• Furious father Liam Neeson fights for family in 'Taken 2'

    Liam Neeson in "Taken 2."

    By Bernard Besserglik , The Hollywood Reporter

    REVIEW: A sequel to the 2008 action thriller "Taken" was probably inevitable, given that movie's astonishing success worldwide -- a take of $225 million for an outlay of barely one-tenth that amount. The makers of "Taken 2" have stuck as close as possible to the original formula: the same actors, the same high-octane mixture of violence and pursuit, the same assertion of family values. The location has shifted from Paris to Istanbul, but otherwise "Taken 2" could virtually pass for a remake. With more funds to lavish on production values and this time the advantage of a precedent, there's every prospect of similar causes leading to similar effects at the box-office.

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    Liam Neeson reprises his role as the retired CIA operative and concerned parent Bryan Mills while Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen re-enlist as his daughter Kim and ex-wife Lenore respectively. The story hinges on revenge rather than rescue. Writers Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen (who also scripted "Taken") reference the earlier movie in an opening hill-top burial scene where Albanian clan chief Murad Krasniqi (Rade Sherbedgia) vows to avenge Mills' killing of his son, the head of a human trafficking ring who had had the bad idea of making off with Kim. His plans are given a boost when Mills -- ill-advisedly, as it soon proves -- invites Kim and Lenore to spend some holiday time with him in Istanbul where his private security firm has just completed a deal with a wealthy sheikh. One car-chase later, and it's Mills' and Lenore's turn to be "taken," while Kim only narrowly avoids a similar fate.

    From here on in it's played strictly by the numbers. The infinitely resourceful Mills, who has secreted a micro cellphone about his person, manages to contact Kim and teleguide her actions, organising their escape by remote control. Practicing Houdini-like skills, he is able to break free of his bonds and save Lenore before she bleeds to death. There are no martial arts of which he is not the master, whether wielding a handgun against assault-rifles or bare-fisted against a band of men armed with clubs and knives. An ultimate mano a mano leads to a final confrontation with the clan chief and a conclusion which leaves open the possibility of a "Taken 3."

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    There's one decent joke in a movie that is otherwise played perfectly straight, a second breakneck car-chase through the souk in which Mills is in the passenger seat, the wheel taken by his daughter who, we've been informed early on, has flunked her driver's permit twice and has been skipping driving lessons.

    Directed by Olivier Megaton, a journeyman helmer in the Besson stable ("Transporter 3," "Colombiana"), "Taken 2" is in some ways a more polished product than its predecessor, taking full advantage of its exotic locations and pacing its action sequences more successfully. The villains are still cardboard cutouts -- short, dark, Oriental and not much interested in anything other than televised soccer -- and the general level of characterization is skin-deep. But the filmmakers know precisely what they are doing, and ultimately whether it's a good or a bad movie is beside the point. So is the issue of plausibility. This is the action-movie pared down to the basics, story-telling without pretension of subtlety, irony or sophistication, "Superman" without the superpowers and the fancy costume.


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    Neeson is utterly convincing as the anger-fueled but soft-spoken action hero, the personification of the regular guy pushed to the limit in defense of his family, and it's hard to see the "Taken" franchise succeeding without him. There's a touch of vigilante advocacy in the movie that will displease some, with Neeson as a more gentlemanly version of the Charles Bronson of the "Death Wish" series, but clearly there's still a market for such fantasies. Moviegoers who liked "Taken" and want more of the same will get precisely that.

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  • Tim Burton's newest animated kids' flick 'Frankenweenie' is all bark, no bite

    Walt Disney Pictures

    Victor (Charlie Tahan) and Sparky (Frank Welker) in "Frankenweenie."

    By Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

    REVIEW: That Tim Burton's new film "Frankenweenie" is an expansion of a half-hour live-action piece he made for Disney in 1984 merely serves to punctuate the fact that five of the eight films the director has made since 2000 have been remakes of movies or TV shows.

    Although this nominally clever takeoff of "Frankenstein," about a boy's successful effort to reanimate his late pet dog, is distinctive as the first black-and-white 3-D stop-motion animated production of this new 3-D era, it nonetheless is highly familiar and ultimately tedious. But Burton's name, the 3-D calling card and small-fry appeal will yield good returns in line with his previous animated productions, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride."

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    In a suburban housing development that looks like the next town over from the one in Edward Scissorhands, science geek Victor Frankenstein loses his beloved hound Sparky in an auto accident. But a science class demonstration of how the application of electric current can make a dead frog kick its legs gives Victor a bright idea about how to inject some spark back into poor Sparky.

