The exposition was the worst and least helpful portion of this monster of a film, without it this would have been a Beckett with action and with it just another pell mell hodgepodge of a movie with solid twists and enough gore to disgust or excite the most cynical watcher.
Sylvester Stallone (its no Copland or Rambo), Charles Dutton (doing his best Scatman Cruthers from the Shining), Stephen Lang (underutilized unlike in Gods and Generals), Robert Patrick (intense but weak beneath the veneer is well done) Kris Kristofferson (was alright as the doc) Courtney B Vance (the deacon) Tom Berenger (a phenomenal janitor) and Polly Walker (great, reticent, countenance cadenced voice, nurse) comprise the expensive cast among many others that I simply don't know from other works.
I actually liked this movie, I did not expect much, but overall given a few things I would have done differently could have made some money at the box office, though the critics would attack it like blood to sharks.
Fluid transitions with flashbacks, personal vignettes and dark mysterious catacombs of an air force radar station converted to a rehab facility, those cold war cutbacks really hit hard, create an honestly creepy environs that most directors and screenwriters skip for a graphic sex scene, profanity or a non-sequiter bout of over acting... I liked this movie the more I saw it and the more I thought about why such terrific actors had agreed to appear in this, aside from the money of course.
Allusions to the Thing, Switchback, the Shining, Sliver (which had Berenger and Polly Walker in it), Crimson Rivers, and a myriad of other horror, sci-fiction and thrillers while running the gambit of the serial killer genre 'cliches' and Sam Peckinpah features later in his life.
With a little more life this would have been a great movie...but instead I liked it no rhyme or reason why, I just liked it.
Sylvester Stallone (its no Copland or Rambo), Charles Dutton (doing his best Scatman Cruthers from the Shining), Stephen Lang (underutilized unlike in Gods and Generals), Robert Patrick (intense but weak beneath the veneer is well done) Kris Kristofferson (was alright as the doc) Courtney B Vance (the deacon) Tom Berenger (a phenomenal janitor) and Polly Walker (great, reticent, countenance cadenced voice, nurse) comprise the expensive cast among many others that I simply don't know from other works.
I actually liked this movie, I did not expect much, but overall given a few things I would have done differently could have made some money at the box office, though the critics would attack it like blood to sharks.
Fluid transitions with flashbacks, personal vignettes and dark mysterious catacombs of an air force radar station converted to a rehab facility, those cold war cutbacks really hit hard, create an honestly creepy environs that most directors and screenwriters skip for a graphic sex scene, profanity or a non-sequiter bout of over acting... I liked this movie the more I saw it and the more I thought about why such terrific actors had agreed to appear in this, aside from the money of course.
Allusions to the Thing, Switchback, the Shining, Sliver (which had Berenger and Polly Walker in it), Crimson Rivers, and a myriad of other horror, sci-fiction and thrillers while running the gambit of the serial killer genre 'cliches' and Sam Peckinpah features later in his life.
With a little more life this would have been a great movie...but instead I liked it no rhyme or reason why, I just liked it.