Rock, Paper, Scissors

Indy thrillers are rare but this one nails it and manages to juggle a lot of elements . Starts as a drama about a crumbling marriage , morphs into a thriller about overcoming a tragedy , and then turns into an action/revenge flick. Along the way they manage these transitions well due to excellent casting , good writing , and assured direction that mixes the best elements of so many genres (did I even mention Film Noir).

I caught this at a film festival (We Regret to Inform You) in Austin , Texas . Director ,Doug Bollinger , was on hand . A surprisingly genial man , down to earth, and completely amiable . I met him and we chatted before the film and was surprised (quite pleasantly) that his film turned out to be dark , edgy , and true to life. I had him pegged as a comic drama sort but he can deliver the chills.

New Jersey now has another film maker to add to its own impressive list . I hope he continues to work there as this film makes excellent use of the various locations one has access to in the Garden State .

Maybe it's because there are barely any reviews, but I struggled to understand how this movie got a 7.1, I really did!! Please, do not buy into it, for your own sake!

So, the home invasion lasted about 2 minutes, so we have a film based on the revenge of an event you barely saw. Few cuts and bruises and then suddenly they were bound for the police to find... Nothing actually happened on screen!

The first 30 or so minutes of the movie where like snippets, scenes of half events and clips. The acting was mediocre at best, it was dull and lifeless, as were the characters... Their development was awful and they weren't in the least bit believable. The lead female's personality changed more times than I cared to count.

The premise was a decent idea, but the execution was plain awful and awkward. It was a very dumb and pointless movie. The perps you never even saw! But suddenly, she's found them all with the bare minimum of any kind of research or detective work!

And the actual detective!! The movie could probably have done without him in it in all honesty. I wasn't sure of the point of him, aside from the fact that he just seemed weird and a bit stalker-like (let me point out, that I hadn't even finished the film before I wrote this! So, unless he's got some sort of point toward the end, he was a ridiculous character)

Sorry to say, I felt no connection to any of the characters, not one, not in the slightest. There was no substance to any of them, no development, and coupled with the awful acting, and countless goofs and inconsistencies, it just left me wondering why I even kept watching!!

OK, so the movie has finished now and I haven't changed my mind!! Absolute rubbish, don't waste your time. They attempted a plot twist, albeit a small one that anyone could have guessed, and, surprise surprise, it did nothing to save the movie!

I was surprised that there were so few ratings for this. What I liked most about this movie is that it never tries to reach for more than what it is. It's a revenge movie and nothing more. The story telling was solid, the film shot well and the acting from Timothy Laurel Harrison and Jeff Riberdy as the protagonist couple was not only believable, but riveting.

The movie is not perfect and there is one major plot hole I'm still irked about that I wished had at least had some kind of explanation for. But this could be a case of no explanation was better than a bad one.

I do wish the flashback scenes had lasted longer than a microsecond. 2 or 3 seconds would have been sufficient for these without turning it into torture porn, but the microsecond flash made it difficult to tell exactly what was actually happening. Other than that, the movie really does a good job coming together as a complete, coherent story.

If you are the type to pick every little forensic detail apart, you probably won't like it. But for most people, it will leave you satisfied.