Dreadfully Boring

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

This is almost becoming a sub-genre unto itself, where some fiendishly clever psycho killer (of course not clever enough to avoid getting caught) taunts the police who have him in custody with information about other victims he has stashed somewhere and "Do such and such or they die," etc. The twist here is that one of the stashed potential victims is the daughter of the cop interrogating the killer. What I guess we're not supposed to wonder is how long in advance the killer needed to kidnap the victim and set up the elaborate torture/murder situation---would he need hours? Days? Then he has to time it right to get caught before the victim starves to death or something, then the victim's family (in this case the cop) has to NOT NOTICE that the victim was missing that long. It's this "out of the blue" crap I hate---"Oh, you've kidnapped my daughter and set her up to be killed? Here I thought she was having this really long sleepover with her friends..." In yet another twist---yeah, I'm giving away the store here, to save you from wasting your precious thirty-some minutes on this--the killer demands that the cop kill himself, and the dumb-ass does it! I guess this cop never watched "24" with all those quick ways to torture information out of suspects, especially after the killer has the cop lock the door to the room and shut off the TV camera. Wait, I'm forgetting--the chair in which the daughter is sitting will know if the killer is being tortured miles away, I guess. Anyway the acting and directing etc. are all competently performed here, but no more so than in an average episode of "Criminal Minds" where the story will be much more credible. I wouldn't mind seeing the actor playing the killer again, he's a kind of young "Sting" as the latter appeared in "Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels." Also the policewoman was pretty hot, in addition to being the only police character not a complete dunce---"How long has this camera been off?" she barks at one point, to which the male cops respond with shrugs before going back to their tea and scones---okay, I just threw in that last part, they being English and all...