Ash & Dust

What can I say? This film made absolutely no sense at all, the synopsis says 2 couples dig up a box and get involved with a criminal element. The whole film made no sense, someone gets shot who I couldn't make any connection with then another and another.

It was an absolute joke, all I will say is it was like a box of angry frogs.

I have it a 2 rating because I'm sitting here watching it in the UKs hottest day on record and this has snow in it which is kinda cooling me a little.

Avoid this if you can, poorly written and directed.

Ash & Dust takes the murder revenge story and paints it in three primary colors: white for the absence of hope, black for the finality of death, and red for the bloody consequences of fury. There are no zippy comic relief one liners, no superhuman feats of courage or strength, no Hail Mary miraculous escapes, no perfunctory child in distress, no super villain to outsmart, and no hope in hell for salvation. Made even more melancholoc by a perfectly scored soundtrack, Ash & Dust accomplishes something rarely seen in today's eggshell sidestepping movies, a fierce and unapologetic depiction of death.

If you need to understand this film's plot, follow closely, these simple steps.

Copy the entire 83 minutes, snag some freeware from the Internet that allows the movie to be played in reverse.

Toss some popcorn into the microwave.

Delete the file you just created, the popcorn is way better, believe me.

30 minutes nothing happened, and when something starts to happen you realize that there is nothing to see... The director tried to make it special with soundtracks of church and with lots of scenes without talking. The whole movie is just dying people because of a box.

Conclusion: do something better with your life.

This is a slooooow burning film. It's so slow that I'd remove the word "burn" and replace it with "kinda glows then fizzles and dies."

Ash & Dust struck me as a first film (i.e., debut feature length for director) and it wasn't marketed aggressively so I am giving it some slack. There are some promising elements, but they never coalesce into a holistic entity.

Acting is pretty good for the most part, but a few actors are not meant for that career and I won't name names.

Finally, in case anyone is wondering why there are some 8- 9- and 10-star reviews, simply click on those reviewers' user names and you'll see that if they aren't one-review accounts, they've all reviewed the exact same movies including "Hyde", "Angie: Lost Girls", and "Devil Djinn" on almost identical dates. IMDB needs to start charging money for the ability to post reviews or do what Yelp! Does and actually police the fake ones. This is the main reason the site is useless for deciding whether to watch indie flicks these days.

If I had the chance again, Ash & Dust would get a hard pass from me.

3/10 for story plus 1/10 for decent cinematography = 4/10, just barely watchable.