Cardinal Matter

"Cardinal Matter" bites off more than it can chew, but is a tasty time nonetheless.

The steadily advancing story focuses on what happens when rural meth cookers in search of raw materials unknowingly steal a defense contractor's experimental supersoldier serum. Those juiced on this stuff can temporarily survive serious injuries, but will suffer brain damage and risk reopening wounds unless administered a second drug - which is not among the serum samples.

The contractor wants the samples back and dispatches a hitman to the small community to clean things up and eliminate loose ends. He's using dangerously high doses of the serum and is becoming psychotic.

If you enjoyed "The Bourne Legacy" and "Limitless," you'll like "Cardinal Matter." Just be prepared to suspend disbelief big time when the body count and its accompanying mayhem reach a level at which any small-town law-enforcement operation would have called in the cavalry. (However, this plot hole is no more of an issue than similar ones in, say, "Wind River" or any episode of "Yellowstone.")

The movie was lensed on location in Dubois, Wyoming, but little use is made of its small-town ambience; "Cardinal Matter" could have been shot anywhere. Locals do seem to have been used as extras in a couple of scenes.

We're not getting Anthony Hopkins and Meryl Streep here, but performances aren't bad and the young leads are likeable. Matthew Stannah is especially good as the drug-enhanced hitman, delivering a disturbing performance right up there with Andrew Robinson's Scorpio in "Dirty Harry."

One area in which "Cardinal Matter" seriously stumbles is that director Medeline Puzzo and writer Thomas Arthur Major introduce some potentially useful sci-fi elements but don't pursue them fully.

Overall, however, the movie is enjoyable and has the comfortable feel of an "X-Files" episode in which Mulder and Scully never show up.

As a movie "Cardinal Matter" does not matter. The script was weak and full of plot holes. Various actions of the different characters throughout the movie was not logical and script also fails to provide any explanation about these actions. Throughout the movie you miss the logic dearly but in the climax scene logic will disappear entirely. You will wonder this is why I waste my precious time and money.

Although acting skill of some of the actors and actresses was decent enough, but others were horrible. Tim Parrish who played the role of policeman could not look into the other persons eye for five seconds when delivering a dialogue. He was always looking here and there. The sheriff was another character who hardly had any expression in his face. Matthew Stannah who played the role of Cale Fleischer acts quite decently but when he had to deliver a long dialogue his expressions got messed up towards the end. And the extras who has the small roles they are the worst.

Bottom line NOT RECOMMENDED.

It's OK if you want background entertainment. Requires very little attention.

The bad guy is fairly pathetic, definitely a loon but not in same genre as normal psychotic sadistic killers.

It has the right ingredients just underdone.

Wonderful...no sex scenes, no children, no dogs, no car chases, no catchy, memorial one-liners....just a reasonable drama with reasonable acting. Yes, a few holes, but come on, almost every movie ever made has holes. Hollywood lives on them. Yes, violence also, but given the story line, I don't see how the movie could have been made without it. The nitpickers can go watch some special effects with lots of inclusivity, and the above standards, but this movie was a welcome departure from all that.

So a veteran returns 'home' to find his cousin involved in some sort of drug business gone really wrong.

As people start getting offed left and right, the nature of the 'drug' involved comes into question.

-1 Star for a bunch of hillbillies being involved in some big 'military' type wonderdrug experiment

Good Lord could you imagine a bunch of hillbillies being in charge of Revolutionary breakthroughs in Science???

-1 Star for the cops giving the lead guy SO MANY CHANCES.... no real COP with the info they had on the lead guy would give him so many breaks....no way .. I call shenanigans!!!

+1 Star for the ending. I liked the ending and thought it appropriate. I thought for sure there was going to be a fail in the end but it wasn't bad.

Now the story as a whole was pretty much crap. But the end gave it a little much needed umph.

4/10