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Stuck
USA/Canada/UK/Germany 2007
produced by Jay Firestone, Ken Gord, Stuart Gordon, Robert Katz, Christian Arnold-Beutel (executive), Sam Grana (executive), John F.S. Laing (executive), Tim McGrath (executive) for Amicus, Prodigy Pictures, Grana Productions
directed by Stuart Gordon
starring Mena Suvari, Stephen Rea, Russell Hornsby, Rukiya Bernard, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Lionel Mark Smith, Wayne Robson, R.D.Reid, Patrick McKenna, Sharlene Royer, Bunthivy Nou, Suzanne Short, Wally McKinnon, John Dartt, Liam McNamara, John Dunsworth, Marguerite McNeil, Martin Moreno, Lorena Rincon, Mauricio Hoyos, Shuko Akune (voice), Jeffrey Combs (voice)
story by Stuart Gordon, screenplay by John Strysik, music by Bobby Johnston, special effects by Laird McMurray, special makeup effects by Mike Measimer, visual effects by Jon Campfens
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD ! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat |
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Thomas (Stephen Rea) has lost his job only recently, now he's thrown
out of his apartment, the unemployment agency has mislaid his application
- and suddenly he finds himself to be a trolley-pushing bum. Brandi (Mena
Suvari) on the other hand has just been offered a promotion at the
retirement home she's working at, and she parties with her boyfriend, pusher
and wannabe-gangster Rashid (Russell Hornsby), but driving home, she's
distracted by her cellphone and crashes into Thomas - in such a way that
he gets stuck in her windshield. At first, Brandi simply panics and drives
home, Thomas still stuck in her car, but once home, when she's about to
call emergency, she figures this whole thing might hurt or even end her
career and wreck her life - unless nobody learns about it of course - so
she just keeps him stuck in the windshield, even though it becomes more
and more obvious that Thomas is still alive and could easily be saved. The
next day, while Brandi is at work, Thomas makes numerous attempts to save
himself, but to no avail, and when Brandi comes back home, she even knocks
him out, then fetches Rashid to aid her. But Rashid is all talks and no
action, so he endlessly postpones taking care of Thomas, and when he
finally ends up with no excuses and is supposed to smother him with a
cushion, he goes about it in such an amateurish manner that the heavily
injured man is able to defend himself using a pen (!), and finally gets
his hands on Rashid's gun and shoots him dead. When Brandi comes looking
after what had happened in her garage, she is shocked about the turn of
events, and figures the only way to get out of the whole mess is to douse
everything (including her tell-tale car and Thomas) in petrol and set it
afire - but by that time, Thomas has gotten hold of her car and crashes it
into her, so she's caught between it and the garage's back-wall. Then
Thomas threatens to burn everything down, but ultimately shows mercy
towards her - but then she tries to shoot him but accidently sets fire to
the garage herself, burning herself along with everything else, only
Thomas escapes. The first film of legendary British
horror-production-house Amicus after its resurrection - and despite
several changes (the most obvious being that this is an American film
instead of a British one), it somehow makes sense in the Amicus
tradition of old, because just like the best movies from yesteryear, this
is less of an all-out shocker and more of a macabre morality tale with
even touches of irony. But Amicus or not, this simply is a really
good little film, with the sometimes ingenious but mostly uneven Stuart
Gordon turning in a very light-footed directorial effort that effortlessly
switches from malicious thriller to outright comedy and back again,
carried by a great cast - especially Mena Suvari turns in an eccellent
performance as selfish and flawed yet by no means downright evil young
woman while Russell Hornsby as wannabe gangster is hilarious - and a
wonderfully immoral script that combines an interesting premise with
moments of morbid greatness. Recommendation, actually.
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