Cold Sweat (1994)

Directed by: Gail Harvey

Starring: Ben Cross, Adam Baldwin, Shannon Tweed, Dave Thomas, Henry Czerny, Maria del Mar and Lenore Zann

Genre: Thriller, Erotic Thriller

Rated: R

Mark Cahill (Cross) is a family man with a beautiful wife and two healthy young boys. However, he is harboring a secret life as a gun for hire. After killing a woman (Zann) on his last job, she haunts him wherever he goes. Meanwhile, he is about to be caught in the middle of a web of betrayal when he is hired to kill his next target.

This was a pretty dull thriller. I went into it not expecting much and that’s about what I got out of it. None of the characters are really likable. The only one who is really sympathetic is Cahill’s wife Joanne (del Mar), as she has no clue about her husband’s true career or why he doesn’t seem to want to make love anymore. The rest of the characters are all rather despicable. Mark is a hit man who, up until his sudden development of a conscience, had no problem dispatching innocent people. Beth (Tweed) is having sex with every man in her life except her husband Larry (Thomas), which is almost understandable as he is such a jerk to her and everyone else around him. Sean (Czerny) is one of Beth’s lovers as well as Larry’s business partner, and Mitch (Baldwin) is her low-life former boyfriend turned lover. All of these characters have secrets and evil tendencies and no one is safe.

As this is classified as an erotic thriller, T&A abounds in this flick. Tweed is naked in at least 75% of her scenes, and both Zann and del Mar show off their breasts at least once. At least there was a little male nudity to make up for it from Baldwin and Czerny, but nothing to really get excited about.

The performances were alright for what the film called for. Cross’s performance was rather stiff as Cahill, and he really only showed some sort of emotion at the climax of the film, but not in scenes where he should. Thomas seems to have the grouchy, middle-aged, drug addicted business man down pact, and Tweed mostly just had to get naked with some attractive men. She does show a bit of talent at the twist-filled climax, however. Baldwin injects a little bit of humor into his childish hoodlum and Czerny is rather wooden. The performances fit the roles, but brought nothing special to them.

The plot is the biggest issue with this flick. Why does a man who has been killing professionally for years suddenly develop a conscience? There is nothing special about Zann’s character other than the fact that she’s cute, an overall innocent bystander, and Cross’s character witnesses her having sex with his intended victim. I don’t really see how any of these factors would make a man like him feel bad for what he’s done. Many of the people he’s been hired to kill are probably innocent too. Also, the twists and turns are fairly predictable and I saw the ending coming long before I reached it.

Overall, this is a pretty lame thriller with a problematic plot and unlikable characters, but plenty of nudity. It’s not terrible but it’s not really good either.

5/10 

See No Evil (2006)

Directed by: Gregory Dark

Starring: Glenn Jacobs (AKA: Kane), Christina Vidal, Michael R. Pagan, Samantha Noble, Steven Vidler, Rachael Taylor, Penny McNamee, Craig Horner, Luke Pegler and Mikhael Wilder

Genre: Horror, Slasher

Rated: R

A group of eight juvenile delinquents have been brought to an abandoned hotel for a weekend job of cleaning it up for renovations. It’s not long before the teenaged offenders and their chaperones are slowly being picked off.

This film has very little to offer the viewing public. There are only two likable characters – Christine and Kira - in the entire script and we barely get to know them. All of the characters are very one-dimensional, but these two appear to have some sort of back stories, which are hinted at but never really discussed. The rest include many of Hollywood’s well-known stereotypes: the blonde snotty girl, the vegetarian/eco-friendly girl, the abusive jerk, the goofball, the “nice guy” and the token black guy – with little to no personality between them. The killer might have been more interesting if they let him go on battling his conflicting beliefs revealed during the climax rather than rushing to the ending.

The plot was filled with clichés as well. The killer is the way he is due to an abusive upbringing and being brainwashed by a crazy religious zealot. He believes he is doing God’s work by killing all sinners. He also appears to be superhuman, being able to survive a gunshot wound to the head. People split up and get killed off. The kids who do drugs and have sex get killed. Both “twists” were also incredibly predictable, having been done many times before in older horror films.

The kills were boring as well. At first the eye gouging was shocking, but it just became monotonous after a while. We don’t need to see him take out each and every eyeball. We get it, that’s his trademark, move on. The only interesting death was done via an inventive use for a cell phone – which came off as rather campy. Also, the use of CGI in the final confrontation with the killer was horribly done. It would have been much better with physical effects rather than animated.

Lastly, there were three more small things that bothered me. The first is the wardrobe for the female characters – they are at this hotel as a part of a cleaning crew, yet all of them are wearing high heels. That’s a smart thing to wear when you’re going to be on your feet all day. Second, the random bees that apparently live inside the killer’s head and come flying out at random. The guy is practically a walking corpse, slowly decomposing, yet strong enough to dispatch numerous bland characters.Third, and this one is a possible spoiler so be warned: they let the worst possible character live. The one person who deserved a vicious, brutal death gets to walk out of the building with nary a scratch on him. 

Overall, the film brings nothing new to the table. The characters are bland, the plot predictable and the kills dull. The killer had the potential to be interesting, but nothing was made of the conflict he seems to be facing at the end of the movie. It could have been a fun flick if the writers had actually attempted to write a believable story with likable characters – even if it wasn’t original. 

4/10