For a while now I have been regularly watching at least one movie per day. This can come from Netflix, Netflix Instant Watch, Hulu, my own collection, going to the theater, catching something on TV, or watching the backlog of things I have recorded on my DVR. Regardless of the medium, I make a concerted effort to watch at least one movie per day. I've done it so long that in fact I no longer need to think about it.
I figured it's time to share with the world my views. If you don't like the idea don't read the blog. I have no illusions of grandeur, no real goals to extend any farther than what than the core concept and realize I am mostly writing for myself. The goal is simply to give a brief review on at least one movie per day. Since I watch at least one, this should not be a problem. You may even get lucky and I might write two reviews.
By day I am a technical support consultant at a travel software company. By night I am an aspiring film writer/director. I am working on some projects which I may or may not discuss here. At first the thoughts will be random and the writing may not be what you would call "good" and I can only hope as time goes by I get better and stick with it. In the meantime I present my first Movie A Day Review.
Seriously could I have picked a dumber movie to start with?
P2
Release Date: November 9th, 2007
Summit Entertainment
Directed by Franck Khalfoun
Starring: Rachel Nichols, Wes Bentley
Where: Netflix Instant Watch
You might be asking yourself "why the fuck would he pick this movie to start with?". That's a great question and one I'm not sure exactly how to answer except that it's Halloween and I happened to be looking for a slightly creepy or scary movie to watch that I hadn't seen yet. I've had P2 on my Netflix Instant Watch queue for some time now so I decided this would at least be serviceable and possibly even entertaining considering the talent involved here. What possibly intrigued me the most about the movie was the re-teaming of the crew that brought us The Hills Have Eyes and High Tension. I have huge soft spot for both movies and honestly can’t wait to see the new Piranha movie with or without 3D. P2 was written by Alexandre Aja , Greg Levasseur, and Franck Khalfoun with Khalfoun making his debut in the director’s chair.
My decision was further helped because it was due to be removed from the Instant Watch Queue on November 1st. At the very least I wanted some cool, ultra-violent kills in a setting which is largely unknown to the horror/thriller spectrum, the parking garage.
The story, not that it matters all that much, revolves around a workaholic young business woman who gets stuck in a parking garage with a insane stalker who just “wants to help her”. The entire film takes place in various parts of the same parking garage essentially making one long extended chase sequence with a few interesting bits here and there to shake things up. Despite the strong premise the movie never quite pulls itself out of the infinite pit of despair that so many horror thrillers seem to fall into lately. There’s nothing new here and nothing you haven’t seen before. Typical jump scares and logic defying choices abound kill the decent tension that is built within the first 15 minutes. There’s a sequence where the main character, Angela played by the gorgeous Rachel Nichols, suddenly finds herself alone walking through a parking garage, arms full of Christmas presents, while the lights go out one by one. This marks the first and last time the movie ever become even semi-terrifying, at this point we are introduced to one of the worst villains I have seen in years.
Even for the genre, this guy hits a new low. Tom, played by Wes Bentley, is supposed to be a lonely parking garage security attendant with a long standing crush on Angela. He shows her how he feels by drugging her and killing any “competition” he might have, naturally. Unfortunately he comes across as mostly laughable and extremely juvenile. He is never terrifying and we never feel like Angela is ever in any real danger mostly because Tom reminds us every few minutes that he won’t hurt her and just wants to help her (but never say his name more than once, he will throw a fit). Tom ends up being little more than a mildly disturbed individual who does horrible, sinister things because well just because. His motivation is never enough to actually believe that he is capable of these things. Besides how the hell did he ever think he was going to get away with all of this?
The gore is actually kept at a minimum with a few scenes here and there, namely a car torture sequence that actually did give me some chills, where it’s used effectively and not over the top. The movie is really more about dull chase sequences through the same set pieces over and over making the movie’s 97 minute run time feel like eternity. Terrible acting and an extremely weak script with truly abhorrent logical fallacies hurt an interesting premise and keep the movie from ever becoming anything more than a more violent made for TV presentation. Maybe worth a watch if you are really bored and it happens to be on but forgo this mess for something similar but far more entertaining, for example anything Aja has directed before or after this.
Overall the movie is less than half way there. I give it a generous 2 out of 5 parking garage levels for Rachel Nichols being incredibly hot.
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