#14: A Gentleman's Play (2002)

Description

The beginning of a new era for Brand, this is the first film fully helmed by Dina Calabria and marks the debut of Sir Collin Prestor as Brand.

The film is also remembered for its unusual opening, with two pre-credit sequences. Bryce Crisp’s Brand being killed (a scene we now know was extensively edited, along with additional footage), and a plane being shot down by a solar-powered drone missile with unlimited range. While this establishes the threat, keen-eyed viewers who watch the movie after 2013 will note a cameo by actor Ken Allen as a passenger on the plane. Does this lend credence to the theory that the previous Jove Brand must always die on screen before the next squire is chosen to take up the alias of the Royal Gamesman?

Prestor’s Brand recovers the edge as portrayed by Connor Shaw with a measure of Bryce Crisp polish. The tight plot features Brand investigating the destruction of Wolfshead by the zealot Shepard Ryder. On full display are the concepts hinted at in the later Bryce Crisp films. Brand is both grounded and fantastic. The gadgets and vehicles are toned down, the action scenes are tense and visceral, and the cinematography sumptuous.

Though timely post-911, one wonders of their cultural impact of these concepts had they occurred ten years prior.

JOVE BRAND IS NEAR DEATH