20160831: Action Review--The Gunman

Name: The Gunman (2015)
IMDb: link to The Gunman page

Genres: Action, mystery, thriller, crime.   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Sean Penn as Jim Terrier, Idris Elba as Barnes, Jasmine Trinca as Annie, Javier Bardem as Felix, Ray Winstone as Stanley, Mark Rylance as Cox.

Directed by: Pierre Morel.  Written by: Jean-Patrick Manchette (novel), Don MacPherson (screenplay).

Image courtesy of TMDb

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Terrier worked in the Congo in 2006 during their civil war as a mercenary.   His speciality is assassination, and he kills the minister of mines.  Minister of mines is a key position, due to the Congo's mineral wealth.  Terrier's being tasked with this shows his level of trust with whomever is paying him.  Jim is having an affair with Annie, who is a doctor who does humanitarian work.  Felix is in love with Annie, which she does not reciprocate at the time.

Delineation of conflicts:
Eight years later, Jim is back in the Congo, again working in parallel with a humanitarian agency, but not as an assassin.  However, someone holds a grudge, and makes an attempt on his life.  Their agents are charged with providing proof of death.  Terrier intends to keep living.  In order to do that, he needs to know the motivations of whoever wants to kill him. His adversary has no intention of that happening, so the mystery/thriller action ensues.

Terrier leaves Congo for London to confer with his former colleague Cox.  He asks about the complete list of those who knew about the assassination.  This is the springboard for the rest of the film's plot: find the true players and ask them what's what.

Just to make things more interesting, Jim's past war injuries have had a cumulative effect.  He has memory loss and passes out now and them.  Can he keep it together long enough to sort this out?

Jim's first stop is Barcelona, the last known of Felix, his first real target.  However, Felix just might have his own agenda here.

Resolution: Jim finds out some of what he needs to know, but will he find out enough?

One line summary: Sean Penn as an action hero.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 7/10 Not all that good.

Sound: 8/10 Dialog is clear.  Music is subdued but appropriate.

Acting: 7/10 Mark Rylance was fine as I expected.  Ray Winstone was an asset. Sean Penn was in good form.  Javier Bardem disappointed as usual.  The overused Idris Elba was better than I expected in a small role.  Jasmine Trinca was OK for what the script gave her to work with.

Screenplay: 6/10 Violence and threat moves the plot along, so the 115 minutes runtime does not drag. The romantic angle was bleak and sad, but did resolve somewhat well.  I'm glad I saw the film, but would not watch it again.  Checking against Box Office Mojo and IMDb, it took in 11 million domestically, against 40 million production costs, so the chances for a sequel are slim.

At the end of the film, I felt that I should have been happier for the protagonist, but just could not be.  I felt this to be a major failing of the film.

Final Rating: 7/10 I liked it better than most people did, but I would be hard pressed to say, 'you must see this one.'

20160227: Mystery Review--After

Name: After (2012)
IMDb: link to After page

Genres: Mystery   Country of origin: USA.

Cast: Steven Strait as Freddy, Karolina Wydra as Ana.

Directed by: Ryan Smith.  Written by: Jason Parish.

The initial tableaux:
Nurse Ana and graphic novelist Freddy ride an almost deserted bus back to their common home town of Pearl.  As it turns out, both live on Canon street.  There's an accident, but both seem to wake up the next morning.  The kicker is that there is no telephone service and no other people.

Delineation of conflicts:
The protagonists have to realize that they are dead.  The two leads here are more stupid than most. Instead of being an 18 minute film, this dog lasts for 90 minutes.

This is an old horror cliche dating back at least to the Twilight Zone, the early version in black and white.  More recently, The Frozen (also 2012) did it again.

Early in their explorations of Pearl and environs, they see a storm that surrounds the town on all sides.  It moves in at 0.08 miles per hour, so they have about two or three days total.  Attempts to penetrate the slow dark storm are rebuffed soundly.

Resolution: Do they find an escape?  Be sure to watch the final 3 minutes.

One line summary: Remake of a Twilight Zone episode.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 4/10 Like The Veil (2016) which I watched recently, this film is cursed by a reduced palette.  This one consists of white (not much), green, grey, black, and occasional blue.  Ugly, but matches the stupidity of the script.  At least the framing and focus were usually pretty good.

Sound: 4/10 I could hear the two actors.  The incidental music was a touch eerie, but not all that special.

Acting: 6/10 I don't recall these actors, but I thought they were good enough for the material.

Screenplay: 2/10 Why even write this?  Well, it was green lit, so it was made, and plenty of people have never seen the Twilight Zone.  The last 3 minutes were a bit of a departure, but hardly worth the first 87 which was nothing new in the least.

Final Rating: 4/10

20160226: Horror Review--The Veil

Name: The Veil (2016)
IMDb: link to The Veil page

Genres: Drama   Country of origin: USA.

Cast: Thomas Jane as Jim Jacobs (obvious reference to Jim Jones), Jessica Alba as Maggie Price, Lily Rabe as Sarah Hope, Jack de Sena as Christian (Maggie's brother), Shannon Woodward as Jill.

Directed by: Phil Joanou.  Written by: Robert Ben Garant.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Jim Jacobs runs a cult camp at Heaven's Veil Ranch, circa 1982.  He's a self-appointed mage who does miraculous healing and the like.  He does meditation, astral projections, telekinesis, and whatever else will inspire loyalty.  His big draw, though, is promising techniques to gain eternal life.

Yeah, right.

The trick is, one has to die first before getting the big dividend.  Indeed, every one at Heaven's Veil does die back in 1982, save for Sarah Hope.

Spin forward to the present, roughly.  Sarah Hope is recruited by Maggie Price and her brother Christian to do a documentary on the Ranch.  Maggie's father was the FBI agent in charge of investigating the Veil, and he ended up hanging himself when Maggie was three years old.

Delineation of conflicts:
As one might expect, things start to go badly soon after the film starts.

The caretaker of Heaven's Veil was not all that welcoming.  Film crew member Ed takes the group's van and kills himself by running into a tree at high speed.  The group is more than a bit isolated by distance, since they are now all on foot.

