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Released by: Cleopatra
Released on: October 15th, 2019.
Director: Jared Cohn
Cast: William Shatner, Jeri Ryan, Jason Brooks, Ciara Hanna, Annmarie Giaquinto
Year: 2019
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Devil's Revenge - Movie Review:
William Shatner is a fun actor and Jeri Ryan is a good actress who pretty much defines middle-aged hot lady. And that's about all the good stuff I have to say about this terrible film.
Directed by a guy with 50+ credits this is the kind of movie that is expressly designed to be made cheap and dumped into the streaming market or sold off as Z-list filler to plump up the catalogs of Netflix or its cheaper cousins. The most expensive things in it are the Shat's salary and probably Ryan's (because I guarantee you that even if the price tag on this thing was one and a half million dollars - at least 50% of that went towards the two actors' salaries). This looks like the kind of thing The Asylum guys (remember those shitty knockoff flicks with titles like THE TRANSMORPHERS?) bilge-pumped out at a steady clip 10+ years ago. And surprise, surprise it WAS made by an Asylum guy who made quite a few films for that hallowed studio.
Plot you say? Family man and cut rate archaeologist John Brock (Jason Books) returns from a cave expedition in Kentucky both thoroughly freaked out and minus one dead buddy from the expedition. Seems John was hunting for a relic that's tied into a supposed curse on his family. His crazy-ass father (a wildly overacting Shatner) believes that the family will be beset by demons until the relic is recovered. Jason's wife (Ryan) thinks gramps is crazier than a shithouse rat in a meth lab. After being tormented by visions of demons and a near fatal cardiac episode, John decides to go back to the cave to recover the relic and destroy it once and for all and thereby lift the family curse. Except for some inexplicable reason he's talked into taking the whole family along for the ride - son, daughter, wife and Pops.
I could tell you what happens in the cave but I'm trying to keep any readers still with me so far awake so I'll make it brief. Demons - decked out in weird Japanese looking battle armor and horns resembling creature refugees from bad German heavy metal album covers of the 1980's show up, the world's most brightly lit caves are explored and William Shatner fires off a huge shotgun. But who will survive and what will be left of them and who will give a shit?
Shatner has what I would guess amounts to about 15 minutes on screen. The scenes consist of him shouting at his son and threatening to kill him and some cave spelunking and weapon firing. Seems Mr. Ineffectual archaeologist is incapable of making decisions and dad finds him to be a miserable coward. Or something.
Shatner's histrionics provide a certain amount of entertainment and that's all you're getting people. Ryan is completely wasted, the two college-age kids look cute but don't do anything and the pacing of the film is atrocious. This is a film where characters go for a walk for 10 minutes and you get to watch them every step of the way. Ditto for a car sequence. Want to experience driving for 10 minutes on film? Well, here's your chance.
Lame.
Devil's Revenge - Blu-ray Review:
Cleopatra's 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded presentation looks fine, framed at 2.35.1 widescreen. This looks to have been shot digitally though and some of the CGI is very dodgy. That said, the film doesn't look unduly harsh. And some of the nature footage looks lovely. But the director's affection for overly bright lighting does lend an air of soap opera artificiality to the proceedings at times. And the demon costumes show their seams a bit too much. Overall this is a more than acceptable presentation though.
Audio is a choice of Dolby Digital tracks of the stereo 2.0 and 5.0 surround sound variety. I watched on the 5.0 and had a fairly standard surround sound experience with good separation and surround activity. I did sample the stereo track and it was solid.
Extras consist of the films fairly good spooky soundtrack on a separate CD, some dodgy looking trailers for other films by the studio, and an image gallery.
Devil's Revenge - The Final Word:
Unless you have an uncontrollable need to see all things William Shatner, I would skip this one. Cleopatra's package isn't terrible but the movie is.
Click on the images below for full sized Devil's Revenge Blu-ray screen caps!
