Nine Dead (2010)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

9 Dead is a horror-mystery puzzler (in vein of the Saw films, for example) that I found to be pretty engaging. But the ending is just bad.The plot is pretty straight forward: 9 people are kidnapped by a masked man with a taser; locked in a room together; and told they have to figure out why each person is there...with 1 person dying every 10 minutes. There's a Lawyer, A Cop, A Thief, A Rapist/Pedophile, a Mobster, A Health Insurance Salesman, A Chinese store clerk & a young Barkeep. In order to survive, they must figure out how they are all connected.As a humorously ironic personal note, like the characters in the film, I found myself trying to solve the puzzle of where I've seen some of them before (answer: Sabrina The Teenage Witch and that Fallen Skies show).Anyways...it goes along well enough. Had me wrapped up in the puzzle. But you are left with a situation that doesn't really jive with the title so they added a twist at the end. And this twist was totally absurd and felt really forced. Plus, there was another scene after this which seemed to be another pathetically forced attempt to set up a sequel. I would have enjoyed it more if they just wrapped up the damn story as it was...but whatever. I still enjoyed it.5 out 10.

Christopher Shadley directs a pressure cooker full of suspense. Nine strangers wake up in a spacious room, handcuffed to a pole only a few feet apart. These people are arranged in a semi-circle and obviously don't know why. Their capture enters the room and advises them that they all have a connection to each other and until someone figures out how...one of them dies every 10 minutes. One prisoner is an older Asian woman(Lucille Soong)who speaks no English at all. Other captives include a DA's office lawyer(Melissa Joan Hart), a pedophile(Lawrence Turner), an insurance claims adjuster(James Victor), a strip club owner(Chip Bent), a priest(Marc Macaulay), a common their(Edrick Brown), a bartender(John Cates) and a police officer played by William Lee Scott.There are few characters you feel for and plenty you couldn't care less about. The prisoners strain to figure how they should know each other. Chaotic profanity and wild accusations just take up precious time. There is very little redeemable; story is pretty predictable and acting is either horrible or hilariously over-the-top. My message to Hart: did they pay you enough?

...and knocked all of its teeth out.Really, the movie itself isn't that bad. Sure, Melissa Joan Hart is at best unlikeable and at worst unwatchable, but the rest of the cast performs quite well for a low-budget horror flick. The link connecting all nine of the victims is convoluted enough to keep people from guessing it right off the bat, though I found myself speaking aloud the "shocking revelations" five minutes before the characters did to some dramatic drum strike.However, do yourself a favor: about two minutes before the movie ends, turn it off and imagine your own ending. Whatever you can come up with is far, far better than the tripe Mahoney tried to pass off as resolution.

This movie was actually a pretty decent film. Nine strangers who apparently are connected are locked in a room, each with one hand hand- cuffed to a pole, by a masked man who tells them that he will kill one of them every ten minutes until they figure out that connection. And the whole movie is the people revealing their deep, dark secrets and you see just how monstrous these seemingly nice people can be). You have some real tense moments, some frightening moments, and moments of pure confusion. You find yourself right along with these people, desperately trying to make the connection.SPOILER AHEAD. SPOILER AHEAD.However, the fun ends abruptly with literally less than five minutes to go in the movie. The three people who have survived figure our why they're there. As promised, the masked man has informed the police (who are now right outside the building), he will turn himself in, and the survivors are free to go. He hands the key to unlock their handcuffs to the lawyer lady (who, as you see throughout the movie, is the worst monster of them all) who, after freeing herself, kicks their kidnapper in the groin, takes his gun, and shoots him. She then murders the other two survivors, one of whom turns out to be the father of her child, because she doesn't want what she told them to leave that room or else her career would be over. This part makes no sense; she's already a dead woman walking as the masked man had revealed that they had been on camera and it had been streamed for the police. And then, as the police are closing in, she just simply walks out of the building. The last few seconds show her calmly walking down a hallway, taking a right turn, and then it cuts to the credits.This was by far the worst ending to any movie that I have ever even heard of. One, it makes no sense. And two, by this point you absolutely hate this woman and want her to reap the judgement she has sown for herself, but instead she gets away, leaving you with a bad taste in your mouth. They say that you are only as good as your last performance, that that is what you will be remembered for. The same principle applies here, in that the movie was only as good as its last scene, which was a miserable failure. That is why I give this movie 2 stars.