Sarah finds the more secret parts of the place, which include multiple films of the inner workings of Jim Jacobs' group.  The filmmakers hope to find out what the driving forces were behind the mass death at Heaven's Veil.  Does something or someone at the Veil want those secrets kept secret?

Resolution: The film jumped the shark around 53:00 in.  The transition from somewhat reasonable thriller to wholesale supernatural bullshit was sudden.  The turnabout at the end was well-written, but I had long since quit caring.

One line summary: Fools go where they should not.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 9/10 Early on, the visuals are odd (the palette seems to be composed of mixtures of white, green, brown, and black), but beautifully focused and framed.  As the film progresses, black comes to dominate increasingly.

Sound: 8/10 The voices of the actors are clear enough.  The music is on the subdued side, which I counted as a plus.

Acting: 5/10 Yikes.  The one and only star in the film, Thomas Jane, was in creepy mode which is one of his strengths.  Jessica Alba I could have done without; this was one more film ruined by her presence.  Lily Rabe was a bit better.  The actors who played the film crew did reasonable jobs right up to the places where the screenplay deserted them.

Screenplay: 5/10 The take on everlasting life was entertaining, but the methods of getting there were just ludicrous.  Also, in the end, it seemed like merely one more fake possession film.

Final rating: 6/10  Most of the +6 is for Thomas Jane's performance and the cinematography.

20151209: Fantasy Review--Painted Skin 2

Name: Painted Skin: the Resurrection (2012)    IMDb: link to IMDb

Genres: Fantasy, mystery, romance.    Country of Origin: China.   Directed by:  Wuershan.

Cast: Zhou Xun as Xiaowei (fox demon), Chen Kun as Huo Xin (warrior), Zhao Wei as Princess Jing, Mi Yang as Quer (bird demon), Morgan Benoit as the Wolf Boy of Tian Lang Kingdom, Shaofeng Feng as Pang Lang (the Monster Slayer), Kris Phillips as the Witch Doctor of Tian Lang.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux: Sequel to Painted Skin (2008).  Five hundred years have passed since the fox demon Xiaowei was imprisoned in the original film.  The bird demon Quer helped Xiaowei escape, and travels with her.  Xiaowei has a habit of eating the hearts of human men whom she had seduced.  She does this to regenerate the pleasing side of her visible form.

Xiaowei rather disliked the time in the frost prison, and looks for a change to her life.  She encounters Princess Jing and Huo Xin, the warrior who was entrusted to guard Jing.  However, Jing's face was disfigured on Huo Xin's watch.  He blames himself for this; Jing had a golden mask made to cover it.

Delineation of conflicts: Xiawei comes to like Jing and Xin.  She sees a process to become mortal, but it involves bringing harm to Jing and Xin.  Jing would like her own beauty restored, but the cost might be steep indeed.  The Tian Lang state would like to make inroads in Jing's kingdom; Jing and company would rather that not happen. Tian Lang's true motives are darker.

Resolution: One might guess how the film's climax comes to pass, but difficult choices are involved.  Are the principal characters up to it?

One line summary: Poor effects, poor script, so-so actors.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 2/10 The visuals are largely spoiled by effects.  The green screen composites were many, and looked fake.  The models used are not all that well done, and looked to be perhaps 1970s quality.  The credits in the opening sequence looked bad.  Clearly a lot of money was dumped on this project, but the effect was not worth it.

Makeup and wardrobe were poor, obvious, badly done.

  b. Sound: 4/10 The background music seemed overly florid.  The spoken dialogue was irrelevant to me, since I do not understand spoken Mandarin Chinese, and will not any time soon.  The subtitles seemed adequate, and not glaringly incorrect.  The +4 is for the lovely music over the closing credits.

  c. Acting: 0/10 I've seen American directors get better results from unknown actors.  Having to watch the dreary performances of the actors who played the fox, the princess, the warrior, the bird, and the Tian Lang folk was drudgery.

  d. Screenplay: 1/10 Did I identify with any of the characters? No.  Did I empathise with any of the characters?  No.  Did I like any of the characters?  No.  Were the Tian Lang opposition members (the bad guys) interesting? No.  Was there any comic relief?  No.  Did I enjoy 30 minutes of plot being stretched over 131 minutes with this uninteresting group?  No.

Final rating: 1/10, though not that good.  I am usually a fan of Asian film, and this property received much critical praise.  For the reasons given above, I think it deserves little if any.

20151026: SciFi Review--Jupiter Ascending

Name: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
IMDb: link to IMDb page

Genres: Horror, Mystery

Cast: Mila Kunis as Jupiter Jones, Channing Tatum as Caine Wise, Eddie Redmayne as Balem Abrasax, Sean Bean as Stinger Apini, Douglas Booth as Titus Abrasax, Tuppence Middleton as Kalique Abrasax, Charlotte Beaumont as Kiza, Doona Bae as Razo, Nikki Amuka-Bird as Diomika Tsing.

Written and directed by:  The Wachowskis

The Three Acts:

The initial tableau:  Before Jupiter is born to a British astronomer father and a Russian mathematician mother, her father is killed and her mother's life destroyed by PC thugs in Russia.  The film jump shifts to the 'present' (our future) in Chicago.  In some impossibly rich other world, brothers Balem and Titus spar over opaque issues.  Within this context, Earth is an extremely valuable bauble to be 'harvested'; this involves genocidal removal of all inhabitants.  Jupiter is at the heart of this, since her DNA somehow blocks all transactions that the brothers quarrel over.  In Jupiter's own life, there is little but hard work, poverty, and lack of mobility.

Delineation of conflicts: Balem owns Earth, Titus wants it, and Kalique conspires behind them both.  Balem is drawn to Jupiter from past associations, but he intends to kill her to free up his harvesting of Earth.  Titus hired Caine to find Jupiter and protect her from Balem.  Someone has hired Apini; this takes a while to become clear.  Jupiter has a lot of lost memories that filter back at odd moments.  Worlds collide when Jupiter tries to sell some of her eggs for cash: her DNA is up for analysis.

Resolution: The conflicts go on and on, and do eventually resolve.  It just takes a long time to get there.

