Devil's Tomb

To have such an actor as Cuba G in this type and caliber of movie should be insulting. I can understand wanting to break the stereotype of characters he is prone too but this part in this movie is a HUGE leap in the wrong direction. A once A-List actor turned to terrible class B horror? This movie was by far a waist of 90 minutes of my life that I surely will never get back. The lines were typical, the action over played and the only glimmer of promise came from a semi-unique story line that fails to provide the depth one might look for in a movie. My rating is poor at best. I can only hope that the rest of the cast find better work, even if its in the food service industry.

I don't know where to begin with this flick. Maybe here: Soldiers who don't at all act & move like trained soldiers, female soldiers with make-up on while in combat, some third rate CGI effects that I could do on my PC in fifteen minutes, and enough plot-holes and unexplained crap to lose count of fairly fast.

In fairness, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Bill Mosely made the film ALMOST watchable. But those two alone couldn't save the horrid storyline, and the above-mentioned things. I tried very hard to get past some of the issues that I found with this film, but it was to no avail. After 48 minutes I found myself being thankful that I was more than half way into the film.

I thought years ago (in the 80's) that low-end horror flicks couldn't get any more lame, but was DEAD WRONG. It is sad to see someone as talented as the Oscar winning Cuba Gooding taking roles in such ridiculous movies. I hope that his appearance in this one didn't ruin his career long-term.

-JB

Take ideas and plot points from Alien, Aliens, Event Horizon, and (especially) Prince of Darkness and add some absurdity, sprinkle with blood and implausible characters and this is what you get.

Those were all vastly better films but this isn't quite as horrible as some junk on SyFy so if it's free to watch you could do worse. I gave it a 5 due to some familiar faces in the cast and the job they do and the average-looking blood and gore. Story-wise they didn't seem to put much effort into it besides "adapting" from better movies. Also amusing were the military tactics used in the Iraq flashbacks but I'm not sure they meant for me to chuckle during the battle scenes.

If you want a much better film along the same lines, watch Prince of Darkness instead and during the slow parts imagine space marines using electronic trackers that never seem to work, dodging acid-spewing creatures while running into long-dead loved ones without wondering how they happened to be there. The 5 is generous in my opinion but this could have been a lot worse.

What could go wrong in a movie starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Ron Perlman and Henry Rollins? Just about everything.

The narrating style at the start and end, like some sort of series pilot or something, was a dead give away. Both Ron Perlman and Henry Rollins just have episodic roles while Cuba plays the most unmilitary special team leader I have ever seen. And the plot is sickening in both the clichés and its stupidity.

There is only one thing worst than a bad movie: a pretentious bad movie that is boring and tries to fool you watching it through casting and other artifices of marketing. Only one thing could have saved this film: seeing Stephanie Jacobsen naked. It didn't happen.

It really is embarrassing to see an Oscar winner such as Cuba Gooding Jr. and other talented veterans wasting their time with such third rate material. Even horror lovers willing to check out just about anything may grow weary of this one, as it's stuff we've all seen before. It's religion / apocalypse theme nonsense (directed by Sean Connery's son Jason) with dumb, dumb characters, supposedly playing a crack Special Forces team, recruited to probe the mystery of what happened at an underground installation / archaeological dig. Cuba's character Captain Mack is the guy in charge, and it's dispiriting to see him look so weary, and clearly thinking, "Can someone please rescue me from this junk?"

The rest of the cast doesn't fare any better, despite the presence of some familiar faces. Among those on Cuba's team are Zack Ward, Jason London, and Franky G. The female cast members - Taryn Manning, Valerie Cruz, and Stephanie Jacobsen - are all attractive, but watching them fails to add much appeal to this thing. Bill Moseley, Ray Winstone, and Ron Perlman are all slumming badly here; Perlman, certainly, looks like he couldn't care less. So why should the viewer? Not even the brief nudity supplied by Holly Weber, or the casting of Henry Rollins as a priest, is really reason enough to sit through this. There is enough gore and grossness on hand to allow for some amusement.

Badly written, badly directed, and totally lacking in suspense and excitement, "The Devil's Tomb" couldn't even get up to average level, even for a B movie lover such as this viewer.

Four out of 10.