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Cast:
Ara
Paiaya
Raquel Paiaya
Alex Clark
Vinnie Wilson
Bey
Logan (cameo)
Robert
Tai (cameo)
Toby
Russell (cameo)
Action:
Ara
Paiaya
Writer:
Ara
Paiaya
Producer:
Ara
Paiaya
Director:
Ara
Paiaya
Score:
  
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DEATH
LIST
AKA:
N/A
Year:
2006 Reviewer: Phil
Mills
Following
a number of glowing reviews for his debut project 'Dubbed And
Dangerous', Ara
Paiaya has built up quite a following over the last few years
including several celebrity admirers. Although I'm yet
to experience that particular outing, I had heard so much about
Paiaya that I was keen to check out his latest project, 'Death
List' and see exactly what all the fuss was about.
Night
(Paiaya) is a professional assassin who likes to get up close
and personal with his targets in order for him to annihilate
them with his preferred weapon - the sword.
However, after a number of years in the job he has finally
decided to call it quits but he is double crossed by his boss
and left for dead. Luckily for Night, he is rescued by a
mysterious crime fighting organisation who recognise his
potential and send him to a fabled martial arts master for
training. Once completed, Night is given a fresh
assignment - to track down and deal with the vicious criminals
who now seem to be filling up every street corner. Night
accepts the mission because he knows this will be the perfect
opportunity for him to track down the man who betrayed him and
exact his bloody revenge.
Personally,
I've never been a huge fan of independent martial arts flicks
(with the odd exception) because I generally find they lack
the finesse or style required to truly excite me. In the
case of 'Death List', I'm sorry to say that this isn't
the film to make me drastically alter my opinions. Admittedly, it has some
half decent action scenes and sensibly chooses to keep the
running time to a little over an hour but I still wouldn't
class it as a smooth and solid slice of entertainment.
As with most independent films, the first hurdle is
attempting to see beyond the low budget and amateur camera
work, and as far as 'Death List' is concerned this is initially quite a
struggle. The main problem is the film's opening segment
which
is an amalgamation of tongue in cheek Zatoichi-style homages
and a handful of celebrity cameos which weren't particularly
interesting or well handled and had me hovering over the stop button on more
than one occasion. The comedy routines are also
somewhat tiresome as the dubbing "gag" wears thin
extremely quickly (one wonders why Paiaya even bothered to
include it here) and the majority of the slapstick jokes,
although not disastrous, always seem overly familiar and you
can't escape the feeling they have been done better
elsewhere.
However, perseverance
really is the key here and if you stick with it there
are some flashes of fun still to be found within 'Death
List'. The fights, when they finally edge away from the
swordplay, come thick and fast with the camera angles showing
off the movement and dexterity of the performer's
competently. Paiaya himself looks particularly adept in the
acrobatic department and even though some of his moves lack a
significant flow, he does deserve a lot of credit for effort. The stuntwork is also impressive for a low
budget film with all of the performers taking a number of
genuine cuts and
bruises although it is sometimes evident that the film has
been edited to enhance the end product. Sadly, I do have
one major criticism of this area and that is the fact that it's always
apparent that Paiaya has a hankering to be the Scottish Jackie
Chan. Now you may not consider this a bad thing as
if you were going to emulate anyone then Jackie Chan is as
good a person as any but Paiaya is some way from his
standards and his low grade repetition of Chan's infamous
routines only
leaves the audience comparing rather than truly appreciating.
In
summary, 'Death List' isn't a bad effort as it's an easy watch (once you wade your way through the first 10 minutes that
is) and the fights definitely get points for effort but I
would still say it's some distance from being what I would
consider quality action cinema. It's
probably more
of an entertaining curio that you will watch once before
confining it to your dusty pile of DVDs that you
won't touch again for a good few years.
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