Charada

Entirely predictable "thriller" bout a girl who goes looking for her missing brother and finds her crazy supposedly dead, pa. You know that you're in trouble when the first shot of the town where little bro disappeared is of mute, overage children sitting in swings with that frizzy hair children of the corn, damned, whatever, always seem to wear, and they run away scared when she asks for directions. Overdramatic and Overblown, the orchestral soundtrack is inappropriate and so intrusive, like It wants to be the star. Very attractive young cast, including a young Rob Lowe look-a-like, trapped in stereotypes, which they have got down, give them that. Fat Val (Kilmer) checks in for a few minutes to pick up a paycheck How desperate must he have been? Adequately decent camerawork is why it's a 3, not 2.

While the movie starts off pretty moody (a good thing), it does turn pretty quickly and becomes pretty ugly. Side stories that seem not to matter, characters getting disposed off and a general weird feeling make this an almost uncomfortable watch. I do like Diora Baird a lot, not only because of her looks, but neither she nor the other leading female can save this film.

Val Kilmer does his thing, which means almost nothing at all. It's not the pounds he has layered upon on his body, but the fact, that it seems, he forgot how to act. Is this really the same man, that gave a phenomenal performance as Doc in Tombstone? It's hard to believe, again not only because he doesn't look like that guy anymore. But the teenage boys playing their parts in here are as bad. So many flaws in this one, I wouldn't really know where to stop. It does look good though (photography that is).

This movie is a utter piece of crap. I sometimes give these not well known movies a try and it sometimes turn out good. This film I have watched many times, mainly because of the mood it creates, a time and place you want to go back and visit The only link i could get between the name of the movie, was that it happened in a village called " Riddle " This is the first time I have ever written about a movie good or bad, I felt like writing something because of the first reviewer in solvethis.net said some good things about it. I kept waiting. I guess he doesn't get out much to say anything good about this movie. Again the Acting is so poor you can tell at the beginning of the movie alone I intend on writing about movies in the future because I watch my share of them.

"Riddle" is a fun thriller that catches your attention early and keeps it throughout. Elisabeth Harnois plays Holly, a high-school girl with a younger brother who suffers from Thompson's Disease. One day, he disappears and she is, of course, devastated.

Cut to three years later. She is back from college helping out with the Farmer's Market when she becomes convinced she has seen her missing brother. She follows the trail to the town of Riddle, which just happens to be the home town of the last two boys who saw her brother. Riddle looks to be a town on the door of Hell -- completely run down and sparsely populated. The major drawing point of the town seems to be the wonder of Nature that is Diora Baird, who is the daughter the less than helpful Sheriff (Val Kilmer). But Riddle also has secrets, and they are brought out into the open as Holly continues to dig where, as she is told, she doesn't belong.

Lots of good stuff here. The story moves quickly and briskly. Even though you'll probably guess the culprit early on (I did), there's enough ancillary mystery to make that OK. The early scenes prior to young Nate's disappearance are genuinely unsettling and make a couple of characters way more complex than they have a right to in a film like this. And finally, it's not surprising that Harnois and Baird are friends in real life -- they have an easy going, natural chemistry together that really helps drive the film forward.

Nothing classic here, guys, but better than a lot and definitely worth checking out.

I just finished watching this and I was quite pleasantly surprised at how well done it was. Sure, both Val Kilmer and William Sadler were completely wasted and did MAYBE a DAY'S worth of work between them. But, honestly, everything about the film was solid and done with a nice slow sense of building suspense.

The one thing that I REALLY appreciated, which I feel is quite rare in these low-budget films, is that the acting was actually decent and restrained instead of amateurishly going over the top or just plain ruining it as many do. It took a little while to get going, but still overall I feel that it was well constructed. YES, the story is extremely straight forward and simple, but still done well. And, I also liked how the stronger Horror elements were done in the last act; pretty effective for what it was...

NO, they didn't give you a whole lot to go on and did not really explain very much; but, I think they gave you enough to figure out what was going on, especially in the ending credits : ) That really wasn't so much the point as just enjoying the actual outworking of the story, I would say.

So, if you are in the mood for a nice little suspenseful Thriller, you should enjoy this movie just fine. Just ignore all the petty know-it- all haters out there who expect GOD knows WHAT in their films...

I do wonder though...

... just how much DOES Val Kilmer make in these hit-and-run films that he does? Seriously, I'm DYING to know! : )