Change Your Image
wallismcclain
Reviews
Necessary Evil (2008)
Amateurish Effort at Best
I would guess that Necessary Evil was a vanity project for writer/star Eric Feldman, whose acting is so laid back and lethargic that you'd think he was playing a stoned druggie rather than a detective investigating a gruesome and mysterious disappearances.
Feldman's script is not much better. The story is preposterous, with plot holes and logical gaps in every scene. In the beginning, a group of mercenaries raid a sacred (?) site to find the "monster" and obtain its blood/DNA to create a new drug. They are inexplicably accompanied by a woman dressed in what appears to be a Halloween version of a belly-dancer's outfit. Why? It is never explained, and the character never reappears.
Poor Lance Hendrickson. He must have reached the bottom of the acting barrel. The only actor in this film to whom I would give a positive review is Kathryn Fiore, who would appear to have a talent for comedy. She should use it.
Frankly, I am not sure what happens in the movie. And the ending is perplexing: Det. Lt. Russo is injected with the new drug Reciful ("Lucifer") -- or the monster's DNA? -- and should be all rights be dead or have become a monster himself, yet at the end he seems perfectly fine.
A ghastly effort.
Hotel Splendide (2000)
No U.S. release?
Having seen this film several years ago, I am now somewhat hazy on the details. However, it left an indelible impression and I really want to see it again. The friend with whom I watched it hated it, but I was more positive, being a big fan of Toni Colette and Daniel Craig. The creaky old hotel was perfectly and appropriately disgusting, and cast expertly limned the miserable staff with gusto. The somewhat grotesque scenes in the bowels of the hotel (sorry!) were, as some reviewers have noted, not altogether pleasant, with the hotel's sewage bubbling through ancient pipes, but they were hysterically funny. And as a part of a satire of various misguided schemes to advance loony notions of healthful lifestyles, it works quite well. As Kath, Toni Colette brings a spark of sanity to the hotel and its downtrodden employees, and her attempts to introduce edible food lead to predictable conflicts. This is a role Ms. Colette took on only about six years after her career-making turn as Muriel in "Muriel's Wedding." It marks an interesting phase and perhaps a transitional moment in what is a brilliant career. However, it appears that the film is available on DVD only in a non-U.S. format. Does anyone know why? Are there other options?