The Lazarus Project (The Heaven Project)
Rated PG-13
Running Time: 1 hr 40 mins
DVD Release Date: October 21st
DVD Release Date: October 21st
Cast:
MY REVIEW
Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating: ***1/2 out of *****
Part of me is surprised this is a straight-to-DVD movie, part of me isn't. It has a star like Paul Walker (Joy Ride, The Fast and the Furious), whom I thought was a big enough actor to not already be headlining a movie like this. When I think of actual straight-to-DVD movies I think unknown actors, bad quality film making and cheesy storylines. This movie didn't really have any of that. However I can also see how it didn't get in theaters because even with Paul Walker (who girls still think is sexy-McGee) the story really has no appeal to a large audience...at least not a large enough one to make a lick of cash at the box office. Now crap movies like One Missed Call, which really suck in every aspect, still has a lot of appeal to a large specific audience and that's why movies like that go to the front of the line. This movie doesn't really fall into a genre most people flock to the theaters to see: the dramatic thriller. Young audiences don't care for the genre, because usually they are pretty slow moving films with a pinch of mystery and sometimes a twisty ending.
That being said, I actually kind of liked this movie. Nothing about it stood out as being great, but heck...it was a pretty standable flick. When you see the preview you kind of get this feeling it's going to be some crazy supernatural-esque God movie. Really it isn't any of that. It's about a man who's sentenced to death (and yes in Texas you can actually get sentenced to death for being involved in a crime where people die but you don't actually kill anyone....yeah...crazy I know) and then finds himself suddenly in Oregon at some church/hospital for the criminally insane where he has a job as a groundskeeper. We are told, as is he, that he was given a second chance at life by an angel. He has to stay there and start a whole new life and forget about his wife and daughter and he can never see them again. Of course he doesn't like this and he starts prodding and trying to find out the truth. I won't say more so I don't spoil anything.
But this film works pretty well as a dramatic thriller, because I honestly had no clue what was going on yet I was still really into the movie. I actually wanted to know how it was going to end. To me that means the movie worked. It was never over the top like I was expecting it to be. It was actually very "down to Earth" and for the MOST part, pretty realistic. Now at times the story did cross the line of realism, but you all should know by now I don't even care about that. It all made perfect sense in it's own world, which is fine by me! I was also suprised at how simple and easy to understand the story was. The curse a lot of these types of movies have is that they pack way to much into an hour and half film and the audience just gets confused. I applaud this movie for not taking that path. It stuck to it's core story and never added to much more to the pot. Everything happened for a reason, and all had a part in the ending.
The ending is kind of where the movie slipped, but just a little. The big reveal started to pack to much punch and really wasn't all that shocking even though I didn't see it coming. I should have saw it coming, but I just didn't. It wasn't much of a twist so much as it was one of those, "Oh, OK now I see" moments. There were some bits of the story that weren't covered or explained which was as bit bothersome. The ending also left a few of the characters stories unfinished and that kind of bothered me as well. Mainly Linda Cardellini's (TV's ER, Scooby Doo) psychiatrist character. She befriends Walker and almost sparks a love interest, but she kind of just falls off the radar at the end and we aren't entirely sure what her character was really meant for. But really in the end these are just minor issues.
This isn't really a movie I could recommend everyone to see, but if you do see it on a rental shelf, just know it isn't all that bad as it appears. Lazarus Project is actually a pretty good movie.
Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating: ***1/2 out of *****
To view this film's trailer, click this link: Lazarus
*This is the 160th new film I've seen and reviewed this year.
*This film is now on DVD.
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