P2
(2007/Summit Entertainment/Thriller)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C- Feature: C-
Wes
Bentley is an underrated actor, but lately, he has been stuck playing bad guys
and once again he is the dangerous antagonist in another film as the kidnapper
of Rachel Nichols’ businesswoman on the rise in P2, Franck Khalfoun’s lame would-be thriller where the film’s
greatest horror is how boring it is. The
duo tries to make the material work, but Bentley was better off and more deadly
in Ghost Rider, which is The Exorcist as compared to this
dullsville delivery.
Of
course, the obvious anti-woman message is because you have a woman trying to
climb in the business world to better success, it is still a man’s world and
she must pay a high price for trying to make progress. However, the screenplay by the director,
Alexandre Aja (whose Hills Have Eyes
remake we really enjoyed) and Gregory Levasseur is too busy being dull to be
sexist and though she cannot easily run away, you will want to because this is
every cliché of this kind of film we have seen before done with zero energy or
ambition. It is set around Christmas,
but 98 minutes of watching them fill stockings with blue coal would have been
more entertaining. Yawn!
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is the usually color-desaturated boredom
that makes the film less realistic and Director of Photography Maxime
Alexandre, A.I.C., does not do as much with the scope frame as possible to up
the much-needed and much-0missing suspense.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is the default highlight of the set with
healthy surrounds and a good recording overall.
Extras include three featurettes and an audio commentary by Khalfoun, if
you actually like this.
- Nicholas Sheffo
