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Overall Rating : 3/10
Directed By : Ted Smith
Glen Levy (The Locals)
Tanya Dempsey (Deathbed)
Lana Pirian
Supplied By : Velocity Home Entertainment
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Jun. 5, 2006
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| PLOT Josh Griffin, a courageous young man, is a Guardian; a demon hunter who along with fellow Guardians Bannon, Max, computer hacker Lisa, and Chief Gill Kane operate out of an underground base known as The Core. The history of demon hunters is a long one -- they have operated in secret for centuries, attempting to maintain the balance of power as demons continually slip through the dimensional "realm" into our world. Josh is given an assignment to work with a special advisor out of the New York office, Alex Marlow. Alex, a fellow Guardian, is on the trail of a gang of demons who have stolen mysterious ancient artifacts from a Manhattan art dealer and are now on the loose somewhere in the L.A. underground. Their investigation eventually leads them to the warehouse district, where an occult group known as The Brotherhood unknowingly releases a powerful evil into our world known as the ancient demon Virago. Virago's aim is to open a doorway to hell, allowing a reign of demons to take over our world. With only a matter of hours left, Alex and Josh must find Virago and stop him before he turns Earth into a living hell. |
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| THE REVIEW GUARDIAN OF THE REALM, is like a cross between BLADE and TV's BUFFY has it is about a team of "freedom fighters" whom set out to rid of a horde of vampires. In the film, the use the plot line of an evil, ancient demon whose soul has has been resurrected, this time into a unexpecting call girl who just happened to be worshipping at a demonic cult's ceremony. The plot of GUARDIAN OF THE REALM, reminded me a lot of the premise and storyline of BLADE TRINITY, in which Dracula is brought back in human form, to be fought of by Blade and crew. This film is obviously low budget and uses a bunch of cgi for it's effects, but often so badly done you cannot take it has serious as it tries to be. Apparently they were going for a very futuristic look, with the use of innovate technology such as com link ear pieces to communicate back and forth, to eye scan identification....this idea is actually pretty cool and would've probably worked at it been shot on digital, it appears to have been shot on tape and the overall look of the film is very stress - you don't actually get that atmospheric feel. The film's overall intentions are good, in the first half of the movie however, it really struggles to get off the ground as the pacing kind of lags a bit. In my opinion, the movie, pacing as well as acting begins to pick up once Tanya Dempsey as Alex Marlowe shows up. Dempsey, being a veteran of the B-Movie field seems to know just how to handle these types of roles and really elevates both the movie and her co-stars. Also, another thing that sets an uneven tone for the film is that the team of vampire hunters in which Josh works for and then later Alex are supposed to be a top notch team, but in my opinion were just not convincing, as they lack a certain prowess professionals would have, ultimately it's just another casualty of a B- Movie budget I would guess. The movie's press release sort of boasted about the effects make-up used in the film and film as being compared to that of both TV's BUFFY and ANGEL, and in my opinion, although a decent job is done on the makeup, I have seen almost the exact job done in other indies such as Sv Bell's SHE DEMONS OF THE BLACK SUN, which is equal if not better. The action scenes in the film often look overly choreographed, and can be compared to watching an episode of POWER RANGERS on a Saturday morning, a show in which in fact star Glen Levy has appeared in. As I hinted on, the acting here is a little shaky. Along with the cheesy setting and lacking cgi, I wouldn't begin to say it was the actors' fault, but they do contribute some. I get not feel that Glen Levy was very convincing as the leading man, but do admit that his performance picks up in the last half. Normally a stunt guy on many occasions, here Levy is the lead bad boy, but to me, no offense is very wooden in some scenes. Tanya Dempsey, from the minute she arrives on screen, she simply lights it on fire, this woman is a beauty! Previously, I have only seen her in WITCHOUSE 3 and it a shame because I didn't really notice her, but after seeing her performance in GUARDIAN OF THE REALM, I well definitely be seeing more of her! I also really loved Stephanie Kane as Lisa, the dispatch girl, also she wasn't on screen a whole lot, it was enough to notice her charm. This girl is really a cutie and resembles Danielle Harris a bit, one of The Hook's favorites of all time, we definitely want to see more of her.... There are two categories in low budget filmmaking, they're are solid low budgeters, and then the other category that takes a serious situation and tries to be as serious as they can with the budget, often almost making fun of themselves. Overall, you can sense that this is a B-Movie from the very beginning....and you should know what you're in for. I hate when people complain, saying they expected more from a B film..... you're not going to get what you see in theaters, you should already know that.... |
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| GORE
METER 3.5/10 I recall only one scene with a lot of blood splatter, and there are also a lot of decapitations as well. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 3/10 The score mixes an orchestrated score with tunes from bands that sounded a lot like Marilyn Manson and Korn. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM I have seen a better film similar to this, this year at almost the same budget in The Asylum's DRACULA'S CURSE, so this wasn't all too original to me. It evidently tries to be a bigger film than it is, but as in most cases, the low budget hinders their wishes, the cgi is just too unrealistic and over used to love. In my opinion, i'd only recommend this for Tanya Dempsey's performance..... |
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