Roadside

ROADSIDE is a cheapjack horror/thriller combo about a couple who go out driving one night and end up being stranded in their car by a sniper lurking in the woods. It's a low budget suspense movie that clearly wants to be the next PHONE BOOTH, but the single location set-up of the thing is all it has going for it.

Instead this is a boring film filled with unlikeable characters and overwrought acting. Nothing much happens for long stretches and attempts at suspense fall flat over and over again. It doesn't help that you don't give a fig for the characters supposedly in peril while the villain of the piece is equally dull and yawnsome. Lots of shooting-in-the-dark cinematography follows, leaving viewers to squint their eyes and wonder why they're still watching until the final, predictable scene unfolds.

This one makes no sense whatsoever. And they gave it a holiday theme! Like this'll go down with all the Christmas greats. Puh-leez.

A couple is driving down the road, and find a tree blocking their way. Husband gets out to move it, and a gunman in the woods starts talking to him, and holds he and his wife hostage. In the middle of nowhere. Why? Good question. This is never revealed! Gunman says it's not about money, and he has personal information on them. Why? This is never revealed! Literally, psycho gunman holds two people hostage in the woods for absolutely no reason. Won't let the woman move an inch in the car, but periodically allows the two of them to conspire. Baffling!

They throw in 3 twists. Every one of these you can see coming from 20 miles down that gravel road. Not an ounce of originality, unless you find a lone gunman holding two people hostage on a roadside original.

I honestly can't think of a bigger waste of 81 minutes.

Please, do not throw an hour and a half of your life away on this film. The only good outcome is that my wife forgave me for talking her into watching it.

This movie was decent at the beginning but completely dropped off during the first 20 minutes or so. There was no character development of either the main characters or the antagonist. The ending was completely predictable and way too stupid.

Don't waste your time.

Another disappointing movie. There was just no passion or love behind this paint-by-the-numbers thriller. The production values were good, and the night shots looked well for a low-budget movie. The actors were competent, and I guess they did all they could with the script. But the story was so unimaginative. It's hard to believe there aren't more interesting scripts floating around Hollywood out there than this. There was just nothing to it, and the ending was predictable, lazy, and disappointing. Why go through all the trouble of making a movie when you have nothing to say?

Skip this one.