Gathering up DVDs to trade in,I was surprised to discover that I had somehow picked up 2 DVDs of this interesting-sounding Neo- Noir!,which led to me deciding that it was time to uncover the unknown.
The plot:
Waking up in a locked abandoned warehouse,a man finds himself surrounded by 1 man tied up to a chair,another has been shot & handcuffed to a wall,whilst 2 others are lying on the floor badly beaten.As he tries to piece his memory back together,a phone begins to ring.
Picking up the phone,the man is told by a stranger that he will arrive at the warehouse in a few hours time.Putting the phone down,the other 4 men start to wake up.With none of them having any memory of how they got here,they each decide to team up,so that they can break out of the warehouse.Whilst preparing their escape plan,some fragments of memory start to return.
View on the film:
Whilst the screenplay by Matthew Waynee is a bit too open on its rift of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs,Waynee offers an excellent mix of tense psychological thrills and gritty Neo-Noir.For the first half of the title,Waynee makes each of the 5 guys Film Noir loners whose dark pasts they each secretly want to stay forgotten.Keeping the movie limited to a handful of characters,Waynee superbly shows the gang splitting themselves in groups,with the ones who were lying on the ground believing that they were the "good guys" whilst the 2 handcuffed/tied up were the up to no good "baddies"Gradually regaining their memories,Waynee hits each twist with a sharp precision,as each of the guys start to remember whose side they are really on.
Despite filming the flashback fragments in a far too glossy manner,director Simon Brand & cinematographer Steve Yedlin give the movie an excellent burnt-out Film Noir atmosphere.Keeping any light/windows away from the warehouse,Brand and Yedlin grind dry grey,whites & blood reds into the film,which along with brilliantly showing the isolated location that the men are stuck in,also subtly displays the hazy,cloudy memories that all of the group are suffering from.
Reuniting after working together on The Thin Red Line, Jim Caviezel and Barry Pepper each give great performances,with Pepper giving his stranger a nervous sense of loyalty to Caviezel,whilst Caviezel shows his character to be a Film Noir loner,who is desperate to get away from the past which is slowly coming back.Joining Caviezel & Pepper, Joe Pantoliano gives a traditionally great slime ball performance,whilst Greg Kinnear gives a wonderful edgy performance,which plants a seed of doubt into the group,as they start to uncover the unknown.
The plot:
Waking up in a locked abandoned warehouse,a man finds himself surrounded by 1 man tied up to a chair,another has been shot & handcuffed to a wall,whilst 2 others are lying on the floor badly beaten.As he tries to piece his memory back together,a phone begins to ring.
Picking up the phone,the man is told by a stranger that he will arrive at the warehouse in a few hours time.Putting the phone down,the other 4 men start to wake up.With none of them having any memory of how they got here,they each decide to team up,so that they can break out of the warehouse.Whilst preparing their escape plan,some fragments of memory start to return.
View on the film:
Whilst the screenplay by Matthew Waynee is a bit too open on its rift of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs,Waynee offers an excellent mix of tense psychological thrills and gritty Neo-Noir.For the first half of the title,Waynee makes each of the 5 guys Film Noir loners whose dark pasts they each secretly want to stay forgotten.Keeping the movie limited to a handful of characters,Waynee superbly shows the gang splitting themselves in groups,with the ones who were lying on the ground believing that they were the "good guys" whilst the 2 handcuffed/tied up were the up to no good "baddies"Gradually regaining their memories,Waynee hits each twist with a sharp precision,as each of the guys start to remember whose side they are really on.
Despite filming the flashback fragments in a far too glossy manner,director Simon Brand & cinematographer Steve Yedlin give the movie an excellent burnt-out Film Noir atmosphere.Keeping any light/windows away from the warehouse,Brand and Yedlin grind dry grey,whites & blood reds into the film,which along with brilliantly showing the isolated location that the men are stuck in,also subtly displays the hazy,cloudy memories that all of the group are suffering from.
Reuniting after working together on The Thin Red Line, Jim Caviezel and Barry Pepper each give great performances,with Pepper giving his stranger a nervous sense of loyalty to Caviezel,whilst Caviezel shows his character to be a Film Noir loner,who is desperate to get away from the past which is slowly coming back.Joining Caviezel & Pepper, Joe Pantoliano gives a traditionally great slime ball performance,whilst Greg Kinnear gives a wonderful edgy performance,which plants a seed of doubt into the group,as they start to uncover the unknown.