Gallowwalkers

So many extremely harsh reviews.... I'm tempted to rate it a 10 just to try and offset some of the bad but I won't. I will go ahead and rate it as I feel it deserves. It is a simple plot when stripped to the core, however the angle they take and the creative way they give it a supernatural twist made it interesting enough to watch.

So many reviewers pick it to the bone critically for not being mind blowing detail/story wise. I think that's harsh. It was a fun little movie that is plenty enjoyable if one doesn't think to hard on it... Just taken as it is I actually liked it more than I thought I would. I have seen it around but never bothered to watch it due to all the negative reviews.

It was a friend of mine that told me I should give it a chance as he thought it was a good little watch and he is rather particularl on what he likes. He and I have very different acceptable base criteria for movies and he will not watch half the things I think are decent movies. To put it short, he only likes things with lots of action and/or really good CGI. but even he said I should give this one a shot so I did. Is it unforgettable? No.... However it was entertaining enough and better than I thought it would be.

I rarely rate a movie as low as I am doing Gallowwalkers. Any worse and it would have been funny bad. Unfortunately it manages to stop right before it gets there, but goes far enough for almost all movies to be better. I am not kidding. The story is a confused mess, the actors play bad, the action scenes make no sense.

You know when you have dreams when it is really hot and everything seems to move in slow motion and doesn't respect any narrative and it is all a blur that you fight to make sense of and can't? That's how bad this movie is.

And you might dismiss my comment and think that I have something against Snipes. No, I do not. I know he is not a good actor, but I've watched a lot of his movies. I respect him as an action star. He is like a black VanDamme. But this film... I am really astounded that it could have turned this bad. Speechless, almost.

I watched this movie without reading any reviews for it, thankfully, as most are really harsh, most rating it as a 1. The images and camera shots are amazing and definitely made the movie more enjoyable than the plot, as well as the end credit images were superb. The plot is interesting, though not properly explained at points, as well as not addressing some key issues throughout the movie. Without Wesley Snipes, this movie would have been worse, and that's saying something. The camera kept focusing on him when he makes one word/sentence responses for way too long. The supporting cast were not written in well, and at times seemed out of place, appearing at random moments without any cause.

The action scenes are good, though the close ups can be disjointing for the viewer during fast paced scenes. The flashback scenes helped to reveal the plot throughout the movie, but, the randomness of scenes and the transitional points were just irritating.

The budget was about 17 million, so they might make it back, but this movie is only for those who can sit through 90 minutes of confusing scenes with little actual thought. I would rate it a 5 because I did enjoy it. The racial and gender presentations were a bit questionable and does try to identify their key audience pretty well (however narrow it will be). To anyone planning on watching it, skip it, unless you're looking for basic action and a basic storyline.

Synopsis: In an arid wasteland created by too many lacklustre Hollywood mash-ups, critics think they've put the final stake in Wesley Snipe's career, but surprisingly it returns from the dead and feasts on spaghetti using Leone and Joderowsky's silver spoon.

Verdict: Ambitious, imaginative and visually impressive film that warrants obvious comparison (Leone), but seems more indebted to El Topo's art direction and non-linear, Gothic, psychedelic spaghetti westerns like Matalo! and Django Kill, if You Live, Shoot! Personally, I enjoy this sort of thing, but I can see why many do not; it is brazenly uncommercial and unconventional (a brave choice at this point in Snipe's career decline), and that's part of its appeal.

Several reviews have complained about the incoherent (or completely lacking) plot, but being a fan of spaghetti westerns, I've become accustomed to going along with the film's visuals - like following a good jazz number. I found the plot to be simplistic and classic western: man seeks revenge, flashbacks ensue, he gets revenge and - here's the twist - the people he kills come back from the grave ... so man seeks young apprentice to help him kill them once again.

To some degree, I agree with the negative reviews. I did find it a frustrating and uneven watch. I couldn't help but think that a much better film was possible. Several scenes are cut in a manner that implies not enough footage was shot (made all the more infuriating by the fact that most of the film is extremely well photographed, making excellent use of the Namibian locations). There's also some reliance on rather cheap looking CGI - although the removal of heads and spinal columns was quite impressive. The voice-over narration - always problematic - sounds like a bad advert for men's cologne. The narration is made even worse by two narrators, possibly a necessity stemming from Snipe's three-year prison sentence in 2010 for failure to file income tax returns (Gallowwalkers was shot just before Snipes went to prison).

The music, so important to any spaghetti western, is also disappointing, veering from more appropriate classical to some sort of alt-rock. Lastly, the climatic journey into the "spirit world" looks like it was shot in an underground parking lot. After that, an incongruous animated credit sequence rolls by, suggesting Gallowwalkers wants to position itself with the postmodern, ironic works of Rodriguez and Tarantino. Clearly, it should have remained true to its spaghetti western DNA.

A zombie western shot in the Namibian desert sounds like a hoot, but GALLOWWALKERS is something of a mixed bag when it comes to filmed entertainment. It may be due to the troubled waters behind the scenes, which saw Snipes arrested for tax evasion and jailed for three years. Not good news when your star is sent to prison halfway through filming.

Still, it could have been a lot worse and GALLOWWALKERS does have stuff going for it. The story is pretty unique, featuring a cursed gunslinger (Snipes on strong, stylish form) whose victims always come back from the dead to be killed a second time around. The zombie stuff is handled fairly well, but the production values are weak with a distinctive B-movie look and feel to the whole thing.

A solid turn from Snipes helps to anchor things, and there's enough blood 'n' guts for the horror crowd to stay tuned in. But in the end this has to go down as a failure, purely because it's completely forgettable as a film with little rewatchability. A failure that tries hard, but still a failure nonetheless.