One line summary: Poor script and acting undermine the lavish production.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 8/10 Most of the film is lovely to watch.  The CGI, though ridiculous, is pretty to the eye.

  b. Sound: 8/10 Mostly professionally recorded and assembled into the film.

  c. Acting: 4/10 Mixed bag.  Sean Bean and Nikki Amuka-Bird were fine.  Channing Tatum was terrible.  Doona Bae was even worse than usual.  Eddie Redmayne was onscreen entirely too much.

  d. Screenplay: 4/10 Based on the script, I answered the following questions.  Whom do I identify with?  No one.  Whom do I empathise with?  Again, no one.  Is there a single character that I care about?  No.  Do I care about the fate of the future Earth?  No, this is all clearly fantastical nonsense.  Do I care about the society of ultra rich pampered aliens who treat Earth as a coal mine?  No.  These factors make 130 minutes of film seem terribly long.

Final rating: 5/10

20151024: Horror Review--Altitude

Name: Altitude (2010)
IMDb: IMDb page for Altitude

Genres: Horror, Mystery   Country of Origin: Canada

Cast: Jessica Lowndes as Sara, Julianna Guill as Mel, Ryan Donowho as Cory, Landon Liboiron as Bruce, Mike Dopud as The Colonel, Jake Weary as Sal.

Directed by: Kaaren Andrews   Written by: Paul A. Birkett

The Three Acts:

The initial tableau: The film opens to a short vignette about the doomed flight of a light airplane.  Then we jump shift to the present.  Five twenty-somethings gather to fly to a concert.  Sara is the pilot; Bruce sits in front next to her.  Mel films with her handheld in the back, next to the jock/thug Sal, who steals Bruce's comic book.  Cory is also in the back as the fifth wheel.  Sara is a bit light on experience, but things seem to be going well.

Delineation of conflicts: Rough weather comes up, and Sara is not rated for instrument flying.  Two other problems arise: their total weight is too high to get above the clouds, and Sara forgot to assure that the fuel tanks were full before leaving.  There is a screw loose, which means an elevator fin does not respond to control.  Bruce's childhood trauma about flying surfaces; this involves Sara in a strong way.  Those are not the only problems; the film is qualified as a horror film for some solid reasons. They are not alone in the storm, or are they?

Resolution:  Well, watch the film.

One line summary:  Inexperienced pilot versus monsters from the id.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 7/10 Consistently saturated with teal, even during the long dark sections of the film.  The point of this not clear. Framing and focus were usually fine.

  b. Sound: 9/10 I had no problems hearing dialog, and the background music was a plus.

  c. Acting: 5/10 Better than I expected.

  d. Screenplay: 4/10 There's a good 15 minutes of story here.  Hijacking the end story of Forbidden Planet (1956) was discouraging, though.  The plus four was for the ending, which I rather liked.

Final rating: 3/5

20151011: Drama Review--Sphere

Name: Sphere (1998)
IMDb: Sphere

Genres: Drama, Mystery, SciFi  Country of Origin: USA.

Cast: Dustin Hoffman as Norman Goodman, Sharon Stone as Beth Halperin, Samuel L. Jackson as Harry Adams, Liev Schreiber as Ted Fielding, Peter Coyote as Harold Barnes, Queen Latifah as Alice Fletcher.

Directed by: Barry Levinson.   Written by: Michael Crichton (novel), Kurt Wimmer (adaptation).

The Three Acts: 

Initial Tableau: Dr Goodman is being escorted out to sea to aid distressed survivors of an airplane crash.  On the way, he sees many naval vessels, which increases his curiosity.  Then he is put into isolation, after which he meets old friends: Dr Halperin (biology), Dr Adams (mathematics), Dr Fielding (astrophysics).  Along with Captain Barnes, they are taken to a facility 1000 feet below sea level.

Delineation of Conflicts:  The site the team is taken to was constructed to study a huge space ship discovered on the seafloor.  The people in the team were chosen to match a report that Norman wrote some ten years before.  Hence Beth, Harry, and Ted all blame Norman for anything that happens during their current predicament.  In his report, Norman had chosen people he knew well for each position in this 'first alien contact' team.  As the work progresses, Barnes has choice words for Norman as well.  Besides the human interactions stemming from past choices, the team has to face the enigma within the space ship, and do their best to survive its considerable power.

Resolution: Working through the puzzle is well worth the time.

One line summary: An intelligent first contact film.

Statistics: 

Cinematography: 10/10 Looks professional, which I seldom see.  The use of practical effects, plus the near absence of CGI helped greatly.

Sound: 8/10 Not much of an issue.  This is a movie executed through dialog, not mood music.

Acting: 10/10 The stellar cast delivered.

Screenplay: 8/10 Well done.  The second act might seem a tad long, but the short third act is well worth it.

Final Rating: 9/10

20141031: Drama Review--The Best Offer

The Best Offer

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Italian live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 131 minutes, drama, crime, mystery.
2. IMDB: 7.9/10.0 from 43,079 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 13.5 million euros.  Spoken word is in English.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 56% on the meter; 75% liked it from 3,823 audience ratings.
4. I watched this on Showtime.
5. Written and directed by: Giuseppe Tornatore.  Music by Ennio Morricone.
6. Starring: Geoffrey Rush as Virgil Oldman, Jim Sturgess as Robert, Sylvia Hoeks as Claire Ibbetson, Donald Sutherland as Billy Whistler, Liya Kebede as Sarah, Philip Jackson as Fred, Dermot Crowley as Lambert.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Virgil Oldman is a top level art auctioneer.  His talent for recognising and evaluating centuries old art is impressive.  He is very rich from his legitimate commissions on sales. With Billy Whistler, he pulls cons at his auctions.  He sells paintings represented as ordinary and of small value, but are actually worth much, much more.  Billy buys these pieces at auction, then Virgil pays back Billy with interest.  Virgil keeps the painting for his private collection, which consists of portraits of beautiful women.  He likes the portraits, but has difficulty dealing with real women.


2. He starts getting calls from one Claire Ibbetson to evaluate her parents' estate.  Lambert usually fields such calls, but she insists on talking to Mr Oldman. She is evasive in the extreme due to her pronounced agoraphobia.  At first he deals with her only through Fred, the caretaker.  With some diligence, he actually meets her in person, but with a wall between them.  With more persistence, he gets to see her face-to-face.


