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City of Fear (V) More at IMDbPro »
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| Index | 12 reviews in total |
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Lesser Gary Daniels vehicle, 25 January 2011
Author:
Wizard-8 from Victoria, BC
I rented this movie because it had the Nu Image brand on it. (Nu Image usually makes better-than-average direct-to-DVD movies.) However, when I started to watch it I discovered that it was a coproduction with producer Harry Alan Towers, who has made a number of turkeys in the past. It looks like Towers had more control over this movie, which would explain why the end results are unsatisfying. It's somewhat cheap-looking, and while its laid back style is refreshing at first, it soon becomes so laid back in whatever it does - including action sequences - that you'll wish they'd liven things up significantly. The martial arts aren't spectacular, being both poorly directed and choreographed, and the gunplay is pretty pathetic. There are also a few times when it seems that important footage is missing, leaving some questions hanging in the air. On the other hand, this is one of the rare times where a shot in Bulgaria movie is actually taking place in Bulgaria, and the ending for a change is not 100% happy. This isn't one of the worst movies ever made, but it would probably land on a list of the most mediocre movies ever made because it doesn't seem to be trying that hard in any way you can think of.
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
The price says it all!, 11 November 2004
Author:
mozzkingofnicotine (mozzkingofnicotine@yahoo.co.uk) from Derby England
As the other person who has reviewed this film says 'its cheap' it
cost me a pound from (suprise,suprise!) the pound shop. It is
obviously a low budget film though is far from being the worst film
for seen, i have definitely paid more for worse! in fact the low
budget style, pathetic special effects and crap acting almost give
this film a strange charm. Its fun, rubbish but fun and for a pound,
value for money. Don't pay more though. P.s look out for the old looking
car that goes up a ramp and tips over, you can see through the front
screen that there is no-one in the car because the camera work is so
rubbish!
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
disappointment., 3 June 2001
Author:
Thomas Jolliffe (supertom-3) from Marlow, England
Gary Daniels latest that i have seen is very disappointing, despite being a b-movie star his films do look quite expensive for b-movies with plenty of explosions and destruction but this film looked painfully cheap, and with a totally un-interesting story line this is very boring. Despite being the worst Daniels flick i have seen i must say that his performance was the best i have seen from him, while still not at a high standard he delivered his lines convincingly and his character was far more emotive than his others. City of Fear has some good fights indisperesd with cheap looking gun play with no gun blasts, riccochests and very few body impacts, and the machine guns on one bit sounded like someone stepping on bubble rap. 3/10
City of Fear is recommended for Gary Daniels die-hards only., 10 May 2012
Author:
Comeuppance Reviews from United States Minor Outlying Islands
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Steve Roberts (Daniels) is a journalist who is summoned to Sofia,
Bulgaria by his friend Charlie Venco. When it turns out that Charlie
has mysteriously died, it opens up a world of intrigue involving the
Bulgarian government, the military, and the medical establishment. Not
to mention thugs and the Russian mob. Luckily he has Alexa (Campbell)
on his side. What is the secret of the "blood medication"? Steve
Roberts certainly wants answers - and he'll have to use his wits, as
well as his fists and kicks - to get to the truth.
Of course this movie is set in Bulgaria - but at least they don't try
to hide it. Even in the fight scenes, dust is used for effect when
blows land, but it just makes Bulgaria look like an unnecessarily dusty
country. Maybe our Bulgarian readers can write in to see if the rumors
are true. But Nu-Image always shoots there, and this one in particular
has a low-budget feel compounded by its location.
Besides directing utter crud like Warhead (1996) and Marines (2003),
Mark Roper also directed Gary Daniels the year after City of Fear to
make the similarly-Bulgaria-shot Queen's Messenger (2001). But what's
weird is that City of Fear seems to be directed...somehow wrong. There
are a ton of unnecessary close-ups, the pacing is oddly stilted, and
the minimal, weak action is more funny than hard-hitting. Plotwise,
this movie is not very exciting or crowd-pleasing. It's wildly
overwritten and needlessly complex. This leads to many dialogue scenes
when there should be fight scenes. Maybe they were going for something
a little more serious and dour here, but...why? Either way, it doesn't
work.
