Enhanced (2021 | Canada | 99 minutes | James Mark)
There’s a two-panel cartoon from Gary Larson’s beloved comic strip, The Far Side, that contrasts what we say to dogs, versus what dogs actually hear. In the first panel, an owner admonishes his pooch, Ginger, for getting into the garbage, yelling at her to stay out of the trash or else. Ginger, meantime, glances up at her person, oblivious. Larson’s second panel reveals that everything Ginger hears is white noise, except for her name: “Blah blah blah GINGER blah blah blah blah blah GINGER,” etc.
In the case of Enhanced, a new low-budget sci-fi action flick debuting on VOD March 26, the viewer is Ginger. And the movie is that flustered owner flapping his gums ineffectually.
I doubt anyone will really latch onto much of anything anyone says in Enhanced, even if a viewer does happen to share a name with one of the film’s characters. The foot locker full of clichés, action scenes, and/or random bits of goofiness jostles things between the stretches of spoken blah-blah a lot more readily. So in the interest of reinforcing my assertion, I shall relate to you a detailed, spoiler-free synopsis of Enhanced in Far Side Ginger-speak.
Blah, blah, blah, SPECIAL OPS TEAM CAPTURING SUPERPOWERED MUTANTS, blah blah blah PLUCKY YOUNG SUPERPOWERED MUTANT WOMAN ON THE RUN, blah, blah, blah, blah, GOVERNMENT COVERUP, blah blah, blah, KUNG FU, blah, blah, SUPERMUTANT ENERGY BEING NEEDS TO KILL OTHER MUTANTS, blah, blah, blah, SPECIAL OPS SOLDIER HELPS PLUCKY YOUNG SUPERPOWERED MUTANT WOMAN, blah, blah, blah, KUNG FU, blah, blah, blah, blah, SOLDIERS GET TOSSED AROUND LIKE THROW PILLOWS, blah, blah, blah, blah, MORE KUNG FU, blah, blah, blah, blah, MORE SOLDIERS KUNG FU’ED BY SUPERMUTANT, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, CAR CRASH, blah, blah, blah, SUPERMUTANT ENERGY BEING KUNG FU’S OTHER MUTANTS AND TURNS THEM INTO POWDER, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, SCIENTIST IN HIDING PROVIDES EXPOSITION, blah, blah, blah, MORE KUNG FU, blah, blah, blah, FORMER OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATER POINTS A GUN AND SCOWLS, blah, blah, blah, blah.
As you can gather from the above, Enhanced serves as spiritual kin to the modestly-budgeted genre flicks that the Syfy Channel cranked out in the early 2000s like so many Big Macs coated in X-Men/Terminator-flavored secret sauce. And in the movie’s defense, it’s cheap genre fast food served up with a smidge more craft than you’d expect.
Co-writer/director James Mark worked for a couple of decades as a stuntman, so not surprisingly the well-choreographed action scenes pack a punch (especially given the obviously low budget). It doesn’t hurt that James employs his younger brother Chris Mark, a multiple Black Belt champ with graceful fighting chops and a measure of charisma, to play the Supermutant Energy Being. The elder Mark keeps the pacing at a steady clip, and the movie sports at least one genuinely good performance from Alanna Bale, an engaging and natural presence as the aforementioned Plucky Young Superpowered Mutant Woman on the Run. Those positives don’t exactly transform Enhanced into something, y’know, good, but it’s amusing goofy fun if you know exactly what to expect, and accept it accordingly.
Sidebar: The majority of hardcore genre fans (Enhanced’s most likely audience) live for the presence of character actors. As such, no crusty old acting vets or ex-TV stars surface to lend gravitas to the shenanigans. The most familiar face amidst the cast (to these eyes, at least) turns out to be Elvis Stojko, a three-time World Figure Skating Champ and Silver Medalist in the 1994 and ’98 Olympics. He shows up in a small role as a military officer who (you guessed it) points a gun, scowls, and fires the gun before getting tossed like a throw pillow by Chris Mark. Blah, blah, low-budget genre movies make strange bedfellows, blah, blah, blah.
Enhanced will premiere on VOD beginning on March 26.