Dark Reprieve (2007)

Touches You

I wanted to but couldn't!

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I relearned how to throw up as I watch movies when I rented this one. One of the best worst movies of all time. Loved it for that. This is what happens when cow dung and the human brain have dinner together and decide to disprove Einstein's Theory of Relatively by making a film about how bad you can make films.The best thing about this movie is that the people involved have realized that they should not be in the film business and that that job at McDonalds they quit to go to film school just might have been their entire life's highlight reel.Note to self. Hit hammer in face hard to knock myself out before even coming near this film ever again.On another note, I see that Miley Cyrus is now due back on Planet Earth. Got to go.

I realise that all involved in the film industry have to start somewhere but that doesn't excuse really low quality films clogging the non-pay-for-view channels.It was fairly easy for the plot of this particular pile of doo-doo to look unusual and creative in summary. In practice it's amateurish, incoherent and very, very cheap. I'd like to be more critical of the plot but in all honesty I really don't have a clue what's going on. The gap between scripted lines is audible and the actors (who look like student buddies) express emotion in such a hammy telegraphed fashion you feel like applauding.If you are reading this then you are a fellow film buff and please believe me when I say I'm not a particularly demanding viewer. I always 'IMDB' my films and 5 minutes into this particular mound I was alarmed at the 'Indy Praise'. This is not, by any stretch of credulity, a 5+ star production.If your broadcaster schedules this film it's worth a complaint.

Warning to those who take this movie solely on its Genre category of Sci-Fi. It IS a Sci-Fi movie-- but only in the technical sense. There are NO flashy pyrotechnics and FX. No slithering aliens or monstrosities. This is a Sci-Fi movie in that the story really comes from a Story that touches on the philosophical question that can only be raised in the presence of technology. So those who expect a Saturday night flashy boom-boom screamer will be disappointed because of misplaced expectations.This one is a Thinker's Sci-Fi.And it's a Mystery. One-- they did this with a non-Hollywood budget.Two-- they did it with Good Actors who I hope move onwards and upwards.Three-- The script and the setting had holding power thru the simple but elusive power of Mystery: Who were they? Where were they? What did they do to cause their imprisonment? What did they have to do to get out? If one of them was to succeed, does one of them have to fail? The Audience watches with those questions in the fore-front. You want to know.Four-- the cut interrogation scenes from outside the prison that seem to tie elusively to the two victims inside the strange, deserted prison. What's the connection? The ending surprised the heck out of me because the creators allows the audience take a very common direction for explanations. . .then TWIST. YES-- it was what you began to think. and NO, it was different.To tell you more is to take the spice out of the movie and destroys what the creators are doing. WATCH it and draw your conclusions. It touches Innocence, Crime & Punishment, Redemption & Religious belief. But none of these fit together the way you THINK they do.The beauty of this movie is that the detailed Pieces of the Puzzle will continue to fit themselves together after the credits have rolled.This one is a Saturday Night Movie-- but you have to be prepared for it. You have to pay attention. This one is what I call a "Girlfriend Test Movie" because the plight of the two victims should engage her with metaphorical questions. If your Girlfriend does not feel engaged during the movie or asks probing questions at the end -- Dump her. You can do much, much better. If her intellect is engaged by this movie-- you will do well together.I'll watch for the creators of this movie-- they have the roots of story-telling genius.

Over all I thought this was a solid and smart film. I think however it could have been a lot better with a bigger budget because the ideas and concept where all sound. I give it credit for not looking like a home video the way so many indie films do these days. As a viewer you will either enjoy the non-linear story editing technique or you will hate it. I personally thought it was very clever the way the actors told their own narrative, and small bits of the back story where revealed as the film progressed. Lastly on the positive side, the final twist is one of the best twists I've seen in any movie. You can watch this film a hundred times and never figure out the final reveal on your own, I liked that. Oh and the Raquel Lake character is smoking HOT!!On the down side....a few of the characters where laughably bad, namely the executioner guy, he should of landed on the cutting room floor.