Well Go USA will be releasing Hell Hath No Fury, a war thriller from action director Jesse V. Johnson (Triple Threat, Avengement, The Debt Collector) – to Blu-ray & DVD on December 21, 2021. The film is also currently available now on all digital platforms.
Hell Hath No Fury stars Nina Bergman (Doom: Annihilation), Daniel Bernhardt (Atomic Blonde), Louis Mandylor (The Debt Collector), Timothy V. Murphy (Sons of Anarchy), and Dominiquie Vandenberg (Triple Threat).
Read the official details below:
The film, directed by Jesse V. Johnson (Triple Threat, Avengement, The Debt Collector) and starring Nina Bergman (Doom: Annihilation, Assassin X, video game Call of Duty: Black Ops 4), is at its essence a story about one woman who single-handedly takes on the might of the German war machine, a ragtag unit of U.S. infantrymen, and the likes of the French resistance as each faction searches for a cache of gold stolen by the Nazis.
“We are thrilled to once again be working with Jesse, who has long been known both for his action chops and his knack for finding new stories nestled amongst oft-portrayed circumstances,” said Doris Pfardrescher, President and CEO at Well Go USA Entertainment. “Hell Hath No Fury centers around this powerful, enigmatic woman who audiences will be able to root for throughout—even if they aren’t sure exactly what her objective is until the end. It’s a thought-provoking journey through some of the possible dangers, choices, and consequences that faced real-life women in World War II-era France.”
Hell Hath No Fury was directed by Jesse V. Johnson and features a powerhouse cast that includes Nina Bergman, Daniel Bernhardt (The Matrix Reloaded, John Wick, Atomic Blonde), Louis Mandylor (The Debt Collector, My Big Fat Greek Wedding I and II), Timothy V. Murphy (Snowpiercer, Sons of Anarchy), and former French Foreign Legion Special Forces soldier and knife-fighting technician Dominiquie Vandenberg (Triple Threat, The Mercenary, Martin Scorcese’s Gangs of New York).
“Hell Hath No Fury was made to celebrate complex acts of resistance by so many women that have gone unheralded and unwritten about for far, far too long,” said Jesse V. Johnson, the film’s director. “While the character of Marie DuJardin was actually influenced by several women who did incredible things during WW2—including my grandmother, Anne Armstrong (British Army, 1941-1943)—the film portrays the spirit of these women and the complexity of their circumstances through the vehicle of a fully fictional narrative.”
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I watched this last night while I was super stoned and I enjoyed the hell out of it. These are some of my random thoughts.
There are some excellent performances here. Nina Bergman is great. I love seeing the wide range of emotions her character puts on display, and how she convincingly and affectingly transitions between all of them as the movie progresses. Louis Mandylor, while maybe not quite possessing the same range, I still happen to love all the same. He gets so dedicated his role.
I went into this movie expecting not so much an action flick, but rather, a war drama with maybe some action scenes sprinkled throughout. Even so, I was still impressed with how many action scenes there were toward the beginning and middle of the movie. The tension in this movie is cranked up to 100 pretty much all the time, and when the violence happens, it’s absolutely explosive. Blood squibs and practical FX abound. The style of violence used here gives me heavy Savage Dog vibes, which isn’t a bad thing at all.
One Letterboxd reviewer calls this “a pulpy Samuel Fuller style grime-a-thon, but in DTV action movie clothes,” and honestly, I think that’s a perfect description. This movie’s screenplay reminds me of some of the old B-level Columbia noirs that I have in my blu-ray collection: Not perfect, and maybe a bit cheesy, but yet my brain is somehow 100% sold on it anyway. I was seriously glued to the story the entire time.
Some reviews mention that the frequent use of flashbacks somewhat kill the pacing of the movie, but I honestly didn’t feel that way at all. There are some really key plot points during these flashbacks and I thought they were all handled really tastefully.
Man, the VFX really needed just a *little* bit more money though. You can tell they tried to stretch their budget as much as they could, but there are at least 2 instances of CGI that just didn’t quite cut the mustard – especially in blu ray quality on a 55″ TV screen. Even the practical FX, as excellent as they are, probably could’ve been pushed just a bit further (ex: dozens of bullets audibly raining down on some dude, but you only see a single blood squib go off on his chest. Maybe that was all they could afford on that scene?)
There’s also a particular shot where they completely forgot to add the muzzle flashes onto a gun. Oops!
There’s some odd choices with the lensing here, as in, the literal camera lens they used to shoot this movie has a heavy amount of edge distortion. Obviously lots of movies shoot with lenses like this, and they make it work; however, I think sometimes they forgot on this particular shoot and people’s bodies + faces will occassionally end up in the very edge of the frame, appearing very warped and distorted. Not a huge deal, it just looks sloppy when it happens.
There’s a scene where I’m like 99% sure Timothy V Murphy’s character goes completely off-script, and yet they included it in the movie anyway. It’s a deadpan, serious scene, where he drops a grenade down into a hole in the ground. A practical effect goes off just inches away from his feet, and the actor freezes in place, completely caught off guard, and laughs at someone off camera, saying, “God-DAMN! I’m all okay, but that was bigger than I thought it was going to be!” I honestly wonder if they went as far as to ADR it in post so they could have his characters intended accent still intact for the final product. I’d love to get an answer from Jesse V Johnson on whether I’m correct on this!
Dominiquie Vandenberg is in this movie. I don’t really know who that guy is, other than he seems to collaborate with JVJ a lot, and I know I’m going to have a good time whenever I see him appear on screen. Frankly, as much as I like him, I don’t think he’s actually a very good actor – which leads to a weird dissonance when he’s trying to have an emotional moment with Nina Bergman who’s on a totally different level.
As serious and hard-edged as this movie is, there’s some well-placed little bits of comedic relief here and there, and I really appreciated them.
The final 20 minutes are an indulgence.
If I were to compare this movie to something else in Jesse V Johnson’s filmography, I would say it compares most closely to “Savage Dog”, however, I think “Hell Hath No Fury” is done 100x better. I would go as far as to say this is one of my new favorite movies created by JVJ. I still can’t get over just how much I was invested into the story.
I know I’ve dogged on some of the more technical aspects of this movie, but even if it’s a bit rough around the edges, I still LOVED it as a whole. Throughout its runtime I couldn’t shake the impression that “Hell Hath No Fury” shoots way higher than its budget ever should have allowed, and yet somehow it actually manages to stick the landing.
While I can’t guarantee that you’ll enjoy it as much as I did, I would ask that you at least give it a shot. It absolutely deserves to be watched.
LOL good write up, Dan. Way too good to be just another “comment”. super stoned, eh? Wonder what you’d think of it otherwise! 😉