Reflections Of Evil (Comedy/Politics)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Main Program: C-
When we heard about Reflections Of Evil coming to
DVD, we thought it might be an older Horror Thriller film, but it instead is a
bizarre, would-be political head-trip video at full-length that tries like so
many video projects to do far too much in too little time. If the intent is to bash consumerism and
criticize current politics, it too falls into the cycle of anti-George Bush
projects that does not take anything seriously enough to have enough
credibility. Released in 2002, it tries
to be Eraserhead (1978) and wishes to be a sort of Falling Down
(1992), but has a weak edge more like Forest Gump for slackers.
Would-be auteur Damian Packard gets some famous footage
and opens the film with the Movie Of The Week sequence and its
original music ABC-TV used to use throughout the 1970s. There is a young lady in lace who died from
using PCP at that time, suddenly shows up in the 1990s to save her brother from
self-destruction, she hopes. Well, the
time travel element does not work, and the references to the 1970s are all in
vein. Any life/death division done
badly we can blame on Wim Wender’s and his grossly overrated Wings Of Desire
(reviewed by someone else on this site) because writers (Packard wrote and
taped this too) feel they do not have to explain anything. It just happens and they move on. When this was all over, you will move on to
and hopefully not have PCP-type brain damage.
The 1.33 X 1 image was shot on digital tape, which has a
few stock film shots, but is a disaster otherwise. The camera is just all over the place, yet goes nowhere. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is simple and
nothing great either. The mix of sound
effects is different, but pointless, while the use of some pieces of music is a
disaster! A comparison to David
Lynch’s Eraserhead in any case is lame, because this does not begin to
have the density or imagination on a visual or aural level. Extras include two trailers, a very banal
behind-the-scenes piece that shows how goofy just about all involved were, a
section of thankfully deleted scenes and a mock trailer for another poor idea
that may or may not be made. I fit is
worse than this, hopefully not.
- Nicholas Sheffo
