Rancid

This movie reminds me of one of those plastic hamster wheels. It goes pretty fast, and gets pretty intense, but in the end, you're left in exactly the same place that you started. It starts out pretty slowly, and at first I wasn't inclined to like it too much. There is no noticeable soundtrack to this one, so it's devoid of a good atmosphere (which a good suspense/thriller needs), and this gives the whole package a very 'hollow' feel, like it's a low budget movie. The directing is lackluster in the respect that those damn camera zoom-ins get really irritating by the end of the film. I've never seen a movie that overused aerial shots like this, and that's probably because it's a bad idea. But despite all that, I enjoyed this movie.

The plot is rich and leaves a lot for you to ponder over while the cameras are rolling, and the characters all give off very memorable and believable performances. This is a very dark and gritty film, reminding me of what A Killer Within should've been, but wasn't exactly. The plot twists at the end are unexpected, and maybe they weren't executed as well as they could've been, but it's all fine and dandy with me. While most of the movie is a bit slower and building things up, with the romantic tension and such, the last half hour or so is very intense and bloody, and I'm left very satisfied with this film overall. While the rather open-ended ending left me feeling empty (that whole hamster wheel analogy), this film manages to build up a crescendo of surprising energy that left this movie as quite a good offering of crime/thriller action. Recommended to fans of the genre.