Dave Evans' Mini-Movie Reviews

The Invisible
First, it was all the rage to remake Asian horror movies but now it's the return of Scandinavian thrillers with this supernatural whodunit. Justin Chatwin stars as a teen trying to solve his own murder from beyond the grave in a film that describes itself as "Ghost meets 'The OC'."

Next
Nicolas Cage limps closer and closer to career annihilation with this uninspired thriller. Playing a Las Vegas magician who can see the future, he finds himself up against the CIA who wants to use his powers for evil. Julianne Moore offers meek, but beautiful support.

Kickin' It Old Skool
Never-has-been, Jamie Kennedy, stars as a 32-year-old who wakes up after 20 years in a coma. Still with the mind of a pre-teen, he decides it's time to round up his former breakdancer friends. While the concept is authentic 1980s, this is truly tedious fare.

The Condemned
While the idea of WWE's Stone Cold Steve Austin being shipped off to an island in the middle of nowhere is certainly appealing, there's no need to actually watch it. Here he plays a convict being used as a contestant by a reality TV deathmatch show. A deeply subpar Running Man.

Vacancy
The abysmal Kate Beckinsale continues her campaign of cinematic assault in this tale of a young couple that finds themselves trapped in a very sinister motel. This is director Nimrod Antal's first US feature film and it's an inauspicious start. At best, this is a mildy claustrophobic B-movie. At worst, this makes The Hills Have Eyes 7 look original.

Hot Fuzz
The British team behind zombie-farce Shaun of the Dead return for this parody of police drama. Perhaps the genre itself is less ripe for satire, or perhaps the plot just doesn't move quite smoothly enough, but this has none of the brio of their previous outing. Certainly a welcomed change from drab American romcoms, but nothing special in its own right.

Fracture
After a string of roles playing sedate, older characters, Anthony Hopkins returns to the psychotic calm that won him international acclaim for his performance in The Silence of the Lambs. While this tale of a wily and murderous husband never comes close to that classic, it's nonetheless a tense and sinister film. The ever-excellent Ryan Gosling weighs in as an assistant DA seeking justice for the deceased.

Pathfinder
Has director Marcus Nispel been possessed by the spirit of Mel Gibson? Certainly, this is a far cry from Nispel's music video work (Cher, Janet Jackson, etc.) and feels much more overblown as in the simplistic, historical epic vein. Here, the plot concerns a fateful meeting between the Vikings and the Native Americans. Bloodshed ensues.

Disturbia
Allegedly rising star Shia LaBeouf plays a teen under house arrest that, out of boredom, finds himself watching his neighbors and possibly witnessing a murder. So Rear Window. But where that film crackles along at a breakneck pace with witty dialogue, this flounders through it's narrative arc, fluffing the suspense and generally falling flat.