I love action movies, especially ones with more bullets than sense. My favourite action movies are ones that sacrifice a plausible narrative for over the top explosions, feature unnecessary helicopter shots and cast a Mexican or Eastern European actor to play the villain. I don’t take these movies too seriously and to be honest as long as I’ve been entertained for 90 minutes, I can eject the disc feeling pretty satisfied with the amount of bloodshed, boobs and grenades I’ve been subjected to. After watching the trailer for The Night Crew I thought I knew what I was going to be shown, there were plenty of Mexicans and Hollywood B-listers shooting each other in a dark and brutal setting to entice me, however surprisingly it was the film’s plot-twists and narrative that made it a good watch for me; all aboard the awkward emotional rollercoaster!
‘The Night Crew’ is an all out action packed tale of 4 bounty hunters on their latest mission to earn a decent crust. This group of violent renegades are out to retrieve a mysterious young Chinese girl named Mae for reasons that are pretty much unknown, but they’re getting paid for it so I guess they’re asking questions later too. Mae, who escapes the clutches of her evil Mexican drug lord (Danny Trejo) is about to be re-kidnapped, only to have Luke Goss and the gang bust up the criminals and take her into their custody. The transit to drop Mae off at her location is going to be a long one, so all Goss must do is keep her protected through the night and collect their pay packet, sounds easy right? Unfortunately due to Mae being all mysterious and all about going solo, she runs off and lays low in a rundown motel, only for the crew to find her just as the drug cartel do, and thus the mayhem begins. Plenty of bullets fly and tons of people die but is it a decent action flick? Without giving too much away, it is actually pretty good, even if only 3 of the cast are any good.
Luke Goss, everyone’s second favourite pop star turned actor (Martin Kemp being number one obv) stars as Wade, a husky voiced smooth operator who works as the crews leader. Goss may not star in the biggest films around but I have always enjoyed his performances, and in The Night Crew he puts on another great show, taking no nonsense and shooting plenty of drug barons in the face; easily the best actor in the film which admittedly doesn’t take much doing. Chasty Ballesteros stars as Mae, an ass kicking Chinese chick who keeps herself to herself along with some disturbing dark secrets. Ballesteros certainly maintains the secretive and dangerous side of her character and nicely towards the end she becomes a bit more human and shows some passionate emotion towards her fellow cast mates; overall a strong performance from start to finish. Upon seeing Danny Trejo cast in The Night Crew I thought “Excellent! Gotta love a bit of Danny Trej Lad, what’s he gonna do this time?” … but unfortunately he doesn’t do an awful lot. Trejo stars as Aguilar, the most feared Mexican drug lord in the world, I mean could we expect anything less from Danny? Appearing to be more than just a little under the weather, Aguilar wants Mae back in his possession and will do anything in his power to get her back, so luckily for him he commands his own army who will die at his will. Trejo is always great in every film he stars in with his look, accent and effortless performances, but it’s a massive shame that in this film it’s more of a cameo. Sure he stars in the film from beginning to end but only delivering a few lines at a time and in only a select number of scenes, which was a huge disappointment as his character really didn’t bring anything to the film. The rest of the cast are average at best and the remaining members of the crew don’t bring anything particularly special apart from stereotypes and clichés.
For a more low budget action movie that takes the form of poor man’s ‘The Expendables’, The Night Crew is actually a rather enjoyable movie despite the fact that two thirds of the film is set during bed time which makes for a very dark viewing. The majority of the film too is set in a dark run down motel which also makes, for the most part, a rather boring viewing, so it’s a good job plenty of rounds are fired to at least bring a bit of light onto the scene. Despite some rather bland backdrops and sets, the film’s combat suffers too, not so much the gunplay but more the seemingly lame hand to hand choreography. If at any point the soft toned protagonist and long dialogue breaks cause your attention to wane, you’ll be thankful for the deafening sounds of the explosions and SFX which greatly outweigh the rest of the film, meaning you’ll find yourself reaching for the volume dial for most of the movie.
On the whole, The Night Crew is an enjoyable film even if it is a totally unoriginal set up and a clichéd roster of characters. The Night Crew won’t be winning awards for its writing and storytelling, but in an all out explosive movie about killing the cartel and not dying, it was nice to see a bit of depth and character development in the movie, especially because it’s not common in the genre and I wasn’t expecting it at all. Others may disagree with the direction the last 20 minutes of the movie took, but personally I enjoyed the added emotion, drama and … horror I guess you can call it. It’s not a movie I’d watch again but it is a movie I would recommend, so if you see it cheap give it a watch, you may be pleasantly surprised.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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