Distant Shadow (1999) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)
WTF?

I have no idea what this movie was about. Here's my best guess.
A woman is haunted by visions from her past. Her mother was killed mysteriously when she was four. Two decades later, she is trying to break out of her life in a seedy rooming house when she gets caught in the middle of some government operation. 

NUDITY REPORT
Rosie Fellner did a shower scene, in which a disembodied nipple appeared for about two frames.
A man down the hall is a some kind of a mysterious government assasin who is covering up the evidence of something in the past, and trying to recover some stolen computer files. Something about spreading a mass epidemic. He has to kill lots of people to fullfill his mission. The young woman gets involved in his plots. He protects her and her idiotic boyfriend, even though they know about the operation and should, therefore, be killed to silence them. Why does he protect them?

If you read a couple paragraphs above and wondered, "say, what happened to her dad when her mom was killed", you already figured out 90% of the plot.

DVD available for rental only.

  • no widescreen, no features, no menu
The direction and cinematography are very clever and inventive, combining some of the pizzazz of Guy Richie's films with some of the fast-cut, intense close-up action of Jake Scott's work, and the film develops its exposition with subtlety rather than just telling us directly what is going on. Sadly, I am too unsubtle to have figured it out.

These guys do seem to know how to film a script. Too bad they didn't actually have one worth filming.

The Critics Vote

  • no reviews online

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: there are not enough votes for a rating.
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C. The director and DP may someday make a great movie. This ain't it.

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