This week\u2019s minor VOD releases feature slow-burn creepiness in the New Zealand wilderness and at a fancy California estate, plus James Caan\u2019s final role and the sixth installment in an inexplicably long-running franchise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vengeance: Rise of the Footsoldier<\/em><\/strong> (VOD and select theaters December 1):<\/strong> Somehow, the 2007 British true-crime thriller Rise of the Footsoldier<\/em> has expanded into a six-film franchise, with the most recent four films set up as prequels because they focus on a supporting character who died in the original. The movies have long since run out of true stories to tell, and this latest installment is yet another fictional adventure for Essex-based enforcer Pat Tate (Craig Fairbrass). It\u2019s hard to imagine anyone but devoted Footsoldier<\/em> fans getting much out of Vengeance<\/em>, which features Pat seeking revenge for the murder of one of his loyal associates. There\u2019s plenty of the series\u2019 signature brutal violence, although Pat himself has been toned down in order to function as a nominal hero. The tedious plot drags on for nearly two hours, as a series of similarly one-dimensional blokes stand in the way of Pat\u2019s fury. After so many repetitive, bloody confrontations, all Pat ends up with is tiresome set-up for the next sequel. Grade: C<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Loop Track<\/em><\/strong> (VOD December 1):<\/strong> Best known in his native New Zealand as a comedy writer and performer, Thomas Sainsbury takes a darker turn in his latest film as writer, director, and star. He plays Ian, a man suffering from unspecified trauma, who decides to take a solo hike into the wilderness, despite his apparent mental instability and general unfitness for strenuous activity. Instead of solitude, though, he finds fellow hikers who won\u2019t leave him alone, including the obnoxiously gregarious Nicky (Hayden J. Weal) and honeymooning couple Austin (Tawanda Manyimo) and Monica (Kate Simmonds). The nervous, off-putting Ian keeps insisting that they\u2019re being followed, but his companions dismiss his warnings as delusional paranoia. The audience is likely to come to the same conclusion, but Sainsbury keeps the tension high, with enough brief glimpses and strange coincidences to indicate that something isn\u2019t quite right. The final act provides a definitive answer that is both appealingly gruesome and slightly underdeveloped, but its audacity mostly makes up for its narrative shortcomings. Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer<\/em><\/strong> (VOD December 5):<\/strong> It must be daunting to make a documentary about one of the most famous documentarians of all time, and director Thomas von Steinaecker never attempts to match the creativity or artistic ambition of his subject. Instead, Radical Dreamer<\/em> is a simple, straightforward tribute to legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog, featuring celebrity testimonials from the likes of Nicole Kidman, Robert Pattinson, and Christian Bale, recollections about Herzog\u2019s upbringing, and a number of well-worn outlandish anecdotes about his life and career. There\u2019s no way for von Steinaecker to encompass Herzog\u2019s entire filmography in 90 minutes, so he hits the highlights, rehashing territory that has been more effectively explored in Les Blank\u2019s excellent 1982 documentary Burden of Dreams<\/em> and in Herzog\u2019s own films. It\u2019s never less than fascinating to listen to Herzog speak, and Radical Dreamer<\/em> provides solid supplementary material for Herzog admirers. Mostly, though, it serves as a reminder that you could better spend your time watching an actual Herzog movie. Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n