Route 666 (2001)

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

My second time catching this and loving it even more. Not in the ways one is suppose to I'm sure. The film is a B-Movie to the core, with cheesy acting, special effects and the whole lot.Lou Diamond Phillips, or as the cool kids call him, LDP, has to find and escort a witness back to court. The only problem is the witness is hiding out in the middle of the desert. The film opens with LDP finding him and the Russian gangsters he is testifying against tracking him down to kill him. A shootout occurs, one that is so horribly done that it feels like a low grade action film from the 80's.On their way to bring the witness back, LDP begins having these bizarre visions of a graveyard and prison workers dying. Is there a connection? Well, out of nowhere he claims his father is buried out here. Coincidence? I think not, some clever writers came up with some genius ideas in this script.At some point in the film, it becomes some sort of horror flick. With these zombies coming back from the dead to kill those who are on route 666. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention they take an abandoned road to get to their destination quicker. Isn't that always the case? These zombies get their 'power' from the road. That is a quote from the film. They are attracted from blood spilled.The acting is well done from LDP and Steven Williams, the witness. The rest are pretty bad. The effects, are cheesy. The film has some kind of weird choppy slow motion style when the zombies appear. The make-up on them is low rent. They look like gravel...like the road. Find any of this funny yet? I sure did.The film is one of those, so bad it's good. I find it hilariously good. If you can't find the humour in bad cheesy horror films, then this will not be for you. The climax involves LDP connecting to his dead father and giving him his blood to save everyone. Weird? Sure is. The dead zombie father becomes good and saves his son. This film even falls under the good old 'drinking game' category. Give it a whirl if you find bad horror films hilarious.

Federal agents Jack La Roca (Lou Diamond Phillips) and Stephanie (Lori Petty) track fugitive Fred Smith (Steven Williams, from JASON GOES TO HELL) along the desolate desert highways of the American southwest. Fred (who likes to be called Rabbit) is an Ivy league-educated former mob accountant who was put into the witness protection program and set to testify in court against his employers, but fled before the trial could begin. After he's apprehended, some mob goons show up for a brief shoot out and the trio are bailed out by four U.S. Marshall's (David Keith as the obligatory macho jerk of the group, a wasted Alex McArthur, Mercedes Colon as his girlfriend and some other guy who looks familiar from TV commercials). The seven then hit the road and need to get back to California in a hurry, so they take a shortcut off Route 66, despite the fact that it's blocked off and has a "cursed" reputation.Route 666 turns out to be quite cursed indeed, as they make a stop at a peculiar graveyard containing four graves that read like a Who's Who of the most infamous murderers and criminals of the 1960s. Soon, after, a quarter of supernatural, eyeless, blood-drinking zombies pop out of the road to kill. One is a former serial killer who cut out eyes and tongues, another happens to be Jack's bank robber father and each even has their own special weapon (a sledge hammer, chain, pick axe and jackhammer) to use against victims. If things couldn't get any worse, one of the mobsters follows them and some local corrupt police officers want to cover their tracks. Jack has visions that explain why the dead chain gang member's souls were unable to rest in peace and ends up separated from the group, where in a completely pointless subplot, he drinks peyote tea with a pipe-smoking Indian (Gary Farmer).Veteran character actor L.Q. Jones turns up in a supporting role as the evil/elderly town Sheriff, who is first seen sitting behind a desk reading The Tell-Tale Heart and also turns out to be the one responsible for shooting and then running over the four chain gang members with a steam roller in 1965! He blows a hole in one woman with a shotgun, pistol whips Keith and threatens to blow Petty's tit off before poetic justice comes, uh, rolling over him. Dick Miller is also here, but wasted in a nothing cameo. He's in the very first scene as a bartender and has only two lines. The acting (particularly Phillips and Williams) is pretty good, the story is acceptable (even though the subplot between Jack and his dead father doesn't come off at all and helps turn the end a bit silly), the desert and run-down drive-in theater locations are used fairly well and there's a good sense of humor and some witty dialogue.It's not a bad movie, but I had to deduct a couple of points for several reasons. The most irritating aspect of the story is that you can only be killed by the ghouls when you are standing directly ON the road. Everyone finds this out about midway through and the characters still continue to go on it, as if they're asking to die. One guy even dies because he goes to get his friggin' cigarettes! Much worse than that is the overuse of irritating "shakycam" camera-work (just as it sounds, the camera just jiggles around all over the place for no apparent reason), which helps to ruin most of the action/horror scenes.

