By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Daniel Benmayor
Starring: Adam Rayner | Josh Yadon | Luciano Acuna Jr. | Marie Avgeropoulos | Rafi Gavron | Taylor Lautner
Country: united_states
Year: 2015
Running time: 94
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2401097/combined
Kyle says: “As a die-hard vampire movie fan, and unapologetic TWILIGHT SAGA maven, who sighed along with legions of tweens at the performance of Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black the werewolf in NEW MOON and ECLIPSE, I have followed with interest his attempts to forge a career based upon something other than physical assets. Indications are not encouraging so far. But while Lautner is not much of an actor, he is an accomplished karate student and martial artist. He gets a chance to demonstrate his skills in both the 2011 ABDUCTION (with an intriguing DVD supplement about the filming of chases and special effects) and the current TRACERS. The latter has much to recommend it as a genre item; it’s the story of a New York bicycle messenger in trouble with both the law and a local Chinese loan racket, who becomes interested in Parkour after crossing paths with an enigmatic young woman to whom he is attracted. He joins her group, whose leader is obviously concealing a secret, in order to make badly-needed extra money doing shady errands that require quick and quiet entrances and exits, but is warned without explanation to stay out of Chinatown.
“Parkour is a currently popular discipline derived from military obstacle course training, using only the body and immediate surroundings for propulsion. Although French in origin, fans familiar with Asian cinema’s many outstanding chase scenes will immediately recognize Parkour’s origins in ‘vaulting’ and various movements associated with martial arts stars. (The CW’s ARROW protagonist Oliver Queen is a practitioner of Parkour, and actor Stephen Amell trained extensively to be convincing with Queen’s extreme athleticism.) The group’s leader Miller (Adam Rayner) says upon meeting Cam (Lautner), who has just barely escaped death, ‘That’s the great thing about Parkour, my friend: There are no rules’. But it is very dangerous unless you know what you are doing, especially when the work is illegal.
“Including chase scenes beautifully edited by Peter Amundson, with some atmospheric New York location cinematography by Nelson Cragg, TRACERS offers some terrific Parkour set pieces, obviously performed by trained experts and professional stuntmen, enough of which Taylor Lautner does himself to create a positive impression as an action star. The movie additionally offers a pulsating soundtrack of percussive rock by Lucas Vidal, as well as appropriate source music, such as AKA’s ‘Hey Mister’ as Cam buzzes around NYC on his new bike and initially encounters some Parkour practitioners. One of the four writers sneaks in a reference to both THE TWILIGHT SAGA and MTV’s werewolf show TEEN WOLF, when Miller shows up at Cam’s tent, inexplicably pitched on top of a high-rise, and sagely reminds Cam, ‘Outside there’s a natural order to things. There can only be one alpha for every pack’. You just know that one of the two is going down. TRACERS is not big on plot coherence or character development, but it does offer the pleasures of minor genre entries. 3 cats.
“Friday, July 31, 2015 on Netflix, New York”