No, no, NO

Rating: 2/10 (13 February 2005)

So I had a great time watching this movie. The ticket price for this movie was some of the best money I've ever spent. I was almost rolling on the floor of the movie theater laughing hysterically at how incompetent the movie was at displaying any semblance of cinematic quality. And I wasn't the only one. In fact, everyone in the theater was laughing.
For the most part, the acting was not terrible, and anyone who says otherwise isn't looking closely enough. The DIRECTION was the terrible part. In fact, it was appallingly bad. In a movie that bases itself around tension, I have never seen a director specifically cut away from the tension because he wanted to develop another storyline that didn't have any relevance whatsoever and probably shouldn't have been cut.
So what do I mean by that? I mean Danny Glover. I said the acting was not terrible for the most part, and the other part is Danny Glover. He was awful. He was pathetically awful. I have no idea why he gets work anymore, because whatever acting talent he had once upon a time is just plain gone. This performance is so bad, it's almost offered as an apology for being watchable in Lethal Weapon. And his storyline was completely unimportant. Really, there's no reason to have a cop (or even a vigilante cop) in this movie because it has no relevance to an isolated world of a serial killer. Also, for heaven's sake do NOT let him pretend to be crazy because he just can't do it.
Also, why are people being killed? Is the killer bored? Is he mad that he's dying and taking it out on the world? If he's a sociopath, we don't care. He's not Hannibal Lecter. In fact, we have no character development of the killer whatsoever. They might as well have turned him into an object. Edgar Allen Poe had a better killer in the Pit and the Pendulum. And by that, I mean the Pendulum was a better villain.
Anyway, back to the directing. When a director breaks the tension of a scene such as this director does ALL THE TIME, he leaves his actors out to dry, which is inexcusable for actors who work as hard as Cary Elwes does in this movie. And then the scene when Cary Elwes is sawing off his leg is so funny you can't breathe from laughing so hard. That's not the only mistake the director made (such as the intensely pretentious philosophy that he and his best friend, the writer, dreamed up), but it's certainly the most heinous.
Anyway, what I did like about this movie was the idea. NOT the execution, but the idea was solid. Also, the production design and cinematography were pretty neat. I like the seedy, gritty look of junkyards and abandoned warehouses, and I especially like seeing what people can do with them. And Monica Potter, as usual, did a pretty darn good job.
If I were a studio executive, I'd give James Wan all the money in the world to make another movie, as he can obviously make the money back. However, I would have trouble looking myself in the mirror, knowing I'm directly responsible for propagating more bad movies. WE DON'T NEED MORE BAD MOVIES, Hollywood! PLEASE STOP!