O Poder da Mente

Just a quick comment...

This is one of those films that I caught about 15 min. late on late-night cable. That missed 15 made all the difference. The clunky exposition - 'Tonight', '3 Days Earlier', etc., etc. - played no part in my first impression, and the film played as a straight jailhouse drama, with LESS ludicrous pseudo-science, fewer superhuman feats perpetrated by the arch-villain.

I was so intrigued that I programmed my Tivo to catch the West Coast feed of the film, and that was the good-bad mistake. This film would have been far more effective if they had eliminated the backstories at the beginning of the film and the wannabe 'Another Heaven' (2000) aspects of the Jesse Mowatt character. The director and the editor overplayed their hands there.

The pluses for this film are that the leads - Dina Meyer, Lance Henrickson, Jeff Fahey and even the writer/actor Pavan Grover turn in acceptable performances. I was especially impressed by Meyer here, in her capacity to convey sympathy, compassion, authority, fear, etc. Dennis Hopper's contribution however, is execrable: his lines are terrible, and he chooses to read them like a 'tough love' southern caricature.

The 'metaphysically-enhanced serial killer' is an overcrowded field. It has been done to death. If anyone is out there writing such stuff, it is best that they limit their palette - too many psychic powers and sci-fi gadgets can put a serious hurt on one's story. Otherwise, this one is well-enough executed, and ironically a full cut above the junk that's habitually ground-out by the SciFi Channel.

If it's a late night or early morning, definitely worth biding one's insomnia by...

5/10

This film is packaged as a psychological thriller, yet it has no thrills and the depths of the psychology used in the writing are that of a small child's capacity. The plot comes off very silly, and this film is a waste on so many levels. The film had a good dp, good director, a big name, and a good budget. So where did it go wrong, well the writing was terrible filled with cliches and babble and the plot really doesn't go anywhere. It almost seems like it is merely a ego stroke for the guy who is the writer, star, and executive producer. That is a bad combination, note to aspiring film makers... This is what not to do, filmmaking is an art developed through a team. Not an attempt to glorify one's own false perception of him/herself. It is sad when a film so badly gets so much money and produces such a bad product. Imagine 3-7 quality well thought out "true" indies could have been funded for this and they would have given society something. I was shocked to see name actors doing such poor cinema. Hoppers performance was a bit silly also, but I will chalk that up to poor writing. Like Bob Evans said "if ain't on the page it ain't in the picture." I would give this a strong D-, the only reason why it is not an F is it is destined to be a mystery science theatre film due to some accidental laughs. It is also a good learning tool for young filmmakers of what not to do...

It's hysterical how so many people have found it to praise this crapola so highly and have the gall to accuse people with OBJECTIVE negative opinions of having some kind of personal problem with this Pavan Grover guy.

I'm a big fan of Lance Henrikson and Hopper. I even fully admit Pavan Grover demonstrated clear acting talent and ability. It's just too bad he didn't decide to stick with what he is good at. He would have been hard pressed to pull a less competent and "Unpraiseworthy" screenplay out of his behind.

The problem with this movie began and ended with that ridiculous screenplay.

It was simply a nonsensical mess, with terrible dialogue that branched out in tons of directions with no development, focus, rhyme or reason.

If cinematography, production value, quality of actors, sound and special effects were all that mattered then it would be a good movie.

On the one hand this movie was weird to the point of being lame. But on the other it will affect you to some degree. If that's its sole purpose, then it's highly successful to that degree. It's somewhat a tough movie to watch, it's not light hearted at all, and it's pretty graphic at moments. Much of what you see is unknown or unexplained, but I to some degree like a movies that keep you / leave you guessing rather than explaining everything and throwing in the kitchen sink as well.

The acting we so so. I rented it mainly because of Hopper and while he was interesting he was not what I expected. While he played a crazed warden, we wasn't the 'eccentric' genius of the movie Speed. I guess I missed that a bit as he just came off as a filthy talking warden and little else. Dina looked beautiful as ever and put forth an okay performance, she's much more of a honey in this than Starship troopers, but she's not entirely believable in her character either, so… Then there was Lance, playing the same old monotone ham and mayo on white… I guess it's his trademark as I've seen little else in the way of acting from him. So, he lived up to his persona and he did justice to it once again. Paven, who played the main serial killer did an effective job, though he was too eye candy in terms of the ladies (in my opinion) to really come off a scary serial killer. Little too much of a baby face pretty boy, but I guess that was the idea. At times he was creepy I guess, but I found the images & graphic violence to be the main catalyst for the dysfunctional spookiness of the movie.

The movie really gets off on trying to suck you into this sick / genius's mind and freak you out. It does the job even at the expense of coming off a little corny. Though being that Jesse Mowatt's ability's / powers are not really explained, it leaves much to the imagination and really depends on you're ability for abstract thought. If you don't have any, the movie will probably come off as stupid & sick. Overall I like movies like this to some degree and while overall I certainly took something away from this movie, I won't be watching it again, or anytime real soon for that matter. It's one of those movies that I only have the stomach to watch once. Would I recommend it? Hmm, tough question… I would recommend it to people who like freaky / supernatural movies with a stomach for nasty stuff and with a tolerance for B rated acting, script & budgets. I'd rate it more as a horror / thriller than anything else. Otherwise, don't bother as it will leave you with nightmares if nothing else… 6.5 / 10 for the weirdo's out there like me who get off on this kind of crud. 2 / 10 for everyone else as it will likely dig into you're precious sleep cycle

This is what you get if you have some second-league actors (Henriksen, Fahey, Hopper) and a mentally retarded screenwriter (or American, or American and mentally retarded). I thought it'll be better.

It wasn't. Nothing made sense: bug that got into Hopper's brain from nowhere, a prisoner that should be shot on the spot instead of being repeatedly thrown to the ground and mauled, hallucinations, sexual fascinations, litres of red paint, surviving the electric chair just to be finally shot by the key female character... As someone said here: "unspeakably bad film". Bad with capital, bold, red 'B'. 'B' as in 'budget'.