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Lazarus Rising
USA 2015
produced by Spencer Cohen, Mike Pfaff, Rufus Chaffee, Judy Coleman (executive) for Wild Beagle Productions
directed by John Depew
starring Mike Pfaff, Devon Ogden, Adoni Maropis, Eric Roberts, C. Thomas Howell, Lenny Clarke, Sal Rendino, Sean Carmichael, Megan Le, Cedric Stewart, William DeCoff, Ben Chase, Emma Goodman, Emma Gruttadauria, Tomas Boykin, Alaina Gianci, Aaron Firicano, Bobby Kenney, Candy O'Terry, Erika Wilson, Camille Farnan, Deirdre Lorenz, Melanie Camp, Shawn Anthony, Curtis Eames, Elizabeth Boskey
written by Rufus Chaffee, music by Kenneth Hampton, Dexter Njoku, Nigel Lowe, fight choreography by Joshua Bradley, Chris Bradley
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Fitz (Mike Pfaff) is a contract killer, and he has no illusions about
his job, it's dirty business. But he figures he has what it takes to stay
sane in the insane world of his, by having a loving girlfriend in Emma
(Devon Ogden), who of course hasn't got the first idea of what he's doing
for a living, and taking care of his heroin-addicted brother Sean (Sean
Carmichael), thus at least doing something good to make up for all the bad
he has done. Then though his boss Dallen (Sal Rendino) makes him part of
a group to clean up some of Connelly's (Eric Roberts) connections, as
Connelly's a politician running for senat, and he wants a clean slate
before the election ... even if that means offing some of his
"acquaintances" - and unfortunately, one of Connelly's
acquaintances is his former mistress, none other than Emma. Now Fitz would
go through hell to save Emma, starting with killing his partner of many
years (Megan Le) without batting an eyelid. Thing is, Fitz can't just dash
in there as the night in shining armour and save Emma, he has to in the
process tell her what he does for a living, and has to come to terms with
the fact that she was Connelly's mistress, maybe when they were together
already, too. Plus, the two have to skip town and take Sean with them if
they want to have any hope to come out of this alive. And it's not only
that Dallen throws everything at Fitz and company he has got, he's only
middle management, but those higher up send Mr Gray (Adoni Maropis) after
him, a total psycho but perfect killing machine - but also a man with a
strict code ... and thus he refuses to kill Emma, on grounds that she is
pregnant, but has no problems taking the usually very collected Fitz apart
and relieving him of Emma's care. But with Gray wanting to confront
Connelly and Fitz not yet dead, things can only lead to disaster ... Sure,
quite a bit of this movie might seem a bit far-fetched, especially all
these perfect hitmen with their codes of honour ... but that doesn't
really matter as this provides the perfect groundwork for a very exciting
story that does find a good balance between character development and
pulse-pounding action, weaves an interesting enough narrative web to never
become moronic, but is also is perfectly paced to never become boring. And
many exciting and well-staged action sequences see to it that the audience
is kept at the ege of their seats. Now true, the film is rather on the low
budget side ... but the audience gets more than their money's worth!
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