Summary
Intensive Care is an action film that plays by the rules until tearing up the rule-book to leave you surprised.
Intensive Care is directed by Jared Bentley, who worked on the special effects of Army of Darkness, with this being his feature film debut. It stars Tara Macken (Iron Man 3), Jai Rodriguez (The Producers) and Kevin Sizemore (Fear the Walking Dead) and is an action-crime-horror hybrid focusing on one live-in nurse fighting back against three low-life criminals.
Intensive Care’s story starts by showing us the simple nursing job Alex (Tara Macken) is working caring for Claire (Leslie Easterbrook), whose only living family member Danny (Jai Rodriguez) is waiting for a payday when she dies, which should be soon. Danny brings in Seth (Kevin Sizemore) and Rudy (Jose Rosete), only for the three criminals to learn they are messing with the wrong woman because Alex is ex-Special Forces and can handle herself in a fight.
Now when it comes to action films, we know we don’t need the deepest story. This one borrows from the likes of You’re Next and Don’t Breathe for the home invasion-style of film, with the unlikely victim turning out to be a deadly opponent for the criminals. The biggest weakness in Intensive Care comes from the frustrating factor that both sides know how deadly the other are and have clear chance to eliminate the problem, only to want to become more tactical or honourable in the fight, which just doesn’t make sense for the criminal figures of Seth and Rudy who only seem to be interested in the money at times. For an action film, this is a story that is easy to follow; it does have a post-credit scene I suggest you wait and see, because it could bring in the next chapter to this story
Intensive Care has a large mix of genres with action, crime and horror being used, can the movie balance them all? The action does get to show us how Tara Macken has been working on action films for years in a stunt position; you can clearly see that she is ready to step up to go into the leading roles, because the fights look well-choreographed and do have different styles, using the environments to help show the resourceful skills behind the Alex character. The crime side of the film shows us just how one-man Danny can get himself into trouble with Seth and Rudy coming to collect money they believe they are owed, and we see how they are willing to go to against the odd visitor, but not when dealing with Alex.
Intensive Care has performances from Tara Macken, who gets to show her skills in front of the camera instead of being the stunt double for an A-lister, and the opening sequence shows us just what we will get from her. Jai Rodriguez will give you a couple of laughs with his character’s action in the film, which is fun to enjoy, over the more serious performances from Kevin Sizemore and Jose Rosete who are clearly meant to be threatening through the film.
Overall Intensive Care is an easy to watch film that can be enjoyed, and while it isn’t going to change the genre, it keeps things simple and gets to introduce us to a potential new leading action lady in Tara Macken.
