REVIEW: STEEL CITY

STEEL CITY, directed by Shawn DaWain Holt and Quinsonta Boyd, is a fun little movie. As I've read elsewhere, this film kind of plays out like "First Blood on a budget" and I think that sums it up pretty well, all things considered.

It starts with ex-military drifter Max (Shawn DaWain Holt) wandering into town (sound familiar?) and while he's not hassled by Brian Dennehy the local sheriff, he does end up saving someone being chased by the local thugs, one Winston (Kyle A. Lee) This naturally puts Max on a collision course with local crime boss Frost (Carlito Doss) We're treated to a few fight scenes before the final showdown, and because the film is short, just under 40 minutes, there's quite a lot of action packed in there.

The shooting locations had a real gritty, lived in feeling which added a nice layer of good production value to the film and looked to be largely Granite City, Illinois (a filming location that yours truly is quite familiar with) so that was a nice touch to see utilized.

Make no mistake however, this was an extremely raw and low-budget production, with picture and sound on the rough side of the scale, and with a war flashback scene being a prime offender here, which definitely fell under the heading of "If you can't make something believeble, best not to show it."

But that aside, this was a fun little film with some impressive stunts/fight moves from the lead actor. Personally, even though it's uneven and very rough in spots, I think that it shows a lot of ambition and I would like to see what creator Holt can do with a budget behind him.