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“Big Driver,” an odious new Lifetime movie, hides behind Stephen King’s brand and the credentials of its cast — per the billboards, “Golden Globe nominee Maria Bello! Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis! Grammy nominee Joan Jett!” (Um, huh?) — to peddle tired exploitation nonsense, in the form of a simpleminded revenge yarn. While Bello is a gifted actress (and this really plays like a one-character study much of the time), as vehicles go, it’s more of a garbage truck than anything else, which probably won’t prevent the King come-on from rewarding the network with sizable ratings.
Like a lot of the author’s stories involving writers, from “Misery” to “Secret Window” (in which Bello, incidentally, co-starred), “Big Driver” hardly revels in the milk of human kindness. Rather, Bello’s Tess Thorne — the author of a popular string of old-ladies-solve-crimes mysteries — is horribly abused, then improbably decides she must not report the incident, but rather should seek vengeance alone, seemingly more for the cathartic benefits gained by the audience than for anything approaching logic.
Tess’ tale begins innocently enough, with her having been recruited to appear at a book-signing and speaking event in an idyllic-looking town. Yet after being given very specific directions by her hostess (Ann Dowd, taking her own version of a wrong turn after splendid work in “The Leftovers” and “Masters of Sex”), Tess follows a short-cut that results in her being stranded, with a flat tire and nocell reception, in the middle of nowhere.
A huge but kindly looking fellow (Will Harris) conveniently comes along, at first offering assistance. But that’s a ruse, and Tess is raped, beaten and left for dead, and tossed into a drainage pipe faster than you can say “Shawshank.”
Directed by Mikael Salomon from an adaptation by Richard Christian Matheson, these scenes, while disturbing, are probably no more graphic than they have to be, given the context. It’s on the road that follows that “Big Driver” breaks down, as Tess eschews medical attention or calling the police, vaguely worrying about a “scandal” because of her celebrity should she go public with her account.
“No one is going to know about this,” she says to herself.
Instead, she grabs a gun out of the closet and begins plotting payback, receiving counseling from one of her imaginary characters, played by Dukakis.
Yet if the idea of a mystery writer using those wiles to track down villains has potential, as constructed here, it amounts to little more than a Google search and connecting a few rather obvious dots. In the process, Tess encounters a helpful bartender (Jett, in what’s little more than a cameo), before the climax, which is not as satisfying — or for that matter, morally challenging — as it should be.
From the casting to the marketing, Lifetime appears determined to lend a touch of class to exploitation dreck. And the sad truth is that strategy will probably work, to the extent the movie dovetails with Lifetime’s much-lampooned old women-in-peril movie niche, once one gets past the marquee names.
Such commercial considerations notwithstanding, in the wake of a recent run of cynical Lifetime movie topics, from “Saved by the Bell” to Brittany Murphy, “Big Driver” runs into another creative dead end.
IMDb The Champagne Gang is an exciting action-packed drama about four beautiful California beach girls who pull heists to pay for luxury items and surfing vacations to Mexico and Hawaii. Rotten Tomatoes
MOVIE INFO
The crime film The Champagne Game follows the exploits of a group of female criminals who use their smarts and their sex appeal to pull off a series of heists that help fund their lavish lifestyle. As the authorities begin to close in on the women, they need to trust each other to survive. Full Movie on PutLocker
Fifteen years after “The Blair Witch Project,” co-director Eduardo Sanchez makes a lackluster return to found-footage horror with the Bigfoot thriller “Exists.” Eschewing the painfully slow-burning suspense and pseudo-realism that helped make “Blair Witch” a sleeper smash and genre touchstone, Sanchez’s thoroughly conventional approach here does little to elevate a dismally generic script from frequent collaborator Jamie Nash. Although “Exists” somehow managed to land an audience award at this year’s SXSW fest, the day-and-date VOD and limited theatrical release will look more at home as filler on basic-cable genre channels.
