CHERRY CRUSH (a review)

CHERRY CRUSH (a review)

Well, I guess this is supposed to be a thriller. Kind of. Maybe? Here's the story: after getting kicked out of one school for taking nude pictures of girls and posting them on the net, Jordan Wells (played by Jonathan Tucker) goes to a new school where he meets the sexy and alluring Shay Bettencourt (played by Nikki Reed). He becomes entranced by her. So when she suggests that he take pictures of her with the older man she is screwing as some sort of insurance policy. See this older guy said he would help get her a scholarship to this exclusive music school and she wants to make sure he goes through with it. Jordan takes the pictures, but the scholarship doesn't come through. She decides to confront him. Things get physical and they end up killing the guy. Now they have to hide the body and try to protect themselves. Yeah, and it turns out he has a box with a bunch of money in it too that the girl just happens to know the security combination for. So now we have a cat and mouse game -- the boy wanting to stay out of prison, the girl who wants the money, and a detective who can put them away or go for the money.

On some level it feels like it could be a good thriller. My description of it at least reminds me of BODY DOUBLE, a movie both under-rated and over-rated (being both good and unintentionally cheesy at the same time). But that movie this movie isn't good. Not at all. First, thrillers have to thrill. There needs to be a sense of danger. First there is the part where the protagonist gets trapped. Here it's so obvious that it's boring, and it just makes the protagonist look dumb for not realizing it. Second in thrillers is the reversal, where the protag realizes he is screwed and starts to fight back. Except here that never quite happens. There never seems to be that airtight case. The detective has some evidence, but they should be piling on the problems. Here it's a couple pictures. Then there's the cat-and-mouse part, which here is woefully thin. Nothing interesting, nothing smart. Then you have the final reversal. Again, boring and lame. Then there are the stakes -- what is at risk? Sure, the characters are after money, but if they don't get it then what? Nothing. The whole thing was as boring as the lame voice overs. What's more frustrating is that they have a bunch of name actors. Tucker and Reed have been in a lot of movies, and there are other actors in this with long resumes. This wasn't some yokel with a camcorder. But the whole thing was lame. I could go on -- with the acting, and everything else -- but why bother?

AVOID.

If you want to see some good thrillers, I'd recommend: Body Heat (good but overrated), Shallow Grave (early Ewan McGragor), Body Double, Dead of Winter, The Descent (horror/thriller), Silence of the Lambs, Shoot to Kill, Disturbia, El Mariachi, Taken, The Stpefather (the original with Terry O'Quinn), Dead Calm (with Nicole Kidman), The Others (a good ghost story with Nicole Kidman), and Open Water.