An average movie

There was something really appealing about this flick. I mean, it was a dark thriller dealing with snuff movies, directed by Joel Schumacher, starring Nicolas Cage and Joaquin Phoenix. It really seemed that they have gathered all the necessary ingredients to make a decent flick. Unfortunately, the whole thing was pretty disappointing. Seriously, I gave this movie a fair shot and even watched it twice but both times, I thought it was actually rather underwhelming. The main issue I had is that it is basically a thriller which pretends to be dark and gloomy but, at the end of the day, it remains a rather glossy Hollywood flick. I mean, it is not really a bad movie at all. Nicolas Cage was still a very good actor back then (don’t talk to me about his recent work…) and Joaquin Phoenix in a rather thankless role managed as always to make something quite intriguing. The most annoying thing is that you feel that there was some potential here but they didn’t dare go all the way with this sensitive subject. As a matter of fact, Andrew Kevin Walker (who also wrote ‘Seven’) wrote the screenplay, and apparently, the whole thing was way darker but the studio asked him to lighten up the tone. Eventually, Walker walked out and disowned this flick. To conclude, even though it is far from being awful, it still remain an average and disappointing thriller and it is not really worth a look, even if you like the genre.

5/10