It would be a stretch to call any of the walking targets in “Exists” a proper character, but YouTube-obsessed Brian (Chris Osborn) nearly fits the bill. Never without a piece of recording equipment on hand or strapped to his body, the insufferable dudebro embarks on a trek into the East Texas woods with sibling Matt (Samuel Davis); Matt’s girlfriend, Dora (Dora Madison Burge); and another couple (Roger Edwards, Denise Williamson). Supposedly this personality-free crew is headed to a family cabin for dirt biking and fun in the sun, but Brian has an ulterior motive: to find proof of his uncle’s alleged Sasquatch sightings.
The confirmation arrives almost immediately when the gang’s ride sideswipes a mysterious creature in the woods. It disappears before anyone can get a good look, but playback on one of Brian’s cameras reveals a fleeting glimpse of an oversized hairy beast. The merry band of idiots assume it was only an animal and soldier on, before turning up their noses when they arrive at the rundown cabin. Lack ofmaid service quickly becomes the least of their problems when their vehicle is destroyed and they find themselves at the mercy of a bizarrely capricious hirsute foe. (This Bigfoot attacks and retreats with loopy abandon, tormenting instead of simply terminating his prey.)
Whatever one thinks of “Blair Witch,” it wasn’t just a trendsetter in the horror genre; it also functioned as a savvy experiment in the psychology of fear for its characters and the audience. “Exists” harbors no such ambitions, instead throwing out every hoary cliche in the rampaging-monster-movie playbook and practically daring viewers to find a reason to invest in its cardboard characters and borderline-indiscernible suspense sequences, alternately shrouded in darkness or rendered incomprehensible by nausea-inducing handheld camerawork.
While Sanchez has dabbled in p.o.v. filmmaking post-“Blair Witch” as co-director of the mockumentary web series “ParaAbnormal” (with Nash) and the bike-helmet-cam zombie segment in “S-VHS” (with Gregg Hale), this is the first full-length feature he’s made in that style since his breakthrough. But the director doesn’t even evince much regard for found-footage fundamentals, assuming auds won’t question why Brian keeps cameras rolling in enough locations (including bikes and helmets) to get multiple angles on every squabble, showdown and demise, or why his friends don’t tell him to quit filming when things get rough and help them try to survive.
The actors appear every bit as stranded as their characters. Former “Friday Night Lights” regular Burge attempts to emote a bit more than the others, but finds herself several galaxies removed from the smallscreen drama’s nuanced and naturalistic storytelling (although both projects filmed on locationin Texas).
The manifestation of Bigfoot reps the film’s sole selling point. The beast is initially more heard more than seen, as supervising sound editor Kevin Hill and creature vocal designer Matt Davies craft an appropriately unsettling mix of groans, moans and bellowing growls emanating from the pitch-black woods, before the monster reveals itself in full. When it does, it’s surprisingly convincing (Brian Steele fills the detailed getup designed by Mike Elizalde, currently enjoying plaudits for creating Michael Keaton’s “Birdman” suit).
For a small segment of genre fans, that may be enough to justify the surrounding inanity. For anyone else, Sanchez’s film simply proves that just because a movie exists doesn’t mean it needs to be seen.
Film Review: 'Exists'
Reviewed online, West Hollywood, Oct. 22, 2014. (In SXSW Film Festival — Midnighters.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 81 MIN.
Production
A Lionsgate release presented with Lionsgate, Haxan Films and Court Five in association with Miscellaneous Entertainment. Produced by Robin Cowie, Jane Fleming, Mark Ordesky, J. Andrew Jenkins. Executive producers, Reed Frerichs, Gregg Hale, George Waud, D. Todd Shepherd.
Crew
Directed by Eduardo Sanchez. Screenplay, Jamie Nash. Camera (color, HD), John W. Rutland; editors, J. Andrew Jenkins, Andrew Eckblad, Sanchez; music, Nima Fakhrara; production designer, Andrew C. White; set decorator, Monique Champagne; costume designer, Charlotte Harrigan; sound, Jason Strickhausen; supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer, Kevin Hill; creature and makeup effects, Spectral Motion; creature effects designer, Mike Elizalde; visual effects supervisor, Justin Puda; visual effects, Rocket Lab Creative; stunt coordinator, Jeff Schwan; associate producer, Mary Beth Chambers; assistant director, Jenkins; casting, Beth Sepko.