3. In parallel, he takes parts from the basement of the estate and has Robert evaluate them.  They turn out to be pieces of a rare 18th century automaton.  Gradually Robert assembles the automaton, and advises Virgil on how to proceed with Claire.


4. Virgil and Claire grow close, or so it seems.  Virgil has the pieces restored.  When Virgil is about to go to his last auction in London, Claire decides not to sell.  Virgil is so besotted with her that he puts up no objections.  At the auction, Billy tells Virgil that he should have had more faith in him.  It seemed a bit ominous.


5. When Virgil returns, Claire is gone, Robert is gone, and Robert's friend Sarah is gone.  His large, valuable personal collection of paintings of beautiful women is gone.  One painting is left, which has a message from Billy.


6. Virgil has a lonely path to tread to discover the details of the fraud and the betrayal.  Will he find the answers that he wants?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: What goes around comes around in the art world.
2. Four stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Beautifully shot.


2. Sound: 10/10 No problems, and some of it was excellent.  I had no problems hearing the dialog.


3. Acting: 10/10 Rush, Sturgess, Hoeks, and Sutherland were quite good.


4. Screenplay: 7/10 The narrative was slow, careful, and intricate up until the end.  Then the reappraisal of everything was rapid.  For me, the ending was a major disappointment.  On the other hand, Virgil had been doing a lot of art thievery himself.

20141005: Thriller Review--The Cell 2

The Cell 2

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action straight-to-video film, 2009, rated R, 94 minutes.
2. IMDB: 2.9/10.0 from 1,987 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No consensus yet,' 8% liked it from 16,642 audience ratings.
4. I saw this on HBO.
5. Directed by: Tim Iacofano.
6. Starring: Tessie Santiago as Maya Casteneda, Chris Bruno as Harris, Frank Whaley as Duncan, Amee Walden as Penelope, Michael Flynn as Kassel, Bart Johnson as Skylar.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The film shares some of the set up as The Cell from 2000, which starred Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, and Vincent D'Onofrio.  Maya was taken by a serial criminal 'The Cusp' who kidnaps women, then brings them to the edge of death, only revive them.  He does this again and again, until the victim begs for final death.  Maya escaped somehow.  Afterwards she can touch objects and connect with the perpetrator.  In the original film, the connection was much harder to achieve, but also tremendously more convincing.


2. The story of Cell 2 is not as good, the writing not as good, the acting not as good, and the cinematography nowhere near as good as the original.  The Cell 2 has a decidedly low budget look-and-feel to it and went straight to video.


3. Most of the story concerns Maya's working with Harris to find his niece Penelope, whom The Cusp has kidnapped.  Doing this weakens her connection with the FBI, and given Harris' actions, the pair are basically on the run.


4. Will Tessie figure out who The Cusp is?  Will Harris clear his name?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: More torture porn than anything else.
2. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Fairly good.  The SFX were not all that interesting.


2. Sound: 5/10 Not much of an issue, but not much of an asset.


3. Acting: 1/10 Frank Whaley had a couple of good moments, but much of the film looked amateurish.


4. Screenplay: 1/10 The actors were not that convincing, but the screenplay gave them little to work with.

20140822: Drama Review--The Conspiracy

The Conspiracy

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Canadian live action feature length film, 2012, NR, 84 minutes, thriller, mystery.
2. IMDB: 6.4/10.0 from 2,678 audience ratings.  Spoken world is English.  Estimated budget, 1.2 million CAD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 86% on the meter; 65% liked it from 754 audience ratings.
4. Written and directed by: Christopher MacBride.
5. Starring: Aaron Poole as Aaron, James Gilbert as Jim, Bruce Clayton as Mark Tucker, Ron Kennell as Ron, Alan C. Peterson as Terrance.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Aaron and Jim get to know Terrance, a colorful conspiracy theorist.  They were gearing up to do a documentary film with Terrance as the center when Terrance disappears, and his apartment is rifled.


2. Aaron and Jim are galvanized, and pursue Terrance's interests.  Their investigation leads them to research the Tarsus Club, the 'New World Order,' and the cult of Mithras, which stretches back quite far in history.  Jim has a wife and child to keep him centered, but ends up continuing with the effort to find the elusive 'truth.'  Clips from an interview with a psychiatrist sprinkled throughout the film are another grounding mechanism, and a warning of bad things to come.


3. The pair manage to get into a meeting of the Tarsus Club.  Their recording devices were on tie-clips, and the results were correspondingly unimpressive.


4. The Tarsus Club does a good job of scaring Aaron and Jim.  Afterwards, Jim gets to go to a recorded meeting with an official of the Tarsus Club.  The spin or the truth?  Which one gets delivered more by the film?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Clever ending to a short subject.
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 The film is filmed in both hand-held and more standard camera techniques.  The found-film part does not add anything, but does subtract a bit.  The segement concerning the Mithras cultist meeting was particularly visually poor.  The vignette filter cut off a chunk of the screen; faces were blurred out; over all resolution was VHS-style grainy; the smoke was good at cutting down on clarity.


2. Sound: 6/10 Adequate; I can usually understand the dialog.  Voices were disguised during the outdoor initiation meeting of the Tarsus club.


3. Acting: 5/10 Giving the benefit of the doubt.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 The ending ties together the rest of the film nicely.

20140722: Thriller Review--Cybergeddon

Cybergeddon

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American/Canadian live action television series revisited for Netflix as a feature length film, 2012, NR, 90 minutes, thriller, mystery, crime.
2. IMDB: 6.8/10.0 from 287 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: no results at all.
4. Netflix: 3.5/5.0 from 87,447 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Diego Velasco.
6. Starring: Missy Peregrym as Chloe Jocelyn, Kick Gurry as Chase 'Rabbit' Rosen, Manny Montana as Frank Parker, Olivier Martinez as Gustav Dobreff,


2. Setup and Plot
1. Chloe works for the FBI in counter-cyber-crime.  Cool.  Gustav, an old enemy, sets her up as the one who spreads a virus.


