The Scorned (2005)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: D Main Program: D
Old “Reality TV” stars are still young, so they do not
usually die and if there is yet another cynical, exploitive, condescending,
tired, miserable buck to be squeezed out of their connection to the cycle of
such lame hit TV shows, they will not fade away. The Scorned (2005) is a would-be murder thriller about 13
(I knew we were doomed) participants in seven of those annoyances attempting to
act as fictional characters out to kill each other. Running 87 long and drawn-out minutes, they cannot finish the job
fast enough!
The acting, if you can call it that, is awful and the fact
that they were in phony set ups on the shows that were supposedly not rigged
where they were far from natural says something. As a matter of fact, in just about all these cases, the cast
could not act like they were burning if they doused themselves in gasoline (for
which not price per gallon could be high enough to stop us from allowing them
to do so) and set themselves on fire.
That is, not ironically, what I wanted to do to this DVD set. For addicts and victims of “Reality TV”
only.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image looks like it
was shot on old analog Beta video, so badly is this taped. It is soft and color challenged
throughout. The Dolby Digital 2.0 is
simple stereo at best, with little character outside of that. Extras are all on DVD 2, including outtakes/bloopers,
auditions, four featurettes, “outrageous” commentary that is outrageous just by
existing, on set fights and a bizarre “never-ending” DVD extra that is better
skipped like the rest of this mess.
- Nicholas Sheffo
