VANish

Greetings from Lithuania.

"VANish" (2015) is sometimes laughably bad, sometimes laughably gory, sometimes laughably stupid but most important, never good. The plot is very simple, and not really engaging. To be honest, i somehow managed to watch it till the end, till the very bad end. There was a shoot out scene at the end that has to be one of the worst shoot out scenes in the movie history - seriously, watch it closely and you will spot some very serious errors in continuity, terrible editing and even worst directing. What was the point of this whole movie?

Overall, to think that someone managed to spend a lot of money for creating this stuff and hoping to get it back kinda makes me want shake my head in disbelieve. The only think that was kinda nice in this movie actually was Bryan Bockbrader's acting. That i think was not bad performance at all, and you clearly see that this guy has some natural talent, although the material is wrong to make any real judgments. Overall, you can safely skip this flick and save some 1 h and 17 min.

After a month and bit of watching purely Oscar nominated films it always takes a bit of getting used to, and is somewhat of a relief, delving back into standard action-thrillers. 'VANish' is obviously a long way from being Oscar material but it's still pretty good. The dialogue actually holds together really well for the most part and the story moves at a good pace. In fact the pace really does move along at supersonic speed. The film doesn't even reach 80 minutes but they could easily have panned it out to 90 if they'd wanted to with needless extra scenes and irrelevant dialogue (or heaven forbid an opening title sequence). Bravo to them for being happy with the runtime and not insulting the viewer.

"Girl Power" seems to be a large part of what director Bryan Bockbrader has gone for here and it works. Almost every male in the movie is a complete moron and the one and only female is a calm and competent woman who rules over them all (even when her hands are tied behind her back). That's not to say there's nothing for men to enjoy - there's more blood, guts and gore than your average thriller, that's for sure. Maiara Walsh did a very good job in the lead role and her acting seems to have taken a step in the right direction since I last saw her in 'Desperate Housewives'. All in all a nice surprise.

What hooked me in was that they had Danny Trejo's mug on the poster (which by the way I think is one of the better indie posters I've seen in a long time). Now, I always come in with very low expectations when it comes to a Danny Trejo film as he's in every single film you can imagine so his quality control is scant. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It surprised me on how entertaining it was having only been shot entirely in a van! The director Bryan Bockbrader highlights this very well, using the tight space and passenger POV to claustrophobic effect. His performance as the sadistic half-brother to the film's protagonist played by Austin Abke is equally effective in its own right. Performances were solid overall with what may possibly be a career-turning role for Maiara Walsh as the acerbic and witty abductee of the brother's scheme to rip off her formidable, drug lord father: the one, the only, Danny Trejo. Tony Todd's brief but memorable cameo was especially exciting to see as well as new comer Adam Guthrie as the junk fiend, ex-military buddy along for the ride. Though maybe not an awards contender, VANish is a fun, fast-paced thrill ride that is sure to entertain even Trejo skeptics like me.

OK so the first half hour of this movie was tough to get through because the acting was very poor - or so I thought...

After watching the whole movie I rate the acting quite good, especially from Maiara Walsh, who was brilliant. Initially the two guys in the van appeared to be complete half wits and I thought it was the acting but thinking about it, some of it was the characters they were playing - who were morons...

Considering the very limited sets and budget, this movie delivers an enjoyable ride. Some of the violence effects are second rate and some acting is below par but generally good - and as I have mentioned - Maiara played a good part - and is drop dead gorgeous to boot :) 6 stars - OK this should really have got a 5 stars but gave it an extra one because of Maiara Walsh :)

An independent/low budget movie that does deliver mostly. The story is nicely told and the action is nicely shot as well (there will be blood at times, so you can't be too squeamish about it). Don't expect to see too much of Danny Trejo though. I think he's doing a lot of movies, where he just has a small role (like in this one).

But the movie works well, especially the twists and turns along the way (no pun intended). There are a couple of different endings to this which normally isn't the best sign, but I think the ending that made it into the movie is the best one. It almost couldn't have ended any other way (even if it did and you can watch those scenes on your disk)