Backflash

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.

Gritty business. Very entertaining.

Low Budget. No flashy stuff. Sexy leading lady, good character actors. Parched-out desert locales. Cryptic but effective script with plenty of good twists.

This is the kind of movie John Payne made when he switched from playing handsome singing A-leads to laconic tough guys back in the 1950s. Kansas City Confidential, for example.

Later on Lance Hendricksen did a lot of good stuff like this. Maybe Robert Patrick is the new LH.

What more could you ask for?

In this film, Melissa Joan Hart leaves Sabrina behind and gives a hilariously sarcastic and sexy performance as a wise-ass, hard-drinking, prostitute-turned-back room mortician. Unfortunately, Melissa's screen time is limited and the viewer is left with a film that mostly comes across as an edited-for-television version of itself. Think Wild Things with all the sex removed and Bill Murray's screen time cut dramatically. My recommendation is to use scene select to watch Melissa prove she can really deliver as an actress, then go watch Body Heat.

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.

The camera loves Jennifer Esposito in this dark comedy. Great acting and directing, this film takes you on a ride through crime and sick humor. Melissa Joan Hart is hilarious in this film. If you like Quentin Tarantino films, you'll love this one.