With
Chris Osborn, Dora Madison Burge, Roger Edwards, Denise Williamson, Samuel Davis, Brian Steele, J.P. Schwan
For five friends, it was a chance for a summer getaway- a weekend of camping in the Texas Big Thicket. But visions of a carefree vacation are shattered with an accident on a dark and desolate country road. In the wake of the accident, a bloodcurdling force ofnature is unleashed-something not exactly human, but not completely animal- an urban legend come to terrifying life...and seeking murderous revenge.(C) Lionsgate
IMDb Three happy couples enjoy the holidays in a cozy secluded cabin in the woods when they are suddenly interrupted by an unprecedented event that will forever change their lives. ScribeHard on flim review
In addition to Twitter being my primary source for news,reviews, trailers, posters, and everything else film-related, thesocial media platform is a great place to bear witness to the lifecycle of an independent film – from conception to fundraising to promotion to release to reviews. Via Twitter, I have been exposed to independent films I would never have known about otherwise. One such independent film – and just in time for Halloween – is the latest entry in the horror genre. I found this film late in its creative lifecycle – post-production – but it was a find nonetheless, and a pretty good one. From writer/directorPatrick McBrearty comes The Door.
Twenty-something Owen (Sam Kantor) has been unemployed for months and is desperate for work. On his way home after breakfast with his friend Matt (Matt O’Connor), he has a chance encounter with a mugging-in-progress. The two muggers flee, and as a show of gratitude, the mysterious would-be victim (Andy Wong) offers Owen a job that starts that very night.
The job? Put on a security guard uniform, sit at a desk in what appears to be an abandoned warehouse, and make sure the door on the other side of the room never opens. The shift is 12 hours per night, five nights per week. It pays $500. Each night.
The seemingly easy money comes with a price, though. When Owen’s friends crash his gig on the first night, that door winds up being opened, setting forth a series of events that will cost Owen far more than just his job.
The strongest takeaway after watching The Door is that Patrick McBrearty has some real skills when it comes to being a horror filmmaker.
First, he makes quick work of establishing Owen’s predicament and getting the character into position for peril to occur (complete with some interesting rules about that door). He also makes quick work of introducing Owen’s friends – his girlfriend Abby (Winny Clarke); Matt’s girlfriend Jess (Alys Crocker); and lesbian couple Olivia (Liv Collins) and Mia (Jessie Yang) – and placing them in harm’s way. This allows more time for more the evil to occur.
McBrearty also has a very smooth directorial style and storytelling flow. The pace is brisk and the camerawork and shot selections are deft, a combination that keeps the viewer quite engaged. The lean running time of 83 minutes contributes to the movement of events as well.
McBrearty also provides an excellent technical experience. There are times independent films fumble their audio and video quality. Not here. Both the image and sound are top-notch and it’s a good thing. Cinematographer Joshua Fraiman brings some serious game in setting the mood via the film’s shadowy look and the repetitive contrasts of red and green lighting. (That said, there are some scenes that are so dark, the action taking place in them is unrecognizable.) The sound team’s work is excellent too, as is the score from Steph Copeland.
Unfortunately, for all of the good that the film’s execution offers – and that execution includes fine performances from most of the cast – the film fails to do the one thing a horror film is fundamentally obligated to do: scare.
Despite the film’s great moody atmosphere and McBrearty’s ability to sustain a level of tension throughout the better part of the picture (no mean feat), very little happens to deliver an actual scare. Tension builds and builds and then … there’s no release. It’s quite frustrating. For the better part of the film, there’s a wait for something to happen and just when it feels like it might, it doesn’t. Yes, there are a couple of surprise moments, but they are so rare, they feel like they support the theory that even a broken clock is right twice a day.
This problem might be a byproduct of McBrearty’s indecision (as the film’s screenwriter) to decide just what kind of horror story he is telling. The notion that Owen’s boss hires him to keep a door closed (combined with other details I won’t divulge here) suggest a humans-terrorizing-humans-for-sport type of horror film. But other events occur (including mysterious and unexplained voices) that suggest something supernatural is at play. Both can coexist, but even if that is the case here, it is not made clear.
The film’s conclusion, despite feeling rushed, is the delicious joy of the story. It is both unexpected and wholly gratifying.
