The brief alliance between action star Gary Daniels and director Darren Doane resulted in two movies, only one of which got a DVD release. Surprisingly, it was not the conventional, star-studded ULTIMATE TARGET but this oddball experiment wherein the only recognizable name is Daniels himself. BLACK Friday is among the strangest of starring flicks the British Danger Man has in his filmography, and it's far from his best. I'm not sure if I'd declare it one of his worst, but it's definitely not for everyone.
The story: When the home of a black ops agent-turned-lawyer (Daniels) is taken over by entities in possession of a devastating weapon, he must break past the government security to rescue his family.
Director Doane has not made an action movie, here – he's made an artistic thriller. This rough-around-the-edges adventure carries just enough fighting and shooting to earn the label, but rather than pumping adrenaline, its objective is to see how long it can stretch your attention before getting to its eventual twist. While this twist is pretty decent, it's not worth the wait. The film regularly takes three times as long as conventional movies to depict almost any event – whether it's an investigation scene, an assassination, or a character walking down the hallway – and there are many times when the fast-forward button was my best friend. The feature mixes stark (read: cheap) scenery with a schizophrenic soundtrack to create an uneasy mood that I never got used to, ensuring that I never connected with the story.
The DVD cover features Gary holding a sword that's nowhere to be seen in the movie. Beyond this, the sparse action in the film is less disappointing than it is odd. Daniels' initial bout with action coordinator Tsuyoshi Abe is fairly conventional, if longer than the average brawl and paced differently. The showdown with villain Ryan Kos runs even longer – it's at least three minutes long – and is pretty weird for Kos' reliance on an obvious double and an odd sequence wherein the two fighters are suddenly scrapping against a black background. The art show never ends with this movie, even when it comes to something as basic as punching and kicking.
For reasons I can't explain, I went into this movie with fairly high hopes. Maybe someone who approaches it with more even expectations will have a better time, but I am pretty disappointed at having wasted mine. This is not a movie for Gary Daniels fans – it's not even for general action lovers. Should this one fall into your hands, treat it as the experiment it was meant to be.
