Valley of Bones

Dingy, violent little number, about a paleontologist ( recently out of prison, and trying to redeem herself, obligatorily ) who receives a tip from a meth junkie ( with vaguely defined ties to, and undefined debt to, a drug cartel who is threatening his family ) about a tyrannosaurus Rex buried on a desolate plot of land in North Dakota, which could potentially be worth a fortune.

Characters with overly cluttered backgrounds people this well photographed drama/ Western/ horror thriller, which never climaxes, so much as it just stops, with no resolution to any of its numerous plot lines. However, if we were to take out the overly complex character backgrounds, all we would be left with is the odd story of an archaeological dig, with the vaguely defined prize going to the undefined highest bidder, and again, some good cinematography, making good use of the bleak North Dakota land.

This is another film ( similar to The Gracefield Incident, from a month or two ago ) which was filmed several years ago ( in this case, this was filmed from 5 October 2015 - 2 November 2015 ) and sat unreleased until its abrupt, barely advertised limited release ( in September 2017 ) and has barely any information on its IMDb page, or Wikipedia page, and doesn't have a Boxofficemojo page, and didn't get a Thursday night preview screening. I saw a trailer for this one single time, about a week ago, and there was a standee in the cinema lobby, and apparently that was all of the promotion this received.

Edit: it now has a Boxofficemojo page, and this opened in a limited release, on only three hundred screens, bringing in $164.738, placing it at number 44 for opening weekend. The following week, it plummeted from 300 screens down to only 13, and from 44th down to 105th place.

Disgraced paleontologist Anna (Autumn Reeser) is desperate for money and a successful dig. She was imprisoned for digging on government land. Her young son Ezekiel is bitter and feels abandoned by her. She is annoyed with Ezekiel's uncle Nate, but he has a tip from McCoy. Unbeknownst to them, McCoy is a troubled drug addict with issues. Kimberly is the land owner.

I really like digging into the darker side of paleontology. It's not Indy where he is always preaching about giving the treasures to museums. I expected more thrills. I expected the drug dealers to come attack the group. I fully expected McCoy to go off, but I would like a few more bad guys. The story is a little slow. This could have been better.

The film's main themes: digging up dinosaur bones, family issues, drug and money issues.

The story-line is reasonably well thought out, the casting is pretty good, the acting is basically good, and even the action is handled fairly well.

But there will be things that will bother you while viewing this film. Certain important people or events are passed over completely, and the ending is ruined by no less than three over-the-top scenes/moments. These were all completely unnecessary, and they placed a serious downer on the way I felt about the film as the credits began to roll.

So is it worth the time needed to have a look? Well, that depends on what kind of film you are looking for. If you like small, low budget productions then yeah, take a look, as I found it reasonably enjoyable to watch. But if you're with a couple of friends and you've just finished watching Gladiator and are wondering what to watch next, I really couldn't recommend this. At the very least, watch this one first and the blockbuster second.

Filmed in Bowman, Amidon, and the surrounding N-Dakota Badlands. This film will engage any fan of westerns and film noir, and it is much higher quality then it's low budget would suggest.

What I liked: *Locations are well shot and gorgeous(this local guy might be a bit bias) *Story is captivating and well constructed. *Characters motivations build naturally throughout the film. *Cinematography, the framing is very effective considering the budget.

What could be better: *A few scenes seem too dark for the time of day. *The shallow depth of field can be distracting for one or two scenes. *The tension from the snake feels like it went a little long to be realistic. *Occasionally the dialog is a bit rough, like it could of used one more script review to make it sound like natural conversation.

All in all while it has some issues inherent of low budget film making, the story and cinematography is solid and kept me on the edge of my seat. It is rated R so expect occasional roustabout levels of colorful language, and there is one scene in a "seedy" bar that does have a topless dancer in the background.

Really enjoyed this take on the western/noir/thriller genres. Particularly strong are the acting, music, cinematography, directing, and editing. Minor problems with pacing and dialogue can be overlooked in view of the entertaining story and strong characterizations. Congrats to this young team of filmmakers -- I hope to see more!