Review : The Stepfather (2009)

Movie : The Stepfather (2009)
Genre : Thriller
Review Category : Available at Rental Retailers

Looking at the list of actors in this film and noticing there was no actor / actress of great significance intrigued me at first; but only at first. The opening scene acts as any good thriller should and gives us a glimpse into the mind and actions of the psycho we're about to meet, but it all seemed a bit too predictable. And if it continued to get anymore predictable, then Cleo The Psychic might want to "Call me now". This film followed the "book" from A to Z, Alpha to Omega. The only places it decided to stray from the beaten, or should I say, well beaten path was to be confused as to if it were suppose to be told from the eyes of a psychotic killer, or from that of a love stricken teenage boy. Fifty percent of the time you're sure you're seeing things from the view point of what seems to be a slightly off and increasingly moreso off individual (however predictable his actions may be), and the other half of the film you're sure you're watching the tell of teenage love story develop, blossom, and become increasingly more and more boring. My real assessment is this film suffers from lack of inventiveness and clear focus. Everything done in this film has been done time and time again in this genre. I realize it's a re-make of course, but the true purpose of a re-make is to re-interpret the original, and make it the new director's own clear vision while also making it relevant to the current viewing audience. This film failed on so many basic levels; the acting was mundane at best, and the storyline was as predictable as a child's bedtime story. By the time the credits rolled, I was waiting to see Mother Goose perched on a rocking chair reciting Aesop's tale of moral decency, or something like that. Literally a two year old's vomit of lunch time spaghetti could produce a more colorful viewing experience than this film. This film is exactly what you'd expect it to be to a perfect fault based on the title and seeing any trailer for the film. There are absolutely no surprises and no good suspenseful moments. What are suppose to be suspenseful moments (cue the eerie music please) just aren't. The majority of the time I found myself predicting exactly what was going to happen next in the film, or even worse over predicting and being disappointed that neither the director nor production team could live up to the movie I envisioned and make the film as great as I anticipated. However. I guess if you don't have the budget to hire real acting talent then you don't have the budget to hire a creative writing staff. So, am I really all that disappointed? (note: not really a question for those wondering, but just play along for my ego's sake) The only bright spot is that the camera angles used to illustrate the true insanity of the stepfather character served their purpose. There were a few frames where he was slightly shadowed,with his head taking up forty percent of the screen staring off into the distance and the rest of the frame was just out of focus as he talked, which made his character look particularly deranged. Other than that I'm pretty sad I wasted my time on this film, I'd rate this DVD a Waste of Plastic.