It's perhaps telling that this tiresomely-directed thriller doesn't appear on director Michael Haussman's official web site. If he can't be bothered, why should we?
>>> Plot teaser
A man is shot and falls off a cliff but survives. In hospital, he lies in a coma but awakes to find a pretty nurse, a sheriff, a concerned fiancée and an overriding feeling that he knows something about an assassination attempt on the President of the United States.
>>> Principal cast and crew
• Producer: Vincent Newman • Producer: Tucker Tooley • Producer: Randall Emmett • Executive Producer: George Furla • Director: Michael Haussman ◦ Val Kilmer: Frank Kavanaugh ◦ Neve Campbell: Chloe Richards ◦ Sam Shepard: Sheriff Jack Kolb ◦ Giancarlo Esposito: JC Reynolds ◦ Amy Smart: Liz Culpepper • Writer: F. Paul Benz • Writer: Steve Tomlin
>>> More comment
While the basic Jason Bourne-esque plot is okay, the giant pile of producers couldn't manage to scrape together a half-decent script. The entire movie, therefore, fails to make sense and director Michael Gaussman feels compelled to turn to the unwritten movie rule book and so-called visual flair to try and cover the holes.
Any visual flair commercials director Gaussman might have is not evident in this movie. In fact, he takes a spectacular, and presumably expensive, tanker truck crash and explosion and makes it utterly unspectacular and difficult to see. For an example of how to do it right, see Ridley Scott's "Thelma and Louise" (which is, remarkably, almost the only traditional Hollywood exploding object in all of Scott's output).
For unwritten movie rules consider the following examples:
• Unwritten movie rule: all lightning must always be accompanied by simultaneous thunder. • Unwritten movie rule: the probability of any attractive nurse having sex with a patient is related to how little they know about them and how serious their crime or potential crime is. • Unwritten movie rule: amnesiacs prophetically remember things that haven't happened yet. • Unwritten movie rule: drivers cannot see or sense anyone who climbs in the back of their truck while it is moving. • Unwritten movie rule: any off-screen gunshot kills exactly who you expect, it does not leave it up in the air. • Unwritten movie rule: all flashbacks must be accompanied by that loud sound you've only ever heard on a movie flashback.
Val Kilmer is acceptable but he could be accused of sleepwalking through the film. This is, I suppose, rather appropriate as he is an amnesiac awoken from a coma. Sam Shepard is fine as a local sheriff and his deputy is played by Noble Willingham in his last completed screen role.
It's the girls who come off particularly badly. Neve Campbell, Amy Smart and Faye Dunaway are all treated badly by the non-sensical script and none of them escape that damning fate. Amy Smart plays her stupid role with considerable conviction and charm, Faye Dunaway has too small a role to make anything of and Neve Campbell is her usual charmless self. Even those fanboys hoping for a glimpse of Neve's naked niblits (promised in the trailer) will be disappointed as it is the random breast of a certain Katrina I. Saucedo that makes a cameo appearance during the movie's brief sex scene. (It's not Val Kilmer in the sex scene either, his body double is named Kevin Wiggins.)
>>> Certificate
This is 15. It contains sexual swear words (about half-a-dozen), adult dialogue, an extremely unpleasant scenes of a man about to have his tongue cut out, some strong violence, some graphic violence, female nudity and a sex scene.
>>> DVD
Please note, this is not a DVD review, just the film.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: K.C. Bascombe - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Jesse James, Rachel Skarsten, Charles Powell, Linda Purl, Kevin Zegars
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