Blowback (2000)

Director:

Mark L. Lester

Writers:

Jeffrey Goldenberg (screenplay) &
Bob Held (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

10 March 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot:

Whitman is a psychotic religious killer who was caught by Inspector Morell a former seminarian, whose religious knowledge led to Whitman's capture...

Plot Keywords:

FBI Agent | Gas Chamber | Sunrise | Murder | Mirror

Cast

Mario Van Peebles	...	Insp. Don Morrell
James Remar	...	John Matthew Whitman / Schmidt
Sharisse Baker-Bernard	...	Det. Monica Ricci (as Sharisse Baker)
Gladys Jimenez	...	Charlotte Hart-Morrel (as Gladis Jimenez)
David Groh	...	Capt. Barnett
Stephen Caffrey	...	Agent Norwood (fake)
Stephen Poletti	...	Judge Paul Gant
Peter Allas	...	Ed Ackers (as Peter W. Allas)
Leslie Zemeckis	...	Sandra Carlow (as Leslie Harter)
Jamie Kailani Bayot	...	Denise Greer (as Jamie K. Bayot)
Simon Rhee	...	Henry Dang
David Grant Wright	...	Mr. Carlow (as David Wright)
Tony Noakes	...	Det. Swanson
Leonard Kelly-Young	...	Warden
Erynn Dana Dalton	...	Woman

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and gruesome images, sex/nudity and language.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (cut) | Germany:18 | UK:18 | USA:R | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

San Diego, California, USA

Company:

American World Pictures (AWP)

Quotes:

John Matthew Whitman: Slide that gun over here now, or I'll nail her head to the cross!

Wooden, cliched and dull – just a rip-off of better serial killer movies

A cop scarred by his last case begins to investigate murders that are very similar to the biblical serial killer he caught and killed years before. With a series of taunting notes and scriptures left beside death scenes made to look like the death of martyred saints, Morrell begins to suspect that this may be more than a copycat – but in fact the very killer back from the dead.

Stupid, stupid story! The setup is ok, but when we start talking about the killer being a serial killer who was trained by the FBI but then went nuts again – or the fact that he didn't really die originally – then you know the film's just looking for any excuse to make itself a serial killer movie and go to video! The plotting is so dumb that even the final reel's attempt to give the killer a motive is based on stupid logic. The dialogue is just as bad and could come from any dtv movie.

Mind you – it doesn't help that its delivered by actors who make planks look like they could do Shakespeare. Peebles once did a few OK movies – those days are gone! Here he is a cardboard cut out of a cop `haunted by past' although he just walks round and looks shocked by the murders. Remar is an OK killer – he's good at times and does well despite a poor character but the rest are just fodder for gory deaths.

Overall this is poor – watch Se7en or Silence of the Lambs. But direct-to-video serial killer movies like this are two-a-penny and should be avoided on the whole.