All posts by Rod Lott

Thriller

Track Down (2000)

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Despite Miramax’s best efforts to make you think otherwise (i.e. never releasing it in theaters, waiting five years to dump it on video, giving Skeet Ulrich a lead role), Track Down isn’t as bad as you’d expect.

It’s the true story of Kevin Mitnick, the hacker who evaded the FBI for two years after breaking into computer networks and stealing software and data that could have been highly damaging, had he chosen to do so.

Mitnick is played by Ulrich, who no longer looks like Johnny Depp, but Kevin Federline. As he attempts to live off the grid, he’s chased not only by federal agents, but computer security expert Tsutomu Shimomura (Russell Wong), whose hard drive Mitnick wiped clean and whose super-secret virus-worm-thingie he swiped.

Track Down has an interesting dilemma: How do you make hacking visually exciting? Well, other than having Angelina Jolie strip down in a pool, you can’t. So it has to rely on your standard cat-and-mouse setup to generate any thrills. But in doing so, Track Down forgets to dumb down the technology aspect to make it easily acceptable. It assumes you already know a lot about hacking, from the lingo to the how-to.

I obviously don’t know as much as I should have, because after watching the film, I have no idea what exactly Mitnick did or who Shimomura is. But I do know that Halloween 6 director Joe Chappelle so obviously used this flashy piece as a calling card to get his CSI: Miami gig.

Jeremy Sisto, Master P and Amanda Peet are thrown into the cast just to piss me off. —Rod Lott

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Mystery

Passengers (2008)

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Passengers plays like a mix of The Sixth Sense, Fearless (the airplane one, not the throat-kicking one) and all the bluish Crayons in the big box with the built-in sharpener. After a commercial jet crashes, grief counselor Claire (Anne Hathaway) is called in to talk to the passengers — hence the title!

They seem to differ on whether there was an explosion and other details. They also seem to disappear one by one, which may have something to do with the shadowy man who stalks them and appears outside the window. But, hey, what’s with the looniest of the bunch, this Eric fellow (Patrick Wilson)? He acts like he just stubbed his toe, not survived the opening of Lost!

Rodrigo García directs with a gloomy crispness that makes all of Canada look like an Architectural Digest spread, but the limp screenplay by Ronnie Christensen jumps from drama to mystery to romance to “how much longer does this have?” It’s not a thriller, as it’s generally classified.

The film is yet another that introduces a lazy twist ending, presented so shoddily it holds no surprise. García doesn’t so much build up to it as he does stumble into it. The actors are passable, but why does Hathaway always look like she just drank cherry Kool-Aid? And is it in Wilson’s contract to show his bare ass in every movie? —Rod Lott

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Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Invasion of the Star Creatures (1962)

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WARNING: If a movie ever begins with the credit “R.I. Diculous Presents,” be afraid — be very afraid — because it’s Invasion of the Star Creatures, an utterly witless, laughless, 70-minute exercise in tedium, written by Little Shop of Horrors star Jonathan Haze, who writes as well as he acts.

It concerns two bumbling privates at a missile base, both of whom are short and have heavy Quentin Tarantino unibrows. They do pratfalls and have dumb dialogue, firmly planting the movie in what I call the “why I oughta” school of comedy — you know, the remedial kind.

They’re sent to investigate a radioactive crater in Nicholson Canyon, only to find a horde of star creatures (men with burlap sacks over their heads, ping-pong balls for eyes and twigs and leaves placed randomly about their tights) and, better yet, two bra-busting honeys named Poona (!) and Tanga (!!) from 60 million light years away who want to take over Earth and who wear skintight space suits that can’t quite contain their ass cheeks. They’re played by Gloria Victor and Dolores Reed — or, as the credits refer to them, “Wow!” and “Wow! Wow!”

But “Woof!” is a more appropriate word to sum up this dog. If you make it to the part where the boys start hanging out with the Indians who freak out at the very mention of the word “Custer,” you’re a braver man than I. —Rod Lott

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Horror

Drive-In Horrorshow (2009)

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It ain’t Creepshow — heck, it ain’t Creepshow 2, either — but Drive-In Horrorshow is better than most of your no-budget indie features. The fright anthology’s tongue-in-cheek framing device is that a rundown, ill-attended drive-in staffed by monsters who show the five short features.

“Pig” finds a young woman taking revenge on the frat boy who drugged and violated her. “The Closet” houses a toothy creature that proves convenient for the little boy who feels wronged by his family members. “Fall Apart” centers around a flesh-eating virus, giving the film its best (read: sickest) effects, while “The Meat Man” and “The Watcher” fall into the subgenres of urban legends and slashers, respectively.

Director/co-writer Michael Neel gets an A for effort, but a C+ for execution, as the segments run a little longer than needed and are need of cutting to accelerate the pace. None are scary, unless you’re … oh, let’s say 10 or under, but will appeal to fans of DIY horror. It sure doesn’t skimp on the gore. Its end credits, however, assault your ears with horrible, terrible music. —Rod Lott

Thriller

Pursuit (1972)

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That noted action hero Ben Gazzara is on the trail of that noted terrorist E.G. Marshall, who wants to dose the Republican National Convention with nerve gas (hey, who doesn’t?), in the made-for-TV curiosity Pursuit.

I say “curiosity” because it’s directed by Michael Crichton, who manages to make every book he writes a megahit, but whose directorial career peaked with Westworld. Gazzara’s chase — a pursuit, if you will — of Marshall isn’t all that compelling, even if the 24-ish onscreen countdown clock suggests otherwise. Its themes still resonate today, even if the fashions don’t. The final scene is laughable in its inert cheapness. —Rod Lott

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