle of a white day. “Deliverance” is a prime example of how you can’t combine one thing with another; if you’ve already based it on drama, then emphasize tragedy, but mixing it with mindless madness is not a good choice.
Drake can’t stop in time and overreacts so badly that it bursts with a bang in his hands. Considering that “Scoundrel” was all thrash and horror, in “Redemption” the author could have kept himself in line under the conditions that if he shot something alone and with proper placement. But here we see how the guy is flailing from side to side, he clearly does not understand what he wants to teach in this film, as the director again throws himself off the beaten track. The second part does not have such strong distortions and stilted characters, but the overall perception of the sequel is only slightly ahead of the original, overtaking it at the rare turns of logic and adequacy.
“Redemption” seems pretty good if you start comparing it to the author’s previous films, but as something standalone it immediately collapses with a bang. That’s not to say the film is boring and sluggish, because it’s at the expense of the villain that it scores some points. The dynamics are present, although along with other action films it will be immediately thrown overboard, as the picture is too cheap, rustic, pale and secondary. Whatever Johansson is on screen, his efforts are still lacking when the other members of the corps crawl onto the stage, clearly serving their number here. Willis is no longer to be approached with reproach, but the rest of the cast is not keen on the progress of filming.
The formula for this action movie is easy and unassuming – raiders rob banks, shoot people left and right, make radical speeches and prepare the main nastiness for the finale. Agree, but that’s enough for just one viewing these days, nothing more. However, the main disadvantage of the sequel is that the main character is presented so rarely and little for the audience’s consumption that sometimes the viewer cannot understand why his name is put in the title of the trilogy. The story is about whoever it wants to be, but not Knight. Everyone calls him cruel, evil and out of control, even though he’s just doing his job by virtue of his limited abilities.
“Redemption” develops the story arcs of the characters from the first part to some extent, while it decides to cut some of them short. That’s just the way life is, don’t judge it too harshly, because when an action-movie-like hectic schedule begins, not everyone manages to keep their head on their shoulders. One thing is astonishing that the director still believes in his own strength and on serious notes threatens with his finger, sputters and believes in justice, when his own villain is talking about the contrary. And the ending, when a tired and tortured Bruce Willis grabs his musket again, is so naïve, contrived and funny that it overrides all the weak pluses of this odd sequel.
Basically, though, it’s still the same Drake product, where the characters will swap places, look smart and investigate in a very weak way. Evil will be punished, good will win, since it always walks around with a gun. There will be all the same cheap special effects, a weak local fight map and a crumpled ending that adds no weight to the whole structure of this film. “Redemption” looks a little better, but cannot play a leading role in the trilogy, being essentially a passable action movie. The plot is stretched like an owl on a globe, but here at least they tried to be rather than appear to be serious underworld cheap movie dealers. At this point in Drake’s career this is not the weakest project, but it doesn’t deliver anything outstanding either.
Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (74.9 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
German: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles
English SDH, German SDH.
