![]() Reilly in Kong: Skull Island earlier this year. Callan Mulvey fills the Dennis Hopper Apocalypse Now role, with his red bandana making him an even more blatant surrogate than John C. There are also heavy Vietnam allusions, both to the conflict and the films it inspired. It’s a gleeful reunion for action fans, and Uwais, in a much lighter role than The Raid’s somber Rama, is better than he’s ever been. The Indonesian martial artists bring their distinctive frenetic fighting style to the film, which puts it a mark above most direct-to-video action movies. The Raid superstars Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian lead the resistance in Laos and also provided the fight choreography. Most of the sequel takes place in South East Asia and that brings with it new cinematic iconography and sociopolitical underpinnings. Most valuable, however, is Beyond Skyline’s global scope. The set pieces are necessarily spread out, but the increased reach does make the Skyline pictures feel cheaper than their Cloverfield counterparts. Skyline and its sequel, however, commit to full-blown B-movie alien action. While the budget levels of the two series are actually relatively similar (reportedly between $10–25m), the inventive formal approaches of the two Cloverfield films (found footage and single location) defy their limited resources. Where Cloverfield has pursued a prestige-like mystery box approach, Skyline should stick to its low-budget B-movie origins. Skyline has plenty of room to distinguish itself, though. Beyond Skyline is the first Skyline or Cloverfield film to be rated R and O’Donnell ups the brutality dutifully. Both first films present the invasion from the perspective of a party of good-looking young people, and both series interrupt the drama with surprising flashes of violence. While there’s nothing as drastic as Cloverfield to 10 Cloverfield Lane’s genre shift (kaiju monster movie to psychological thriller chamber piece), Beyond Skyline moves away from its predecessor’s sporadic action to join a full-on resistance movement.Ĭloverfield and Skyline share more than just the invasion premise. Both films open in Los Angeles as an aerial attack begins, but Beyond Skyline quickly advances through the first film’s beats and transports Frank Grillo and co. Rather than following the first film’s characters, Liam O’Donnell’s sequel provides an alternative perspective on the first film’s invasion. Seven years later, the little sci-fi blockbuster that could is back with Beyond Skyline and the burgeoning series has taken a page out of another hugely successful invasion franchise: Cloverfield. That being said, $67m at the worldwide box office (on a frugal $10m budget) obviously delivered a sweet check for someone. Directors Colin and Greg Strause teased a sequel on the original press tour and the critically derided first film ends on an action cliffhanger, but a follow-up hasn’t exactly been awaited with baited breath. ![]() In the pantheon of franchise starters, it’s safe to say 2010’s low budget alien invasion flick Skyline lurks somewhere in the rafters. It’s no secret that Grillo is one of my favorite actors working in film and TV today and his performances are always ripe with his special kind of gravitas.Ĭheck out my Action-Flix Approved review of SKYLIN3S here and if you haven’t checked out the movie yet, get on it STAT! It is now playing in theaters as well as VOD.With its second movie headed into theaters, we wonder about the cult building around the Strause Brothers’ ‘Skyline’ franchise. Grillo will be sending next in the long awaited Boss Level with Mel Gibson as that film will debut on HULU next year. I can hope can Iko Uwais brought some serious martial arts street cred to the sequel and I’m sure his return would be meant with open arms from fans everywhere. Now the only thing that would be better than this would be bringing back Iko Uwais as well. The third film establishes that Matt Corley has disappeared and the ending confirms that if a fourth film does happen, the plot will focus on Grillo’s character once again as it appears that a rescue mission is being launched to bring him back. ![]() Lyndsey Morgan, of course, plays the grown up Rose in the latest entry. Along the way, he becomes a surrogate father to Rose who is a special hybrid child that is the key to the survival of the human race. Mark Corley, as played by Grillo, is an LA cop who gets caught in the firestorm of the initial alien invasion and must survive the onslaught even as his son Trent becomes a “Pilot” which is a human/alien hybrid. A post shared by Liam O’Donnell you can see, Grillo mentions “Let’s go make another one brother” to which O’Donnell replies “ let’s do this! Can’t wait” I think I can safely say for everyone YES PLEASE!
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