1.03.2009

LKMYNTS: Unknown.

So a few years ago, I believe, I see this trailer in theater and think it looks pretty awesome. I saw the trailer in theater maybe twice ever. And then I never hear anything about the movie again. I never saw it released to theater. I never heard it advertised for DVD. I’ve never seen it in a store. Almost as if the movie itself is defined by its title, the thing is freakin unknown. And it was so strange, as it has a pretty decent cast and is even relatively well-scored on imdb. So now that I got Netflix, I was able to track the dang thing down and finally watch it after all this time. So was it all worth it? I think so.


The movie kinda reminded me somewhat of Reservoir Dogs, but only if it were hostages instead of a robbery, and all of the involved was stuck in the warehouse all together without remembering who they are or what’s going on. Like I said, five seemingly random men wake up in a very secure warehouse with short-term memory loss and no idea what’s happened or who they are. The first is Jean Jacket (Jim Caviezel), who soon discovers a man tied to a chair (Joe Pantoliano). But before JJ can untie him, Rancher Shirt (Barry Pepper) shows up and says they might not want to trust him because he is, after all, the only person tied up so he has to be on the opposite side of whatever side they’re on. Then there’s also a man with a broken nose (Greg Kinnear), and another man who is shot and bleeding to death while handcuffed to a rail (Jeremy Sisto). After working together a few clues, the five men realize that two of them are hostages while the other three have to be the hostage takers. Unfortunately, none of them know which is which. Meanwhile, Eliza Coles (Bridget Moynahan) is working with the police to send out the ransom money for her husband and track the people who kidnapped him, two of which are played by Peter Stormare and Mark Boone Junior.


So with that lengthy plot description given, let’s first talk about the acting, since we have quite the cast. Everybody does really well, honestly, but the two best were Barry Pepper and Jeremy Sisto, which is almost ironic. It’s ironic because, even though Jim Caviezel is clearly the main character, Barry Pepper almost has the most screen time (or at least the better presence), while Jeremy Sisto has the least screen time and fewest lines. Though the performance Sisto is able to give is a really, really good one.


The plot, on the other hand, can be a bit confusing. It moves very fast, so if you even blink or you have trouble with auditory learning (say, if they do the plot exposition really fast and only in one scene, leaving you behind on what you just heard), you’ll miss it. I was able to catch the gist of it (hostage situation), but the whole scenario behind it with bankers or whatever was totally lost to me. I’ll have to watch it again to catch it. And then comes the ending, which has so many twists you’ll be lucky not to have your neck snap. And this is where I have my almost-issue with the movie. It has those types of twists where they just kinda pull them out their ass in order to pull one on the viewer, and never really sets up any clues whatsoever. So within the span of about 5 minutes, you’re thrown fifty ways from Sunday and have no idea what to think about what just happened. But at the same time, I still found the twists to be pretty cool (for the most part). I don’t know. I was really close to just having this be an ‘un-scorable’ movie because I was left unsure of how I actually felt about it.


But I think in the end, the acting and the basic story won me over. It’s a good little thriller/mystery piece that almost feels like a heist-gone-wrong film (a la Reservoir Dogs), but without any actual heist. So I guess I’ll just leave it at that. It’s just one you gotta see yourself.


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I Am McLovin!

(P.S. Coincidentally, this is the second LKMYNTS I've done that involves both Jeremy Sisto and Peter Stormare).

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