The Devil's Tomb

Take ideas and plot points from Alien, Aliens, Event Horizon, and (especially) Prince of Darkness and add some absurdity, sprinkle with blood and implausible characters and this is what you get.

Those were all vastly better films but this isn't quite as horrible as some junk on SyFy so if it's free to watch you could do worse. I gave it a 5 due to some familiar faces in the cast and the job they do and the average-looking blood and gore. Story-wise they didn't seem to put much effort into it besides "adapting" from better movies. Also amusing were the military tactics used in the Iraq flashbacks but I'm not sure they meant for me to chuckle during the battle scenes.

If you want a much better film along the same lines, watch Prince of Darkness instead and during the slow parts imagine space marines using electronic trackers that never seem to work, dodging acid-spewing creatures while running into long-dead loved ones without wondering how they happened to be there. The 5 is generous in my opinion but this could have been a lot worse.

Directed by Robin of Sherwood, a.k.a. Jason Connery (son of Sean Connery) and lasting 1hr and 30mins this film is wedged into the Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller category.

When the credits to this film were rolling I got mildly excited thinking that there were some big names in this and that it would be a decent film. Unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectations as the plot was predictable, the action was lame and the effects were cheap. Cuba Gooding Jr heads up a Special Ops team which includes Taryn Manning, Franky G, Zack Ward, Brandon Fobbs, Stephany Jacobsen and Jason London they have been hired by Dr Elissa Cardell (Valerie Cruz) who wants to rescue her father Ron Perlman who is in a top secret scientific/military bunker. The troops are your average gung-ho grunts while Cuba Gooding acts as their moral compass despite experiencing random flashbacks to a previous conflict where Ray Winstone, his commanding officer, was killed. Winstone's death is explored in flashbacks but only adds to confuse the film rather than add to it. The team enter the facility and are attacked by various mutated zombies including Bill Moseley and Weston Blakesley. As they make their way through the facility an evil presence keeps trying to stop them and separate them with a view of killing them off one by one. It transpires that the evil in the institute is a fallen and outcast angel or seraphim that appears to be frozen in ice . Despite being frozen 1000m underground it's casting an evil spell over anybody nearby and weak enough in an attempt to escape the institute. If the seraphim can get out of it's temporary cell it can endanger the entire world but first it needs a host body. Unbeknown to the special ops team from the start, Ron Perlman, whom they are trying to save is the chosen host for the fallen angel which puts an additional complication in their way, mind you, the story that Dr Cardell has weaved isn't all that true and honest anyway so an extra complication is nothing. Along the way the team encounter weird visions, random temptations and even Henry Rollins who's playing a priest.

The acting in this isn't by a long way convincing, it's actually Ron Perlman that seems the most convincing and he's only in 15% of the film, by contrast Henry Rollins character is the least believable for me. The effects in the film look like they came straight out of home production with rice crispies and corn syrup used to show an infected character. The plot could have unfolded in so many better ways but didn't, instead it went for the cheap solution of random sexual tension, lesbianism, and painful memories. The characters are trapped and brought down far too easily, for a hardened special ops team you'd at least expect them to learn from their first mistakes let alone continuously make the same mistakes. Naked woman from porn magazines don't just appear in an underground institute!! Unborn foetus' can't suddenly be 10 years old, recognisable and in a top secret research facility without some motivation or set up!!!

Despite the negatives of this film I have been watching a lot of really poor films of late, perhaps that is the reason why I'm still giving this 3 out of 10, ultimately it's bad but it's not as bad as some of the other rubbish I've seen of late. You got lucky devil's tomb.

Essentially, it's another one of those "US Soldiers release another monster in Iraq" movies. This time, it's a "fallen angel" called a Nephilim...

Of course, they get stuff wrong, like saying the "Hebrews" is in the Old Testament (It's actually in the New) or that a Military doctor would have the rank of Sergeant. (Actually, military doctors are commissioned officers.)

Cuba Gooding is just sad, because he used to be a promising actor. Now he's sharing a stage with a bunch of no-names. Ron Perleman phones it in for another session... The story has all the depth of a video game...

Okay! So when does the real movie start? Hi, to whoever is reading this? 2009 has seen some pretty good comebacks such as “Righteous Kill” with Robert De Niro and Al Pachino, so in that sense I was hoping for such a comeback from Cuba Gooding. The guy performed marvelously in “Men of Honor” and showed talent in “Pearl Harbor” but when I read the plot of his last movie I got the shivers. “The Devil’s tomb” revolves around the idea of an elite group of soldiers that are on a covert mission to retrieve a scientist from an underground lab encounter an ancient evil in the facility. Hmm…kinda sound like “Resident evil” + “The Exorcist”, but what the heck, innocent until proved guilty as the saying goes. When I started watching the movie I was stunned at the silly plot, empty conversations, bad actors play , the bad effects and cheesy make up. The satanic element was supposed to be an attention-grabber but for me it was a completely the opposite. Its not that I don’t like these kinds of movies , I actually enjoy them but this time I was just …Irritated would be the right word I guess. The dark and satanic were completely lacking and what was left were religious zombies that spat goo on “elite” soldiers. It’s a low- budget project so that should be an excuse for some of the blunders but the actors just made me feel as though they played only for as much money as they received. They had no feeling, no will to make a good role. It was as if they had a hard time getting up when they thought of their roles. Even Cuba Gooding, of whom I had such good impressions, disappoints with his performance. The sexually charged scenes were actually ruined , in my opinion, by some disgusting moments ( the make up…) In conclusion I would like to say that this is a movie that will irreversibly waste one and a half hours of your live. Heck, the movie is not really worth the reading of this review. So, NO ,I don’t recommend it to anyone. STAY CLEAR of this movie even if there is nothing else to watch.

It really is embarrassing to see an Oscar winner such as Cuba Gooding Jr. and other talented veterans wasting their time with such third rate material. Even horror lovers willing to check out just about anything may grow weary of this one, as it's stuff we've all seen before. It's religion / apocalypse theme nonsense (directed by Sean Connery's son Jason) with dumb, dumb characters, supposedly playing a crack Special Forces team, recruited to probe the mystery of what happened at an underground installation / archaeological dig. Cuba's character Captain Mack is the guy in charge, and it's dispiriting to see him look so weary, and clearly thinking, "Can someone please rescue me from this junk?"

The rest of the cast doesn't fare any better, despite the presence of some familiar faces. Among those on Cuba's team are Zack Ward, Jason London, and Franky G. The female cast members - Taryn Manning, Valerie Cruz, and Stephanie Jacobsen - are all attractive, but watching them fails to add much appeal to this thing. Bill Moseley, Ray Winstone, and Ron Perlman are all slumming badly here; Perlman, certainly, looks like he couldn't care less. So why should the viewer? Not even the brief nudity supplied by Holly Weber, or the casting of Henry Rollins as a priest, is really reason enough to sit through this. There is enough gore and grossness on hand to allow for some amusement.

Badly written, badly directed, and totally lacking in suspense and excitement, "The Devil's Tomb" couldn't even get up to average level, even for a B movie lover such as this viewer.

Four out of 10.