The Steam Experiment (2009)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Philippe Martinez

Writer:

Robert Malkani (screenplay)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

A deranged scientist locks 6 people in a steam room and threatens to turn up the heat if the local paper doesn't publish his story about global warming.

Cast

Val Kilmer	...	Jimmy
Armand Assante	...	Detective Mancini
Eric Roberts	...	Grant
Megan Brown	...	Catherine
Patrick Muldoon	...	Christopher
Cordelia Reynolds	...	Margaret
Eve Mauro	...	Jessie
Quinn Duffy	...	Frank
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Doug Alchin	...	Lt. Clark
Carrie Drazek	...	Nurse in Hospital
Julianne Howe-Bouwens	...	Officer Briggs
Sarah Martinez	...	Tara
Yvonne Misiak	...	Nurse
Rick Robinson Jr.	...	Walter Grubbs
Shelby Stehlin	...	Ricky
Michael Travis	...	Sam
Jana Veldheer	...	Waitress

Also Known As:

The Chaos Experiment (USA) (DVD title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, language and brief nudity.

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

Company:

Cinepro Pictures International

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): While being questioned, Jimmy says "go get Walter before somebody else dies", yet there's no way he could have known someone had died.

Movie Connections:

References "The Sopranos" (1999)

A non-horror saw.

Even if I got frustrated with almost all the characters at some points I can't blame it on poor acting. They were acting their parts.

This is a mystery/thriller vehicle with good actors trapped in bad writing.

In the very first minutes of the movie, the main antagonist is honoring his mentor proclaiming how much he is ahead of his time. He's years ahead of his time, no, he's light-years ahead of his time.. After that he goes on about how the protagonist doesn't have the intellectual capacity for his task. It got me thinking.. "light-years" is not a measure of time, it's a measure of distance. Sure maybe the antagonist could be kinda slow but it didn't look like they were going for that in the movie. Sure, you could say that someone is ahead of others by "miles" or something like that but it doesn't really matter to me. I thought it was kinda dumb and that is what I thought of the movie as well. I really like Val Kilmer and I really hate that I so often see him i movies like this.

If this is broadcast on TV and you can't fall to sleep - it's worth the watch. But that's being generous.