    While frequent Burton screenwriter John August has added considerably to the short's limited concept by inventing a second act in which Victor's fellow students steal his secret and bring other dead animals to life, he has failed to eliminate a major irritant -- Victor's compulsion not to reveal his accomplishment to his parents. Because it's only a matter of time until they find out, his efforts to hide his deed are extremely tiresome, which was particularly harmful to the 1984 version.

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    This time, when the other kids get out their kites, wires and electrodes to zap new life into an assortment of critters, the result is an army of monsters that, working under a PG imperative, don't do anything particularly untoward, which is consistent with the film's toothless feeling.


    There's a palpable sense of Burton's past catching up with him here; Sparky's stitched-together body recalls "Edward Scissorhands," while the goth kids' huge eyes and spindly torsos are carryovers from most of the director's work. Creatively, the detailed stop-motion puppets, horror film-derived production design and visual effects, crisply evocative monochromatic cinematography and loopy score are more than commendable. But just as they pay homage to a beloved old filmmaking style, these elements also feel like second-generation photocopies of things Burton has done before. It all feels rote and empty.

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  • Soapy 'Won't Back Down' gets a failing grade

    Walden Media

    Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal in "'Won't Back Down."

    By David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

    The jury is still out on a solution to the national education system crisis, but the verdict is delivered with a heavy hand and a stacked deck in the formulaic "Won’t Back Down." Simplifying complex school-reform hurdles into tidy inspirational clichés while demonizing both teachers’ unions and bureaucracy-entrenched education boards, the movie addresses timely issues but eschews shading in favor of blunt black and white. It’s old-school Lifetime fodder dressed up in Hollywood trappings.

    In the broadest terms, Daniel Barnz’s film, co-written with Brin Hill, is a dramatized counterpart to Davis Guggenheim’s 2010 documentary "Waiting for Superman,” which pointed to charter schools as the only way out of the public-education quagmire. That film was partly financed by Walden Media, the backers of this Fox release, suggesting that the problem of underperforming inner-city classrooms is a pet cause for the company.

    VIDEO: "Won't Back Down" trailer

    In Barnz and Hill’s by-the-numbers screenplay -- which trumpets that vaguest of catch-all legitimization banners, “Inspired by actual events” -- the catalyst for much-needed change at Adams Elementary School in Pittsburgh is crusading Everymom Jamie Fitzpatrick (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Her dyslexic daughter Malia (Emily Alyn Lind) is stuck in a class with a teacher (Nancy Bach) who is a monster of job-secure complacency, and a principal (Bill Nunn) too mired in unionized paralysis to help.

    A single mother working two jobs and unable to afford tuition at better alternatives, Jamie bones up on the “fail-safe” maneuver, the film’s equivalent of the parent trigger law. That controversial legislation -- on the books in some form in a handful of states and under consideration in many others -- allows concerned parents and teachers to intervene in floundering public schools. In the film’s example, it primarily means getting past restrictive union controls and a do-nothing education board.

    The absurd idea that the parents of an entire student body are too apathetic to worry about their kids’ education until Jamie comes along like some rocker-chick Erin Brockovich is just one of the film’s condescendingly movie-ish conceits. Played with grating one-note pluckiness by Gyllenhaal, Jamie overcompensates for her lack of a college education by self-consciously sprinkling her conversations with words like “trepidatious.” Yet, darned if this scrappy dynamo doesn’t get the whole community galvanized.

    Even more objectionable is the depiction of the burned-out staff at Adams. They mill around in the break room bitching about teachers like Malia’s, saying, “The only thing the district does well is protect its mistakes.” But the general lack of motivation is palpable, and even Nona Alberts (Viola Davis), a committed educator like her mother before her, has lost faith in her profession.

    The only exception at Adams appears to be Teach For America do-gooder and soulful hunk Michael Perry (Oscar Isaac), who leads his class in line-dancing numbers, accompanying them on ukulele as they sing about “Goin’ to College.” Naturally, this makes Jamie swoon.


    A perfunctory romance blooms, but Michael vacillates in his support for Jamie’s cause. Preferring to focus his commitment on his class only, he is reluctant to stray from union-sanctioned guidelines. Jamie’s sole consistent ally is Nona, who risks alienating the entire teaching staff, including her feisty pal Breena (Rosie Perez). While she’s worn down by the challenges of a broken system, not to mention the end of her marriage and the learning difficulties of her own son (Dante Brown), Nona reluctantly gets with the empowerment program.

