Canes

The PR David Goodman (Edward Furlong) expects to be promoted in the agency where he works but he loses the opportunity to his colleague Tony (Tobias Mehler). While upset at home with his wife Lisa (Chandra West), David sees a man near his car; when he approaches, the stranger sprays some chemicals on his face and David becomes blind. Later David receives a message in his answering machine with the proposal of Dr. Guillermo List (Michael Madsen) for recovering his vision and he offers anything to regain his sight. Dr. List gives an ancient cane with a devil face to David that recovers his eyesight but is possessed by an evil demon, ascending in his career but with a high-price.

"Canes" is really a bad movie: first there are many stories of evil covenants or secret societies; therefore the plot is not even original. The flawed screenplay is terrible, with an imbecile development, characters that comes and dies without any consequence, unanswered situations, silly twists, a corny conclusion associated to very poor special effects. There is one specific scene that is absolutely ridiculous, when Lisa is stabbed with David's cane on her chest and then she runs like hell without any blood or consequences. But the worse is the acting, mainly of the lead and once promising actor Edward Furlong; he is awful, completely miscast for the role of David Goodman, shorter than Chandra West and wearing a suit that probably belongs to his father. The decadent Michael Madsen keeps the (low) level of his last performances and Chandra West is the best that this movie may offer to the viewers. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "O Escolhido" ("The Chosen")

I just saw "Canes" on the pay-TV channel here in British Columbia, and since it was also filmed here I guess that is fitting, and I can also recommend the beautiful scenery! The movie itself, however, was shot on a nothing budget, and contains average performances by all the leads except Furlong, who has not reached any of the potential he showed in his earlier films from the 90's. The most surprising thing about the movie is that the special effects - especially on this budget - are better than the plot (which I'll only describe as "horror"). Somehow, this film was shown at Cannes last month (Canes, Cannes, Uma, Oprah...), but I cannot imagine sitting and watching this film anywhere but at home, as it is slow and not very horrific either. But if you have nothing better to do, and it is free, then...

It takes a really bad film to make me want to switch off and this is the first in a long time. The plot line and special effects were 1980s quality and I was disappointed in the acting of Edward Furlong. It's the first time I've seen Chandra West and I did rate her efforts, although they weren't enough to drag this film up to any appreciative level.

Not Michael Madsen's best work either, although he's not the best character actor in the business, his skills as a "baddie" were never really exploited in the first half of this film - that's for sure. For a film to be this bad, you have to look at the Director. Either his budget was small or he wants to remain as anonymous as his films are!

Waste your time on something else, but not on this film!

"The Covenant: Brotherhood Of Evil" has basically the same title as the "gay" "The Covenant", but it's different.

The Plot: David Goodman (Furlong) is a young businessman on the rise. He's blinded by a random criminal and he wants revenge. He then meets Guillermo List (Madsen) who gives him an evil cane (yes, a walking cane...) to exact his vengeance. But it gets out of hand and now the powers of evil are after him!

As you can tell, the plot to this cinematic sludge is silly. If you want a good laugh, watch this. Furlong is miscast and he looks awful. He's packed on some weight and the suits he wears in the film are so tight on him, they're bursting at the seams. Madsen is okay, but once again he's there for a paycheck. He does have obviously fake facial hair. It looks glued on.

Overall, "The Covenant: Brotherhood Of Evil" is a very ridiculous film that's worth watching for the unintentional laughs.

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If you watch Mrs. Goodman drive around town, one second she is driving a BMW, next second it's an Audi. Also the license plate rotates from one to the next, never on the same car twice. Early in the movie she said Furlongs character bought a Porsche. Never did see it. I got this movie by mistake as there was two movies with the name "The Covenant". This one and the good one. I think the producers figured on riding on the name to get people like me confused and rent their video. If it wasn't for the name, it wouldn't make it on it's own. Michael Madsen really stooped low for this role. The make-up and wardrobe people should not quit their day jobs.