Dear Watchers,It’s another Genre Movie Wednesday, and this week we have action on our minds. Our expert in the field, Robert Daniels, makes a couple of intriguing selections, one a period war movie focused on a farmer, the other a superhero thriller focused on a vampire. Both pack a punch and should generate a little heat in these chilly January days. Read what Robert has to say about each below, then head here for three more of his picks. Happy viewing. ‘The Last Front’
Where to watch: Stream “The Last Front” on Amazon Prime Video. The year is 1914, and the stoic Belgian farmer and widower Leonard Lambert (Iain Glen) confronts tragedy when German troops, led by a bloodthirsty Lt. Laurentz Von Rauch (Joe Anderson), murder his son and decide the town is part of the resistance. A grief-stricken Leonard picks up arms for revenge and to defend his people. “The Last Front,” directed by Julien Hayet-Kerknawi, is a quietly vicious war film. Rauch is a drunk who kills indiscriminately and without remorse. There are quick executions and shots to the head, often filmed with startling openness. A woodland sequence in which Lambert hunts down Rauch’s company becomes a cathartic evocation of the phrase “the fog of war.” ‘Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra’
Where to watch: Stream “Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra” on Hulu. To unsuspecting eyes, Chandra (Kalyani Priyadarshan) is a demure young woman. When she moves across the street from Sunny (Naslen K. Gafoor) and his party-animal roommates, she steadfastly keeps to herself. Few know that she is a yakshi, a vampire sworn to defend the weak, who has arrived in Bangalore, India, to investigate an organ-snatching gang led by a misogynistic police officer named Nachiyappa Gowda (Sandy Master). In Dominic Arun’s epic superhero adventure “Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra,” style and intensity mix for an imaginative vampire film. A deadpan Priyadarshan puts a new spin on the taciturn hero cliché, delivering big, slow-motion body blows and deep bloody bites with cool intensity. These elements combine for a gory confrontation that leaves you breathlessly anticipating where Arun will take this story next.
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