There is enough good in The Door to recommend it for a late-night watch. (Kill all the lights and, more importantly, try to use headphones to get the most out of the terrific sound.) There is also enough good in this film to look forward to McBrearty’s next effort, whatever that might be.
IMDb A young filmmaker documents his ghost-hunting, reality show friends as their routine investigation of an abandoned orphanage turns into a nightmare from which they can't escape. BestHorrorMoviesReview
Harold is filming a documentary about the four people involved in the production of the hit TV show, S.P.I.T. – Spiritual and Paranormal Investigation Team. Despite the show’s claims, he quickly learns that all sequences of paranormal activity are staged by Bill – the special effects expert. After getting some office footage, Harold accompanies the team on their next ‘adventure’ inside the abandoned orphanage and hospital, Hollows Grove. But after some routine filming of the rooms where ghastly incidents occurred many years earlier, the team starts noticing strange things for which Bill couldn’t be responsible.
Hollows Grove is a found footage film about a reality TV film crew… Even though the concept seems a little different – mostly in a negative way – it’s more or less the same plot as others in the mode – where we see things from the prospective of a couple of freaked out cameramen.
The success or failure of any found footage films depends on a couple key factors: Good acting and good timing. The poverty of effect forces the weight of the film on the story and its characters. If the story is poorly paced and the actors handed unimpressive dialogue that they have difficulty selling, thus making their plight seem contrived and unbelievable, then the film fails to entertain. Hollows Grove is a first class example of such failure.
The film revolves around five unsympathetic participants. The two ugliest get the most camera time and the two prettiest get the least. Testorone-heavy bantering – which bores more than entertains – serves as poor camouflage for a lack of chemistry between the actors. Indeed, with the exception of the lone female, the characters are presented as silly, vulgar individuals, which audiences will want to see killed as quickly as possible so as not to continue to afflict us with their presence.
Unfortunately, their deaths are not forthcoming for some time (if at all). Instead we see them react to poorly produced scares that come too late in the film (especially considering what we have had to endure) and that rely on obviously fake (even by micro-budget standards) props that are lobbed into view from just behind the camera. At other times, lousy ghost effects are the order of the day. Even worse, much more of the paranormal activity is conveyed to us exclusively by the unconvincing reactions of the unsympathetic participants.
But even failing on the two fronts of acting and timing, filmmaker Craig Efros went above and beyond to the point where it seems like he was insisting that viewers not suspend disbelief - right from the beginning. It exists as a ‘duh’ afterthought that those who aspire to create found footage films should not employ well-known actors. But FBI Agent Jones is played by Mykelti Williamson – an actor known for his cop roles in various blockbusters, including Heat (1995). Plus casting Lance Henrikson as Bill and giving him just a couple lines and almost zero screen time was simply moronic. Horror and Sci-Fi fans will readily recognize him as the star of the 1990s apocalypse series, Millennium. Unless name actors are playing themselves, they only detract from instead of add to the ‘reality’ of the found footage. (Not that there was much left to detract from in this case.) And if name actors are included, filmmakers may as well capitalize on their appeal by giving them maximum screen time... But sadly, Efros, wasted any star-gravitas they could bring by pinning Williamson and Henrikson to bit parts.
As one can expect, with such sloppy planning and execution, audiences will also be treated to several plot holes and an ending that isn’t so much a conclusion as a sudden halt to the story.
Bottom Line: Hollows Grove is another found footage film comprised of unsympathetic characters who explore a haunted asylum/hospital type institution and encounter poorly timed and executed scares. Not worth your time.
IMDb A single mom and her two boys help take care of their grandmother with mystical powers.
UpcomingHorror based on a short story by Stephen King, Mercy tells the tale of two young boys (“The Walking Dead’s” Chandler Riggs and Super 8’s Joel Courtney) who move with their mother to take care of their dying grandmother at her decrepit farmhouse. When they suspect that the elderly woman they love has encountered a dark spirit, they fear she might not be the only one who won’t make it through the summer alive. Once George (Riggs) and Buddy McCoy (Courtney) arrive at their Gramma Mercy’s (Shirley Knight), what they find inside her 150-year-old home is nothing short of terrifying. As the brothers experience deeply disturbing phenomena they believe to be the work of an ancient witch, they must fight for their lives and overcome the evil forces threatening their family.
