As someone who couldn't stand Dean Cain in anything else I'd ever seen him in, I was expecting to have to tolerate his presence here to enjoy what sounded like an interesting film. In fact, for the most part I enjoyed his performance, finding it hard to equate with the sickly Clark Kent I'd primarily known him as. Understated, a decent range of emotion conveyed, perfectly good.
As I approached the film, since my only concern was tolerance of Dean Cain and he came through with flying colours (blue, red and yellow...? ohoho!), you might think, as I did, that settling into enjoying a taught little sleeper with a very good premise to build on would be the order of the day. Instead, I found a few too many generic set-pieces and, worse, a couple of moments of real head-slapping "I can't believe he did that" stupidity.
*****Spoilers: Examples of generic set-pieces and stupidity*****
(1) Generic: Talking badly about a dangerous third-party to a friend/associate who, like you, is in the process of escaping from him, only for it to turn out he's there with that friend/associate. (2) Generic: Possible "salvation figure" (in this case a cop) spotted and approached with intent to confess or give yourself up, their expression fixed, and as you get right to them, it turns out they're dead. (3) Stupidity: Pouring the contents of the food packages along the road, and dropping the bag there - Why not just pull over somewhere and put it all in a hole?? (4) Stupidity: Taking the truck (not to mention leaving the car in plain view). You want to evade the law, whom you've already had a bit of a brush with, but now you're in a stolen vehicle?? (I didn't see him leave any money for it) (5) Stupidity: The height of it, where I really thought the film lost a lot of credibility... Telling plans, in detail, to a basically anonymous person with no reason for "loyalty" to you (the phone navigation woman).
*****End of spoilers*****
I also found the role of Danny Trejo a disappointment... He had high billing and I was expecting/hoping to see the sort of brilliantly menacing performance he excels at but instead we get a lot of his voice and only, to memory, one glimpse of his face in the whole film...
In summary: Didn't feel I'd completely wasted my time, did watch to the end, but quite unsatisfying overall and extremely unlikely to really stick with you.
Comparisons: Not to Phone Booth. "Phone Booth in a car" is a poor comparison. He's being threatened by regular phone-calls but that's about it for similarity there. The most obvious comparison to me is The Hitcher (the original), followed by Breakdown, an element of Duel and any number of "person being chased by villain/s they double-crossed" type chase films before you get to Phone Booth.
As I approached the film, since my only concern was tolerance of Dean Cain and he came through with flying colours (blue, red and yellow...? ohoho!), you might think, as I did, that settling into enjoying a taught little sleeper with a very good premise to build on would be the order of the day. Instead, I found a few too many generic set-pieces and, worse, a couple of moments of real head-slapping "I can't believe he did that" stupidity.
*****Spoilers: Examples of generic set-pieces and stupidity*****
(1) Generic: Talking badly about a dangerous third-party to a friend/associate who, like you, is in the process of escaping from him, only for it to turn out he's there with that friend/associate. (2) Generic: Possible "salvation figure" (in this case a cop) spotted and approached with intent to confess or give yourself up, their expression fixed, and as you get right to them, it turns out they're dead. (3) Stupidity: Pouring the contents of the food packages along the road, and dropping the bag there - Why not just pull over somewhere and put it all in a hole?? (4) Stupidity: Taking the truck (not to mention leaving the car in plain view). You want to evade the law, whom you've already had a bit of a brush with, but now you're in a stolen vehicle?? (I didn't see him leave any money for it) (5) Stupidity: The height of it, where I really thought the film lost a lot of credibility... Telling plans, in detail, to a basically anonymous person with no reason for "loyalty" to you (the phone navigation woman).
*****End of spoilers*****
I also found the role of Danny Trejo a disappointment... He had high billing and I was expecting/hoping to see the sort of brilliantly menacing performance he excels at but instead we get a lot of his voice and only, to memory, one glimpse of his face in the whole film...
In summary: Didn't feel I'd completely wasted my time, did watch to the end, but quite unsatisfying overall and extremely unlikely to really stick with you.
Comparisons: Not to Phone Booth. "Phone Booth in a car" is a poor comparison. He's being threatened by regular phone-calls but that's about it for similarity there. The most obvious comparison to me is The Hitcher (the original), followed by Breakdown, an element of Duel and any number of "person being chased by villain/s they double-crossed" type chase films before you get to Phone Booth.