Horsemen

What is happening to Dennis Quaid? Seriously now, he is playing the role of the distant father more and more and he plays in worse and worse movies. I like the guy! Cast him in something decent!

As for the movie, it kind of sucked. I mean, the mythos behind the killings was shabby, the police-work ridiculous and, worst of all, I could not relate to ANY of the characters except Dennis Quaid's one... part of the time. And the casting just reveals too much.

Bottom line: if you take Seven, you make it a lot less gruesome, you add cardboard policemen and even cardboard villains, you dumb it down considerably, then you get The Horsemen. Gave it a 6 only for Zhang's efforts on speaking English.

Tell me that the movie is like Se7en and I am interested. Tell me that Ziyi Zhang (Memoirs of a Geisha, House of Flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2046) is in it, and I am interested. Tell me that Dennis Quaid, the actor starring in one of my favorite films, The Big Easy, is starring this one, and I am definitely interested.

A combination like that should mean that I am in for a treat of some kind.

Barry Shabaka Henley is always a welcome addition, and he was no disappointment here.

However, the rest of the film was a big disappointment. It was devoid of any real emotion, and the struggle with the kids just distracted from the quest for the killers. It never came close to Se7en.

I don't know about you, but when I sit down to watch a horror film, I don't expect to be blown away. My expectation is only to be engaged, kept in suspense, and hopefully scared out of my mind (this last one being of the rarest variety).

This movie lived up to my expectations in all the important ways. My curiosity was jump started in the first scene, and the somber, introspective mood of the story line, spiked with horrific scenarios and sickening plot twists, was exactly what I hoped.

The final twist was too easily guessed, of course, but it didn't take away from the finale - a powerfully emotional scene portrayed very convincingly by Dennis Quaid, who brought his usual energy and charisma to the role.

If you're looking for a quality horror flick or suspense thriller, this one is well worth your while!

Ranking of 5 is generous, could easily be a 3. Movie declines with meaningless and and necessary filler scenes, overacting/or bad direction for leads' Quaid and Yang Ziyi, just a bad psychological drama masked as thriller and horror. Nice sound track though, but a little dramatic. Only saving grace (pun intended) was Lou Taylor who's character almost seems authentic playing Quaid's son. Worth every cent I paid for it, 0. Sorry, everything about this had promise, if I knew the production business better maybe I'd understand how this came out of the editing room for major distribution.

Dennis Quaid is excellent as worn-out, recently widowed detective Aidan Breslin. In fact, no-on in the cast puts in less than a terrific performance, especially Ziyi Zhang as Kristin and Breslin's two overlooked children who occasionally threaten to derail the plot (or do they?).

This is a dark, emotionally raw horror chiller, beautifully directed by Jonas Åkerlund. It seems to be building to something apocalyptic, or at least, something more impressive than the overtly saccharine ending we get.

It's a shame the story ends in so anti-climactic a fashion, the journey up to that point is an inventive and interesting one that inspires lots of suspicions about various characters and their motives. A lot of this comes to nothing. My score is 6 out of 10.