Blackway (2015)

Truly Dreadful Film

Let's be realistic.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Blistering performances.

With the names involved we had high hopes for this movie. It was so very awful. It seems they just drive around looking for Black way to be told they shouldn't look for him and they drive around looking for him more until the undramatoc conclusion.

It was ok. Nothing overly exciting. It should of been called Blackout because the lighting was so dark the entire movie, you could not tell what was going on. Bad.

This is an excellent cast working with a slightly subpar script. All of the performances are solid. Ray Liotta is always bankable as a villain. He brings an intense edginess to bad guy roles that few actors can match. Hopkins feels a bit miscast (not the guy you expect to be working at a lumber mill), but still turns in a respectable performance. There's good chemistry between Styles and Ludwig that adds extra dimension to a script that needs it. Good cinematography, particularly outdoors. The movie uses flashbacks to fill in plot holes, and it works for the relationship between Liotta and Hopkins characters. I think the movie would have worked better if they didn't use flashbacks for the Liotta/Styles relationship; it was too recent and too important in the plot context. The flashbacks make Liotta seem more sinister and unpredictable, but the movie needed a bit more length in constructing the plot. Could have also used a bit more background for Wizard and Scotty characters. Not quite enough character development overall, and the movie felt a bit flat in that regard. Worth watching if you go in with reasonable expectations.

Film is available on Netflix, but not recommended for family entertainment. For one thing, the language is (needlessly) foul in places.. which usually means the actors can't act, or the writers can't write so they insert bad language to add an 'edge' (so-called). In this case, we have a capable cast with a mix of talent: Stiles, the able-bodied likable aide to Jason Bourne; Ray Liotta, the ex-cop turned bad in a 'stalker' role; and award-winning Hopkins, who steps up to assist dear Julia in dealing with the thug (Liotta), when no one else, including the law, will. Talent OK - hence, we can indict the scriptwriter for a mediocre effort. Example: Julia keeps saying, "I can handle this on my own - it's my problem." But... she can't. If she could, we wouldn't have a movie.The obvious answer is that Julia should have telephoned Jason Bourne -- this is his kind of fight. Instead, she joins Hopkins on a quest to track down 'Blackway', who has been harassing her. This takes quite a while, for some reason, and finally leads to a showdown on Blackways' turf, deep in the woods. How improbable is that? Why would a group of amateurs venture away from a quiet town in the wooded Pacific Northwest to confront a deranged sociopath on his own turf (because that's what the script says, I guess). I will leave the issue of why Hopkins, a major talent on the Shakespearean level, would accept such a poorly-contrived project, to someone else.As much as I like Stiles & Hopkins, if you are looking for 'sleepers' on Netflix, keep looking. This ain't one of them.