thebucketrider

The film rides largely on a commanding performance by the lead actress, with a promising young supporting actor also turning in a noteworthy performance. It definitely held my attention. However, the plot is a very basic revenge tale with the fashionable but unsubtle message that white men (or perhaps in this case only specifically the English) are morally bankrupt, women are martyrs and blacks are noble. Accordingly, the villains are two-dimensional sociopaths who won't blink before violating anyone in a vulnerable position. When the inevitable revenge is finally consummated, it is as coarse and unoriginal as you could ask for, smiting the white devil in the very throes of his depravity. The film had some good elements to work with, but a noticeable lack of creativity keeps it from rising above its clichés.

Quite a vacuous film about a trio of scavengers who chance upon footage of the Zodiac killer's crimes decades later and attempt to track him down to claim a reward. It manages to hold the viewer's interest for a while by generating the expectation that something will happen but very little does for most of the film and when the killer finally appears and interacts with the protagonists, this has little logical connection with what has gone on before. Usually, when mysteries introduce only one suspect, it's a cinch that that suspect is the killer, but this film bucks that trend: the killer is some random person who we know nothing about even after the film ends. There are any number of loose ends the narrative doesn't even attempt to tie.

A marine returns to his ramshackle burgh after serving in Afghanistan. No sooner do his friends and family welcome him back, he gets word that somebody will be coming to town to settle an old score with him. As good a premise as any, but the film doesn't do much with it. The former marine spends about 90% of the film looking for backup in advance of his foe's return. The acting is good, the people he interacts with are well characterised, yet one can only watch so many variations on the same conversation before it gets tiresome. I won't give away what happens when his nemesis arrives on the 11:55 bus but I found it seriously anti-climactic.