Rotten Tomatoes King's Ransom Winery is one of the most haunted places in America, with a long history of bizarre suicides. Six ghost hunters have been given the rare opportunity to conduct aparanormal investigation. What they discover terrifies them. IMDb King's Ransom Winery is one of the most haunted places in America, with a long history of bizarre suicides. Six ghost hunters have been given the rare opportunity to conduct aparanormal investigation. What they discover terrifies them Full Movie on PutLocker
In the future, an environmental cataclysm forces the human race to abandon Earth and settle on a new world, Nova Prime.
One thousand years later, the United Ranger Corps, a peacekeeping military commanded by General Cypher Raige, comes into conflict with alien creatures who intend to conquer Nova Prime. Their primary weapons are the Ursas: large, blind predatory multi-limbed creatures that hunt by sensing pheromones the human body secretes when scared (they literally smell fear). The Rangers struggle against the Ursas until the impassive Cypher learns how to completely suppress his fear, in effect becoming invisible to the Ursa—a technique called "ghosting." After teaching this act to the other Rangers, he leads the Ranger Corps to eventual victory.
Meanwhile, Cypher's son Kitai blames himself for the death of his older sister Senshi at the hands of an Ursa attack some years ago when he was a young child. The father and son have an estranged relationship with Cypher being away on missions. Kitai, younger and smaller than most cadets, trains to become a staunch and respected Ranger like his father. Despite his physical capabilities, his application is rejected due to his emotional behavior, and he has to break the news to Cypher, who's seemingly disappointed in him. Kitai's mother Faia convinces her husband to connect more with their son, and Cypher decides to take Kitai on his last voyage before retirement.
During space flight, their ship is caught by an asteroid shower, forcing them to transport through a wormhole to safety and crash-land on the now-quarantined Earth. Inside the torn fuselage of the ship, only Kitai (strapped to a walled row of seats) and Cypher (with both legs broken) have survived. They find the main distress signal beacon is damaged. Cypher instructs Kitai to locate the tail section of the ship, which broke off on entry to the atmosphere, since inside it is another distress beacon, which they can use to signal the Rangers for a rescue; if he fails, the pair will face a most certain death.
Cypher gives Kitai his double-bladed cutlass, a wrist communicator and six capsules of a fluid that enhances oxygen intake so he can breathe in Earth's low-oxygen atmosphere. Cypher warns him to avoid the plants and animals that have grown more deadly since humankind's departure, and to be careful of violent weather thermal shifts. Kitai leaves the ship to find the tail section with Cypher guiding him through the communicator and several camera drones. Cypher's leg is losing arterial blood and he attempts to make a temporary shunt to avoid bleeding out.
Shortly after he leaves his father, Kitai is surrounded by giant baboons. His father tells him not to move. Against his father's orders and out of fear, Kitai hits the leader with a stone, causing the baboons to give chase. Kitai manages to escape the large mammals by swimming across a river to safety, but he is bitten by a poisonous leech while in the water. Kitai administers an antidote but not before the toxins take effect and hisnervous system shuts down. When Kitai awakens, he narrowly escapes a thermal shift. Upon asking him how many breathing capsules he has left, Kitai lies to Cypher, not telling him that two of the capsules were damaged in his escape. That night Cypher tells his son the story of when he was first attacked by an Ursa. The creature tried to drown them both as Cypher fought back. He realizes that although danger itself is real, fear is a mere illusion created by the mind, and thus he learned to "ghost" himself from the Ursas.
The following day, Kitai reaches a waterfall at the top of a high cliff; he must descend to and cross the river below. Cypher once again asks him how many breathing capsules he has left. By monitoring Kitai's condition from the ship 24/7, Cypher sees his son's heart-rate increase when asked about the capsules. Kitai shows him, via the communicator, the two unbroken capsules. Cypher calculates that the only way for Kitai to continue on with just two capsules would be for him to skydive to the bottom of the waterfall with his built-in flying suit, since taking a ground route would require more oxygen.
