Released: 2007
Reviewed: 9.22.09
Star Rating: 3 out of 5
Lindsay Lohan (Aubrey/Dakota), Julia Ormond (Susan), Neal McDonough (Daniel), Garcelle Beauvais (Agent Bascome), Spencer Garrett (Agent Lazarus), Gregory Itzin (Dr. Jameson), Brian Geraghty (Jerrod).
A serial killer is on the loose and Aubrey is his next victim. But unlike the others, she apparently escapes missing a hand and lower leg. While her family is elated she is alive, Aubrey now believes she is someone else, Dakota. Convinced she is still in danger and with nobody believing her, she races to save Aubrey’s life.
This one was a bit confusing in the beginning as it tried to create the mood of the film and give some character development but felt choppy instead. Once things started happening the film got more interesting but still had a choppy feel. Toward the end as things were coming together the previous choppy parts made sense and we are able to enjoy the somewhat anti-climactic ending which left a lot unexplained. Maybe I didn’t expect much from this one, after all it does star Lindsay Lohan, but I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t a wonderful film by any means but it was far better than the trash I expected.
Lohan actually did a decent job in her role. Obviously a bit green, and lacking emotion at times, she was able to pull off the “trashy girl” role nicely. Ormond did a good job while McDonough gave his usual performance which in my opinion is lifeless. Supporting actors did pretty well though Geraghty’s character was a bit hard to accept.
Camera work, sets, and sound were all pretty good but it was the gore effects that stole the show. Cutting off limbs with pieces of ornate stained glass was very interesting. Dialogue was poor in several scenes, not fitting either the moment or the film in general.
Overall I think this film got unfairly hammered as it is a decent teen scream/thriller. The suspense was decent, the gore shots were good, and acting could have been much worse. You can definitely do better but you could also do much, much worse. Plenty of foul language, sexuality, nudity, and yummy bloody grisly gore so save this for older teens and above.
No comments:
Post a Comment