The problem with Nu-Image is that most of their movies kinda suck.
They're trying too hard to be PM. But there's no sense of fun here.
It's just "eh". For every one good bit there's about ten
bad-to-mediocre bits. The lack of a strong, central villain helps
undermine the movie, as it usually does. Sure, Gary holds it all
together, but as strong a screen presence as he is, he can't save it.
City of Fear could have used another name in the cast to help out.
Richard Lynch, Robert Z'Dar, Martin Kove...even Frank Zagarino might
have added something. Well, maybe not. But Daniels and Scary Spice
running around Bulgaria talking for over 100 minutes isn't what you'd
call must-see.
Compare this to other Daniels movies, and you'll see the disappointment
here. It's truly a missed opportunity. As strong as Daniels' repertoire
is, we guess they can't ALL be winners. Unfortunately, this is one of
the rare non-awesome Gary Daniels movies.
City of Fear is recommended for Gary Daniels die-hards only.
For more action insanity, please visit: www.comeuppancereviews.com
1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Passable albeit not exactly notable, 6 December 2009
Author:
HaemovoreRex from United Kingdom
For me at least, alarm bells immediately start ringing if I learn that a recent action or horror film has been shot in an Eastern European location. Please note that is in no way whatsoever any disrespect to the utilised foreign crews, quite the contrary - they are entirely as competent as any other, rather my problem is that the recent trend to shoot genre flicks in said countries has invariably produced some of the most truly mundane and inane action and horror fodder there is going! The film in question only reaffirms my viewpoint in fact and proves to be a fairly lacklustre affair affair at best. Having said that, matters do at least get off to a cracking start with our hero, Gary Daniels having a great fight in a car park. Sadly, this is undoubtedly the highlight of the entire film and certainly the best action scene contained in its run time. To be fair, it's not a terrible film by any means and Daniels surprisingly gives a better acting performance than normal (no, really!) but I'd be hard pressed to recommend it to anyone other than die hard fans of Gary's work. A shame really.
3 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Decent, But Daniels Has Done Much Better., 12 February 2001
Author:
mvilla from Robinson, IL
The main problem with this movie is that it had a overall cheap look and feel to it. It also had long periods where nothing exciting really happened. But, Daniels fans will be happy to know that the man gets to show off his awesome fighting skills in some good fight sequences. Too bad there weren't more of them. Average overall, 5 out of 10. To see Daniels in top form, check out Recoil or Cold Harvest.
4 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Plodding pace, ugly locations, dull action = a waste of time., 30 January 2005
Author:
aloep from Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland
This was on a box set with 12 films which I bought for £8.99. This
however was probably the worst of them all. Gary Daniels has done well
on movies like Deadly Target, Recoil, Rage and Riot but since the
demise of PM Entertainment who produced these movies, his choices have
not been good. This is a NuImage production and while they have done
several excellent straight to video movies, their main goal seems to be
to make as many movies as possible per year and have employed the likes
of Yossi Wein and Danny Lerner to direct ultra low budget and often
hilariously bad flicks. This doesn't feel quite as low budget as some
of the others in that it all consists of original footage and if
there's anything positive to say about it, the lighting and picture are
clean and the shots are focused and unlike most of those NuImage
Bulgaria productions, it is actually set in the city it is shot in,
Sofia!
However, City Of Fear is an "action" movie that completely fails to
deliver in all counts. The plot is boring, the pace is absolutely
plodding, the action scenes are few and far between and the few that
are there are dull and way too short to give any lasting impression.
The fight scenes are disappointing given Gary Daniels talents. The pace
is very slow and a lot of the film consists of characters standing
around being idle, often doing nothing that was sufficient to the story
itself. The locations are dreary and overcast. Gary Daniels does his
best to struggle through the material but his lack of interest clearly
shows. The female lead while not only hugely unattractive and shows no
interest either. Nobody is having any fun here, and I neither did I.
