Inexplicable

The script turns somersaults.. At first, it looks like an extra-ordinary script, involving the lead actors very late. But it turns out that there are good reasons why a screenwriter ought to introduce at least one main character from the very beginning. It takes about 45 minutes until you know in which direction the movie wants to go or wants you to go. I couldn't follow and didn't really want to.

Great cast, especially the female leading role (who slightly reminded me of Naomi Watts) and some good dialogue. At least I watched it to the very (bitter) end. As I work in a videostore with a huge choice of movies to watch, this is quite a compliment. 4 of 10.

It's hysterical how so many people have found it to praise this crapola so highly and have the gall to accuse people with OBJECTIVE negative opinions of having some kind of personal problem with this Pavan Grover guy.

I'm a big fan of Lance Henrikson and Hopper. I even fully admit Pavan Grover demonstrated clear acting talent and ability. It's just too bad he didn't decide to stick with what he is good at. He would have been hard pressed to pull a less competent and "Unpraiseworthy" screenplay out of his behind.

The problem with this movie began and ended with that ridiculous screenplay.

It was simply a nonsensical mess, with terrible dialogue that branched out in tons of directions with no development, focus, rhyme or reason.

If cinematography, production value, quality of actors, sound and special effects were all that mattered then it would be a good movie.

I saw this movie this noon, and a few, if not many questions, popped out of me. the tag line of this movie was something like "nothing can ever silence the true evil." So it is implied that Jesse Mowatt was the true evil. Then how about the warden? He was something of a sadist and an evil, wasn't he? In the scene where Jesse controlled the warden with his will power and made him commit suicide, it is like indicating that the warden deserved it. if the warden really do, then Jesse Mowatt was doing something good, and it is not up to a "true evil" to do something good, if the story wanted to make a clear story.

Well, what can I say? It is not a impressive movie, even with all its scenes obviously aiming to create sensations, like a worm in the bloody brain, so on. It is a movie that after seeing it , no one would be thinking about it any more, like plain water, after you drink it, you only remember that you drank it, but with no memory of how.

besides, the characters were left unexplored. how big an influence had Mowatt's father left on him? how did Mowatt change from a human to a demon? we were told but not showed. one credit though, the acting was great.

This is what you get if you have some second-league actors (Henriksen, Fahey, Hopper) and a mentally retarded screenwriter (or American, or American and mentally retarded). I thought it'll be better.

It wasn't. Nothing made sense: bug that got into Hopper's brain from nowhere, a prisoner that should be shot on the spot instead of being repeatedly thrown to the ground and mauled, hallucinations, sexual fascinations, litres of red paint, surviving the electric chair just to be finally shot by the key female character... As someone said here: "unspeakably bad film". Bad with capital, bold, red 'B'. 'B' as in 'budget'.

Just a quick comment...

This is one of those films that I caught about 15 min. late on late-night cable. That missed 15 made all the difference. The clunky exposition - 'Tonight', '3 Days Earlier', etc., etc. - played no part in my first impression, and the film played as a straight jailhouse drama, with LESS ludicrous pseudo-science, fewer superhuman feats perpetrated by the arch-villain.

I was so intrigued that I programmed my Tivo to catch the West Coast feed of the film, and that was the good-bad mistake. This film would have been far more effective if they had eliminated the backstories at the beginning of the film and the wannabe 'Another Heaven' (2000) aspects of the Jesse Mowatt character. The director and the editor overplayed their hands there.

The pluses for this film are that the leads - Dina Meyer, Lance Henrickson, Jeff Fahey and even the writer/actor Pavan Grover turn in acceptable performances. I was especially impressed by Meyer here, in her capacity to convey sympathy, compassion, authority, fear, etc. Dennis Hopper's contribution however, is execrable: his lines are terrible, and he chooses to read them like a 'tough love' southern caricature.

The 'metaphysically-enhanced serial killer' is an overcrowded field. It has been done to death. If anyone is out there writing such stuff, it is best that they limit their palette - too many psychic powers and sci-fi gadgets can put a serious hurt on one's story. Otherwise, this one is well-enough executed, and ironically a full cut above the junk that's habitually ground-out by the SciFi Channel.

If it's a late night or early morning, definitely worth biding one's insomnia by...

5/10