Movie Review: Devil

Devil (2010)

Directed by John Erick Dowdle

Written by Brian Nelson

Starring Jacob Vargas, Matt Craven, Bokeem Woodbine Geoffrey Arend

Release Date September 17th, 2010 

Published September 17th, 2010

 A month ago as I sat patiently awaiting the start of a movie that I barely remember and the trailer for “Devil” popped up. Near the end of the trailer a line showed up on the screen 'from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan' and the previously indifferent audience suddenly burst out in laughter, boos and insulting catcalls.

This was in the wake of Shyamalan's box office success with “The Last Airbender” which made plenty of cash but was mostly despised by audiences, as evidenced by the laughter, boos and catcalls at his name. “Devil” has now arrived in theaters and while it may have sprung from same mind that thought “The Last Airbender” was a good idea, “Devil” is a far better and more satisfying thrill ride than that kid flick debacle.

”Devil” stars Chris Messina as a cop fresh from 60 days sobriety and a meeting with his sponsor. Called to the site of a suicide; the handsome Detective Bowden has actually stumbled on a case that will change his life. While Bowman and his partner Markowitz (Joshua Peace, Cube Zero) are investigating the suicide a situation is unfolding inside the building from which the suicide, literally, sprang.

Five strangers have entered elevator number 6 and find themselves trapped. While security guards Ramirez (Jacob Vargas) and Lustig (Matt Craven) look on these five strangers face blackouts that lead to violence and eventually death. With detectives and security foiled in trying to get the elevator moving, Ramirez begins pitching an idea that there is nothing that can be done; the Devil has chosen these five and only accepting their fate can bring an end to the torture.

”Devil” is said to be part of a trilogy thought up by Producer M. Night Shyamalan in concert with directors Drew and Erick Dowdle, the minds behind “Quarantine” and the cult hit “The Poughkeepsie Tapes” and writer Bryan Nelson, best known for the terrific script for the not so great vampire flick “30 Days of Night.” Indeed, “Devil” does set some stakes for a small scale biblical battle to come yet, on its own manages to be entertaining without cheating ahead for sequels.

The Dowdle Brothers are the ideal directors for “Devil.” Both “Quarantine” and “The Poughkeepsie Tapes” are clever, small scale thrillers that make use of clever camera tricks and low watt effects to sell their scares. With a slightly bigger budget, the Dowdle's have the best cast they've had so far in their careers and make terrific use of their horrified glares, terror filled eyes and abundant sweat glands.

The Dowdle's often keep the camera uncomfortably in the face of their subjects and the move aids the audience in feeling the heated, claustrophobia and paranoia that slowly consumes the five strangers that include actors Geoffrey Arends, Bokeem Woodbine and Logan Marshall-Green and actresses Jenny O'Hara and Bojana Novakovic.

As strong as the strangers are, Chris Messina is twice as good as Detective Bowman. In a number of tiny supporting roles, in movies like the wonderful “Away We Go” and the likable “Julie and Julia” -as Amy Adams put upon husband- Messina has made a good impression in underserved roles. In “Devil” Messina gets to show what he's really got and one can only hope he gets more big roles, the guy has got It.

Messina's performance in “Devil” stands right next to another breakout character actor's performance in a low budget, low watt horror/thriller, Patrick Fabian in “The Last Exorcism.” Both performances underplay their genre, draw the audience to them through charm and competence and both are actors of unexpected force and charisma.

”Devil” isn't quite as ingenious as “The Last Exorcism” but it's along the same line, a horror/thriller that smartly tweaks the horror formula to deliver something that seems fresh amid the flotsam of the genre.

Well cast and cleverly directed, “Devil” is a welcome surprise in a month when Hollywood tends to be taking it easy. Sure, the name M. Night Shyamalan isn't likely to earn cheers again anytime soon, especially if he's still planning another ‘Airbender’ movie, but he's on to something with the so called “Night Chronicles.” Here's hoping he and his collaborators can capitalize on the promise of “Devil.”

Movie Review Love Lies Bleeding

Love Lies Bleeding (2008) 

Directed by Keith Samples

Written by Brian Strasmann

Starring Brian Geraghty, Christian Slater, Jenna Dewan, Tara Summers, Jacob Vargas 

Release Date January 15th, 2008

Published February 10th, 2008

From the director of Single White Female 2 and the writer of 2, yes 2 Walking Tall sequels starring Kevin Sorbo, comes the gritty indie flick Love Lies Bleeding. Greatly removed from the Elton John classic or the Michael Winterbottom fave, this Love Lies Bleeding is a pale imitation of gritty, mainstream action movies with the gloss of being low budget and 'independent'. It comes from Sony's direct to video line and to complete the ugly package, poor misguided Christian "What Happened To My Career" Slater doesn't star but instead plays an unfortunate bad guy.

