This 46 minute short seems like a TV pilot for some really typical crime anthology series. It pulls out every overused cliche and every stupid plot trick and somehow manages to put them in the film in a way that you don't expect. Still, the film is an atrocity.

The film concearns Bill, a boxer. We watch him grow up with an overbearing asshole of a mother who reads him Greek mythology stories and forces him to get in fistfights with other children. It's annoying.

Bill looks in the mirror one day, ducks down and comes back up as a grown man. His mother has just died and he is going through some emotional turmoil. Trouble is, ironically (get it) his mother's heavy hand has made him incapable of dealing wiht his grief. And herein lies the problem with the film. We never once give a damn about the main character. He is an asshole. Watching him unravel for 35 minutes seems like an eternity in ceinmatic hell. It's so boring and so disgusting.

There's a rape scene that could be quite remarkable but the filmmaker, Jeff Hare (okay, might have the first name wrong), insists on visually zeroing in on a teddy bare in the woman's bedroom as she is forced to submit to the main charatcer's out-of-control sexual violence.

The film ends with a climax that has been done before but is unexpected here. Hare compared the film to "Taxi Driver" (pompous ass) and the film does play with the idea of what a hero is, but overall it's a contrived, boring, typical mess. A big waste of time that will leave a bad taste in your mouth for a while.

More of Lodger's reviews indexed alphabetically! Just click your favorite letter to go there.

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

HOME