Here's another example of hiring big-name actors to entice the viewer to see a really bad film. And was it ever bad.
I get that it's newb writer Mickey Solis' first full length film screenplay, but there's no excuse to take a simple generic genre, and chop it up into incoherent nonsense where the action was laughable, and the dialogue cringe-worthy. "What's that? A bomb (over the door)". *still opens door* "be careful". Uggggh. The story lacked continuity and basic logic. The normally comfortable 93 minute runtime felt like 2+ hours with the slow pacing and dragged out filler scenes for the little amount of substance the (convoluted) story had.
What's even worse, is that you have producer and seasoned director Jon Keeyes quarterback this entire nonsense. I've seen first time amateur directors produce a film 100x better. He horribly directed the scenes, camera work, and failed miserably in directing his cast. The cinematography was bad, and the score on the worst side of the b-film grade spectrum. The sound felt distant, as if someone forgot the boom mics.
I want to say that perhaps if some of the high-paid actor budget was used to have a seasoned filmmaker go over the amateur screenplay for edits to improve it, but a seasoned director (Keeyes) could/should have fixed this mess. I feel bad for Gibson and Malkovich having this flop on their resume. It's a very generous 4/10 from me, all going to the star leads who did their best with what they had to work with.
I get that it's newb writer Mickey Solis' first full length film screenplay, but there's no excuse to take a simple generic genre, and chop it up into incoherent nonsense where the action was laughable, and the dialogue cringe-worthy. "What's that? A bomb (over the door)". *still opens door* "be careful". Uggggh. The story lacked continuity and basic logic. The normally comfortable 93 minute runtime felt like 2+ hours with the slow pacing and dragged out filler scenes for the little amount of substance the (convoluted) story had.
What's even worse, is that you have producer and seasoned director Jon Keeyes quarterback this entire nonsense. I've seen first time amateur directors produce a film 100x better. He horribly directed the scenes, camera work, and failed miserably in directing his cast. The cinematography was bad, and the score on the worst side of the b-film grade spectrum. The sound felt distant, as if someone forgot the boom mics.
I want to say that perhaps if some of the high-paid actor budget was used to have a seasoned filmmaker go over the amateur screenplay for edits to improve it, but a seasoned director (Keeyes) could/should have fixed this mess. I feel bad for Gibson and Malkovich having this flop on their resume. It's a very generous 4/10 from me, all going to the star leads who did their best with what they had to work with.
