I've seen my fair share of high and low-budget martial-arts films. Hundreds in fact. Hell, I love them so much that I have written countless reviews and help moderate one of the biggest forums on the net: kung fu fandom. Left for Dead grabbed me from the get-go.
I finished Left for Dead only a few short hours ago and I had to share my thoughts on this UK indie gem. It wasn't what I expected; it turned out a lot better, in fact. I thought this was gonna be another USA type indie film which is usually a Hollywood action film with bad acting and lots of needless, badly performed drama between action scenes. But Modern Life? has surpassed my expectations and that of the industry. I love the fact that they created their own world inside the film, i.e. Hope City, Metro City. The comic book feel does wonders for the film, and they use the freedom of this sub-genre very well.
The pacing is really good too. There is nothing I hate more than drama bogging down a good action film. There are some pretty iffy wife flashbacks of Glenn Salvage, and that was as much as I could take! Believe me, the combined running time of the opening and ending fights far surpass that of most films in the genre.
I'm not sure whether the film was shot in sequence but you'll notice how the fights just keep getting more exciting by the minute! The choreography in the chaotic end fight was a lot better than the rest of the film
or was the best simply kept for last? I can already see myself returning to the end sequences on a regular basis. Of course, good fighting consists of more than having a few good moves, and I think Glenn Salvage and Andy Prior looked a lot more determined at the end, and the action seemed a bit tighter it works out very well when it comes together. The over-the-top death scenes were a great touch, and fit into this twisted world very well. And who can look down on a film featuring not only guns and fists, but Japanese katanas too? Watch out for the brief fight between Glenn Salvage and a blond swordswoman, very impressive.
Granted a lot of the acting was horrible, but the dialogue was more than just filler. There is a speech Kincaid gives his henchmen Dylon and Taylor for instance, about the Nazis, and it works surprisingly well. Yes, the film has its fair share of rough spots in the dialogue and acting department, but you wouldn't believe how good it looks considering the budget and DV equipment origins.
Some trivia: I saw Andy Prior was reading Bey Logan's (UK author and martial artist) book Hong Kong Action Cinema in Glenn's apartment. Some influences might be Highlander (sword scraping on the roof), The Matrix and Kiss of the Dragon. But mostly the action is so energetic that I could care less about where the ideas came from.
At the very least this film is a guilty pleasure. A lot of its success lies in the fact that it doesn't try to be realistic. The creators' imaginations ran wild and in the end I have to applaud the cast and crew.