However, Cypher will not allow Kitai to perform the skydive and repeatedly orders him to abort the mission. Believing his father still sees him as a failure, Kitai becomes angry and tells Cypher he is to blame for Senshi's death because he was absent on the day of the attack. Upset at Cypher and determined to complete the mission, Kitai leaps from the top of the waterfall's cliff to skydive to the crash site. He is ow many more kilometers he has to travel in order to reach the tail-end of the ship, taking into consideration how many capsules he has left. He reaches a river and builds a raft to continue along it, the flow taking him along to his destination. Worn and exhausted from his encounters, Kitai falls asleep on the raft, and dreams of his dead sister, Senshi. She reassures him that Cypher's bitterness is just his own anger for not saving her. Senshi urges Kitai to awaken, and when he refuses, her form suddenly shifts to an Ursa-mutilated version of herself; finally awaking him the moment another thermal shift is beginning. Slowly freezing to death from the change of temperature, Kitai collapses, seemingly succumbing to the cold.
Just before he passes out, he is seen being dragged by something unknown. Kitai awakens at dawn and crawls out from a nest of branches. He notices that the mother eagle has returned and built an enclosure around him, and had lain on top of it, to keep him warm during the night. He thanks the bird before realizing it has sacrificed itself to provide body heat and did not survive the night.
Running on his last breathing capsule, which is beginning to wear off, Kitai finally reaches the tail section and retrieves the emergency beacon, along with another communicator, another Cutlass, and more capsules. Because of electrical interference caused by an ionic layer in the atmosphere above Kitai, the communicator allows Cypher to see and hear Kitai, but not for Kitai to hear him. While exploring the wreck of the tail section, Kitai discovers that the Ursa has escaped. Kitai tries to fire the emergency beacon, but the electrical interference above him also blocks the beacon.
Kitai comes to realize this, and heads to a nearby volcano to gain height from which to fire the beacon. On the way, he finds members of the ship's crew hanging dead from trees, killed and displayed in this manner by the Ursa in order to trigger fear pheromones in any attempted rescuers. The Ursa begins to track Kitai, who reaches the volcano, where he is injured when the monster attacks. Remembering Cypher's words, to focus on the moment rather than the outcome, and Senshi's words of encouragement from his dream, Kitai is able to control his fear and "ghost" himself from the Ursa long enough to fight back. Kitai uses the Cutlass to repeatedly impale the creature to death before it could throw them both from the mountaintop. He then fires the beacon as Cypher loses consciousness and appears to succumb to his injuries.
A rescue team arrives and recovers them both. Kitai enters the medical chamber to see his father still alive while a soldier is watching the footage of Kitai defeating the Ursa. Cypher and Kitai reconcile with a salute and an emotional embrace. Kitai decides not to become a Ranger, and tells his father that he wants to work with his mother instead. Cypher agrees to join them and allows himself a laugh as the ship leaves Earth and heads back home to Nova Prime.quickly captured by a giant eagle, and his communicator is damaged.
Kitai wakes in the nest of the eagle, possibly having been mistaken as one of her own chicks, and soon finds himself in another situation: The nest is under attack by large saber-toothed cats. Kitai and the eagle fend off the hunters, luring one of the giant cats into falling through a weak portion of the nest. Kitai escapes by climbing down the nest, where he sees that despite the efforts of both him and the eagle, the chicks have all been killed.
Spending the night in a cavern with a small molten magma river for heat, Kitai plots his course and calculates h
The director M. Night Shyamalan and Gary Whitta wrote the screenplay for “After Earth,” but Will Smith wrote the story. He also stars in the movie, along with his son, Jaden, and the parental connection is not incidental. Though set millennia in the future, “After Earth” is very much about life today—an allegory of the transition from being a helicopter parent to a free-range one—and it introduces an impressive array of futuristic paraphernalia to make the point.
