Bullet Points: Into the Ashes

All of this recent talk of Frank Grillo and the release of Point Blank got me searching around on imdb and I saw that the ageless wonder had another film releasing in the month of July. Color me surprised! I decided that since I didn’t get the chance to watch Point Blank immediately upon its release I would try to remedy that by checking out his NEWEST release.

Synopsis: With an honest job and a loving wife, Nick Brenner believed he had safely escaped his violent, criminal history. But his old crew hasn’t forgotten about him or the money he stole, and when they take what Nick now values the most – his wife – he has nothing left to lose. Confronted by the town sheriff, who is also his father-in-law, Nick must decide if he will stay on his new path or indulge in his need for revenge and force his enemies to pay for what they have done.

• The Slow Burn: If you’re looking for one of those movies that grabs you by the balls in the first few minutes then you’ll be seriously disappointed. It reminds me of something more in the vein of A History of Violence or Out of the Furnace. It takes its time to put you in a false sense of security. You’ll get to the point where you almost want something to happen to the main characters just to get a better opportunity to learn more about them.
• The cabin in the woods: No, it’s not a horror film. Nick Brenner (Luke Grimes) and his buddy Sal (James Badge Dale) are working on a new hunting cabin a couple of hours from their small town. Like many, they use the constant renovation/build time to get away from the mundane life and to drink beer and shoot guns. It sounds like a small slice of heaven to me but any action expert (Me!) knows that this cabin won’t be such a calming place when the shit finally does hit the fan.

• Poor Nick: Not even halfway through the film and our main star is now bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds in the torso. I know from my studies that some major organs reside in those areas and Nick probably doesn’t have much time to live. Let’s hope he gets a chance at some payback before he bleeds to death.
• Not dead yet: The action in the film is secondary to the arc that Nick’s character goes through over the course of the story. He’s a guy who ran away from being a pretty bad guy and now some of those folks he worked with are back to exact a little vengeance and to get “their” money back. There is nothing new about the story but I do dig the way that director Aaron Harvey builds each scene with just the right amount of tension. It never feels like we sit too long on an expression and being the action fanatic that I am, my only qualm is that there wasn’t another shootout or two sprinkled in for my own pleasure.

• The cast: I think the cast did a really good job. James Badge Dale plays Nick’s good buddy Sal and I always enjoy him in everything. If anything, the lack of information on many of the characters just made me more curious about them. There is a lot of quiet moments in Into the Ashes. Almost to the point where you’ll be begging to see something and not just the after effects of it. Relationships are more often shown and not so much talked about. I prefer this kind of interaction between characters than to have the script be just a bunch of crap that doesn’t need to be said. I really appreciated the nuances the actors were allowed to bring to their respective characters.
• Interstate Hotel: More proof that nothing good ever happens in an interstate hotel. We get to see through the eyes of the Sheriff what amounts to a good bit of killing but it isn’t until he meets up with one of our other main characters that the film flashes back and shows us the actual events. It’s an interesting way of doing it and while I found myself looking time and again at how many minutes were remaining, it was effective in keeping me glued to the screen.

The Verdict: There is a real sense of foreboding in the movie from the first scene. You just know that nothing is going to go well for Nick Brenner and his loved ones. The fact that the excellent Robert Taylor plays his father in law and local Sheriff is a real asset to the story and the other actors involved, as well. Frank Grillo gets to be the bad guy here, and even though he doesn’t spend much time on screen he still gets to do some really bad things. If you’re a fan of flicks like No Country for Old Men, A History of Violence, and Christian Bale’s Out of the Furnace then you’ll probably enjoy Into the Ashes. I know I did.