Plus One

One extra star just for not being another found footage teen flick, this was surprisingly better than I expected. The only problem was that it seemed everything needed just one more good pass. Everything comes off as a little uneven, but I think it ends up successful. The actors are competent for their age which probably means they're all older than their characters, but some like Logan Miller's "Teddy" are muted, not given quite enough from the script. He could has sunk his teeth into a better script. The script is not quite funny enough where it needs to be, but could have been with one more pass. Not quite enough explanation is given for the cause, but the story concept actually turns out good. Most of the horror comes from the characters, especially one story line, and that serves the movie. Pacing is a problem for the film, you come out of a funny or scary scene, and then the movie hits the breaks. Too many red herrings for the script to support. I think if the director had gone through one more edit, one more script revision, and the better actors given a little more meat on their plates, this would have been great. It even had a good twist that was subtle but effective.

'Shadow Walkers' (or '+1' as it's also known) is an odd little number at the best of times. It never really seems to know what it is. I guess the one thing everyone can agree on is that it's a 'B-movie.' Therefore, most likely everyone concerned with making it knew that it was never going to be a massively commercial box office smash. At best it might achieve 'cult status' on DVD.

Therefore, it doesn't have a budget and no 'known' actors to speak of. It's about a meteor that crashes into a small town in America, creating weird phenomenon amidst a local college party. Soon the guests find things are going a little crazy and they might not make it to morning alive. It starts off like some sort of adult-humour piece like American Pie, then it progresses into a looping version of Groundhog Day. There's also a fair bit of 'gratuitous' nudity which (judging from what I've read online) seems to have put a lot of people off from taking the plot seriously.

When I read that synopsis I thought it was going to have something to do with aliens. Yet, what you get is time travel. It could work. And it almost does. Without giving too much away about the plot, it tries to be a little bit different (and succeed), but then it strays into that area where it starts to become too clever for its own good. Any film concerning time travel is going to have some major plot holes. Some of them are just so good (I'm thinking the Terminator series and Back to the Future) that you can forgive the odd lapse in plausibility and just enjoy the ride. However, in Shadow Walkers the questions just keep mounting up. It's like the writers had one idea then changed their minds half way through. And then again about twenty minutes later.

You'll find yourself asking quite a few questions as to why people do things and what happens to someone which hasn't really been properly explained. I checked online as to find out the meaning behind much of the film. There are some good theories explaining most of it, but no one seems to be able to explain everything.

If you were left with questions after watching Prometheus, then you'll be able to write an encyclopaedia as to what wasn't clear in Shadow Walkers. I didn't hate the film. It tries to be different, which, in a marketplace of B-movies filled with 'found footage' and cheap zombie movies, made a change. I just wish it had been a little more focused. I don't mind not having every little detail about a story explained to me. Sometimes it's fun to interpret it your own way. It's just here they took that concept a little too far.

For fans of sci-fi B-movies only.

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I love movies that try out something new, and especially mixed with such a controversial genre. The trailer didn't give me too high hopes, but after just 5 minutes into the movie I was hooked.

The camera-work was great and you really got the feel for the atmosphere at the party. Even the music and attitude of the students at the party was actually relate-able to modern day and age. Unlike so many other movies similar to this. I felt like I wanted to be at that party, it wasn't fake nor forced in any way. Very good natural acting by many of the actors.

If you like unique sci-fi mixed with ordinary well played drama, and with an edge to it all, then this is the movie for you.

Oh, and it got tons of hot naked girls and tits, without being nasty about it.

Time Travel is a kinda tricky thing to deal with in movies. No matter how well its made there is bound to be plot holes in the movie. An exception being Primer which was so inexplicably detailed that it ended up indigestible for many and entertaining for only a few. Another recent example which barely makes it to the list would be Looper, once again not without flaws but the movie itself addressed the issues of time travel and thereby negating some that it could have had. The point being few movies can nail it and the best is already out there: Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future Trilogy, GroundHog Day and TimeBandits.

If you are not gulled into thinking this is a sequel to the Google pwned The Internship, +1, comes from Dennis Iliadis, the director of The Last House on the Left (the 2009 one, which I found amusing) is not essentially a time travel movie but a genre mash up. Its a mix of college party movie, a romance drama and sci-fi. To put it light this could have been Project X-meets-Groundhog Day-meets-Body Snatchers. Its got some amazing ideas which rivets you in the first and second act though fails miserably to do so towards the 3rd act. It was very intriguing for me at first, the characters were straight out of a sex comedy movie and a few minutes into the movie the weird starts creeping in. Blatant use of nudity distracts you away from the core premise nonetheless you will be left with a lot of questions towards the end. The ending itself felt rushed and could have been way way better.

+1 is the perfect example of a brilliant concept tampered via flawed execution. Anybody who's seen this movie can't possibly deny that its got some nifty ideas but it all tumbles down the hill due to lazy and amateur performances, inconsistent pacing and gaping plot holes. I felt the party itself wasn't wild enough, thank the onionskin budget. Performances from Rhys Wakefield, Logan Miller and the supporting cast felt all but appreciable. I was counting on Rhys, having seen his performance from The Purge but instead I felt it was very amateur here. And I frankly thought I'd seen the last of Ashely Hinshaw, after her asinine histrionics from About Cherry. The only scantily commendable performance comes from Pretty Little Liar's Natalie Hall along with gratuitous nudity.

Loads and loads of flaws and some unexplained sequences makes an otherwise novel movie just barely watchable. It could have been a good modern day Groundhog Day but its flaws overburdens whatever goodness it has. Watch +1 and bear with it for its amusing take on time travel and its middling twists. Whether it earns a cult status is yet to be seen.

This movie should've been an easy slam dunk for me. It has all the right ingredients. However, it's somehow a walking cliché which serves as an ironic and off-putting contrast to its unique plot. In addition to that, it suffers from a serious lack of character development lead by an actor whose narrow emotional range spans from smug to sociopath, Rhys Wakefield.

The director clearly wants me to root for Wakefield's scummy P. O. S. Character. Yet every time he opens his mouth I become more and more convinced that he deserves none of the rewards reaped from this film's unique plot. Couple that with an entire cast that becomes more and more 1-dimensional as the movie progresses, and you're left with a recipe for an unfulfilling experience that delivers no payoff in the end beyond having seen something a little different.

This easily could've been a 9 outta 10 experience for me. But unfortunately the writer/director's skillset both starts and ends at thinking up interesting plots.