    However, this is another one of those movies where a tenacious white person leads the charge to save inner-city kids, achieving a miracle transformation through sheer force of will. While Nona is the insider with the education experience, she’s second fiddle throughout the fight, getting much of her dignity not from the script but from Davis, who could do this role in her sleep.

    In order to provide a gossamer-thin semblance of balance, Barnz and Hill plant one jaded idealist apiece in the teachers’ union and the education board. That essentially leaves Holly Hunter and Marianne Jean-Baptiste playing variations on the same role, both of them primed for redemption as they rediscover their buried convictions. Elsewhere, the opposition is reduced -- most notably by Ned Eisenberg’s belligerently uncompromising union chief -- to a force of obstinate blindness as to what’s good for the kids, and for the majority of disillusioned teachers.

    Given the disingenuous way in which this lumbering movie pushes obvious buttons and manipulates the audience’s emotional investment while conveniently skimming the issues, it’s a mystery how some of these names got roped in.

    Following her breakout work in "The Help," this is a particularly unhappy use of Davis’ considerable talents. Hunter also is too smart an actor to be stuck playing the transparent construct of a compromised Norma Rae. Lance Reddick (The Wire) is given an entirely thankless role as Nona’s businesslike departing husband, while Ving Rhames is on hand literally to deliver a speech as principal of the exemplary Rosa Parks Elementary School during a lottery draw for new students.

    That scene is one of many such preachy interludes in a dumbed-down agenda film that veers shamelessly between didacticism and soap.

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  • 'Looper' takes audiences out for a thrill and a twirl

    Sony Pictures

    Joseph Gordon-Levitt in "Looper."

    By Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

    REVIEW: "Looper" is a clever, entertaining science fiction thriller that neatly blurs the line between suicide and murder. An existential conundrum wrapped in a narrowly conceived yarn about victims sent back in time to be bumped off by assassins called loopers, Rian Johnson's third and most ambitious feature keeps the action popping while sustaining interest in the long arc of a story about a man assigned to kill the 30 years-older version of himself.

    A lively, high-profile choice to open this year's Toronto International Film Festival, this Sony release co-starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the same role should chalk up sizable returns in the wake of its Sept. 28 theatrical bow.

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    Probably the shakiest aspect of Johnson's original screenplay is what it asks the viewer to buy about the future: A mere 62 years from now, in 2074, time travel has become possible, but such a momentous breakthrough is limited to serving as a body-disposal system. Under the prevailing authority, time jumping is strictly outlawed because of its potential for messing with history. A large criminal mob, run by an overlord called The Rainmaker, defiantly uses it but only as a vehicle for assassination, with “loopers” -- disreputable gunmen living in 2044 -- laying in wait for people to execute so no bodies or other evidence can be found in the future.

    Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt chat about playing a younger and older version of the same character in "Looper."

    But the premise is established in nifty fashion; the doomed, hooded with hands bound behind them, suddenly materialize in an empty field, and the looper immediately blows him away with his blunderbuss. One such executioner is Joe (Gordon-Levitt), a retro-looking hipster who drives a very old red Miata and wears ties, “a 20th century affectation” that offends his crankily genial boss, Abe (Jeff Daniels). If he can get out of this racket, he says he'd like to go to France, which earns him further scorn from the older man; “I'm from the future, you should go to China,” he scolds.

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    Backed by a cynically confessional voice-over track from Joe that is not as self-consciously hardboiled as the commentary Gordon-Levitt read for Johnson in "Brick" seven years ago, Looper mostly is set in a seedy metropolis that doesn't look all that different from sketchy neighborhoods in some big cities today; there are derelicts, bombed-out buildings, ruined cars and enough other signs of urban ills to suggest that, in Johnson's view, things will just gradually decline over the next three decades.

    Joe hangs out in clubs, sees a sexy woman (Piper Perabo) who works in one of them and tries to help a friend and fellow looper, Seth (Paul Dano), who's imminently endangered by a new development that's come down from on high: They're “closing all the loops,” meaning they're sending the “future selves” of all the loopers back to be killed.

    Almost immediately, Joe is in the same jam. When, a half-hour into the film, he goes to the field to do his next job, the guy who pops up to be shot is not hooded. Joe's hesitation allows the older man to escape, and it's clear who he is: It's Joe as his older self. And, for his failure to kill him, young Joe is in a pile of trouble with Abe and his “gats,” first-class hired guns.

