Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Across The Hall (2009) *

Shall I be honest with you? I think I will. There's a plot twist in the middle of the movie. The thing about this plot twist is that I guessed said plot twist reading the back cover of the DVD. This is a better move than my Matchstick Men trailer prediction. So be warned for some predictability.

Across the Hall follows the adventures of Terry (Danny Pino) as he sits in a hotel room across the hall from his fiance June (Brittany Murphy) who is engaging in carnal knowledge behind his back.  Julian is hung up on this girl to the point that he steals his friend Julian (Mike Vogel) gun and plans on using it on the happy couple. It's up to Terry to keep Julian calm over the phone until he can arrive and help defuse the situation.

This was originally a short film expanded into a full length feature. I haven't seen the short but it probably works better than this mess. I'm willing to bet that you can guess the twist from my synopsis above. That's fine. I tried. 
This is low budget suspense at its finest, meaning it sucks. Horrible acting and characters doing stupid things all around. Let's be honest- if a guy comes into your hotel and demands the room across the hall from the woman that he was checking the ledger for you should just take his money and then call the cops because they're just going to show up anyway. It's used as a plot device later in the film (poorly) so let's not spoil it. I could say that the acting is horrendous, but I can't tell if it's the actors or the script. This is expanded garbage that tries to be inventive but outsmarts itself by not remembering that audiences are looking for that twist. This isn't 1980 anymore. It's a new millennium, act like it. If you like to play an easy guessing game then this is the film for you.

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