Backflash

This really is a nice little movie,definitely worth watching!

The entire movie plays in a desert environment,really an alien looking place to one who lives in Belgium,like me... It's filled with strange people ,the cameraman did an outstanding job of shooting atmospheric images and the music too adds a lot to the atmosphere... See the other reviews to learn more about the content of this movie.

It last only for about 87 minutes but is definitely a time well spend!

A massive missed opportunity by the makers of this movie. What should have been a sizzling tale of betrayal and intrigue is turned into a by the numbers 3a.m TV slot filler. Robert Patrick coasts his way through the movie, putting in a bare minimum effort to draw his paycheck. Jennifer Esposito is shockingly under-used by the director, when she should have been setting the screen alight as the sultry temptress. Colm Meaney is reduced to comic relief when he could have been much more sinister.

At the end of the day, with a spring clean of the script to tighten up the dialogue and a decent director, you could remake this movie with exactly the same cast and turn a rating of '3' into a '9'. Sorry Mr Philip J Jones (Producer/ Writer/ Director), trying to do it all yourself was a wrong move.

For a low-budget movie, BACKFLASH looks pretty good. The cinematography is crisp and bright, and while some scenes look a little sparse at times, it never looks really cheap. The problem instead is with the screenplay. It plays like a first draft - scenes go by v-e-r-y slowly, when the story should play out quicker and tighter. There's no spark, and that includes the various twists and turns - you'll most likely have seen most of them before, so they aren't a surprise. The movie tries to jerk us around more near the end, but the twists in this part aren't believable and/or just lead to plot holes. And while Robert Patrick isn't a bad actor, he's wrong for a role that more belongs to someone who can convincingly play a little dim and not totally sure of things. And sadly, Michael J. Pollard is wasted in a role that just gives him two minutes of screen time at most.

To make a great movie sometimes all you need is a good director;not big stars, or huge special effects.The problem of this movie is this;the lack of a good direction.The idea and the story is good and Robert Patrick is enough for this one.But there is no one behind the camera to put it all into an order,to shoot memorable scenes or to create strong characters.In the screenplay there are a lot of logical mistakes but they could be put into a right way with someone who knows what to do.

Director wants to make a movie about crime,lie,people who can not be trusted or can not trust each other.And also he wants to add some kind of romance.We all see how this type of film-noir can be done perfectly by Tarantino,Coen Brothers and absolutely 'Red Rock West' by John Dahl.Besides all the mistakes in the script,lack of character analyzes this movie needs memorable dialogs,quotes,and a song.Sometimes a dialog or a song makes you remember a movie.But this one misses all of them;script,dialogs,music,characters.Speaking of characters am I the only one who is looking for a strong femme-fatale character?

I think this movie is more like to be watched to learn the things not to do in a film-noir.A good idea is not always enough and this one shows everything to turn this good idea upside down.

Although "Backflash" does remind me a little of a superior film, "Red Rock West", with fine desert locations and plenty of guitar strums, the constant flash backs or should I say "backflashes" are both confusing and annoying. This is the type of twisty story that begs for a re-watch simply to determine if the outcome makes any sense, or is indeed playing games with the audience. The presence of actors Mike Starr and Michael J. Pollard is a nice touch, but the leads, Jennifer Esposito and Robert Patrick are difficult to embrace because of their generic characters. Special mention must be made of the soundtrack, which seems to have a strong Native American influence, and is quite good. - MERK