Old Man

This movie starts promising: An interesting setting and enigmatic characters let you hope for a 90 min play full of twisted dialogues and psychologically complex interaction, maybe warfare even. In a few moments, it skillfully achieves to build up an atmosphere of subtle, lovecraftian horror -- but only to tear it down a few seconds later with meaningless, down-to-earth dialogues. In general, this movie looses momentum very fast and makes you wish it would only run 30 min tops. It boils down to its ending and so it would have been a perfect fit for "Alfred Hitchcock presents". I recommend this for fans of Stephen Lang and die hard mystery movie lovers only.

No pun intended - if you like or even love Stephen Lang ... well I do not need to convince you. If not, this may be able to convince you to to love him - his performance is everything! Yes there is the script (with a twist or two on your way or rather the movies way) ... but it is how he delivers whatever they give him.

That said, we do realize something is off from the get go. But what is it? Maybe you will surprised, maybe you can guess way before I did, where it goes with it. Maybe the new character late in the game will throw you off, maybe it won't ... there is a lot of factors that have to work for you, to like the movie. One is the pace - the other your patience with the performance - which is excellent of course, but might not be something that floats your boat ... just saying.

I was completely unaware of this movie. But it was mainly the handsome poster that made me curious about the story. So I set it up totally without a trailer or any prior knowledge.

The film starts in a hut and that is where it takes place for 90%.

You quickly get the feeling that you are not watching a movie, but a play.

Stephen Lang's acting is very clever and believable. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Marc Senter (who also co-produces this film).

As for the story, it is very easy to guess what is actually going on and the "twist" can't really be called a twist.

It feels like a missed opportunity, unfortunately.

5/10 for Stephen Lang's acting performance.

This is like a stage play.

Stephen Lang was great, pace was good and the story was interesting enough to make me invested. Not for a second i felt bored and there is a twist i didn't see it coming. However, i can't recommend it. Just because the twist was unexpected, it doesn't mean that i liked it. Story was not illogical or dumb but still, some things didn't make much sense. The ending was kinda chaotic. Zero explanations given about Rascal, the cabin and what is this all about. I could overlook those details, a certain amount of ambiguity is not always a bad thing, but i can't get over the fact that the victimizer was more likeable than the victim. Thus, i didn't enjoy the ending, it was sad and not cathartic.

In any case, this is not a bad movie, and if you love dialogue driven drama/mystery movies, maybe you will like it more than me.

I've been a fan of Stephen Lang ever since I watched his performance in Manhunter(1986) directed by the acclaimed director Michael Mann. A quote from that film: "Well, here I am..."

If ever there was an A-grade actor handled badly by Hollywood it's Stephen Lang. After Red Dragon he disappeared into obscurity. He should've used that film as a push into successful mainstream Hollywood movies of that era. However he had very meager successes. I would advise you to watch Escape: Human Cargo where he starred opposite Treat Williams another favorite actor of mine.

Back to the film: it is about an old man in a secluded cabin at the back ends of the world. He is struggling with guilt and fading memories of his past. He's interrupted by a knocking at the door and lets in a lost visitor. Soon the two fall into conversation. You'll have to sit through this one till the end to find out what happens next...

Overall Stephen Lang's fantastic acting saves this movie as its only grace. The photography and sound effects are more than adequate for a movie of this sort. Edward Lucky McKee is an exemplary film director and I'm sure the next projects of his will be very good.

Verdict: a very good and worthwhile one time viewing. You may also like these movies: Misery(1990), The Nature Of The Beast(1995) and Ravenous(1999).

P. S. First to review this movie! Cheers and thanks for reading this review!