20140424: Drama Review--Revelation Road

Revelation Road

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, NR, 88 minutes, drama, action, thriller.
2. IMDB: 4.5/10.0 from 1,003 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 'No score yet.'
4. Netflix: 3.6/5.0 from 229,395 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Gabriel Sabloff.
6. Starring: David A. R. White as Josh McManus, Brian Bosworth as Hawg, Eric Roberts as Sheriff Jensen, Jen Lilly as Rachel McManus, Ray Wise as Frank,  Logan White as Cat.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Josh drives through the desert to his next sales opportunity before he returns home.  He is rear-ended by some hold-up artists.  A gang, The Barbarians, drops by and inadvertantly helps him get free.  Josh continues to Frank's hardware store, where he tries to sell some body armour.  Frank feels Josh out about his core values, as it were.  A contingent of Barbarians bursts in and starts a strong arm robbery.  Josh's skills kick in.  He kills three of the Babarians, beats up some of the others, and sends the survivors packing.


2. Hawg, the leader of the Barbarians, has a couple of his more cleaver members reconnoiter.  They scope out Frank's home, and the motel where Josh is staying.  Hawg makes plans to strike back against those who killed some of this crew.


3. Hawg does indeed invade Frank's home.  Frank and his wife fight back to some degree, but the gang disarms them.  In parallel, Josh tries to help out a prostitute who has been beaten up by her, ah, employer.  That does not go so well.


4. All this gets interrupted by a long depiction of the Rapture, which is much better done than in The Mark.  I did not say it was great, just better than in The Mark.


5. The film sets up for part 2 after that.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Depicts the beginning of the Christian apocalypse.
2. Three stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Beautiful; skillfully done.


2. Sound: 9/10 No particular problems.


3. Acting: 7/10  Ray Wise was professional as always; David White was better than competent; Brian Bosworth was better than I expected him to be.  Eric Roberts was fairly good in the small role as the Sheriff.  I also liked Logan White as Cat.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 The injection of Christian doctrine seems forced most of the time, but is much better done than The Mark, for instance.  On the other hand, minus the doctrine, the film is short on story, and it is spread over 88 minutes.