Movie Nation

Lordy, not another thriller about men forced to fight to the death for the amusement of the masked ultra-rich, in this case labeled “Illuminati.”

That wasn’t a novel notion when “Star Trek” served it up on TV back in the mid-’60s.

“Land of Wolves” begins as a clumsy, slow-footed commando combat thriller, then staggers to a halt before ever-so-sluggishly crawling towards a “Heart of Darkness” finale, the analogy of a military man who’s gone rogue, much to the shock of those sent to retrieve him.

Just in case those plot points pique your interest, let me disabuse you of any notion that “This is for ME.” The writer-director of “Whispers of the Witching Hour” (Tommy Jackson) grinds his gears, start to finish, in this cliched claptrap about commandos, narco-terrorists and the “elite” who pull the strings and run the world.

Long before he tips his hat towards Joseph Conrad, we know he has no business attempting that.

James William Clark pays Marcus, an Afghan War vet now punching out his demons in the ring but summoned back into service by Aussie accented Capt. Briggs (Matthew Gray) to rescue a long-held-captive member of their former team “t’go say his ass.”

Four commandos head into the desert near Durango, Mexico to storm a derelict “facility” where “tangos” (terrorists) hold and torture law enforcement and military folk whom they capture.

Anderson (Melanie Browning) will be their eyes-and-ears (satellite surveillance and comms) directing them into the towering edifice in the desert. This surgical strike will entail assassinating armed guards, uncovering evidence of torture and the worst simulated “night vision goggles” footage ever put on film.

But by cracky, they’re going to free Knox or die trying in the best “leave no man behind” tradition.

Things go wrong, and the growling narco-leader known as Butcher (Felix Alexander) is soon pitting them against his best thugs in streaming video fights for the paying Illuminati.

Wait’ll this missing Knox (Russell Sheahy) turns up. Things will turn go even more off the rails, then.

There’s nothing wrong with a reach-exceeds-your-grasp effort to make something smarter than a C-movie shoot-em-up out of these settings, this cast in those guises. But mastering the basics of compelling cinema, editing the action beats into something pulse-pounding, making clear the “stakes” of it all and that what we’re watching makes a little sense comes first.

Then and only then should you tackle the source Conrad novella that inspired Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.”

Talking villains, bloody brawls that beggar belief and hilariously costumed “Illuminati” are but petty gripes in a thriller that has nothing to cling to as real or compelling entertainment. There’s no pace, characters aren’t so much archetypes as generic “types,” and the performances fail to overcome those limitations and engage the viewer in the narrative of those suffering through it.

Rating: R, graphic violence

Cast: James William Clark, Matthew Gray, Melanie Browning, Felix Alexander amd Russell Shealy.

Credits: Scripted and directed by Tommy Jackson. A Saban Films release.

Running time: 1:32

Here’s your one sentence pitch for “The Million Dollar Bet.”

A doesn’t-sweat-anything gambler talks “friends” into betting him that he can’t run 70 miles in 24 hours — in Vegas — with a sandstorm bearing down on Sin City.

You’ve got a gambling milieu, a couple of ticking clocks — the 24 hour “race” challenge, and the freak-event sandstorm (Vegas got a doozy of one in July of 2025) — inveterate gamblers, a life-threatening bet and a “true story” tag.

But true or not, collection of “colorful” if cliched characters and interesting stakes be damned, this thing never comes together.

Justin Cornwell plays Jack, a card player/gambler on a bit of a “run,” when the problems of his younger casino-trolling pal Hank (Douglas Smith) take a fresh turn.

Twentysomething Hank, out of shape but a “natural athlete,” wants Jack and others to make a “prop bet” on his ability to run the near-equivalent of three consecutive marathons in 24 hours.

The film starts to go wrong as the financing, the payout, the odds and the architecture of this bet is skimmed over and never explained. We know Jack doesn’t have that kind of cash. We know Hank doesn’t, but is fond of wild “prop bets” which are sometimes epic over-reaches.

As neither of them has a million bucks (it starts out at $150k) or a stake to put up, as others aren’t seen “getting in on the action,” where is the three-to-one odds payout coming from?

Hank’s a Vegas native, with a cranky, protective chain-smoking mom (Carrie Gibson), a dull stepdad (Todd Carroll) he ignores and a doting sister (Kristen Lee Gatoskie) who gave up the :dirty money” of casino card dealing for a new career in go-kart repair.

Jack tries to call Hank’s bluff, but he’d really hope he’ll talk himself out of this. Hank’s sister tries to convince him and his mother tries to order him to bail (and Jack to let Hank off the hook).

But Hank begins. He’ll need to average nearly three miles per hour, “no walking…taking as many breaks as I desire,” to manage 70 miles in 24 hours.

He’s doing 720 foot laps around the complex where he and Jack and “not taking sides” and not betting gambler pal Tony (Sean Rogers) live.

Colorful, cliched neighbors — the angsty, thinks-too-much tween, the nosy little old lady from across the street, the 50something shirtless Euro trash who rides his skateboard with his dog pulling it for exercise — track Hank and chat words of encouragement or discouragement.

Everybody pressures Jack to back down. An emergency room doc talks about how deadly it cam be for somebody out of shape to attempt a marathon in Vegas, much less nearly THREE marathons.

And that damned storm is coming.

I was halfway through “Million Dollar Bet,” taking notes on “dialogue that sounds ‘typed’ and not lived or spoken by living, breathing characters” before I realized it’s an Austrian production. So yes, English as a Second Language dialogue takes one out of this Thomas Woschitz film from time to time.

Cornwell, of TV’s “The In-Between,” has an interesting but not arresting screen presence.

“Guys, it’s a bet, not a funeral” was never going to pack a punch, and Cornwell soft sells it to boot.

Former child actor Smith (TV’s “Big Love” And “Big Little Lies”) shows us little that indicates edge, mania, cunning or even a character’s interior life.

The supporting players don’t register much more than that, but they’re not “carrying” the picture.

Woschitz has been around for a while — “Bad Luck” and “Universalove” are his best-known Austrian films — but he struggles to make even the simple ticking clock elements tick over.

And the payoff is more disappointing than the disappointments that precede it.

The pitch might have felt like a sure thing, but plot holes and cut rate casting made “Million Dollar Bet” a long shot all along.

Rating: unrated

Cast: Justin Cornwell, Douglas Smith, Kristen Lee Gatoskie, Sean Rogers, Billie Steiner, Todd Carrol, Dee Catrone and Carrie Gibson.

Credits: Directed by Thomas Woschitz, scripted by Andrea Liva and Thomas Woschitz. A Narrative Distribution release on Amazon Prime.

Running time: 1:29