7Roulette - NIGHTWATCH

This movie wants so terribly to be edgy and inventive. Often shamlessly ripping off better thrillers such as Seven; mostly Seven. Actually everything rips off Seven since 1995. I do have to applaud its exhaustive efforts though. Featuring, very likely, a padded out rewrite from Steven Soderbergh, this movie feels like borderline late night Cinemax. A who-done-it sexy slasher, enhanced with necrophilia flavor, if you're into that sort of thing. The half assed attempts to steer you from the killer are eye rolling, but it's fun to watch a very young Ewan find his American accent and act off Nick Nolte. It's definitely missing a heart, as you don't really care about anyone or anything that happens to them, which is critical in a maniac movie, and more often than not, severely lacking in general. All in all it's a fun little throw on, but I wouldn't watch it again. C

-Babes

Perhaps even more than Scream, the movie that was determining the direction of all other Thrillers was Se7en (or, as it was then, Seven). It's so overwhelming in this studio's pictures, and not just the Crime stuff but the Science Fiction too. And yeah we can point and laugh and compare and say "well this is certainly no Fincher" but sometimes clumsy ripoff can come across as adequate substitute. It's a remake of a Danish movie from '94, both directed by Ole Bornedal (this version cowritten by Steven Soderbergh), and I'm only able to assume that some abstractions were lost in translation. Otherwise it's a very standard whodunnit with more than enough atmosphere to spare and red herrings so transparent they're basically pink. But these are the sorta elements of all the Thrillers of the 80s and early 90s that I grew up with so there is some kinda weird comfort in playing the game, regardless of how primitive it is. It's a strong cast with an uneven workload: Patricia Arquette is squandered mostly because her character is useless. Josh Brolin has the juiciest role and he chews it with a shit eating grin, and Nick Nolte is actually low-key brilliance. But the true standout is Alix Koromzay as the prostitute who lives in a constant state of fear and self loathing. This is good middle-of-the-night cable schlock; that's how I first saw it and that's where it belongs. B-

- Paul