Basically, unless you are a huge, huge Gary Daniels fan, I could never
recommend this to anyone. Not wretched enough to qualify as "so bad
it's good" yet so lacking in any redeeming values to be classed as
entertainment. If you want to see Gary Daniels in action try Deadly
Target, Rage, Recoil, Riot, White Tiger or even Cold Harvest. Just stay
away from City Of Fear.
1 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Horrifically bad movie., 12 February 2007
Author:
jrhather from East York, Ontario, Canada
Poor camera angles. Foley thats identical to many video game tracks. Unemotive acting. The only thing decent about the movie are the scenic shots of Bulgaria. Fight scenes are alright if you appreciate technical fighting, as I do. They could've done much, much better just about everything. Definitely a 'B' movie. Carol Campbell didn't do a terribly bad job considering City of Fear is one of her few English-language films. Bashar Rahal (Charlie Venco) is someone of minor talent, whilst not a bad actor, he does pick some pretty bad parts. Overall, I'd definitely recommend staying away from anything Mark Roper has ever made. They are ALL poorly directed, poorly acted and horribly written.
4 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
The WORST movie I have ever seen., 20 September 2001
Author:
TheFoolAngel from London, UK
I wish to preface these comments by saying that I don't usually like to criticise the efforts of other Directors. That being said however, this is positively the worst film I have ever seen in my life. I have had the misfortune of being witness to some absolute travesties of cinema in my time but this must be right up there with "Scorpio Rising" in my opinion as an example of the worst possible waste of time, money, effort, and attention I can ever claim to have been associated with. From the very moment the titles began, I was dubious. This was followed by a wave of disbelief, a hope that this was a spoof, then the fits of embarrassed laughter took over and I can honestly say that every film-making mistake and cliche that I could think of at the time was being paraded on screen before my very eyes. The acting was non-existent, the lead actor was tragically mannered, wooden, and frighteningly bad. So bad that i could only imagine he was there for the "Fight sequences" if you could call them that. They too were cliched, pointless and boring. I'm not even going to comment on the other 1 dimensional jokes of characters that are thrown in there. Every possible stereotype and cliche you could imagine. As soon as you thought that they were all used up, there would be one more you had forgotten about being thrust at you. The directing was woeful, the pace mind numbing, the writing abysmal. I had to wonder how the Director managed to decipher the bar napkins the script must have come off through the obvious state he must have been in to bother to make such drivel. The financiers mustn't have even read anything, and it is a insulting piece of garbage that quite frankly saddens me. To think that there are so many deserving film makers all around the world that struggle to even get the necessary equipment and film stock to make their pictures, and here we see it squandered on what any deranged monkey could see was a piece of rubbish. If i could give it minus stars I would. But for comedy value, or for a lesson on what not to do, it can have it's one star.
4 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
IF YOU DON'T KNOW GARY DANIELS YOU DON'T KNOW MARTIAL ARTS., 17 June 2001
Author:
ALAN MOUNT (picquickstudio@aol.com) from CARDIFF, WALES
Forget Jackie Chan,Jet Li,Steven Seagal and Van Damme.The star of this movie,Gary Daniels is the best martial artist working in movies today.This London born action star always gives 110% in his fight scenes and is constantly improving as an actor as CITY OF FEAR shows.This tightly plotted little movie is no masterpiece and its lack of a decent budget is evident from time to time but nevertheless is a worthy entry in Gary's impressive filmography. Set in Sofia,Bulgaria the action in this movie takes place in fresh locations and is enjoyable for every one of its 90 minutes;the supporting cast is nothing to write home about but you won't be watching them,you'll be watching Gary Daniels and if you consider yourself an afficionado of martial arts movies and don't recognise his name I suggest you hot foot it to your local video store and put matters right straight away.Soon you'll be saying:"Jackie Chan? Who he?"
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