Steven Berkoff film 2010s-3
Transhuman. in a film directed by Nicholas Winter in 2016. Reporter Alex Black, played by Natasha James, discovers a skull and then nearby an abandoned building. In the building she gets caught in the labyrinth of rooms but soon escapes. She discovers a German Nazi leaflet with a warning written on the back.
Her friend Cassie disappears and she discusses events with her boss Til, played by Steven Berkoff. He supports Alex but does he have a more sinister role?
Some nice location shots, and occasional good photography, but a poor story hampered by different locations and redundant scenes, and poor interaction in the acting drags the film down as confusing scene follows another. The plot is a mad scientist story, with the creation of a master race of superhuman killers. The Transhuman creature is played by Alex Heaton who was six foot eleven. The creatures appear very briefly and apart from height are unimpressive, and a few gunshots are enough to kill them. According to the DVD commentary filming took place in Spain, Croatia and Kent, Bedfordshire, the Lake District in the UK. Steven Berkoff was filmed in a day in London. Director Nicholas Winter also writes, produced, edited and photographed and is also credited with additional production design. He says "I'd heard lots of mixed reports about working with Steven Berkoff because he's a character of some controversy depending on who you talk with, but he was absolutely fine with me and everybody else on the crew". Michael McKell would later appear in Prizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher as did Berkoff. All images from the film and the DVD cover. Quotes from the DVD commentary.
London Heist, also called Gunned Down. Steven Berkoff directed by Top Gear director Mark McQueen. The imdb website gives the date as 2017 (click here) though the film states copyright 2015 and the website of actor Craig Fairbrass gives 2016 (click here). The main character Jack is played by Craig Fairbrass and Berkoff plays his father Alfie. They worked together previously on Dead Cert from 2010. Jack successfully carries out a robbery (the heist of the title) which gives him enough to retire on. The father Alfie was also a criminal and the police could never pin anything on him, so they want to make sure they get the son.
Berkoff, playing Alfie, looks worried.
And it doesn't end well for him. He is tortured and killed, and the money from the heist is missing.
The son wants revenge and tries to find who the murderer was. On Alfie's phone there are calls registered from Lenny and Holly. Who are they?
Nathalie Cox as Jack's wife is given little to do. James Cosmo as the gang leader living it up in Spain appeared alongside Berkoff in We Still Kill the Old Way from 2014 and the episode Reflections in the Water from the series UFO in 1971. Best name from the credits Stavros Oikonomou-Mpeegtis who is an armed response officer. It seems to be his only film and I can't find anything else on him. The editor was Dan Roberts and the Director of Photography was Duane McClunie. Star Craig Fairbrass is also co-writes and an executive producer along with Jack Fairbrass and producer Luke Fairbrass- always the risk of less critical thinking in films where a number of family members have a role, you need an independent voice to help identify where weaknesses are- in the script. the direction or the acting- and making improvements. The film is a collection of clichés which have been seen in innumerable equally poor films previously. The website of Craig Fairbrass states there was a five-week shoot in Marbella, Spain and London (click here). Not everyone is as negative as me "...London Heist doesn’t have a single excessive scene. Alfie’s vicious death is juxtaposed with Ray and his team celebrating their latest job at Lenny’s club with booze and exotic dancers. The film shifts back and forth between the two sequences, enunciating the connection between sex and violence." (Tamal Kundu, The Cinemaholic, 2 Jan 2021, click here).
All images from the film.
Fanged Up. Berkoff again appearing in a low budget straight-to-DVD film, presumably getting a nice salary for a couple of hours work. Normally his name is used to help sell the film, but here he appears low in the credits and he does not appear in the trailer. The DVD cover above shows scenes which are not in the film and don't fit the plot. The hero Jimmy, played by Daniel O'Reilly, is sent to a prison. However it is actually a vampire lair- one of the few (if not only) good lines is "This is not a prison, it is a larder". Berkoff plays the governor. The hospital doctor, played by television "Eastenders" actress Danielle Harold, is the cliché woman expert, prim with extra large glasses...
...but after some vampire fighting the glasses are out.
Berkoff falls victim to his second-in-command (sorry, that was a spoiler, but few people reach this far in the film).
There is at times some interesting camerawork, but generally not. The film is very bad, with poor script, direction and acting. The film is directed by Christian James, and filmed in Portsmouth, UK in 2017. Best name from the credits is Poppy Skillman-Wilson who is the costume assistant. As well as film work she has campaigned to stop the sale of seahorses who are a protected species.
The Dot Man directed by Coppola, but it is neither Francis nor Sofia but cousin Bruno Coppola. "A brilliant and dedicated intelligence officer has connected all the dots providing key information leading to the dismantling of a terrorist cell in Turkey... Connecting the dots could cost him his life".
Berkoff plays General West.
Filming was in Bucharest. 2008. All images from the trailer of the film.
Point of No Return, the story of an aircraft crash caused by bogus parts. Kevin Glynn directs from 2018, his first full length film. Napier Aircraft Maintenance supply bogus parts from China, and it causes a plane malfunction with a passenger death. The log of parts are all signed off by Peter (played by Bern Deegan) who knew the parts were not originals but he didn't realise the parts were from China. Despite being involved in manslaughter he doesn't seem to think he has committed any crime (not does the film with the happy ending). During a business meeting a woman in lingerie comes with drinks, for no reason than presumably to make the film more interesting (it doesn't). The airline authorities carry out an investigation Berkoff is Evans, the manager of the authority investigator. In one scene he briefly plays piano. Peter goes on the run, but despite suspected by the police of manslaughter (and a murder on the way) he decides to teach his girlfriend to ride a motorbike- presumably, like the women in lingerie, this is to stop the film lagging into boredom.
During the film it is hinted that despite working for the authorities, Evans may be involved with the criminals, and this is confirmed as the film drags to its conclusion. A poor film, with an uninspired script by the director. The acting is amateurish and even Berkoff can't make the dialogue believable. Cinematography was by Kamil Krawczak. I can't find a credit for editing.
The film even manages to misspell Steven Berkoff's name.
The poster photoshops a scene not in the film, but at least it spells Steven Berkoff's name correctly. All images from the film and the poster.
Red Devil also called Red Rage, "An intertwining tale of sex, drugs, rock and woe", directed by Savaas D. Michael in 2019.
Oscar (Jack Turner) and Ella (Fernanda Diniz) doing God's work by executing Red Devil drug dealers.
Berkoff plays Lazarus. He would also appear in the director's next film Righteous Villains. Cinematography was by Andreas Neondreas and the editor was Benjamin Sayers. "A decidedly tedious, profoundly unfunny comedy-crime-fantasy set in some nightmarish version of a British metropolis (essentially a sound stage with murky lighting) where nearly everyone is high on something, be it super-skunk or a highly addictive, crack-like substance called Red Devil" (Leslie Felperin, 13 Nov 2019, The Guardian).
All images from the film.
The Last Faust. A filming of the two parts of Goethe's Faust with Berkoff given top billing as Dr. Goodfellow and Martin Hancock as Dr Faust and Glyn Dilley as Mefisto. This Faust is set in 2059 in a society where an artificial intelligence network is threatening humanity (shades of The Terminator). Berkoff tells the tale of Faust, though the film only follows the bare bones of Goethe, and is an excuse for a set of scenes, some like (dated) pop videos such as Madonna's vogue.
There are homages to the chess players in Bergman's The Seventh Seal...
...and to Marilyn Monroe.
Berkoff has the narrator's role providing an explanation for the scenes coming up.
Initially he is seen through the eyes of the android (again like The Terminator).
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