Bullet Points: SuperGrid
Director Lowell Dean has gained a good amount of credibility from me based on his WolfCop movies so I knew it wouldn’t be long after its release that I would find my way to his new action flick SuperGrid. The trailer certainly brings to mind movies like Mad Max and David Michod’s The Rover, just with more Canadians. Let’s see if that famous Canadian politeness will translate to this apocalyptic road movie.
Synopsis: Mining conglomerates have turned the Northern US and Canada into a wasteland. The water is a mess, the people are dying from the black lung, and it’s nearly impossible to find a source of income without murdering someone. The Campbell brothers used to be experts at driving and acquiring things. That was before Jesse (Leo Fafard) retired and Deke (Marshall Williams) got their sister killed on a run. Now, they’re forced to team up for one last run to protect whatever humanity they have left.
- A Dark Future: Everyone is dying from the black lung. Some mishaps dealing with mining have made a vast part of North America nearly uninhabitable. It’s a mess. Folks scrap by with the little that they have and people use water as currency. The only thing more valuable than the life-giving liquid is a gun and some bullets.
- Meet the Campbells: We are introduced to Deke (Marshall Williams) first. He’s the younger brother. The one who just didn’t know when to quit. He gets picked up by the thugs working with The Consortium and brought to their leader Lazlo (Jonathan Cherry). As much as I liked Cherry’s work in the WolfCop movies, I thought that Lazlo ended up being the weakest of characters in SuperGrid. At no point was I convinced that he was someone to be feared.
- Brothers: Deke is in some serious doo doo. His sister was on his last run, which was supposed to be his final run, but she didn’t make it back. As if it wasn’t bad enough, now Deke is being forced to take up that same mission in order to finally get himself from being under The Consortium’s control. Guess he’ll have to bring big brother Jesse back into the mix.
- Arterial red paint job: WolfCop alum Amy Matysio has a small part as the mechanic and supplier of the vehicle that the Campbell’s will use on their mission to retrieve the package for The Consortium. Her character had me smiling from the get go. I would have either given her a couple of more lines or used her for a little emotional weight by having Lazlo kill her later. Either way, the truck that she gives the brothers is both kickass and horrible to look at. I guess that is part of its charm.
- Black Lake: The brother stop by a Native American town where they have some friends. The small town becomes a big part of the story of the film as there are plenty of characters there to join in on the action and Deke has a love interest there in the form of the lovely Tinsel Korey. She and others are working on finding a cure for the black lung that is killing the people living in the area and Deke is obviously dealing with it, as well. The location is the only hopeful spot we’ve seen so far in the film. That has to count for something.
- Overwatch hottie: Natalie Krill might just be the MVP of the entire movie! She’s the ex-wife of Jesse and the one who has drawn the unlucky duty of playing “overwatch” (she follows them at a distance and protects them from baddies) for a duo that is always getting themselves in trouble.
- Captain Charisma and bag-head: Shit starts getting really real for the bros once they get to the Canadian border. They run into former WWE Superstar Christian and then go blow for blow with a guy who looks like Jason Voorhees. The amount of potential that bagged bastard has was insane but I thought it was squandered a bit by how little of time he spent raging against them. That’s probably the one knock I had on the entire movie…it is one of the few movies that needed another 10 or 15 minutes.
- Return to the lake: All of the characters end up staging a big meetup for the finale. As you might expect, the fate of the world just might depend on it and our heroic brothers are finally starting to click on all cylinders. The final throwdown could have been better but makes sense considering these characters weren’t a bunch of special forces guys or something. I was really impressed with most of the actors and especially with Williams and Fafard. I would have also liked to have seen a bit more from Krill. Her character had a lot more to it that didn’t seem to make it in the final cut.
The Verdict: SuperGrid is much better than the 3.7 IMDb rating that it currently has. The characters aren’t expertly developed but there is enough there for this type of film and I thought the actors did their parts in getting them across. The film has a real mood to it that you’ll recognize pretty early on. I’m a little surprised that it wasn’t about 10 or 15 mins longer as I think it could have really used a scene or two to make bagged-head dude or The Consortium look like worse guys. I believe that one of director Lowell Dean’s greatest strengths is getting the right actors in the right roles and I liked Fafard and Williams more than I thought I would. The movie had enough action to keep the plot moving forward and not too much to make it seem over the top. Also, you can’t go wrong with the casting of Captain Charisma, Jay Reso!
