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“The Package” coming out February 19th courtesy of Anchor bay is a superior action film then most.
Now my favorite action star of all time plays the villain in this one. That man is Dolph Lundgren who is probably the best actor working in action movies. He's got more depth and smarts in him then most guys. He always brings something special to his characters.
Outside of the Universal Soldier films, Dolph never really plays the villain that often. But he pulls it off big time in this flick.
From the plot you may think this is “The Transporter” with Steve Austin. It's not, this is a better movie. It's gritty, it's violent and it features some of the best punch em up sequences committed to celluloid.
This is do to the director Jesse V. Johnson, who is one of the best current action directors. This man can take a small budget and put every single penny of it on screen. His resume is an action fans wet dream. Pit Fighter was an excellent no-budget fight flick. The Last Sentinel starring Don The Dragon Wilson and Katie Sackoff was an above average sci-fi shoot em up fest. Alien Agent with Mark Dacascos and Billy Zane was a solid film all around. But Jesse's masterpiece was his most personal film “Charlie Valentine”.
Johnson was first a stuntman before he was a director so he knows how to properly film an action scene. All of the fights in “The Package” are hard hitting and realistic.
Johnson understands that action needs emotion. There needs to be emotion connected to the action, that's what the Hong Kong directors do so well. Am I calling Johnson the American John Woo? No, but I'm calling Johnson the next Vic Armstrong who also is a stunt man/director. Who just so happened to work with Dolph on the gem of a film “Joshua Tree”.
Very few DTV action directors give a shit about there films but Jesse does. He's an action fan who delivers the goods for the fans of these kinds of flicks. I put Jesse right up there with John Hyams and Roel Reiné. Two directors who also crank out quality action films.
Action films may be dying slow horrible deaths at the cinema's. But “real action” is still very much alive on the small screen. Thanks to folks like Jesse V Johnson who understand what elements are required to make a solid film.
Anchor Bay releases “The Package” on a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack and the film looks outstanding. The film was shot on HD on a Arri Alexa so the film looks slick! It's presented in it's orginal widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78 : 1.
The audio is equally impressive, the music never gets in the way so you can clearly hear every bone breaking and every bullet fired.
Extra's are non existent which is a shame because both Dolph and Jesse can deliver really good audio commentary's. It's a small gripe, but it's a great film so I don't mind so much.
This film comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for fans of Steve Austin and Dolph Lundgren. I'll tell you this, I reviewed a screener of the film but I liked it so much that I still am picking up a copy of it on Blu-ray when it hits the streets on Feb 19th. You should to, otherwise you'll be missing out on one of the best action films of the year.