Review of Refuge

Refuge (IV) (2010)
4/10
Very bad directing, bad writing, tries to become a black comedy, halfway through.
16 August 2012
This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I only watched it (on Netflix streaming) because I love Chris McDonald & could watch him polish his shoes and be entertained. Also, I was hoping to see a Linda Hamilton "comeback". I know she's had sort of a hard time, of late. And the description of it on Netflix made it sound like an interesting story.

Christopher, in his small but important role, was wonderful, as he always is. But he could not save this. He could not have saved it even if he had played a much larger part. Nothing and nobody could save this.

In the hands of a better director & writer, and with decent editing, I think it could have been a pretty good B-type film. The premise was interesting, but the direction & writing were so bad it ended up being a complete, barely watchable disaster.

I'm not sure exactly how much blame the editor should assume, but especially the first 45 min. were obviously "badly chopped up", with things happening with no background having been provided. I went back, over & over & over again, to try to understand several scenes, and found I hadn't missed anything, the details were just not there.

It didn't help that about halfway through, this attempts to become a dark comedy... for no apparent reason, other than that the writer/director decided to throw everything but the kitchen sink into the mix. Sadly, none of it worked, on any level.

All in all, this is one you should be sure to miss.
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