Sutton Briefly Goes To The Movies

Since I don't really have a whole lot to talk about, I'll do some quickie movie reviews.

Madhouse: I saw this direct-to-video flick after my little sister Bet added it to her Netflix list, and my oh my is it a good one. The basic plot of this hidden gem is that somebody or something is killing the residents and employees of a mental hospital haunted by the ghosts of the past, and a college student interning there (played by Blair Witch Project star Joshua Leonard) is trying to get to the bottom of it with some cryptic assistance from an enigmatic resident of the schizophrenic ward in the building's basement. Directed by Texas Chainsaw Massacre III cast member William Butler, the movie not only proves that at least one Blair Witch Project cast member can actually get work, but proves that you don't need a theatrical release to have a good horror movie. The movie is a giant mishmash between a "whodunit" thriller, a typical slasher movie, and a haunted house movie, and it surprisingly works. Josh Leonard is wonderful in the lead role, showing that he has acting ability beyond getting mad at a foul-mouthed shrew following him around the woods with a camcorder. Jordan Ladd is likable and engaging as Leonard's coworker and love interest, and Natasha Lyonne is stellar (yet sadly underutilized) as a mental patient who perhaps knows a little too much. The film has some genuine shocks and scares, and although the twist at the end may leave you saying "I think I saw that coming," it's still less predictable than The Village. Madhouse gets three and a half stars and a vote of confidence.

Cellular: This was another Netflix viewing, and it was... well, it was okay. The movie starts quickly enough, as a group of armed men break into Kim Basinger's house and kidnap her for reasons known only to them. They throw her into some attic in the middle of nowhere and smash the phone, but she's able to put some of the phone's pieces back together. But since the keypad is nonexistent after the goon busted the phone, Basinger has to do some fancy hotwiring and get the phone to dial a random number. She ends up reaching Chris Evans's cell phone, and urges him to help her any way he can. Naturally, he's skeptical, but he stays on the line with her after he hears one of her kidnappers threaten to kill her family unless she cooperates. The movie goes from one improbable twist to another until a policeman preparing for his retirement (William H. Macy) gets curious and begins investigating. Cellular is one big thrill ride, no matter how little sense some of it makes or how improbable it seems. The movie can't decide if it wants to be a comedy or a drama, which ends up hurting it in the long run. However, the acting performances are sound, and the movie's fast pace never allows it to get boring. As with Natasha Lyonne in Madhouse, cast members Jessica Biel and Eric Christian Olsen were sadly underused, which caused their subplots to go nowhere. However, I can understand why they were rarely seen, because they would have just taken away from the main narrative. As a whole, I'll give Cellular three stars. It's worth a rental as an easy way to kill 95 minutes, but outside of that, it's just kinda average. You're not missing much if you don't see it.

And this has been Sutton Briefly Goes To The Moves, signing off. Sutton out.