Theaters: February 2018
Streaming: February 2018
Rated: R
Runtime: 93-94 minutes
Genre: Action – Adventure – Drama – Thriller
els: 6.0/10
IMDB: 6.4/10
Amazon: 3.5/5 stars
Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 5.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes Audience: 4.0/5
Metacritic Metascore: 60/100
Metacritic User Score: 7.8/10
Awards: NA
Directed by: Lin Oeding
Written by: Mike Nilon, Thomas Pa’a Sibbett
Music by: NA
Cast: Jason Momoa, Garrett Dillahunt, Stephan Lang, Zahn McClarnon, Jill Wagner, Sasha Rossof
Film Locations: Newfoundland, Canada
Budget: $NA Low-Budget Indie
Worldwide Box Office: $125,000
Joe Braven (Momoa) owns and operates a logging company from a small town in the forests of Canada, living a quiet life with his wife Stephanie (Wagner), their young daughter Charlotte (Rossof), and Joe’s father Linden (Lang), who suffers from dementia. One of Joe’s log haulers, Weston (Brendan Fletcher), agrees to transport drugs hidden in a hollowed out log for a ruthless syndicate of drug dealers. During transport of the logs, and drugs, on a dark and snowy night, Weston crashes the truck, spilling the logs all over the deserted mountain road. They move the drugs to Joe’s nearby, empty cabin before the sheriff shows up to assist with the truck accident.
Joe and his wife are having an increasingly difficult time caring for Linden and the doctors suggest they consider alternatives for his care. Stephanie suggests that Joe take Linden up to the cabin for a one-on-one discussion about possible elder-care options. As they ride up to the cabin, Charlotte sneaks along as a stowaway. After arriving at the cabin Joe and Linden discover the drugs, and Charlotte, both unexpected. They immediately realize that whoever planted the drugs will be coming back for them and because of Charlotte they need to urgently leave the area. In the meantime the drug syndicate is rapidly converging on the cabin to retrieve the drugs and eliminate any witnesses. The action quickly escalates to a no-holds-barred display of death and destruction by all means available.
This is Lin Oeding’s first movie directing and he does an admirable job putting together a coherent, compelling story on a limited budget. He initially takes a long, slow, meandering ride developing the plot that has the audience tapping their toes and checking their watches, waiting for a movie that is billed as an action movie to produce some action. When Oeding finally gets all the preliminaries out-of-the-way, he injects an overdose of adrenaline into the scenes, producing a wild ride of novel, engaging, and thrilling action against a contrasting backdrop of snow-covered mountain beauty. The story is familiar but the execution is pleasantly different. As a freshman effort, Oeding gets the job done with few complaints from the viewers but it’s his biography that generates as much interest, for me at least, as the movie. He’s a martial arts fighter with an impressive record of 16-1-2, has performed stunts in the 2010 Inception, was the stunt coordinator for the 2014 The Equalizer, and the 2015 Straight outta Compton, performed fight scenes with just about everyone including Dwayne Johnson, Tom Cruise, and Vin Diesel, competed in bare-knuckle, pay-per-view fighting and is a 1989 Nintendo’s semi-finalist world champion as well as a world-class Tetris player. What does this guy do to relax?
Mike Nilon and Thomas Pa’a Sibbett have put together a screenplay that has few holes and lots of original action. My only complaint is when Charlotte is rescued by the local sheriff they immediately drive her back to the very hot kill-zone. This is Nilon’s first attempt at writing and in the past, has used his energy in producing movies such as the 2014 Left Behind fantasy drama. This is also Sibbett’s first writing credit, known previously for consulting on the 2017 short, I am Because You Are.
Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa of the 10th season Baywatch fame, provides a believable character in Joe Braven, executing the sparse dialogue but intense action scenes with a smoothness that belies his hulking mass. With Jason as the proletarian workhorse, Garrett Dillahunt plays the impatient thoroughbred, chomping to complete the task and move on. He nails the psychopath persona with egotistical aplomb and a general’s overly assured command of his inferiors.
Braven is an easy movie to settle into, once you get past the opening drudgery. It provides entertainment without any preachy philosophy getting in the way. The movie is well worth the 90 plus minutes. Grab the popcorn and enjoy.
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