The Deaths of Ian Stone

Hey wait a minute a low budget horror film thats actually pretty good. Despite bumpy start this is a good film about a guy who is being killed again and again, each time jumping into a new life. I don't want to say more since the film is solving the puzzle as to what's going on. This is a good story that seems like an extended episode of one of the better horror anthology series, while it probably could be trimmed down a bit, the film is mostly a solid little thriller that puts the story and characters first instead of the effects. Yes there are effects, but they aren't over used nor are they over done. if you like good, pulpy horror stories give this a try.

Went into this expecting a bunch of gore, but instead go an interesting story and premise. The idea is a merging of quite a few ideas you may recognize, but was done very well. Up until a certain point.

The last 25 minutes or so seemed that they ran out of ideas on how to tie up a thought out start with a decent ending, so they just went for a typical and somewhat predictable end.

By no means is it a horrible movie, and there are some good performances in it. Just don't expect to walk away stunned at the end.

Oh...while not overloaded with CGI - what they do use is amazing looking.

The premise made this look like a distant cousin of movies like Groundhog Day, only that it's more bizarre, and containing an element of gore. Imagine if you wake up but find yourself living a different life from before you slept, not just repeating the last 24 hours. And each iteration actually ends in death, where you feel pain, and knowingly being hunted down. Then you rinse and repeat, with little recollection and little opportunity to figure things out before you get hit again.

Sounds interesting, right? But The Deaths of Ian Stone wasted the premise, and became a very boring movie despite the tense build up. It kept you guessing, until slowly you realize a whole host of clichés start to creep in, especially those pertaining to speeding up the narrative and to provide wholesale, verbatim explanation on things to come. Showing you is not enough, the characters have to blabber repeatedly, and you start to roll your eyes when they beat around the bush for no good reason.

Ian Stone, the titular character, is played by Mike Vogel. A teenage ice hockey jock, things start to go bump for him when he realizes that time will start to freeze, and he finds himself getting thrust forward in time, but not before suffering immense pain from creative death. The only constant that keeps him sane, is the presence of girlfriend Jenny (Christina Cole), who seem to not recognize him in his moment of awareness, as he tries hard to figure out the whos and the whys.

The posters plastered suggest creatures spawned from the imagination of Stan Winston Studio, but to give credit to the plot, it contains something a little more. While you can find little fault with the special effects and Harvester creature design, you will probably laugh at the laziness in costuming, where total rip offs from the Matrix Trilogy were adapted from, with the tight Trinity styled Lycra spandex coming on screen, with the characters' hair slicked back and shades to boot as well.

Of course the theme of love is central to the story (i.e. if you have no theme, you can always fall back on love), as an emotion so powerful it can move mountains and oceans, and with new love come jealousy and envy from those around you, especially from the ones who hold the candle. As mentioned, the movie had promise and an explanation for the strange, but the delivery is suspect, and unfortunately, quite boring. After the first few iterations, you know the idea well has run dry with generic killings, and a whole amalgamation of tools being used concurrently just to inflict pain, but done off-screen. The fight sequences too are terribly bad, with lacklustre punches being thrown around, while brandishing those nicely shaped bladed hands.

The Deaths of Ian Stone is nice to look at at first, but slowly the flaws start to surface, and soon enough you'll realize just how flimsy everything had been put together. Should Harvesters be real, they could feed on the audience's collective fear of the dreadfulness the movie is heading towards. And they will be well fed.

First of all, IMDb, please refrain from using kids comments and reviews as the default. TheatreX doesn't know what he's talking about but I guess it creates controversy and creates more reviews like this one so... Anyhow, on with the review.

No, it's not some ground breaking plot device (love conquers all). But come on, even Lucas said Star Wars was nothing more than a Western shot in space. No, it's not some special effects extravaganza like Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark. No, it's not going to win any Academy Awards. But, jeez, at least it has a story that makes sense. There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men were raved about by critics and viewers alike but I found both films to be mediocre at best. My friends and I took shots every time Tommy Lee sat down to jaw jack or read the newspaper and I can assure you we were drunk as skunks in no time. So much for public taste.

This film itself certainly doesn't bring anything new to the genre but it takes what's available and executes it in pretty good fashion. I expected a lot of blood and gore and bad acting right from the beginning but was pleasantly surprised to find neither. The plot and storyline unfold slowly and despite what others say, including TheatreX, nothing goes downhill after that fact. It's as good as anything else you'll see on the big screen and not a bad way to spend some time curled up with your girl in a pitch black room some weekend. Grats to Stan Winston for the production and effects and Dario Piana for the direction. I'll rent the others for sure.

In England, Ian Stone (Mike Vogel) finds himself trapped in a weird situation: everyday, he meets the same persons in the most different situation, including Medea (Jaimie Murray) and Jenny (Christina Cole); around 5 PM, the watches stop and Ian is haunted by creepy beings with claws and has a painful death, waking again in another life. When an old man meets him and tells that he must protect Jenny to resurrect again, Ian begins to unravel a great mystery.

"The Deaths of Ian Stone" has a promising and intriguing beginning that recalls "Groundhog Day", "12:01" and "The Matrix", with the lead character awaking every day in a different reality after dying. Unfortunately the explanation of the Harvesters is weak and very disappointing. There are many points that deserve better clarification, like why the existence of parallel lives? Or how can the realities change and how could Ian return to the initial life if he died? With a better development of the story, resolving the flaws in the screenplay, this movie could be excellent. But it entertains and is original and my vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Prisioneiro da Morte" ("Prisoner of the Death")