Jason Behr (Max Evans) News
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Natz
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***May Cointain Spoilers***
A Review About Skinwalkers
http://www.pajiba.com/skinwalkers.htm
Movies firmly grounded in the horror subgenre, be they slashers or werewolf/vampire films, have the disadvantage of a longstanding extant mythology; their ability to shock or otherwise engage an audience already familiar with their tenets is severely hamstrung. Ultimately, as ever, success or failure falls to the script/director’s ability to toy with these archetypes. The results in this vein for werewolf films have been particularly hit-or-miss, ending up with great sleeper-hits like Neil Marshall’s Dog Soldiers or the under-budgeted Canadian Ginger Snaps and, on the other hand, dreadful abominations like this year’s Blood & Chocolate or Christina Ricci’s bat-panda creature from the risible Cursed.
The latest offering, Skinwalkers, can’t find anything new to add to the mix, so, like the aforementioned B&C and that Underworld series, it tries its hand at high fantasy — having werewolves exist as secret cabals with their own internal conflicts. Director James Isaac (Jason X) chucks us unbidden into a cliché-ridden werewolf war that’s so rife with genre chestnuts and bad acting that any attempt to engage the audience will be met alternatively with derision and laughter.
The good wolfies, lead by Jonas (Elias Koteas), are attempting to protect 12-year-old Timothy (Matthew Knight), who’s apparently the werewolf Jesus or something; someone somewhere at some point in time prophesied for some reason that this kid’s ascendance at age 13 would end the curse of werewolfism … or something. Nobody’s really sure, but the bad wolfies, led by a villain with a laughably evil name, Varek (Jason Behr), are out to kill the lil’ savior. It turns out that Varek’s gang — a pack of Lorenzo Lamas wannabes who ride Harleys and sling shotguns — rather like turning into werewolves and gobbling up innocents. Either way, the motivations of either group are facile and unengaging, neither bolstered by the script or the B-listers who occupy it. The biggest problem by far is Behr, who viewers may remember starred in that regrettable “Roswell” show as the most boring alien since Ray Walston (and at least he was funny). Behr, an utterly limpid actor, substitutes his newfound musculature for presence and his inability to speak above a mumble as menace; a villain like this needs actual charisma.
Skinwalkers’ plot moves like a train, not with speed or momentum, but a ridiculous, arc-less linearity. Good werewolves flee from bad werewolves, bad werewolves catch up, shootout ensues, good werewolves flee again, rinse, repeat; the story has no sense of tension, werewolf apocalypse be damned, and is only peppered once or twice by a “revelation” you can see coming a mile away. Throw into the mix a continuity-punting “About, face!” climax and an epilogue that begs the sequel treatment and, well, “woof” is the right word. Skinwalkers has nothing new to add to the werewolf canon — these films are meant to be horrifying through and through, with lycanthropy as its disturbing, grotesque conceit. Skinwalkers, with its toned-down gore, bad acting, and tin-eared action sensibilities, is nothing of the sort.
A Review About Skinwalkers
http://www.pajiba.com/skinwalkers.htm
Movies firmly grounded in the horror subgenre, be they slashers or werewolf/vampire films, have the disadvantage of a longstanding extant mythology; their ability to shock or otherwise engage an audience already familiar with their tenets is severely hamstrung. Ultimately, as ever, success or failure falls to the script/director’s ability to toy with these archetypes. The results in this vein for werewolf films have been particularly hit-or-miss, ending up with great sleeper-hits like Neil Marshall’s Dog Soldiers or the under-budgeted Canadian Ginger Snaps and, on the other hand, dreadful abominations like this year’s Blood & Chocolate or Christina Ricci’s bat-panda creature from the risible Cursed.
The latest offering, Skinwalkers, can’t find anything new to add to the mix, so, like the aforementioned B&C and that Underworld series, it tries its hand at high fantasy — having werewolves exist as secret cabals with their own internal conflicts. Director James Isaac (Jason X) chucks us unbidden into a cliché-ridden werewolf war that’s so rife with genre chestnuts and bad acting that any attempt to engage the audience will be met alternatively with derision and laughter.
The good wolfies, lead by Jonas (Elias Koteas), are attempting to protect 12-year-old Timothy (Matthew Knight), who’s apparently the werewolf Jesus or something; someone somewhere at some point in time prophesied for some reason that this kid’s ascendance at age 13 would end the curse of werewolfism … or something. Nobody’s really sure, but the bad wolfies, led by a villain with a laughably evil name, Varek (Jason Behr), are out to kill the lil’ savior. It turns out that Varek’s gang — a pack of Lorenzo Lamas wannabes who ride Harleys and sling shotguns — rather like turning into werewolves and gobbling up innocents. Either way, the motivations of either group are facile and unengaging, neither bolstered by the script or the B-listers who occupy it. The biggest problem by far is Behr, who viewers may remember starred in that regrettable “Roswell” show as the most boring alien since Ray Walston (and at least he was funny). Behr, an utterly limpid actor, substitutes his newfound musculature for presence and his inability to speak above a mumble as menace; a villain like this needs actual charisma.
Skinwalkers’ plot moves like a train, not with speed or momentum, but a ridiculous, arc-less linearity. Good werewolves flee from bad werewolves, bad werewolves catch up, shootout ensues, good werewolves flee again, rinse, repeat; the story has no sense of tension, werewolf apocalypse be damned, and is only peppered once or twice by a “revelation” you can see coming a mile away. Throw into the mix a continuity-punting “About, face!” climax and an epilogue that begs the sequel treatment and, well, “woof” is the right word. Skinwalkers has nothing new to add to the werewolf canon — these films are meant to be horrifying through and through, with lycanthropy as its disturbing, grotesque conceit. Skinwalkers, with its toned-down gore, bad acting, and tin-eared action sensibilities, is nothing of the sort.
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ISLANDGIRL5
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RebeccaBehrEvans
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maya
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Well the review in my morning paper was even worse. They gave it a 1 and a half stars and used some pretty harsh words.
I'm still going to see it tonight.
I'm still going to see it tonight.
Check out My Blog:
Who Put the Mustard in my Custard?
Who Put the Mustard in my Custard?
I get Google Alerts for all mentions of Jason Behr and the reviews I've read have been really awful. I'm not surprised, really, but it's still disappointing to see him skewered.
I think he was amazing as Max -- the actors on this show made the characters resonate deeply, IMO, and struck such a chord with me that I'm still reading fan fiction now, how many years later? I wish he would take/get roles in films that receive more positive accolades, because I think he's terrific and I want other people to think so too!
I think he was amazing as Max -- the actors on this show made the characters resonate deeply, IMO, and struck such a chord with me that I'm still reading fan fiction now, how many years later? I wish he would take/get roles in films that receive more positive accolades, because I think he's terrific and I want other people to think so too!
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maya
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I agree. I want others to love him too! It's to bad because he has done a great job in the indie films he has been in but most of the population will never get to see them.Aurorabee wrote:I get Google Alerts for all mentions of Jason Behr and the reviews I've read have been really awful. I'm not surprised, really, but it's still disappointing to see him skewered.
I think he was amazing as Max -- the actors on this show made the characters resonate deeply, IMO, and struck such a chord with me that I'm still reading fan fiction now, how many years later? I wish he would take/get roles in films that receive more positive accolades, because I think he's terrific and I want other people to think so too!
He does seem to put a lot of thought into which roles he picks so I am surprised that the ones he chooses that make it to the big screen end up being flops.
Check out My Blog:
Who Put the Mustard in my Custard?
Who Put the Mustard in my Custard?