WARNING:Spoiler content! This movie is excellent, right from the start, it is clever, quirky, slick, and really really funny. Also, to the trained eye, it is packed full of so much symbolism that there is almost no scene where one cannot be found. The characters are clever and represented wonderfully by the people who play them, especially Rabbit, you have to love that guy, even if you find him a constant irritation, the film would definitely not be complete without him. The storyline is nice, well thought out, and spreads the action out nicely over the length of the film. Providing us (the audience) with a good dose of revenge, humour, irritation, entertainment, maybe even a little fear for the weak hearted and squeamish watchers, and finally and a little unexpectedly, the iron man (La Rocha)having a sentimental moment at the end with his father.The only thing that stopped this movie getting ten out of ten for me was the female lead, she is a great actress and fit into the part really well, i just find that her voice offends my hearing to such a degree that i can hardly bear to listen, it really grates against the ears. Other than that, this is an amazing film, i would recommend it to anyone looking for something that is not particularly scary but nonetheless highly entertaining.

Lou Diamond Phillips plays Jack La Roca, a U.S. Marshall and former Navy SEAL assigned to pick up "Rabbit" (Steven Williams), who is in the federal witness protection program but has been on the run. La Roca is to take Rabbit from Arizona to California to testify in court, but along the way they run into a variety of obstacles, mostly horrific, the most serious of which are the result of La Roca's decision to take a shortcut on Route 666.Lou Diamond Phillips is a B and C-movie king. Route 666 nicely fits in with his oeuvre. The film is much better than it should be, perhaps, given the relatively small budget and a number of questionable decisions on technical aspects (life reflecting art, as the film hinges on a questionable decision). But although goofy at times, Route 666 is a fun-to-watch action/horror film. It actually ended up as a 7 out of 10 for me.A number of things quickly drew me in, even though they do not directly have an impact on the quality of Route 666. The first two were the presence of Williams and character actor Dick Miller. I'm a big fan of Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (1993). Williams plays Creighton Duke, one of the main characters, in that film. Miller is a genre veteran with over 100 titles to his name, and well loved by many genre fans, including me. The third immediate attraction for me is that Route 666 is set in a Joshua Tree-filled desert. I love deserts, and I especially love Joshua Trees. Director William Wesley actually acquired permission to shoot in Joshua Tree National Park, one of my favorites. This was the first film in about 10 years allowed to do so.Wesley quickly builds an effective, sarcastic and usually witty rapport between La Roca, his partner Steph (Lori Petty) and Rabbit, although Petty can be a bit over-the-top at times. But Williams is particularly funny. There are other standout performances here, as well, especially L.Q. Jones as the Sheriff.At the beginning, Route 666 seems like it will be an actioner. Although these aren't the most exciting shoot-out scenes ever filmed, they have a nice feel to them, partially due to the setting and lighting, and there is a pleasantly unusual tangent when Phillips has a bizarre "flashback" as he looks at a victim's blood spreading on the dirt.There is an eerie atmosphere to the whole film, and especially when the horror material starts, it is very refreshing that Wesley chose to keep the proceedings in broad daylight. It also helps that there are two sets of villains, with the second, and possibly the most effective, not being very obvious until late in the film. The more traditional horror villains are very satisfying, with an interesting, unusual yet immediately recognizable look, and they are worked into the backstory of the characters extremely well. Their methods of dispatching victims are creative, although I wish Wesley would have gone into a gorier mode with the deaths. But one death, at least, near the end of the film, is particularly brutal in its abruptness. Even though this isn't Wesley's masterpiece, he shows that he has one in him.Sure the film has flaws--Phillips plays much of the film with what looks like a large wad of raspberry gum stuck to his forehead, the shaky cam and other effects didn't work very well for me during the horror attack scenes, the score sounded fairly generic and repetitive (it reminded me of playing a video game), and there are some plot points that don't make a lot of sense if you think about them too much. But most horror fans probably will not expect a masterpiece when watching Route 666. With appropriately lowered expectations, you'll likely be pleasantly surprised at just how good this film is.