Cardinal Matter

07/24/2018 Not a terrible movie, just not a great one. The foundation of the movie is the theft of a new military experimental battlefield injection that temporarily seals soldiers wounds and stops immediate death. Of course the drug falls into the wrong hands and that forms the storyline for this movie. Acting was pretty good but viewers will have to try to overlook alot of writer/director flaws as it unfolds if you are going to enjoy it. I liked it for what it was and can recommend it for a one time watch only. You decide as always. Bon Appetit

Turned this movie on just for something to watch and didnt have any expectations but it was just plain boring, the story sucks and the ending is even worse.

So a veteran returns 'home' to find his cousin involved in some sort of drug business gone really wrong.

As people start getting offed left and right, the nature of the 'drug' involved comes into question.

-1 Star for a bunch of hillbillies being involved in some big 'military' type wonderdrug experiment

Good Lord could you imagine a bunch of hillbillies being in charge of Revolutionary breakthroughs in Science???

-1 Star for the cops giving the lead guy SO MANY CHANCES.... no real COP with the info they had on the lead guy would give him so many breaks....no way .. I call shenanigans!!!

+1 Star for the ending. I liked the ending and thought it appropriate. I thought for sure there was going to be a fail in the end but it wasn't bad.

Now the story as a whole was pretty much crap. But the end gave it a little much needed umph.

4/10

Wonderful...no sex scenes, no children, no dogs, no car chases, no catchy, memorial one-liners....just a reasonable drama with reasonable acting. Yes, a few holes, but come on, almost every movie ever made has holes. Hollywood lives on them. Yes, violence also, but given the story line, I don't see how the movie could have been made without it. The nitpickers can go watch some special effects with lots of inclusivity, and the above standards, but this movie was a welcome departure from all that.

"Cardinal Matter" bites off more than it can chew, but is a tasty time nonetheless.

The steadily advancing story focuses on what happens when rural meth cookers in search of raw materials unknowingly steal a defense contractor's experimental supersoldier serum. Those juiced on this stuff can temporarily survive serious injuries, but will suffer brain damage and risk reopening wounds unless administered a second drug - which is not among the serum samples.

The contractor wants the samples back and dispatches a hitman to the small community to clean things up and eliminate loose ends. He's using dangerously high doses of the serum and is becoming psychotic.

If you enjoyed "The Bourne Legacy" and "Limitless," you'll like "Cardinal Matter." Just be prepared to suspend disbelief big time when the body count and its accompanying mayhem reach a level at which any small-town law-enforcement operation would have called in the cavalry. (However, this plot hole is no more of an issue than similar ones in, say, "Wind River" or any episode of "Yellowstone.")

The movie was lensed on location in Dubois, Wyoming, but little use is made of its small-town ambience; "Cardinal Matter" could have been shot anywhere. Locals do seem to have been used as extras in a couple of scenes.

We're not getting Anthony Hopkins and Meryl Streep here, but performances aren't bad and the young leads are likeable. Matthew Stannah is especially good as the drug-enhanced hitman, delivering a disturbing performance right up there with Andrew Robinson's Scorpio in "Dirty Harry."

One area in which "Cardinal Matter" seriously stumbles is that director Medeline Puzzo and writer Thomas Arthur Major introduce some potentially useful sci-fi elements but don't pursue them fully.

Overall, however, the movie is enjoyable and has the comfortable feel of an "X-Files" episode in which Mulder and Scully never show up.