Bone Dry (2007)

Simply A Masterpiece

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Eddie finds himself being forced at a gunpoint, by an unseen assailant, on a dark and brutal journey through the harsh terrain of the Mojave desert. His nemesis is Jimmy, a man with an aberrant agenda; armed with a rifle, a scope, walkie-talkies and a truck, he has organized a series of ambushes and mantraps designed to push Eddie to the limits of his humanity and beyond. Lance Henrisken and Luke Goss give 2 amazing perfomances in this 'cat v.s mouse' action drama called 'Bone Dry' plus the movie has some terrific plot twists with the ending being one of the best i have seen in a while and each torture scene was more suspensful than the other and each puzzle comes full circle by the end. (A+)

I think I liked the desert the best in this film. It must have been an easy shoot to go out into an open desert and just shoot what you want. I'm sure the heat and bugs got to the cast and crew but at least no streets had to be closed.The movie itself is OK. During the first hour it leaves guessing as why this guy has been kidnapped and is being pushed to his limits. The setup is rather sparse. No real indications as who these characters are but most films are mysteries, we need time to get to know the characters.The hippie character seemed to be the most interesting. I imagine the Mojave desert to be filled with people like him. I didn't really like how that played out though, it seemed uninspired and predictable. The two main characters remain somewhat bland. Only most of the way through the film do we get any indication that the kidnapped guy may not be an innocent victim. He becomes rather good at fighting suddenly and is able to defeat two thugs. This brings up questions. Wouldn't he be to tired and dehydrated to fight and if he had these skills why didn't he use them in the first place? We have to wait until the end to find the reasons behind the whole thing. I found the ending to be decent albeit slightly gimmicky. It's worth a look.

For western fans who have seen both the maddingly nebulous Gus Van Sant 2002 flick GERRY featuring Casey Affleck & Matt Damon (6.2 of 10 IMDb rating) and the 97th most popular movie of all-time, Ethan & Joel Coen's NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, director\writer\editor Brett A. Hart's BONE DRY will elicit many echoes of recognition. Hart intentionally leaves viewers at sea in an effort to have them misplace their empathy with protagonist\desert torture victim "Eddie" during most of the film. For those not literate enough to sense which way the wind eventually will blow from the opening quotes of Lucretius and Shakespeare's Richard III, the ease with which "Eddie" starts dispatching random drug dealers in BONE DRY's second half is a dead giveaway of the flip-flopping sympathies due before the final credits roll. While "Eddie's" antagonist "Jimmy" suffers more from not being fleshed out in the movie, he does combine NO COUNTRY's Sheriff Ed Tom Bell's practical curmudgeonness with pneumatic bolt toting contract killer Anton Chigurh's aura of inexorable doom. Being called upon to stand in for both Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem in the same movie certainly is a step up in the world from that PUMPKINHEAD crap for Lance Henriksen ("Jimmy").P.S.--Hopefully Brett A. Hart does NOT have to live down being a blood descendant of the infamous sponging, deadbeat-dad, poser, Bret Harte (1836-1902), author of "The Luck of Roarin' Camp" and other "western" stories. (Director Hart's website makes no connection between himself and his literary or wrestler namesakes, but if he later wishes to pick one, he'd be well-advised to take the grappler.) As America's greatest penman Mark Twain observed, the 19th Century writer Harte (born Francis Brett Hart in Albany, NY) started his career making up "news" from the west for East Coast publications, and--in 20th Century terms--played Zane Grey to Twain's Louie L'Amour. This false Harte was a flash-in-the-pan with just one year of real success, soon leaving all of his acquaintances with his unpaid debts, abandoning his wife and kids with no support, and absconding to die in Europe.

*SPOILER*The story here is simple. Luke Goss (Blade II, rubbish 80s boy band Bros) is held at gunpoint in the desert, given a compass and map by Lance Henriksen and told to head north. Henriksen turns out to be a very nasty character indeed, torturing Goss with water deprivation, burial in sand, and in one very Saw inspired sequence, a cactus and a pair of handcuffs.The problem is that the film simply doesn't maintain the suspense long enough. The dialogue is uneven and repetitive (amusingly highlighted by Henriksen's character himself at one point) and the addition of three needless characters do nothing but stretch out an already flimsy premise to breaking point. Very early on there are pieces of dialogue dropped in, leading you far too quickly to arrive at the conclusion that Luke Goss may not actually be a very nice chap himself.It's not entirely without it's charms though. Lance Henriksen is on top form (very reminiscent of his Near Dark character at some points), Goss himself is pretty decent, and you really do feel the suffocating desert heat, but by the time the conclusion arrives along with it's glaringly obvious "twist" you're just left with the feeling it was merely a padded out episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.