Recoil (I) (2001) User Reviews

A real mess

[Woodyanders · 3/10 · 25 April 2022]

A teenager who's having problems at school discovers that he's part of some kind of nefarious top secret governmental experiment.

While the basic premise sounds interesting, alas writer/director Wendell Hubbard allows the disjointed narrative to go all over the place. The dire lack of focus makes it impossible to get involved in the story and subsequently one simply doesn't care what happens to anyone in this picture. The seriously ugly and fuzzy cinematography doesn't help matters any. Don't bother with this clunker.

What?!

[geminiredblue · 1/10 · 25 July 2014]

Whoa! Stay clear of this movie. At all costs! I tried sitting through 10 minutes. Then got so confused by the non-existent... everything that I turned it off. It was part of a multi-DVD pack called Urban Chills, which doesn't promise much in the way of "urban" or "chills".

The story is your standard-issue "student with a homework assignment". But it appears whenever he sits down to write it, his mom comes in to harass him for not getting it done... which winds up defeating the whole purpose.Then he has these odd visions that may or may not be happening. Mind you, most of what I described, I was only able to figure out from all the confusion.It's not even intriguing enough to merit sitting through for unintentional comedy. The non-events are filmed so darkly, with weird lighting and sporadic cutting. The acting, or lack thereof, isn't much better. Take my advice... Skip it!

Take two aspirins and insert DVD

[gravedigger-1 · 19 September 2004]

Appreciate a good low-budget film? Not. The continuous stroboscopic images, actors with awkward reaction-shots (staring off into space) and the scattered dialogue of this movie, sets a dark moody tone that never ends. Director may have had a shoe-string budget, but also had a 'shoe-thing' directing. The shoe-thing sets the pace of the film as tempo of storyline and thriller-action in scenes is paced by close-up of shoes running, shoes walking, shoes walking fast, shoes stopping and turning, and more shoes running, scene after scene. Between the shoe close-ups are actors who all portray frustrated characters at sundry levels and very little else. Weak plot leaves you asking 'Who cares?' in this thriller. This movie could have been better. Too many flickering 'black outs' may give viewer headache.