jmcginn174

Late August and most of September is usually a crappy time of year for films at least for me. Sure there is Expendables 2 out and Lawless coming out Friday, but they aren't movies I desperately want to see or willing to fork at least ten bucks for to see, so this is usually the time I rent films, and that's what I did a few days ago. I rented The Raid: Redemption, Flowers of War and The Girl From The Naked Eye. The Naked Eye was a spur of the moment decision on my part. It's only a buck to rent at the Red Box and the summary sounded decent, so I decided to check it out which leads to my review of the film. This will be another relatively short review.

The film follows Jake (Jason Yee) a driver for high class escorts who seeks justice for Sandy (Samantha Streets) who he finds shot dead in her apartment; even though he's a driver, a recovering alcoholic and in debit to the mob. The story is a noir-mystery that was influenced by the films of the late 1930's, 1940's and the 1950's. Even for the direct to DVD you can tell the film didn't have that big of a budget. Still the story works pretty well as Jake gives us his internal monologue as he tries to find Sandy's killer. The flashbacks gives detail into the relationship of Jake and Sandy and also gives depth to these flawed characters trying to get out of the sh*tty lives they have. For me this was a surprisingly good story with a sad and fitting ending.

The acting by these C level stars was pretty good. Jason Yee was great as the lead showing depth of emotions that fit the role. I had never heard of the actor before this film. He's manly stared in direct to DVD films, but I was surprised he had an un-credited role in The Dark Knight Rises as one of Bane's mercenaries. Ron Yuan (Simon) did a decent job as Jake's boss. He's another actor I'd never heard off, but you might recognize his voice. He gets most of his work from video games. He's had roles in Command and Conquer, Prototype, Alpha Protocol, Fallout New Vegas and many others. Another unknown actor Gary Stretch plays Frank who has an interest in Jake and Samantha. He does a good job playing a bad guy, and apparently has had many roles in direct to DVD films. Samantha Streets is a beautiful actress and did a great job playing Sandy. She's only had guest roles on television shows and minor roles. I think some director or film studio should give her a chance. Samantha is attractive and is a pretty good actress. The overrated retired porn star Sasha Grey is on the cover of the DVD, but she's only in the film for a minute. I know why the studio did that so she could draw attention to the film, but like I said she's only in it for maybe a minute. On a side note I know some men find her attractive, but I don't see the appeal. In my opinion she's ugly and very flat chested. Sasha isn't Hollywood hot and she's not even street hot, and the majority of the women I see on the street are hotter than her. Anyway back to my review.

With such a low budget film you can't expect special effects action sequences, and that was probably the worst part of the film. The action was at best decent. The best scene for action was the climax in a hallway, which was surprisingly really good, but that's pretty much the highlight of the film action wise. David Ren wrote and directed this film and he does a good job with the budget he has. I didn't know this until I looked him up, but he also directed another decent direct to DVD film called Shanghai Kiss, which I enjoyed.

In my ratings you'll find I'm harsher in my criticism to films that I see in the theater then when I rent or download films. I expect more from films that are released in the theater, because they're supposed to be the higher quality films in writing, directing, acting and action/effects. I am a little more forgiving for films that are direct to DVD or films I rent. Would The Girl From The Naked Eye be worth paying at least ten bucks to see in the theater no, but overall the film is pretty good and I recommend that you rent it; it's worth the buck you'd spend to rent it at Red Box. It has a good story and characters with decent acting, below average action and good directing.

I was up late night and found 3000 Miles to Graceland on, and since there was nothing else on I decided to watch it. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as when I first watched the film in theater back in 2001, and yes I stupidly paid to see this in the theater. It had been over 10 years since I've seen this movie. Who know my opinion of the film might have changed, but after watching it again it hasn't. It's just a terrible movie. This will be one of my shorter reviews and there I think will be some spoilers, but I don't care since this is just a terrible film.

The story revolves around a group of bank robbers (Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Christian Slater, David Arquette and Bokeem Woodbine) dress up as Elvis's and rob a Las Vegas Casino. Things go wrong when Woodbine (Franklin) is shot by police and security. The four remaining robbers escape by helicopter with the help of Jack (Howie Long). The four head back to their run down motel outside Vegas to sort their shares, but Murphy (Costner) as other plans as he shots and kills Gus (Arquette), Hanson (Slater) and believes he's also killed Michael (Russell) who was wearing a vest. From there on it's a race to get the money as Cybil Waingrow (Courteney Cox) and her son get mixed up with it along with two US Marshal's (Thomas Haden Church, Kevin Pollak).

The bad story was bad enough, but adding in uninteresting and uninteresting characters and you've got a terrible film. Russel's character was supposed to play the good guy as he had a conscience, but that doesn't take away that his character is about as interesting and likable as a rock you have to stare at four hours kind of like this film. Costner playing the bad guy seemed not to want to be in this awful film. He probably was wondering when his career took a downward turn. It was just a few years ago he was starring in films like A PERFECT WORLD, ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES, JFK and THE BODY GUARD. I think his career took a turn with WATERWORLD and THE POSTMAN. Waterworld wasn't good, but it's not as bad as people make it out to be, especially if you watch the extended edition. The Postman in my opinion is a good film, but not great. Still neither were box office hits and his career started to go downward until he relegated to star in crappy heist films like this one. The most interesting and fun characters are the the supporting characters. Howie Long the ex-NFL player turned analysis and actor was having a fun time with this film as he had no pressure on him. Also Thomas Haden Church and Kevin Pollak seemed to have good chemistry as partners and to be honest I was rooting for them to kill all the bank robbers including Russel's character.

You'd expect the action to be good in a heist film. Now I wasn't expecting great action like HEAT that was just a special film, but I was expecting to be entertained. I wasn't and outside of the beginning action scene in the casino which was decent it was all bad. Even the climax in a warehouse was a let down. There's lots of blame to go around for the lack of good action, you could blame the studio Warner Brothers for this, but I don't. I think the WB gave up on this film after they saw it, and if I remember it right there wasn't a lot of promotion for this film. You could just tell WB had no confidence in this film. No I blame the director Demian Lichtenstein who also co-wrote this piece of crap. Apparently Demian was a big music video director, but had only directed one feature film before this one called Lowball, and I had to look it up to find out that it was a direct to VHS film. Maybe I should blame WB for hiring this guy to write and direct a feature film, because he's terrible.

Overall 3000 Miles to Graceland is a terrible film and as bad a I remember it. If you haven't seen this film avoid it at all costs. It will drain away months of your life.