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    When the two Joes finally sit down -- across from each other in a diner in the middle of nowhere -- there's no doubt they're working at cross purposes: Young Joe is determined to kill his older self, while old Joe is dead set on tracking down and taking out The Rainmaker, who would be a little kid in 2044, so his late wife won't die at his hands after all.

    The biggest problem facing the makers of "Looper" is how to make the audience believe that the trim, long-faced Gordon-Levitt could somehow change so much in 30 years that he would look like the thicker-built and shorter-nosed Willis. The solution lay in altering the younger actor's appearance, imperceptibly at first, but gradually to morph his dark eyes into Willis' gray-green and to reshape his nose and eyebrows, either with makeup or digitally or perhaps both. At first, the effect is a bit odd, and you can't quite put your finger on what's off; then it feels downright weird to be looking at a version of Gordon-Levitt who is no longer the actor you've known for a few years now.

    This is especially noticeable during the film's second half, much of which takes place at young Joe's place of refuge, the isolated home of feisty young farmer and single mom Sara (Emily Blunt), who has an unusually gifted son, Cid (Pierce Gagnon). Even as the temperature is kept at a low simmer, the film's pace deliberately is slowed here to develop some intimacy between these two isolated people and give some screen time to the kid, who pretty obviously will provide the reason for old Joe to eventually head for the farm. The eventual ending is great, the resolution to the tricky time maneuvering very impressively worked out.


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    Shot mostly in Louisiana, with a bit done in Shanghai, the film looks tightly made on a budget but sacrifices nothing for that; the world depicted looks dirty, dangerous and ramshackle, with a few high-tech touches here and there.

    Their physical disparity notwithstanding, Gordon-Levitt and Willis both come across strongly, while Blunt effectively reveals Sara's tough and vulnerable sides. Daniels is particularly amusing as the garrulous old enforcer holding down the future's outpost in the past.

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  • Bloodless 'Hotel Transylvania' no monster smash

    Sony Pictures Animation

    Dracula (Adam Sandler) and Johnnystein (Andy Samberg) in "Hotel Transylvania."

    By Michael Rechtshaffen , The Hollywood Reporter

    REVIEW: The second feature in as many months to contain animated zombies (and Tim Burton’s "Frankenweenie" lurking just around the corner), "Hotel Transylvania" checks in as an anemic example of pure concept over precious little content.

    Despite the proven talents of first-time feature director Genndy Tartakovsky ("Dexter’s Laboratory"), writers Peter Baynham ("Arthur Christmas") and SNL vet Robert Smigel, and a voice cast headed by Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg, the collaboration falls flat virtually from the get-go, serving up half-hearted sight gags that have a habit of landing with an ominous thud.

    Being given a public airing at the Toronto International Film Festival ahead of its official Sept. 28 opening, the film could initially benefit from a monster marketing push from Sony, but it’s unlikely the “No Vacancy” sign will be lit for long.

    Assuming an unsteady Transylvanian accent which, like his bat wings, tends to flit in and out of the picture, Sandler’s overprotective daddy Dracula is having trouble shielding his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) from outside elements on the eve of her 118th birthday.

    Determined to shut himself off from those elements after the death of his wife a century or so earlier at the hands of an angry mob, Dracula had constructed a refuge of an exclusive resort where he and his monstrous ilk could feel free to be themselves.

    But when a party crasher turns up in the form of Jonathan (Samberg), a slacker human backpacker who catches Mavis’ eye, the Count finds it increasingly difficult to keep her under his wing.

    While director Tartakovsky’s retro pop sensibilities served Cartoon Network well with the likes of "Dexter’s Laboratory," "The Powerpuff Girls" and "Samurai Jack," and "Hotel Transylvania" has an undeniable visually zippy style, the ghost of a script by Baynham and Smigel provides him with very little of substance.


    For the most part there’s just a lot of dashing about the hotel’s cavernous hallways as the assembled voice cast (also including Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade and Cee Lo Green) attempts to lend some personality to the underdeveloped characters.

    Ironically, the scattered enterprise exhibits signs of life when the characters leave the confines of the hotel, but that hint of something more arrives too late in the game.

    And while those 3-D glasses really bring nothing to the party, Mark Mothersbaugh’s lively score adds a ghoulish cool to the otherwise uninspired proceedings.