2. Chloe breaks out of detention, and springs Rabbit (hacker whom she had caught before) from jail.  She enlists her former partner, Frank.  Gustav hates Chloe for posing as his daughter to get him in jail.


3. As the movie proceeds, the stakes for Chloe keep getting higher in terms of possible long-term losses.  First her reputation, then her liberty, then her mother's life, and finally something worse: all could be lost, unless victory is snatched from the jaws of defeat.


4. Will Chloe and her unlikely friends come through for the good of the world?  Are they able to defeat the mastermind Gustav?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Lack of chemistry and a weak script doom this thriller.
2. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 4/10 The camera/CGI mix worked well for a while, but toward the end, shaky cam plus poor and ancient graphics (UNIX command shell screens???) were a huge let down.


2. Sound: 5/10 The music over the final credits was good.


3. Acting: 2/10 The less said, the better.


4. Screenplay: 4/10 A story does get told, but the linkage between plot points breaks all too often.  A thriller needs to sell the idea that the stakes are high and the protagonists might be up to the tasks at hand.  This was not accomplished.

20140429: Comedy Review--Odd Thomas

Odd Thomas

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, NR, 100 minutes, comedy, mystery, horror.
2. IMDB: 6.8/10.0 from 14,282 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 27 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 35% on the meter; 65% liked it from 4,490 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 4.0/5.0 from 26,740 audience ratings.
5. Written, produced, and directed by: Stephen Sommers.
6. Starring: Anton Yelchin as Odd Thomas, Addison Timlin as Stormy Llewellyn, Willem Dafoe as Chief Wyatt Porter, Gugu Mbatha Raw as Viola Peabody.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Odd Thomas is a psychic who sees dead people and can find people whom he needs to find.  Stormy is the perfect girl friend for him. 


2. Thomas also sees details of murders that were, and murders that will be.  He has a trust relationship with the Chief.  He helps the Chief solve cases; the Chief helps him avoid courts and awkward questions.


3. Odd and Viola share a terrible dream/nightmare about a massacre to come.  Odd, Stormy, the Chief, and Viola try to figure out how to minimize the damage of this horrible problem to come.


4. If Odd accomplishes this one large goal, what sort of price will he have to pay?


3. Conclusions
1. Based on the novel of the same name by Dean Koontz.
2. One line summary: Young adult clairvoyant tries to minimize damage to his town from supernatural evil.
3. Four stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Beautifully shot.


2. Sound: 8/10 No particular problems.


3. Acting: 10/10 Anton Yelchin, Addison Timlin, and Willem Dafoe were excellent.  The onscreen chemistry between Yelchin and Timlin was wonderful, and Dafoe was brilliant with the two of them.  These three dominate the movie, but the other players were good as well.


4. Screenplay: 7/10  The voice-over soon got to be too much.  Based not on the book, I would say that the story hung together well, and generally moved forward.  The ending was sweet and poignant in a young adult setting, and begged for a sequel.

20140127: Mystery Review--The Tall Man

The Tall Man

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American/Canadian live action feature length film, 2012, rated R, crime, drama, mystery.
2. IMDB: 6.0/10.0 from 23,524 audience ratings.  Estimated budget: 18.2 million USD; aspect, 2.35
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 48% on the meter; 38% liked it from 7,663 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.5/5.0 from 738,070 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by:  Pascal Laugier.
6. Starring: Jennifer Biel as Julia Denning, Jodelle Ferland as Jenny, William B. Davis as Sheriff Chestnut, Stephen McHattie as Lieutenant Dodd, Samantha Ferris as Tracy, Colleen Wheeler as Mrs. Johnson, Jakob Davies as David, Eve Harlow as Christine.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The film is set in Cold Rock, a dying mining town in Washington state, in the US.


2. The opening issue is unwanted babies.  Some of the local families decide to take care of them independent of hospital stays and official paperwork.  Oi.  We're off to a sad start already, with the birth of such a baby with the help of nurse Julia in bad conditions and no other medical support.


3. Also early on the subject of abductions is raised.  There's a bulletin board of pictures and descriptions of missing children.  Then there is the legend of the Tall Man, whom some claim they have seen about the times that children had gone missing.


4. Lieutenant Dodd is on the case again, and is in the mood to bad mouth anyone who does not dress the way he does.  Julia visits Tracy, who has dispatched the baby recently born and her teenaged mother to Seattle and relatives.  At least that is what Tracy says.


5. Speech impaired Jenny claims she has seen the Dark Man.


6. Julia lives with her housekeeper Christine and her son David.  Her doctor husband passed away some years back, but provided her with a nice house and some money.  When David is abducted, the issue is raised to a much higher level for Julia.


7. Will Julia find David?  Will we find out the true cause of the kidnappings?


3. Conclusions
1. Repulsive introductory credits.  
2. There is no horror here, no supernatural elements.  It is crime, mystery, thriller.
3. One line summary: Relentlessly PC: rich people think it's OK to steal the children of the poor.
4. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10  Mostly good; could have done without the credits.


2. Sound: 6/10 OK, but not the asset it could have been.


3. Acting: 2/10 Better than a high school play, if it's a bad high school play.  Jodelle Ferland was bad.  Jessica Biel gave an uninspiring performance.  The less experienced actors were next to painful to watch.  I usually like Stephen McHattie's acting, but not in this case.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 Another assertion of 'class warfare is good.'  Bad writing at its worst.  Exposition of motivations was quite weak.  The glorification of kidnapping was just bovine scatology.  With such weak/nonexistent foundations, it's even worse.

20140124: Drama Review--Apart

Apart

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2011, UR, 85 minutes, drama, mystery, romance.
2. IMDB: 5.2/10.0 from 434 audience ratings. 
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 11% on the meter; 55% liked it from 209 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.9/5.0 from 33,396 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Aaron Rottinghaus. Written by Josh Danziger and Aaron Rottinghaus.
6. Starring: Olesya Rulin as Emily Gates, Josh Danziger as Noah Greene, Bruce McGill as Dr. Thomas Abner, Joey Lauren Adams as Dr. Jane Sheppard.


2. Setup and Plot


1. In the first half or so of the film, we follow Noah around as he tries to remember his past.  He's lost much of his memory in some acute personal event.  Several people assure him that this is a good thing.  He looks for Emily, finds her, gets past her thorny personality and direct resistance to visiting the past.


