The poster promises a sci-fi opus. While there's clearly an element of that in the so-called story, this one plays out more like a conventional crime drama, featuring a couple of half-brothers on what one thinks is a road trip, but the elder knows to be flight from bad guys with a grudge. That ain't all. Besides the crooks, they're being chased by a couple of undefined, high-tech soldiers trying to recover a weapon the younger one found in an abandoned warehouse. The lads even pick up a friendly stripper (Zoe Kravitz) along their path from Detroit to Tahoe.
James Franco plays the main evildoer as a one-note maniac. It's almost as painful to watch as his 2011 Oscar co-hosting gig of infamy. No one develops a persona worthy of enough empathy to engage us. The adrenaline rushes the premise should enable fall far short of reasonable expectations. Bad direction? Insufficient budget? Only a film school class would care.
This potentially exciting setup turns into sheer tedium, until an over-the-top climactic sequence. It's longer and duller that 102 minutes should allow. Maybe that's part of the sci-fi angle - bending the space-time continuum to make the movie seem like its twice as long, only to discover upon exiting that you still have more of the day/evening left for better activities. That relief will be the greatest satisfaction this experience can deliver. As one ponders the possible reasons for this weapon's existence during the ample dry stretches its lack of action generously provides, one may form several theories. Among them, the one chosen for this denouement will likely seem the least satisfying. One of the more missable films of the year.
James Franco plays the main evildoer as a one-note maniac. It's almost as painful to watch as his 2011 Oscar co-hosting gig of infamy. No one develops a persona worthy of enough empathy to engage us. The adrenaline rushes the premise should enable fall far short of reasonable expectations. Bad direction? Insufficient budget? Only a film school class would care.
This potentially exciting setup turns into sheer tedium, until an over-the-top climactic sequence. It's longer and duller that 102 minutes should allow. Maybe that's part of the sci-fi angle - bending the space-time continuum to make the movie seem like its twice as long, only to discover upon exiting that you still have more of the day/evening left for better activities. That relief will be the greatest satisfaction this experience can deliver. As one ponders the possible reasons for this weapon's existence during the ample dry stretches its lack of action generously provides, one may form several theories. Among them, the one chosen for this denouement will likely seem the least satisfying. One of the more missable films of the year.