5 things to love about Extreme Heist aka Wicked Game (2002)

What’s it about:

Ex-Power Rangers actors Johnny Yong Bosch and Jason Narvy play a couple of criminals who stumble across a money laundering enterprise and steal a huge amount of money. Together with a FBI agent they must stay one step ahead of the cartel who want their money back.

5 things to love:

1. The stunts. My word, this film puts a lot of big budget films to shame. All the stuntmen throw themselves around with complete disregard for safety. People jump out of planes, off cars, down stairs, off roofs. At time it feels like a stunt show. A few bits look faked but most of it looks very painful and very dangerous. It’s akin to watching an episode of Jackass in places. Take a look at this sequence:-

2. Johnny Yong Bosch (terrible haircut aside) gives a fun, light-hearted performance and has a great rapport with Jason Narvy. Both of them aren’t great actors by any stretch of the imagination but the friendship between them both is palpable. Bosch I feel could have maybe given Mark Dacascos a run for his money if he’d been given a few more roles.

3. The plane scene. Okay, now I’m getting into spoiler territory. The film begins with a skydiving sequence (that’s shot for real, no blue screens here) and I sat there thing, okay so that’s cool. But then at the end Bosch and the main villain jump out of a plane together with one parachute and fight over it as they fall. It’s a sequence I’ve seen in other films (Point Break, Eraser, Terminal Velocity) only this time it’s a genuine sequence with no digital trickery. It made the whole thing really exciting to watch.

4. A lot of films have terrible ideas of how computers work and how you make money transfers but this one takes the cake. Everyone seems to be using technology from early 90s.

5. I’m a fan of the original Power Rangers TV show (it was a gateway drug for a lot of Japanese media) and it was great to see a cameo from Paul Schrier (Bulk from Power Rangers) playing the owner of a restaurant. He and Narvy (who played Skulk) give each other a knowing look which made me smile.

1 thing it did need:

Better cameras. The whole thing looks like it was shot on MiniDV and it’s super grainy. Had they got a better DOP and budget this might have been a cult classic. As it is it’s too ugly and rough around the edges for most viewers. I loved it though.