The Devil's in the Details

I was enjoying the story, the off-screen (and on screen) violence and action was gripping, the inter-weaved story and back story threads were engaging, building to an interesting climax...and then suddenly, nothing. Its like they ran out of film, money, time, patience, interest or all of the above. I can't believe they would have made this movie if this is a fair reflection of the screenplay. Disappointed, and puzzled.

why need 10 lines for a review?

Still disappointed, and puzzled.

I think my review is a valid review. Why should it be a minimum of 10 lines. Why force me to pad it...If this doesn't get accepted, I'll scrap it, and won't bother offering reviews in future.

I probably couldn't find enough adjectives to express how awful this film is, one of the worst I've ever seen. Filled with torture and sadism, as well as incredibly muddled plot elements and flashbacks, I would say it's an insult to anyone's intelligence.

Joel Mathews portrays Thomas Conrad, a post traumatic stress disorder patient, being seen by Dr. Robert Michaels (Ray Liotta), a military psychiatrist. After a minor fender bender with a man named Bill (Emilio Rivera), Thomas is told no harm done, and invited to a local bar for a drink.

The next thing he knows he's tied to the ceiling and being tortured by Bill and his cohorts, who let him hear on the cell that his wife and daughter have been kidnapped and held hostage. Unless Thomas can get his father (a judge), his sister (a cop), and his brother (a border patrol officer) to cooperate in a crazy scheme involving robbing a dangerous Mexican drug cartel, they'll all be killed.

Pretty much the entire movie is Thomas being tortured as he tries to convince his family to cooperate with his captors. By the time the "big" surprise ending comes, I couldn't have cared less and felt I need to take a shower to get this drek off of me.

"We're here to identify your moments. Your moments and events that lead you here into this room." After serving his country in a brutal tour Thomas Conrad is having a hard time adjusting to "normal" life. He is sent to see someone (Liotta) who will help him adjust. While there he begins to explore the problems he has had with his family as well as recalling his meeting with a drug cartel enforcer (Rivera) that changed his life forever. Going in I was expecting the normal B-action movie type plot and idea. I have to admit that this was actually not as bad as I was expecting and actually kept me watching and interested. The movie is pretty suspenseful even though the movie is pretty much played out in a way that you imagine all the action. Thtoughout the movie you see Thomas being tortured and talking to his family trying to save everyone but not the actual action, to me that is really a neat idea and adds to the enjoyment. I won't say it's exactly like reading a book, but it's close. If you like suspense and have a good imagination then this is a movie you will enjoy. Overall, an original type of action movie with a very interesting presentation. I liked it. I give it a B+.

I give Ray Liotta thumbs up for letting his hair go gray, and that's the only positive thing I can say about this one. Poor acting, choppy direction, dizzy camera work, weak plot, uninteresting characters. I cannot tell you how it ends because I FF'ed through a lot of it, and don't care. The lead actor in this seems to mug a lot and is more concerned with his looks then how he can make the stultifying dialog come to life. The interspersed scenes from one time frame to the next is a half way decent ploy in a good movie, but it's not working here. Nice to see some actors are still working though. I always wonder how can I care of feel empathy for any character in a movie, and in this movie I'm still wondering.

It took me about 5 months to make it to the end of this movie(honest), if YOU make it to the end you'll have a big question mark over your head regarding what happened to certain characters, how and why. Matthew's lines are oddly delivered, Liotta and Rivera do good performances, this movie has good elements of suspense and it works well as a thriller until you get to the end and wonder what happened to the last 20 minutes, it genuinely seems like the filmmakers ran out of money, or time renting the set, cameras, or something and just said "cut" and decided to roll the credits. much is left unresolved or unanswered and an ending that makes no sense when considering the rest of the film. Honestly Riveras performance raised this film from a 1 to a 4 for me,