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  • Ferrell and Galifianakis elevate an otherwise flimsy 'Campaign'

    Patti Perret / Warner Bros. Pictures

    Zach Galifianakis as Marty Huggins and Will Ferrell as Cam Brady in "The Campaign."

    By Michael Rechtshaffen , The Hollywood Reporter

    REVIEW: Call it "Meet the Candidates." Considering he struck comedy gold with "Meet the Parents"/"Meet the Fockers" before successfully entering the cable political arena with "Recount" and "Game Change," director Jay Roach would seem to have been the ideal guy to be steering "The Campaign."

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    But while leads Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis are amusingly on point as a pair of mud-slinging contenders for Congress, the platform is a wobbly political satire that flip-flops chaotically between clever and crass, never finding a sturdy comedic footing.

    With its election-year timing and the scarcity of R-rated fare that at least looks like it should be fun, the Warner Bros. release might encounter some initial traction, but, clocking in at a tellingly insubstantial 85 minutes, it likely will see sharply falling approval ratings.

    Ferrell’s Cam Brady is a slick, incumbent Republican congressman who’s fully expecting the upcoming election to be yet another cakewalk, given that he’s running unopposed.

    But when Brady dials a wrong number, leaving a crude message meant for his mistress, a pair of corrupt power brokers called the Motch brothers (John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd) see an opportunity in the widely exposed gaffe.

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    Looking to get the necessary tax-exempt backing for their insourcing scheme -- importing cheap Chinese labor to work in their North Carolina factories -- they find a patsy in the form of naive tourism center director Marty Huggins (Galifianakis) to run against Brady on a family values manifesto.

    Taken under the wing of Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott), a highly disciplined, black op of a campaign manager, Huggins is transformed from fey family black sheep to tough-talking, viable opponent, setting the stage for a no-holds-barred, mean-spirited race.


    On paper, given the players and the potent milieu, "The Campaign" should have been a slam dunk.

    Unfortunately, to borrow Huggins’ campaign slogan, “It’s a mess!”

    The script, by Chris Henchy ("The Other Guys") and Shawn Harwell, from a story also contributed by longtime Ferrell collaborator Adam McKay, is lazily hit-and-miss, neither sufficiently sharp nor substantial to bring anything fresh or consistently entertaining to the political satire genre.

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    While it probably would have made a terrific series of Funny or Die shorts, the film comes up notably short as a feature proposition with an abrupt ending that smacks of last-minute cutting.

    And though Ferrell and Galifianakis make for lively opponents, it’s not like we haven’t seen them play these guys before.

    Will’s Cam has more than a bit of the smugness of his famed George W. Bush impersonation (with a smarmy John Edwards-type overlay), while Zach’s Marty is a very slight variation on his twin brother Seth Galifianakis character he often has portrayed in short segments and onstage.

    Providing reliable if under-utilized support are Sarah Baker as Huggins’ sweet, shoved-to-the-sidelines wife, Mitzi, and Jason Sudeikis as Brady’s long-suffering campaign manager.

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  • 'Dark Knight Rises' offers spectacularly enjoyable battle of good vs. evil

    The first showings sold out quickly for the much-anticipated summer blockbuster "The Dark Knight Rises." The third and final Batman installment may break opening weekend records. NBC's Kristen Dahlgren reports.

    By Cody Delistraty, NBC News

    REVIEW: Mixing themes from the French Revolution, Occupy Wall Street and Sept 11, “The Dark Knight Rises” takes on terrorism and civilian uprising with impressive focus, and, considering the inherently dark nature of the film, a lot of spectacularly enjoyable moments.

    The nearly three-hour tale reaches epic proportions when multifaceted good versus ambiguous evil must face off, but there’s enough cheesy dialogue and beautiful women to remind you that this isn't just director Christopher Nolan's doctoral thesis, but a bustling summer blockbuster.

    Nolan’s final film of the "Dark Knight" trilogy begins with Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) as a limping hermit, locking himself up in his mansion after taking the fall for Harvey Dent. Rumors quickly spread that the once billionaire playboy has devolved into a Howard Hughes-esque eccentric.

    Wayne, of course, comes out of hiding upon the always-wise counsel of the venerable Alfred (Michael Caine), who sadly is absent from much of the film. Bruce then goes to play with high-tech toys provided by Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), and soon meets a new ensemble of characters including Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Anne Hathaway), businesswoman Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) and police officer John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), all who turn in more convincing, more fascinating performances than Bale and play roles that are just as vital.

