The is nothing like a "bad" Danny Trejo movie. And when I say "bad" I mean "good." Unfortunately this is just a bad Danny Trejo movie with no quotation marks. Danny plays an Eastern holy man/healer who likes flowers. He gets killed in the first scene, but unlike the movie, he doesn't completely die. He can't pass over because there is still work to do, so he occasionally resurrects and helps others along the way.

Danny is killed because his peaceful village, where young girls bathe topless in the stream, is raided by Gary Daniels to abduct girls for the sex trade. Meanwhile, John Edward Lee is getting ready to die and has a brief case full of money. He wants a woman. Together Danny and Lee fight against the bad guys (with some police help) to save Nana (Krystal Vee).

The film is rather boring. While there is killing, there are not any of the "walking tall" action one would expect in a Trejo film. This is far from a grindhouse, although it makes you think it started out as one. A rather lame role for Trejo in this weak action-drama. The film takes place in Pali, an imaginary Asian city/country near India. Might be an interesting film for Buddhists who are Trejo fans.

F-bomb, sexual situations, brief nudity.

If you ever find yourself walking near a mansion guarded by heavyset (900 lbs) dogs, start sketching it. You might want to instead draw something completely different though, like a woman (fully pregnant) climbing a cliff, pouring with sweat. She would have little iron cubes for eyes. And a belt full of whips.

After the first part of this movie, I wanted to turn it off due to its dark depressing matter. However, the movie takes you into a very dark place in order to set the stage for the redemption that the female lead makes at the end.

I won't deny that this movie is flawed at nearly every level, its cinematography being the one redeeming value, but the lead actress does grow on you and at the end of the movie you feel as though you have been on a journey with her. A little more than half-way through the movie you begin to see that the tone is moving from the darkness into a story of redemption and a lesson that love conquers fear. The movie was courageous in that it took you deeper into despair in the beginning and held you there longer than most movies will dare, and I admit I turned it off in the middle and came back to finish it the next day. The end leaves you feeling good, providing you don't feel like you wasted your time watching it, which I don't.

So if you like movies with a heart-felt message that love is the path to healing, and you haven't got anything better to do, this movie will suffice. If you don't care about that subject matter, and you want to critique the movie based on its writing, directing, editing and acting, I would say pass it up.

I am interested to see how this writer/director does on his next film, which is currently in pre-production according to IMDb.