This is a weird movie. There's really two plots here, and equal attention is paid to both. It's a little jarring, and they don't really gel, but I give the benefit of the doubt to any genre-defying feature.
On the one hand, it's a slasher flick. You got your dumb teenagers going somewhere they're not supposed to, only to be dispatched by a madman stalking the grounds.
On the other, it's a crime caper. Frank Morris, an aging escapee of Alcatraz, has to go back to the tourist attracting prison to score some clues to help him get his hands on the hidden treasure left behind in Frisco by his fellow inmates. And he won't let anything stand in his way, including the aforementioned dumb teenagers. If you think about it too much, it makes no sense. So don't.
It vacillates back and forth between these overdone devices. While I give the writer some props for focusing on character and dialogue, he really should have picked up a screen writing book before penning this murky mess. Concepts like "Pay-off" and "Show, don't tell" are thrown to the wind so we can get from point A to point B in ninety minutes. Everything that happens is so arbitrary, it develops a forward motion problem pretty early on.
And unfortunately, the director doesn't help the situation. The pacing is pretty slow all the way through, and it just drops dead in the third act, where everything that happened before melts away and it almost turns into another movie.
Yes, it's got its problems. Like lots of them. Still, I was entertained. Aldo Ray is great, the location is beautiful, and the characters are interesting and keep things moving. As long as you don't think about it too much, it's a fun little movie.
Just shut your brain off and enjoy.
On the one hand, it's a slasher flick. You got your dumb teenagers going somewhere they're not supposed to, only to be dispatched by a madman stalking the grounds.
On the other, it's a crime caper. Frank Morris, an aging escapee of Alcatraz, has to go back to the tourist attracting prison to score some clues to help him get his hands on the hidden treasure left behind in Frisco by his fellow inmates. And he won't let anything stand in his way, including the aforementioned dumb teenagers. If you think about it too much, it makes no sense. So don't.
It vacillates back and forth between these overdone devices. While I give the writer some props for focusing on character and dialogue, he really should have picked up a screen writing book before penning this murky mess. Concepts like "Pay-off" and "Show, don't tell" are thrown to the wind so we can get from point A to point B in ninety minutes. Everything that happens is so arbitrary, it develops a forward motion problem pretty early on.
And unfortunately, the director doesn't help the situation. The pacing is pretty slow all the way through, and it just drops dead in the third act, where everything that happened before melts away and it almost turns into another movie.
Yes, it's got its problems. Like lots of them. Still, I was entertained. Aldo Ray is great, the location is beautiful, and the characters are interesting and keep things moving. As long as you don't think about it too much, it's a fun little movie.
Just shut your brain off and enjoy.