Between (DVD)
Mike Phalin
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Reviewed by Kryten Syxx
Starring Alana Stewart, Rene Pereyra, Patricia Reyes Spindola, Jose Yenque, and Poppy Montgomery
Directed by David Ocañas
Distributed by Porch Light Home Entertainment
It’s time to twist again, like we did last summer! Yes, doing the twist is so much fun … isn’t it? What better way to waste someone’s time than by making them sit through a 90-minute movie that’s telling one story and then ending it by using a very large twist that makes the rest of the plot void and useless! Sweet gods of milk and honey! Sign me up for that!
Well, someone did in fact sign me up for that experience and sent me the DVD for David Ocañas’ Between, which stars Poppy Montgomery as successful lawyer Nadine, who has just found out her sister Dianne has gone missing in Mexico. Instead of heeding her husband’s pleas to not go alone, the brainy attorney boards a plane and starts the great search. Along the way she encounters a number of characters and stumbles upon a murder that …
MEANS NOTHING AT ALL!
That’s right. Everything in that above paragraph has nothing to do about nothing when the twist hits us. To be honest, if you pay enough attention to the beginning of the film, then you’ve already figured out the twist. Those readers who wish not to spoil the story may want to skip the next few paragraphs.
Nadine doesn’t have a sister. Nadine’s real name is really … dun dun dun … Dianne! And she has been stuck between life and death throughout the entire film. Each person she encounters is really part of the emergency room team who are trying to bring her back to the land of the living after she steps out in front of a bus in Mexico. Yes, you’ve just spent an hour trying to build up a story about missing women south of the Border, and it is all tossed out the window about 10 minutes before the credits roll. Thanks!
So, why did she do all this? It turns out that Dianne’s husband had gone down to Mexico and was accidentally killed while crossing a road. So, instead of living on with her life, she books a plane and does the same thing. This would have had a greater impact if we hadn’t been weighted down with the whole murder/mystery story that took up 90% of the film. Or maybe the director/writer could have given us more reasons to care about the fate of these two pieces of roadkill. The only thing I took away from this was that Dianne was the dimmest lawyer in the history of cinema.
David Ocañas is no storyteller or twist maker like M. Night Shyamalan. Then again, it isn’t fair to compare M. Night’s work to a film that appeared on the Lifetime channel. Between could best be thought of as a thriller/twisty tale for newbies. Those who find horror flicks on Lifetime thrilling and amazing will probably go apeshit over this while the rest of us just yawn and change the channel.
Aw, damnit! There are extra features! Why?!
There are only two supplements on this disc. First is the trailer for Between that tries its best to hide what the film is really about. Oh, it does its job well, but there’s no way I would have picked this up at the store just by watching the trailer.
Next we have the audio commentary with director David Ocañas. He wastes no time breaking it to the listeners what the twist is. The rest of the runtime is full of behind-the-scenes talk and technical details. Some of the odd scenes are better explained here, but we shouldn’t have to consult the commentary for explanations of simple plot points, especially when they don’t amount to much in the long run. All in all it’s about standard for a commentary; too bad it’s connected to such a boring film.
Not much else to say here. If you want a twist, then go elsewhere.
Special Features
“>1 out of 5
“>“>
“>2 1/2 out of 5
Categorized:Reviews
