[The Road]
Plot:Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, involves a father transporting his son across a nuclear wasteland to safety while battling cannibals and other enemies.

Cast:Viggo Mortensen, Guy Pearce, Danny Huston, Charlize Theron, Kodi Smit-McPhee.

My Thoughts:A road to nowhere.

Review:"The Road" is another one of those horror/thriller pics that's very small on horror and heavy on thriller. Of course the filmmakers don't really care about this considering their cast is marked up with Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron, what could possibly go wrong right? Well, in the case of this movies entertainment value, how about everything? The movie follows a father (Viggo) who is out to protect his family in a post-apocalyptic world.

His wife (Theron), and son (Smit McPhee). Like in every post-apocalyptic world, this one has it's fair share of crazies, which are mostly just roving bands of gangs looking for food, fuel, and the usual shelter and stuff. But when his wife gives up the fight for survival, the man is forced to take his son and trek ahead for greener pastures. During the journey, the two are confronted by a few enemies here and there.

Cannibals, and the like. But the problem with "The Road" is, it doesn't push the envelope enough. Take a film like "Resident Evil:Extinction" for example. Granted, no one expected zombies or monsters to show up in "The Road", but for a film set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, it really plays the story in a very tame way. Viggo's character has very few battles with any real fierce enemies beyond a few weirdos and scraggly-looking people, types who you could pretty much find in any deep south smalltown.

This movie felt more like a watered down version of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" there were so many rednecks Viggo's character bumps into. When the film isn't introducing freaky-loking quasi-villains into the mix, it's playing up the high drama elements in the relationship between Viggo's character and his son. Which is really what the movie is all about. Watching Viggo teach his son how to survive in this new, screwed up, twisted world.

Knowing that he probably wouldn't last much longer in it himself, and so he does not want to leave said world, nor his son, without passing down a wealth of survival knowledge and tough-love lessons to him. And while that is okay and all, the movie totally fails to balance any of this with some hardcore action, suspense, or thrills. I cannot come up with one memorable scene from this movie that sticks in my head on loop. That's how uneventful it was.

I'm starting to see now why Dimension held this film back for so long. It's really more for the big time Viggo fans, or people who like their apocalyptic thriller-horror films with a heavy side order of melodrama and character-driven emotion. It's definitely not for the crowd who likes post-apocalyptic horror to be balls-to-the-wall, edgy, violent, and bloody. This movie is not any of those things. It's more fragile, slow-paced, and emotional.

Therefore, it's hard to keep your interest in the movie beyond the first 30 minutes or so. However, being that the film runs only 85 minutes or so, it won't be that hard to get through. "The Road" ends on a sad note in some ways, but it's hard to say as a viewer that you couldn't see the ending coming. It's about as predictable as things could get. "The Road" is a movie that you should go into with very low expectations. It's not fast-paced, action-packed, or even scary. Instead, it's just alot of drama blended with the occasional disturbing moment or two.

Positives:Viggo gives a good performance, as does Kodi Smit McPhee.

Negatives:The films synopsis promises and sets up a scenario where action and gore can be expected atleast in a modest amount, but in reality, this picture delivers little to none. It's also very over-dramatic, even for it's own good.

Overall:One star out of four.





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