2. Supposedly Emily and Noah are linked by a psychiatric disorder which lets them know each other's minds.  Even worse, they see visions of bad things happening to those around them.  It's tough for Noah to recall.  For similar reasons, it's tough for Emily as well.  Even worse, they are not able to ward off the bad things happening.


3. The first such event was when they were around eight years old; the second around when they were high school seniors.  The first was a bus crash.  The two of them recuperate, more or less, in the same hospital.  The second was a fire, the culmination of a sequence of unfortunate events during late high school.


4. All this is nonsense, and assigned to folie à deux, or induced delusional disorder.  In this case, "She's crazy and made me do it," or "He's crazy and made me do it." The simpler explanation is "He is crazy and she is crazy."  So, own up to it and get them off the streets: two crazy people are over-indulged and allowed to hurt others unnecessarily.


3. Conclusions
1. Folie à deux (Induced delusional disorder (F.24) ICD-10) is in the literature; wikipedia has a nice article about it.  However, this is the worst vanity indie film I've seen in months.
2. One line summary:  Two defective children are bad for each other and those around them.
3. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Fine work.  Amazingly good considering the foulness of the screenplay and most of the acting.


2. Sound: 10/10 No problems.


3. Acting: 3/10  The veteran actor Bruce McGill delivered as usual.  The rest of the cast was terrible.  The two principals were the worst.  The three points are for Mr. McGill.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 This was a rat's nest of nonsense of endless re-interpretations.  The script is as bad as the acting of the two principals.  There is about five minutes of content stretched over 85 minutes.  Rotten Tomatoes got it right at 11%.

20140112: Drama Review--Sexy Evil Genius

Sexy Evil Genius

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 91 minutes, drama, comedy, mystery, thriller.
2. IMDB: 5.6/10.0 from 1,684 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' 46% liked it from 206 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.4/5.0 from 26,571 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Shawn Piller. Written by: Scott Lew.
6. Starring: Seth Green as Zachary Newman, Michelle Tractenberg as Miranda Prague, Katee Sackhoff as Nikki Franklyn,  Anthony Michael Hall as Mark Von Dutch, Harold Perrineau as Marvin Coolidge, William Baldwin as Bert Mayfaire.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Zachary arrives at a bar because Nikki asked to meet her there.  Miranda joins him at 8:00 pm.  They talk, mostly about Nikki.  Marvin shows up at 8:30, looking for Zachary and Miranda.  The stories about Nikki continue.  All three of them had received one sort of wonderful thing or another from Nikki, and all of them had been lied to in different ways.


2. Miranda says that Nikki called her from an insane asylum, where Nikki had been found innocent by reason of insanity of murdering a stalker.  They wonder whether any of this was true.  Miranda says yes, she had googled Nikki's case, and found plenty of authentic public records about her legal situation.  They discuss Nikki's stalker, Mark, and his public records.


3. Nikki shows up at 9:00, knowing that the three of them have been talking about her the whole time.  She tells them Bert will show up next.  Bert is her lawyer, lover, and fiance.  The discussions continue, especially about Nikki's arrest for murdering Mark.  Mark was her lover after she left Marvin.  They were heroin junkies together.  Insanity entered in somewhere; she killed Marvin, and did not know it.


4. Bert says that he stays with Nikki because he is certain she has been cured of her mental condition.  She now sees that her previous homicidal thoughts toward Marvin and the others were parts of her insanity and have to be let go.


5. The writing here is just brilliant.  Nikki uses Marvin, Miranda, and Zachary to help pressure Bert in to accepting a wedding date roughly a year in the future.  Also, she wanted Zachary to meet Miranda.


6. This is only the beginning of the film.  These smart people who know Nikki have a lot more to do before this encounter is over.  Nikki is mightily challenged by Bert, a man who is a 'better liar than I am.'  Bert on the other hand, thinks of Nikki as 'walking Viagra.'


7. The peeling away of layers of story together with re-interpretations of previous statements continues. 


8. How does this end?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Brilliant, cerebral, funny, engaging; fine acting, fine script.
2. Five stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Some of the best low-light photography I've ever seen.  Very atmospheric.


2. Sound: 10/10 No problems.


3. Acting: 10/10  Best performance I've ever seen from Michelle Trachtenberg and from Seth Green.  Katee Sackhoff, Harold Perrineau, and William Baldwin were great.


4. Screenplay: 10/10 One of the best, tightest scripts I've seen in a long time.

20140107: Horror Review--Mandy Lane

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2006, rated R, 90 minutes, thriller, horror, mystery.  Spoken word is in English.  Aspect: 2.35; estimated budget, 750,000 USD.
2. IMDB: 5.6/10.0 from 18,779 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 41% on the meter; 34% liked it from 24,861 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.0/5.0 from 14,572 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Jonathan Levine.  Written by: Jacob Forman.
6. Starring: Amber Heard as Mandy Lane, Anson Mount as Garth, Whitney Able as Chloe, Michael Welch as Emmet, Edwin Hodge as Bird, Melissa Price as Marlin, Aaron Himelstein as Red, Luke Grimes as Jake.


2. Setup and Plot
1. It is not easy to get to like this, or even be interested.  The characters are all rather disagreeable at best.  This is another teen slasher film, where entitled teens have little or no supervision and considerable resources to waste.  Their issues seem to be about embarrassing one another and the loss of virginity, especially if that is forced.  After one such public embarrassment, the one wronged (Emmet) eggs on another to do something stupid while drunk.  This resulted in a rather grave injury, and immediate pariah status for the instigator.  Some time passes.


2. The setup that should never have happened is that three girls (Mandy, Marlin, and Chloe) and three guys (Jake, Bird, and Red) are alone on a ranch with only ranch hand, ex-Marine Garth around for some semblance of sanity.  Garth works for Red's father, and he knows better than to interfere too much.  There's beer, there is coke, there are the constant challenges to have sex.  According to the cliches of the genre, we're in the normal sort of killing field: teens far from much help, teens thinking about having sex, drinking, doing drugs, with someone whom they have wronged deeply lurking about.


