This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Serial Killer
Plot Overview
The end game in chess occurs when the board is swept
clean of most of its pieces and the opponents go after each other's
kings. The end will come soon. First, though, was the beginning
commonly consisting of standard openings, then came the middle game
where major battles take place. In this movie reference is made to
a kid Alex Minert who twenty-five years ago “was a sick boy,
very troubled.” He tortured & killed pets and played with
dolls. He grew up to be a player (“Oh, you're a handsome
devil”) and in the press earned the sobriquet,
“stranglehold killer.” He (Kurt Angle) methodically
covered his trail while using an alias Brad Mayfield. Recently,
however, the police have gotten some lucky breaks, so he is
planning to leave town … after first dispatching the lead
Detective Dan Burke (Eric Wright.)
Ideology
The bare bones plot contains great examples for successful living, along the lines of, (Prov. 30:24) “There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise:”
(Prov. 30:25) “The ants are a people
not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.” The
idea here is to start working young, in the summer of life. Beatrice
Fraiser (Natalie Bail) (age 26,) the victim the movie opens on, is
a young ballet dancer. Her instructor lauds her saying, “She
was with me since she was eleven-years-old. She had a natural ability
I haven't seen in quite a long time.” There's also Detective
Burke's special needs child Chrissy (Isabella Iwanonkiw) who holds
the balloons for Buffo the Clown and holds one of her father's cop-tools
for him. Such a start was aptly expressed by author Alan Wall:
“Imagine how
different life would have been if the youthful Miles Davis, asking
the old man for something to blow, had been given a comb and
a piece of toilet paper, instead of the beautiful trumpet.”
(20) Everyone from special needs on up to genius can profit from
an early start.
(Prov. 30:26) “The conies are but a feeble
folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks.” Next is the
importance of location. Pittsburgh where this movie is set has
a vibrant artistic community for Bea to flourish in. It has a museum
and Carnegie Hall. It must have an active theater, as Brad Mayfield
gets his disguises from a theater supply company. Bea's
“sponsor” is presented as a “successful
businessman.” Business must be booming for him to afford a wife,
a driver, and a mistress. Bea's (bad influence) roommate Carol
Peterlake (Jenna Morasca) strips at a gentlemen's club to
support herself when ballet doesn't cover it. Her pole dancing
is itself an art form. The driver Jay (Jay) Julian (Joe Shelby) is
beginning to feel the heat. He tells the police, “As soon as
you say it's okay, I'm leaving town. It's a little too dangerous around
here. People are dying all around me and it's not from old age.”
One of Brad's broads Pat shares pillow talk about her late husband
who “was sent to Iraq one month after our wedding. He was hit
by a RPG on his
very first mission. He was such a klutz. He had no business going off to
war.” Black Lt. Lattimore of the
Pittsburgh police rose nicely through the ranks during his forty years of
service, his freed ancestors having left the South during reconstruction
for better opportunities in the North.
(Prov. 30:27)
“The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by
bands.” It's important to have an informal support network.
The ballet girls develop sugar daddies, or try to. Detective Burke
having been taken off the case works it on his own dime, and when
the bad guy takes to the river, he borrows a boat from his buddy Bob.
(Prov. 30:28) “The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.” The spider lives where the place gets dusted regularly, but it just puts up a new web. Detective Burke is likely to have to bow to pressure from his wife and find a new line of work.
Production Values
“” (2009) was directed by Bruce Koehler. It was written by McCartney James. It stars Kurt Angle, Jenna Morasca and Natalie Bail. Morasca had good acting chops, or maybe it just seemed that way playing off brain-dead leads. For that matter maybe people—and especially cops—just have a plodding repertoire most of the time. At least some witticisms were thrown in.
Where this film excels
is the director's keen eye for posture, be it a slovenly manager leaning
against a wall, dirty old men ogling a dancer, a special needs kid
on the ball, a buff killer exposing his bare chest, or a disappointed
wifey murmuring in bed. The movie was shot at slight angles giving
us the impression of the world on a permanent tilt. That plus the sinister music does the job
of making a city uneasy per the vigilant press.
MPA rated it R for some violent/sexual content and brief language. It was filmed on location in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Runtime is 1 hour 37 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This was a dark film giving me one more reason not to go back to Pgh. The only mention of Christ was the driver saying, “Sweet Jesus” as he crossed himself. The funeral homes, however, looked very churchy. This film is hardly one to draw you to the divinity, though it might get you to flee the devil. The dark humor was worth a chuckle. The movie should suit some tastes.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day. Suspense: Don't watch this movie alone. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture was cited from the King James Version, Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Wall, Alan. Sylvie's Riddle. Copyright © Alan Wall 2008. London: Quartet Books Limited, 2008. Print
bibles.n7nz.org