ipkevin

Extreme Heist is the latest film from Alpha Stunts, which is a Japanese stunt & martial arts team (like Jackie Chan's JC Stunt Team) that made its name on the incredible martial arts scenes of direct-to-video gem "Drive". It stars Eurasian Johnny Yong Bosch & nerdy Jason Narvey of Power Rangers fame (Alpha also worked on the Power Rangers movies). The aforementioned pair play never-do-well thief slash action junkie types who steal bank codes from goons and have to stay alive long enough to spend it. Or something like that. Trust me, this is the very definition of "only there to string along the action scenes".

The Bad: You know how sometimes the DVD extras will sport clips from the pre-production blocking tapes that the director used to get a feel for the fights? The ones that are shot with low-end home camcorders and feature stuntment performing the moves in their sweats? And despite using the same camera angles they never look even a fraction as good as the same fight on the actual film?

Well, imagine AN ENTIRE MOVIE that looks like that. I am not exaggerating. I am just SHOCKED that such an incredibly cheap-looking production could make it onto Blockbuster shelves. Literally, the whole thing has that low-resolution, washed-out look of a camcorder job. In several scenes, you can even see the edges of the fisheye lens or whatever they used to achieve a distorted effect. Unbelievable. Do not expect the classy wide-angle cinematography of Drive, or even the visual quality of your average piece of crap direct-to-video Delta Force flick. Absolutely the cheapest-looking "professional" film I've ever seen.

As previously mentioned, the writing is just awful and they pay so little mind to it that the simple plot actually becomes confusing for a few moments. The acting ranges from passable to laughably bad. The two leads actually manage to be slightly endearing, but the overall impression of the acting is very negative. I don't blame them though, as the dialogue scenes were probably a one-take deal.

The Good: As you would expect from Alpha Stunts, the action is above average. Excellent sky-diving footage, good small scale stunts, and good choreography. Johnny clearly does a lot of his own dangerous stunts and his body language and movement are somewhat reminiscent of Jackie Chan. This boy can move. Indeed, the fights are VERY reminiscent of Jackie's "Mr Nice Guy"-era fight choreography. They nailed the timing and rhythm and overall style of Jackie's approach extremely well.

Still, the fights never reach the inspired level of Drive and it's clear they were fighting time and budget constraints as there are lot of sloppy moments (eg, stuntment reacting too early or too late). The cheap-ass camera works mightily against them as well. Watching certain scenes, you can tell that the same exact angle would have looked great had they been shooting on film with proper lighting.

Overall: It's a shame they hadn't even had the budget of "Drive", as that might have enabled them to create another small martial arts classic. Instead, you get what amounts to a stuntman's demo reel. Rent, do not buy. Even then, only if you are a hardcore stunts & martial arts junkie.

DVD: DVD released by Replay Home Entertainment & ZRO. Full screen, looks like a decent encoding of a horrible source. Low resolution and washed out. If you watch it on your PC, you will occasionally see some overscan material that makes this thing look even cheaper (eg, the kind of VHS noise you see at the edges when you hook up a VCR to a PC's video capture card).

A trailer and cast/crew filmmographies. Audio is stereo and the dialogue is not especially clear.