How entertaining? ★☆☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 2 January 2016
A movie review of THE MIND'S EYE. |
“I know who you are, we all do,” Zack Connors (Graham Skipper)
That is two for two from director Joe Begos delivering bargain basement horror rubbish. After crummy possession movie ALMOST HUMAN, he now offers up sub-sub-sub-Cronenberg SCANNERS hokum. The production values, dialogue and performances would not surprise if revealed to be an after school project. An argument might be made for THE MIND’S EYE being genre irony or pastiche, though there is a distinct lack of sophistication to back that up. Veering away from spoof, there is little choice but to take at face value: Leaden psychic sci-fi horror.
That is two for two from director Joe Begos delivering bargain basement horror rubbish. After crummy possession movie ALMOST HUMAN, he now offers up sub-sub-sub-Cronenberg SCANNERS hokum. The production values, dialogue and performances would not surprise if revealed to be an after school project. An argument might be made for THE MIND’S EYE being genre irony or pastiche, though there is a distinct lack of sophistication to back that up. Veering away from spoof, there is little choice but to take at face value: Leaden psychic sci-fi horror.
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Harking back to 1980s retro aesthetics has its zenith in DRIVE, now is the turn of the 1990s. Will anything beat the fab DETENTION for celebrating and harnessing nostalgia? In a brief preamble, THE MIND’S EYE tells us that during the late 1980s psychokinesis cases not only began being reported but the government attempted to weaponize the power. November 1990, Zack wonders the countryside and is stopped by police (à la Rambo in FIRST BLOOD). Flexing his superpower, Zack is still arrested. The fight typifies the movie: Brief and unexciting.
In custody, a renowned government agent, in this clandestine community, Dr Michael Slovak (John Speredakos) offers Zack freedom and access to the missing lady, Rachel Meadows (Lauren Ashley Carter), the hero has been searching for, in exchange for working together. Post opening credits, February 1991, and Zack is effectively a human guinea pig in confinement. Dr Slovak is simultaneously training his psychokinesis prisoners while also using a drug to supress their powers in fear of rebellion. Zack, Rachel and David Armstrong (Matt Mercer) finally attempt to escape in an embarrassing melange of inept combat choreography and weak effects.
That the superpowered leave their arch-enemy still capable is one of many lax plot points. The next clanger is Zack turning up at the abode of his father, Mike (Larry Fessenden), the most obvious of hiding spots; thus clearly placing his pater in danger. Every action is done sans logic, as if the characters have no ability to think through any kind of consequences.
CHRONICLE this ain’t. Conversations force one to sink into the seat in disgust. How are we meant to care, or be thrilled, if proceedings are so wooden? The good guys frequently spit on the baddies. Class. Maybe it’s simpatico with the sense that THE MIND’S EYE is spitting on the audience?
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