No, even more unfortunately, the wan and forgettable Brian Geraghty stars in Love Lies Bleeding as Duke, an Iraq war veteran with trouble coping with his return to America. Engaged to be married to Amber (Step Up Jenna Dewan), Duke struggles to find work after he spent time in prison on an assault charge not long after his return. Our heroes are quite down on their luck when some gang bangers make things worse by robbing them. Angry, Duke trades his car for a gun and plans a confrontation. What he gets instead is a sack full of fat cash.

Turns out the bangers had run afoul of some crooked DEA agents lead by Agent Pollen (Slater). The Mexican standoff that ensued left all but Pollen dead when Duke arrived. Seeing the bag of money Duke doesn't hesitate. Unfortunately, Pollen isn't dead and is soon on the trail of Duke and Amber who think they have won the lottery. Now the crooked cops want their money back and Pollen wants revenge and to secure their silence.

The first act of Love Lies Bleeding is a torturous 40 minutes of bland dialogue and casual racism as our two Anglo heroes face off against ethnic gang members at every turn. The blandness of it all compounded by a repeated monologue about Lime-Aid and life lived in a hammock. Don't ask. The second act becomes surprisingly compelling as director Keith Samples works his way around the bland dialogue and his overmatched young actors to create a compelling chase scene set inside a casino. The compelling part ends when the chase does and we are thrust back into this couple's dull romance.

On the bright side, there is a more interesting movie trapped in the margins. About half way through Love Lies Bleeding we are introduced to our one good cop, detective Alice Sands played by Tara Summers. The Boston Legal regular brings a quirky energy to this underwritten role. With unexpected humor, Summers applies the kind of skills one could only learn while working with James Spader and William Shatner. Acting while acknowledging the ludicrousness of it all with the glint in her eyes, Summers steals the few scenes she gets and leaves us longing for more time with her and her bumbling partner played by Jacob Vargas.

It's a shame the movie couldn't have been about the two New Mexico cops stumbling on the clichéd lovers on the run story. They could have regarded the story from afar with a disbelieving air and played the whole thing for comedy. I imagine Alice as apoplectic at the thought of such a ludicrous plot as this while her partner fumbles his words and plays the fool. That is the movie I wish this were, but it's not. Love Lies Bleeding is yet another faux indie pretending to be gritty and poetic while its only achievement remains being written and filmed.

That said, I really love Tara Summers. I can't wait to see more of her.

Movie Review The Hills Have Eyes 2

The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007) 

Directed by Martin Weisz 

Written by Wes Craven, Jonathan Craven 

Starring Michael McMillian, Jacob Vargas, Flex Alexander, Jessica Stroup 

Release Date March 27th, 2007 

Published March 27th, 2007 

Wes Craven is a terrific director. His work speaks for itself, when he is behind the camera, horror, suspense, blood and guts are on near perfect display. However, when Craven puts his imprimatur on a film without taking part in the film's direction; the quality dips dramatically. In the late nineties and early in this decade; Craven seemed to put his name on any piece of garbage horror film that came his way.

Craven has stopped placing his name above other people's titles in the past few years but his behind the scenes, non-directorial work continues to suffer. His latest effort is a remake of a sequel to a remake of an original that he directed. The Hills Have Eyes 2 follows a remake of Craven's original The Hills Have Eyes. Like the 2006 remake, The Hills Have Eyes 2 suffers for Craven's work in the background rather than the foreground as director.

In 2006's The Hills Have Eyes, as well as the film it re-imagined, a family took a wrong turn in the desert and ended up victims of hill dwelling mutants. One year later, the military has moved in to look over the areas where they once dropped an atom bomb; to find whether it has become inhabitable after 50 years. What they found, unfortunately, was an underground tunnel system overrun with man-eating mutants. Whoops!

A group of new recruits, on a training mission in the desert, are supposed to be delivering supplies to the soldiers and scientists in a remote desert outpost. However, when the recruits arrive; they find the camp empty and signs that the soldiers and scientists did not leave willingly. Somewhere in the barren hills surrounding the camp there may be survivors, but more urgently, those killer mutants are waiting for more victims.

Last years The Hills Have Eyes remake benefitted from a skilled cast of a higher quality than most b-movie horror flicks. Cathleen Quinlan, Ted Levine and Aaron Sanford are strong actors with strong presence who brought strength and gravitas to a rote horror formula. Director Alexandre Aja, who I am not a great fan of, is at the very least highly skilled in his presentation of horrific gore.