    Exiting into a city terrorized by gigantic villain Bane (Tom Hardy) and extreme civil unrest kicked off by a Bastille-style prison storming, Batman is initially no match for his new nemesis. Both raspy-voiced Batman and Bane, who speaks through a medicine-dispensing mask, are tough to understand, but there are a few more similarities between the two. Nolan constantly asks the viewer to ponder whether one is ever truly good or truly evil -- is character ambiguous and shifted only by environment? Does individuality or an ability to work with others show heroism? Is seduction and stereotypical femininity a greater threat than brute, masculine violence? Should Bruce Wayne go heli-skiing?


    These are the kinds of moralistic walks Nolan takes viewers on, waxing more Dostoevsky than the year's other huge superhero films, "The Avengers" and "The Amazing Spider-Man" For "Avengers” and "Spider-Man," laughs, tongue-in-cheek actors and action were the basis of what made the films enjoyable. For Nolan, character exploration and massively scaled scenes of terrorism and class warfare -- all of which seem far too real -- create visual and visceral excitement.

    Visually, the film is tough to beat. Nolan boasted to Empire Magazine (via The Playlist) earlier this year that “Rises” is "the biggest (movie) anyone's done since the silent era, in technical terms.”

    With thousands of extras and massive set pieces, he may very well be right. Nolan also cited Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” in the interview, and the sweeping scenes in which the poor violently steal from the rich, literally forcing them out of their homes, channels Dickens but also seems to foresee a dystopian future in which Occupy Wall Street acquires greater organization, more hard-liners and serious firepower. “Rises” is the French Revolution in New York -- with heavy-breathing heroes and antiheroes, not to mention an exploding football field sure to get the adrenaline pumping.

    At times, it feels like appeasing the fanboy demographic is the only reason Nolan included Miranda Tate and leather-clad Catwoman. Fortunately, their raison d’être is redeemed by a series of plot twists and an exploration of the good versus evil battle that rages inside all of us.

    Typical superhero stuff, perhaps. Yet even if the overarching ideas are typical, they’re explored and achieved so effectively that the film is at once deeply disturbing and extremely enjoyable. There's no performance here quite like Heath Ledger's Joker, but this is also sort of the point. Evil can manifest itself through the masses, not just through a single, psychotic individual. What is evil, Nolan asks? What is Batman even fighting for?

    Do you think the film can top "The Dark Knight"? Will you be seeing a midnight premiere or opening release? Head over to our Facebook page to share your thoughts.

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  • Your bank balance is scarier than 'ATM'

    IFC Midnight

     

    By Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

    The recent thriller "Buried" concerned a man trapped in an underground coffin. Apparently its screenwriter Chris Sparling found that situation just a little too claustrophobic, so his latest effort is largely set in the relatively airy confines of an ATM.

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    The scariest experience most viewers have probably had with an automatic teller machine is seeing the balance on their accounts. Not so for the would-be victims in this gimmicky horror film directed by David Brooks.

    The hapless trio includes nice guy David (Brian Geraghty); Emily (Alice Eve), the gorgeous co-worker on whom he has a hopeless crush; and Corey (Josh Peck), his wisecracking friend.

    One late night after an office party, they stop by an ATM kiosk in a remote, dimly lit parking lot. Even though the temperature is below freezing and the winds are howling, none are dressed for the weather, unlike the hooded parka-wearing menacing figure who suddenly appears outside.

    After a short discussion about whether the stranger means them harm or is simply waiting to use the ATM, the issue is suddenly settled when he savagely murders a hapless passerby. Since the group inexplicably parked all the way across the deserted parking lot, it becomes an extended cat and mouse game as they try to escape to their car before the killer can force his way in.


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    As with so many films of this ilk, plot holes and inconsistencies abound, with audiences likely to express in loudly vocal fashion their opinions about what the characters should or shouldn’t be doing. Ultimately the sheer silliness and predictability of the proceedings -- you can probably guess what happens to the lone security guard who stops by -- gives the film an unintentional comic tone.

    The villain -- whose features are apparently rendered invisible just by his wearing a furry hood -- is of the nondescript Michael Myers variety, although unlike that iconic Halloween character this one seems to have done some serious research, as evidenced by the ATM blueprints he’s seen avidly perusing.

    At least until the bad things start happening to their characters, Geraghty and Eve make for an appealing, attractive couple, and Peck charismatically fulfills his role as the resident @!$%# who is a staple of such genre efforts.  

    Technical credits are fine, with director Brooks skillfully making the most of the limited physical environment.

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