Neil Breen has come a long way since his debut back in the mid-2000s. While his features Double Down (2005), I Am Here...Now (2009) got him on the road, it was Fateful Findings (2013) that got people talking about him. Since then, his reputation has inflated to bigger proportions. His next film Pass Thru (2016) was an even bigger success, which has led us to this. Twisted Pair (2018) is by far Mr. Breen's most ambitious project to date. It's apparent that Breen truly has a passion for what he does, but his ambition can only go so far. Every single one of his features have all had similar topics of discussion and this one is almost no different from before. The only real change displayed is the visual style, but that's it.
The plot to this film of Breen's is about as nonsensical as the rest that came before it. Neil Breen plays a set of twins Cade and Cale Altair. Both were given extraordinary powers at a young age. One was able to excel with their power, while the other became corrupt with it. One does his best to help others, while other acts as a vigilante to "help" others his own way. The rest is very much the same kind of subplots, There's drama between the twins and their respective significant others, there's deception among the public with wealthy figures and super human feats shown. These are all the usual tropes Breen has resorted to for all his other features and it's beginning to get old. What made Fateful Findings (2013) entertaining was that it felt like the point of which Breen perfected his talent of bad film making.
Here though, it feels like he went into hyper mode and amplified it to where the spectacle is just boring. With similar things happening in every film he makes, the charm is beginning to wear thin. The bland acting by the cast is no longer amusing. About half the dialog is Neil Breen doing voice over narration and even some dubbing over certain scenes he very well could have just recorded initially. The rest of the cast is even more forgettable. Sara Meritt who plays Alana, the good brother's wife is no different from past love interests. And Denise Bellini who plays the agency director in charge of the good brother for his missions is dull. There's even a muse (Ada Masters) who flies around spreading magic dust. For what reason, it's never given.
Padding is still as atrocious as usual. There's loads of scenes that drag on with pauses longer than needed. Breen's script repeats several lines throughout his film. In consecutive order no less, so that gets annoying. There's scenes with people doing the exact same action they were doing earlier or later in the story. Responses don't feel connected or timed properly with the events going on around them. It just feels extra lazy with all the rip-offs Breen pulls from his other films. The story also has trouble trying to put together what antagonist to focus on. The evil twin or the actual character who's evil enough to have his voice distorted almost to the point where their lines are inaudible. The visuals are really the only strong point to this feature.
Of all of Breen's features, this has the most action in it. And while the action itself is also very lame, it's the first time he has actual explosions going off. John Mastrogiacomo is finally serving as Breen's cinematographer and for the most part, it is shot decently. Being that this is Breen's first film with no day scenes, it is certainly a different setting. There are no desert scenes and nothing involving computers surprisingly. This is also Breen's first time using green screen effects, which in some cases look better than expected for his regular standard of filming. Music though was still disappointing with much of the cues being cycled over and over with hard bass blasts that make scenes more intense for no reason. He's obviously trying but his focus is all off.
It may be Neil Breen's biggest film production, but the interior quality of it is possibly more lackluster than his prior efforts. There's less unintentional comedy and more boring things. The only aspect that stands out are the visuals because it's never been done in any of his other films.
