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 Castle Falls
review by Bobby Blakey

I love old school action and even more when it features old school action stars blending with the new ones. Scott Adkins is one of my favorites and in his latest film Castle Falls he teams up with action icon Dolph Lundgren who also directs the film. Could this battle between Drago and Boyka deliver or will it fall in the explosion of it all?

Castle Falls follows Castle Heights Hospital, this symbol of the city's segregated past has been packed with dynamite and is ready to be demolished after decades of neglect. No one knows that a gang leader, now in prison, hid the 3 million dollars in cash he stole from his rivals inside the abandoned building. Now, three desperate parties want the money - a blue collared ex-fighter who finds it while working as part of the demolition crew, a prison guard willing to do anything to pay for his daughter's cancer treatment and a ruthless gang who claim to be the rightful owners. The demolition charges are set, everyone clears out and the Castle is set to fall in 90 minutes. The clock is ticking. Who will find the cash and: will they get out alive?

Having these two actions icons in the same film was worth enough for me to check it out, but of course it has to have the action to make it complete. The story is simple enough that plays out almost like a Die Hard-esque action piece once we get to the meat of the action, but it does take a while to get there. The first half is an interesting set up for the three main characters involved that does a decent enough job at getting some depth to both Adkins and Lundgren. The other is a pretty generic villain that could have been omitted and just explained pretty easily, but appreciate the attempt.

The film isn’t anything we haven’t seen before so it does come down to the action to help it stand out. Adkins carries the biggest load in the martial arts action and he brings it as always. There isn’t a lot of the dynamic flashy moves although there are some here, but instead a straight forward fight for your life 

style that makes more sense for the film. I was excited to see these two face off for a small fight that is fun to watch, but not as long as I had hoped.

 

This is one of those decent action flicks that screams old school and fully embraces what it is. There are some performances that are hit and miss, but let’s be honest this is all about the action. IT gave me what I expected in the tone that you could have seen Van Damme or Chuck Norris or even Lundgren still taking on the martial arts action back in the day. If  you love these kinds of martial arts straight up action flicks then give this one a shot.

Decide for yourself and check out Castle Falls available now on Blu-ray and DVD from Shout Studios.

For more information head over to www.shoutfactory.com 

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