The Hills Have Eyes 2 ,on the other hand, features the 5th lead from Snakes On A Plane, Flex Anderson, in the lead role, or at least as the only actor onscreen I was able to recognize. The rest of the cast is desperately in need of a scorecard. These aren't bad actors, they are merely young, inexperienced actors whose inexperience shows in nearly every scene.

Add to that, the relative inexperience of director Martin Weisz, who I'm told is a highly skilled music video director. His work on The Hills Have Eyes 2 goes to show how very different the mediums of music video and film really are. Weisz is not necessarily a bad director, but one who doesn't yet understand the medium and thus relies on his music video tricks and a good deal of rote interpretation to direct this film.

There really isn't much to enjoy about The Hills Have Eyes 2. The film is stock horror clichés combined with ugly special effects and a barren location that offers little escape from the dreary story being told. The film has no sense of humor to speak of and the young, inexperienced cast is at a loss to bring anything other than their unsteady, babies learning to walk, style of acting to these roles.

There is something sorta charming about these actors but not anything that makes me want to watch them die horrifically, or more importantly, not die horrifically, in a horror film.

It's interesting to note that there was a The Hills Have Eye Part 2 back in 1985, a sequel to the original. That sequel was so awful, and so long forgotten, that no attempt was made to remake it. That film was directed by Wes Craven, who created the original, and it may be the genesis to his current philosophy of anything for a buck.

The script for The Hills Have Eyes 2 was written by Wes Craven with his son Jonathan which goes to show that nepotism in Hollywood is alive and well. Would this movie have been made without Wes Craven's name somewhere in the credits, beyond the based upon notice? No. And, frankly, we would be better off. However, Mr. Craven's bank account would not be better off and that is apparently what really matters when it comes down to it.

The Hills Have Eyes 2 serves its purpose. Made on the cheap, the film will make money and Wes Craven will take home a tidy sum. Congrats Wes, enjoy that new wave pool. I'll let you know if I stumble across your artistic soul somewhere.

Movie Review Dragonfly

Dragonfly (2002) 

Directed by Tom Shadyac

Written by Brandon Camp, Mike Thompson, David Seltzer 

Starring Kevin Costner, Susanna Thompson, Joe Morton, Ron Rifkin, Linda Hunt, Jacob Vargas 

Release Date February 22nd, 2002 

Published February 21st, 2002 

Kevin Costner has made himself the subject of ridicule in recent years as his ego began to outpace his creativity. Costner began to believe the things being written about him, about his sex appeal and his ability to open a film. This ego feeding caused Costner to push through a number of lame vanity projects that he assumed, because he's Kevin Costner, of course they will be hits. Well they weren't and now maybe he's getting it. In his most recent effort, Dragonfly, Costner doesn't write, produce or direct, he just acts. And it's the best acting he's done in a very long time.

In Dragonfly, Costner is Dr.Joe Darrow the head of emergency surgery at some nameless hospital. Joe's wife Emily (Susanna Thompson) is also a doctor, head of oncology working with child cancer patients. Emily is also a missionary who travels to Venezuela to treat sick kids against Joe's wishes. Joe thinks it's too dangerous and sadly he is correct. Soon after Emily arrives in Venezuela she and her patients are in a bus that gets caught in a mudslide that drops the bus in a river, killing everyone inside. Or at least we think it killed everyone.

Back in the states Joe is not dealing with his wife's death, instead he is working 15 hour shifts in the ER against the better judgment of his boss, the invaluable Joe Morton. Of course Joe doesn't care what anyone says and despite agreeing to take time off he still shows up at the hospital to visit his wife's patients. It is then that Dragonfly launches into its supernatural bent, with the children's near death experiences leading Joe to believe his late wife is trying to reach him from beyond the grave. That is if she's dead, her body will never recover.

Costner expertly plays the film's supernatural elements against a background of rational cynicism. There are a great deal of logical explanations of near death experiences, many of which the film intelligently lays out. Also as Joe's friends point out, wanting to speak to his late wife is what Joe wants, so it's not inconceivable that he is making these things happen himself.

Costner is backed by one of the best supporting casts I've seen this year including the aforementioned Joe Morton, Ron Rifkin, Jay Thomas and a woman who is becoming one of my favorite actresses, Kathy Bates. Bates plays Miriam, Joe's neighbor and lawyer who does her best to take care of him as both mother figure and best friend. Bates is amazing and never gets enough credit for her amazing work. This film will likely be forgotten by Oscar time, but nonetheless her performance more than warrants a nomination.

The film's only problem is director Tom Shadyac, the guy who lensed Patch Adams can't keep his mushy side in check. While Costner expertly balances emotion and intellect, Shadyac constantly aims for the heartstrings, especially towards the film's sap-covered climax. Aside from the excess sap, Dragonfly is a worthy rental based on the performances of Costner and his superior supporting cast.