3. Marlin dies first.  Jake goes looking for Marlin, and gets killed after finding her dead.  Bird catches up with Emmet, takes his gun away, then roughs him up a bit.  Emmet counter-attacks, and kills the stupid bully in an incredibly humiliating way.  The next morning, Garth, Mandy, Chloe, and Red are still alive.  None of them are aware of Emmet's presence.


4. Garth sees unmistakable signs that someone else is with them.  The others quickly agree to leave.  As they go out the door, Emmet takes a shot and wounds Garth in the chest.  Mandy stays with him.  Red and Chloe try a side route out that Red knows; they see the bodies of Jake and Marlin on the way.  They stop for a kiss; Emmet shoots Red.  Chloe abandons him; she runs away, and by happenstance, finds Bird's body.


5. Will anyone get out alive?  Will Emmet pay for all the murders?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary:  Yet another teen slasher film; nothing new.
2. Two stars of five.  Please, no sequel.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 3/10 Not that good, and the end credits were irritating.


2. Sound: 7/10 Had a few problems, but mostly OK.


3. Acting: 3/10 Bad.  Edwin Hodge, Melissa Price, Aaron Himelstein, Michael Welch, Luke Grimes, and Whitney Able were terrible.  Amber Heard and Anson Mount were better, but not enough to lift this lead balloon.


4. Screenplay: 4/10 Nothing new, nothing interesting.

20140104: Drama Review--Phantom

Phantom

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 98 minutes, thriller, mystery.
2. IMDB: 5.8/10.0 from 7,854 audience ratings. Estimated budget: 18 million USD; aspect 2.35
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 25% on the meter; 36% liked it from 4,745 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.7/5.0 from 191,338 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Todd Robinson.
6. Starring: David Duchovny as Bruni, Ed Harris as Demi, Lance Henriksen as Markov, Sean Patrick Flanery as Tyrtov, Jonathan Schaech as Greg Pavlov, William Fichtner as Alex, Jason Beghe as Dr. Semak, Jason Gray-Stanford as Sasha.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Demi is about to retire, but the powers that be, through Markov, inform him that he has one more mission.  The date is late spring, 1968.  Demi will captain the B67 instead of his usual ship.  His crew have had only three weeks shore leave instead of the expected three months.  Several of them are on leave far away; he will have several unknown faces.  The B67 will be decommissioned after this last cruise; Demi gets the call since the B67 was also his first assignment.


2. Bruni and Pavlov come on at the last minute.  Alex (first officer) notes that the old tub can barely accommodate the 86 men required to sail her.  Bruni says it's good to see him again; Demi seems to only barely remember this.  Pavlov and the captain go though the ceremony of  the captain receiving the 'real' orders from the KGB.


3. From the first dive, there are indications that he captain is having some problems: a phantom sound on the forward outside hull; the sight and sound of an angry dog.  Where did these come from?


4. The KGB representatives inform the captain that he is about to step into part of the ship where he is not allowed.  Bruni suggests that the captain bothers to read his orders.  Alex has a chat with the captain.  Some of the newcomers are Oznas (radical KGB commandos); some of the new crew are dead; many of the new crew have no history, just name and rank.


5. The KGB officers countermand practically everything the captain proposes.  They force a collision with a civilian tanker.  This will ensure that everyone in the area will know the submarine's location.  Cleaver.  Their orders were to observe the massing of American naval forces.


6. Very unfortunately, the captain suffered a brain injury a few years back with triggered grand mal epileptic seizures about once or twice a year.  It would seem that some of the newcomers on board know of this.


7. When an American attack sub passes by, the old crew manage to evade.  However, Bruni overrides this, has the B67 surface and turn on their diesel engines.  The KGB officers turn on the 'Phantom' which effectively cloaks their position.


8. When the captain arranges to get confirmation of orders from Fleet HQ, Bruni stages a mutiny.  After some discussion with the old crew, Demi and company figure that Bruni and the Oznas are aiming to use the Phantom to start a war.


9. Will the mutineers succeed?  Will the captain and his allies neutralize them in order to save the world from a nuclear war?




3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Regular Russian submarine crew deal with KGB mutineers in 1968.
2. Five stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 9/10 Reasonably good, but some of the images suffer from low light.


2. Sound: 10/10 No problems.


3. Acting: 10/10 Fine jobs by William Fichtner, Ed Harris, Jonathan Schaech, Jason Beghe.  The rest were at worst competent.


4. Screenplay: 9/10 A bit slow going at first, but picks up to a fine conclusion.

20131220: Thriller Review--Devils Pass

Devil's Pass (The Dyatlov Pass Incident)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American/Russian live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 100 minutes, thriller, mystery. Spoken word is mostly in English with some Russian; English subtitles.
2. IMDB: 5.5/10.0 from 4,251 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 53% on the meter; 26% liked it from 499 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.2/5.0 from 3,335 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Renny Harlin.  Written by: Vikram Weet.
6. Starring: Holly Goss as Holly King, Matt Stokoe as Jensen Day, Luke Albright as JP Hauser Jr., Ryan Hawley as Andy Thatcher, Gemma Atkinson as Denise Evers.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Five Oregon students get a grant to replicate the disastrous Dyatlov expedition in the Ural Mountains of 50 years previous.  The Oregon students vanish as well.  The Russian authorities go looking, but do not find them.  Conspiracy theorists obtain a copy of found-film from the Russian authorities.  That is what the bulk of the film  consists of: running that particular found film.


2. Holly leads the expedition; Denise is the sound person.  Jensen is the video recorder.  Andy and JP are experienced guides.


3. They follow the path of the previous expedition to the Mountain of Death.  They place where the members of the first expedition died.  The keep going, and find a door, of all things, only slightly buried in the snow and ice.  Three days out, they have some real problems with a minor avalanche.  Denise is buried in the debris.  Andy's leg and face are messed up badly.


4. Some people show up; for whatever reason, Andy decides to start shooting; the 'rescuers' shoot back.  JP, Jensen, and Holly make it to the door; this time it's open to them.  They find a so-so electrical supply in the tunnel below.  Someone turns off the electricity, so they have only the light from the camera for a little stretch.  They find a lot of stuff in the tunnels, including documents in Russian.  They find pictures of the hikers of fifty years ago.  Plus they find many photos of the USS Eldridge, the supposed location of some time travel experiments in 1943. They discover a nuclear reactor which is still supplying electricity.