The action is set a thousand years after humanity had to evacuate a despoiled Earth for a distant solar system, to which the species has adapted. Mankind’s main obstacle is a monster race, called Ursa, which is blind and detects its human prey by smell—literally, by the scent of fear, as it emerges in the form of pheromones. Only those who have no fear have a chance of slaying an Ursa; that phenomenon of undetectable fearlessness is called “ghosting.” Will Smith, as the military commander Cypher Raige, has it. His son, Kitai, a cadet seeking promotion to ranger, only aspires to it. Father and son are passengers on a flight to another planet when their spacecraft gets caught in an asteroid storm and is forced to crash-land on Earth. Cypher and Kitai, apparently the only survivors, need to send a rescue signal with a special transmitter that’s in the tail of the shattered craft, a hundred kilometres away. Cypher broke both of his legs, and so Kitai must make the journey alone.
It’s not giving away too much to explain that the futuristic technology (which is imagined thinly but with verve) involves a “Naviband,” a device strapped to Kitai’s forearm that allows Cypher to see everything taking place around the young man and to communicate with him—in effect, a super cell phone—and that the drama kicks into high gear when it’s disabled and Kitai has to make his way through Earth’s dangers on his own. The future features advanced versions of other contemporary child-safety paraphernalia, such as the EpiPen and the asthma inhaler.
Kitai’s journey of initiation, subject to a set of rules (each inhaler lasts twenty to twenty-four hours; he has six inhalers; each leg of the journey takes a certain amount of time…), plays out like a live-action video game, and, as the movie progresses, new rules present new challenges, their changing demands even posted on-screen in the protagonists’ video arrays. Whether or not the similarity is intended, it’s worth noting—as I discovered just now by clicking around on IMDb—that the co-scenarist Whitta “was editor of PC Gamer for several years,” as well as a writer for the games “Prey” and “The Walking Dead.” It’s an aesthetically neutral matter regarding the film (though these elements do seem foregrounded in a way that is occasionally unintentionally comical), but I wonder if there’s an actual “After Earth” game on its way. I suspect it would be a lot more fun than the movie itself.
“After Earth” is also an allegory of the family business, a public affirmation that Will Smith is yielding the spotlight to Jaden and letting him run free as an actor. Since Jaden spends much of his time on-screen as the only person in the frame, the responsibility of performance does fall squarely on his young shoulders.
Unfortunately, Jaden, though agile and skillful, isn’t a charismatic actor; he doesn’t put a lot of personality into the part, and he doesn’t have a deft way with the dialogue. Meanwhile, Will Smith doesn’t give himself very much to do, and what he does do is close to a parody of set-jawed war-movie determination. As drama, “After Earth” offers no surprises; as action, it’s rarely stimulating (there’s exactly one shot—from Kitai’s point of view as he’s being dragged to safety by a hidden benefactor—that reflects visual imagination); as a parenting manual, it seems that Will has thrown Jaden into water that’s a little too deep. For all the free-range plotting, Will does play a large role in the movie, suggesting all too clearly that Jaden isn’t quite ready to go as far out on his own as the story suggests Kitai must.
Of course, it’s too soon to tell what kind of acting chops, what kind of allure beyond the childhood cuteness of “The Karate Kid,” Jaden Smith has. He may prove to be formidable, but I suspect that to become so, he’ll need to work in a wider range of movies, perhaps a smaller scale—movies that allow him to cultivate on-screen relationships with a variety of actors, including ones his own age, and away from his father’s spotlight and counsel.
As for Shyamalan, his direction is impersonal, efficient, and clean—even too clean, resulting in an action film that doesn’t move. It’s worth comparing his blandly clear images with the kinetic frenzy that the director Gary Ross, working with the cinematographer Tom Stern, created for “The Hunger Games.” I wonder whether the placid stolidity of “After Earth” is intended to showcase the actors as if in a picture gallery—a sort of favor returned or service rendered. (Andrew Stewart reports in Variety that “It was [Will] Smith who hand-picked Shyamalan to direct ‘After Earth.’ ”)
I’ve seen a couple of reports (here and here) speculating that “After Earth” is inspired by Scientology. I don’t know about that, but I do know that Will Smith performs with an unappealing and constrained earnestness. The movie offers no trace of Will Smith, the mercurial and hearty comedian, or Will Smith, the introspective and fierce dramatic actor of “Ali.” I have no idea whether it’s dogma, paternal sentimentality, or mere actorly choice that burdens him in “After Earth,” but the result is the diminution of a superb performer, his self reduced to a celebrity emblem that advertises the movie from within.
