Road to Revenge

This is probably the absolute WORST THING EVER PUT TO FILM! And it's not just BAD BAD...it's God AWFUL HORRIBLE! If you REALLY WANT to lose precious time out of your life,then go ahead and give it a watch. Personally,I would rather slowly drip battery acid into my eyes for 90 minutes...at LEAST I would have felt SOMETHING for an hour and a half! I don't think I have ever seen WORSE ACTING from a lead actor...EVER! And if you want to hear said actor SING...ramming an ice pick into your ears would be more pleasant. Seriously folks...I don't even recommend this dumpster fire of a "movie" to be watched as a "fun time"...you pretty much feel embarrassed for EVERYONE in the "movie" for the entire run time. And if you even can watch it for FREE...I HIGHLY ADVISE you not to. It's THAT BAD.

Toodles.

John de Hart wrote, produced, starred, directed, and did the singing and music composition for this "I Love Me" film. And he was a trainwreck at each job, even after 3 reworks. His character is a Mary Sue of course (or whatever the male equivalent is), but ironically when he is onstage at the "bar" singing one of his own songs, he has this cringeworthy "deer in the headlights" look the entire time. Using another of his songs as an overlay also sucks the life and any eroticism out of what should be an exciting scene where the main gets to undress and have fun with a Playboy centerfold. And unlike Neil Breen and Ed Wood films, this movie simply has no charm to create some kind of saving grace. There is no path forward to recommend this in any way.

There's a whole category of mostly subterranean movies in which some schmoe who's had delusions of grandeur his whole life spent his savings to bankroll a vanity project starring (and often writtten/directed/produced by) himself. The most famous example is of course Tommy Wiseau's "The Room," which actually managed to become a cult phenomenon. A few others have gained a little notoriety among seekers of camp gold, and there's a sort of subgenre in which some guy apparently thought "I must be the next Bruce Lee!" because he's the star of his local karate studio, never realizing that "block of wood" isn't just something to hand-chop, but the way his acting would be described. But most such films languish in obscurity, because they were perceived as too amateurish for release initially, then were entirely forgotten.

This is one of those movies, although I gather some people have actually heard of it. (I hadn't, until now.) It's an excruciatingly dumb, basic hero-vs.-criminal-bad-guys opus, with "You killed the only woman I ever loved" as plot motivation, though it takes quite a while to get to that point. There are scattered professional aspects-the photography is mostly acceptable on a direct-to-video B-flick level-but the script is atrocious and there's a lot of just idiotic filler, particularly in the realm of women with implants going topless for no discernible reason, and Wings Hauser improvising painfully as some kind of Method Nightmare comedic sidekick. But the main issue is writer-director-star-producer John De Hart, whose only screen credit this is-and no wonder. He's 50-ish gent of average looks, in decent shape for his age, but who has all the charisma of a paperweight. He is not an actor, has little apparent personality, and despite all selling of his character as one tough ex-cop hombre, does not demonstrate any particular martial-arts or other physical skills. (We see him use a punching bag several times, which is pretty underwhelming.) Worse by far, he seems to think he can sing-and he sings several vaguely "country" songs he wrote, including a "Shimmy Slide" that occasions the lamest imaginable line-dance accompaniment. Anyway, his singing must be heard...if you can stand it. It's beyond belief. Incredible that someone could be that bad (is he sharp? is he flat? is he even hitting what one would call "notes"?) and have no idea.

Anyway, "GetEven" aka "Road to Revenge" is a little too inept to be consistently hilarious; sometimes it just lays there. But it does have some camp value. William Smith manages to be simultaneously hammy and bored as the chief villain, with his leering thugs including a ringer for Fabio; the women, clearly cast for assets other than "acting ability," are uniformly dreadful; oh, and there are baby-sacrificing Satanists. This is the kind of movie so arbitrary that the latter element, which would tend to take center stage in most stories where it's included, instead plays here as sort of narrative afterthought.

A fun bad movie, but not a great bad movie, or one I'd watch again-hence the 5.

This is an excellent movie. From the evil and vile satanist judge Normad, to the charismatic and charming badass of John De Heart. This movie will change you. Perhaps you too will fall for John De Heart. There is some stellar action (that end confrontation always gets me) and twists and turns in every direction. And what can I say that Pitchfork media has surly not said in their review of the soundtrack. The heartfelt ballads and the magical shimey slide will take younin with their sweeping choruses and melodies. Honestly, go watch this movie.

Not Outsider Art, whichever title you go with ('Geteven', 'Champagne and Bullets', or 'Road To Revenge' - Indeed, this warranted 2 rereleases, the thinking seemingly is, 'The marketing's in the title; we just gotta find the right one'), so strap in. Nudity and bootscootin''s the future of nonsense ...