5. Holly and Jensen continue; JP seemed to be having trouble walking.  The pair keep recording.  They find a recently killed military man, lots of bones, and more documents, tunnels, and doors.  JP gets injured further or probably killed by the others in the tunnel.  They find a camera that is the same model as theirs, and view more found footage.  Then the strange stuff begins.


6. Will Holly and Jensen make it out alive?  Will the full story ever get out?


3. Conclusions
1. The door in the ice was just too much like the hatch in the TV series Lost.
2. One line summary: Retracing the path of a doomed expedition leads to more losses.
3. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 4/10 Supposed to be found footage, but much of it looks too good for that.  Unfortunately, visual quality went south toward the end of the film.


2. Sound: 8/10 Usually good.


3. Acting: 8/10 Better than I expected, given the script.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 Unlikely and not that believable.

20131126: Horror Review--Munger Road

Munger Road

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2011, rated PG-13, 84 minutes, horror, mystery, thriller.
2. IMDB: 4.4/10.0 from 736 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 200,000 USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No score yet,' and 45% liked it from 350 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.0/5.0 from 78,488 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Nicholas Smith.
6. Starring: Bruce Davison as Chief Kirkhoven, Randall Batinkoff as Deputy Ross Hendricks, Trevor Morgan as Corey LaFayve, Brooke Peoples as Joe Risk, Hallock Beals as Scott Claussen, Lauren Storm as Rachael Donahue.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Thread 1: Corey, Joe, Scott, and Lauren are out looking for ghosts with baby powder and a very expensive camera.  They get some inconclusive evidence at the Munger Road site where the ghosts are said to hang out.  Then their ride dies from a cracked ignition coil housing.  Scott goes looking for help.  Their cell phones get no signal, and the cell phone clocks are all stopped at 11:14.  Time passes slowly.  Then Corey sends them a picture, then a text, 'Run.'


2. Thread 2: the Chief and Hendricks are looking for an escaped killer, Gunther.  They want him apprehended before the Saint Charles Scarecrow Festival starts.  They capture a copper thief.  While continuing the hunt, they hear that Scott and Corey are missing.  So they start looking for the teenagers.  They find an empty van, because it's blocking a road needed to get the Festival fully setup.  It's empty, and belongs to a woman in town.


3. The Chief and Hendricks look for Gunther in a hotel in town.  The examine tunnels beneath the town, and start thinking that Munger Road is a possibility.  Hendricks and the Chief decide to take separate routes to Munger Road.  The Chief takes a car; Hendricks continues in the tunnel.


4. The teens decide to follow Corey.  Then the film slips (off and on) into found-film mode, with the hand-held being the mode of recording footage.  The Chief finds Joe still alive, and they meetup with Hendricks.


5. Will they recover the others?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Was it ghosts or the escaped convicted murderer?
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 6/10 There's a whole lot of dark in this film, particularly in the second half.  Also, the found film segments at the end were not a plus.


2. Sound: 10/10 No problems.


3. Acting: 6/10 One of Bruce Davison's better efforts, and when he's good, he's really good.  The actors who played the teens were good but not great.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 This was as murky as the often dark picture.  The police seemed quite slow at getting to Munger Road (both to find Gunther and to find the teens).  That was odd, since the Chief, anyway, seemed rather bright.

20131120: Mystery Review--Unknown

Unknown

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2006, NR, 85 minutes, crime, drama, mystery.  Spoken word is English.
2. IMDB: 6.4/10.0 from 21,625 audience ratings. Estimated budget: 3.7 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 38% on the meter; 38% liked it from 16,662 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.4/5.0 from 256,792 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Simon Brand.
6. Starring: Jim Caviezel as Jean Jacket, Greg Kinnear as Broken Nose, Joe Pantoliano as Bound Man, Bridgett Moynihan as Eliza Coles, Barry Pepper as Rancher Shirt, Jeremy Sisto as Handcuffed Man, Peter Stormare as Snakeskin Boots, Jeff Daniel Phillips as Iron Cross.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Jean Jacket wakes up in a closed room where the one exit is locked by passcode.  Other prisoners are present, and most seem worse for the wear.  Jean Jacket pounds on the door and raises a holler or ten, but gets no attention.  He takes a phone call, and takes notes, but seems not to know what it was about.


2. Broken Nose, Bound Man, Handcuffed Man, and Rancher Shirt wake up soon there after, and the four of them try to figure out who they are and why they are together.


3. Elsewhere, Eliza cooperates with law enforcement to get her husband back.


4. Snakeskin Boots intercepts the hostage money and eludes the police; he calls the trapped men and tells them he will meet with them before sundown.  Bound Man finds a gun, but Jean Jacket takes it away from him.  They discover instructions about the toxic gas stored in canister around the rooms.  It can cause temporary memory loss in small doses.  Broken Nose begins to remember a bit later; he was one of the abductees.  He talks to Rancher Shirt, the other abductee.  Rancher Shirt tries to get the gun from Jean Jacket, but fails.


5. Broken Nose frees Bound Man, and the anger rises and partial memories surface.  Jean Jacket gives Handcuffed Man some water, but cannot get the handcuffs off.


6. The last two kidnappers are coming with the money.  Two cops are tailing them with mixed success.  Erin is in despair about losing her husband.  The men in the room with memory loss are cooperating to find a way out before the kidnappers come.


7. How does this pan out?  Be prepared for twists and turns as the memories surface.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Five men with temporary memory loss guess their roles in a kidnapping.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 No problems.


2. Sound: 9/10 Well done.


3. Acting: 7/10  Jim Caviezel, Bridget Moynihan, Peter Stormare, and Joe Pantoliano were excellent.  On the other hand, Greg Kinnear was unconvincing as usual; with every line he speaks, I look for an indication that it's a joke or a bluff.  I only believe his insincerity.  Jeremy Sisto disappoints as always. 


4. Screenplay: 9/10 Kept me guessing to the end.