Kill Bishop

Well, I haven’t seen it yet, but I think the new Larry Bishop film, Hellride is part of the new renaissance in the action slash thriller genre, at least in America. I saw Lady Snowblood and Red Dawn recently, and while enjoyed the latter (made in the eighties) it definitely did not have panache of the former, which was made in Japan during the seventies.

Red Dawn has the look and feel of film made by a very talented journeyman while Lady Snowblood has that “auteur” style you would normally associate with a highbrow director like David Cronenberg. I got a kick out of the way each act was designated as a chapter, and enjoyed the grand guignol style violence.

Until the release of Reservoir Dogs in the nineties, domestic action films rarely had the kind of brio that is normally on display in Asian cinema. Even as far back as 2000, I’d watch a film like Snatch and wonder why Hollywood couldn’t make more films like that. Lately though, it seems like a clever, no holds barred action film gets released about once a month. So will Hellride live up to the hype? If it doesn’t, at least Death Race will be released soon…