Bone Dry (2007)

I think I liked the desert the best in this film. It must have been an easy shoot to go out into an open desert and just shoot what you want. I'm sure the heat and bugs got to the cast and crew but at least no streets had to be closed.The movie itself is OK. During the first hour it leaves guessing as why this guy has been kidnapped and is being pushed to his limits. The setup is rather sparse. No real indications as who these characters are but most films are mysteries, we need time to get to know the characters.The hippie character seemed to be the most interesting. I imagine the Mojave desert to be filled with people like him. I didn't really like how that played out though, it seemed uninspired and predictable. The two main characters remain somewhat bland. Only most of the way through the film do we get any indication that the kidnapped guy may not be an innocent victim. He becomes rather good at fighting suddenly and is able to defeat two thugs. This brings up questions. Wouldn't he be to tired and dehydrated to fight and if he had these skills why didn't he use them in the first place? We have to wait until the end to find the reasons behind the whole thing. I found the ending to be decent albeit slightly gimmicky. It's worth a look.

Eddie (a fine and credible performance by Luke Goss) gets forced at gunpoint by the ruthless and vengeful Jimmy (superbly played with total conviction and fierce intensity by the always dependable Lance Henriksen) into the Mojave Desert where Jimmy has set up a series of traps and challenges in order to test the limits of Eddie's endurance and survival instincts. Is Eddie just a victim of hapless circumstance? Or does Jimmy have a valid reason for putting Eddie through this punishing ordeal? Director Brett A. Hart, who also co-wrote the crafty and absorbing script with Jeff O'Brien, relates the gripping story at a steady pace, makes the most out of the dusty'n'desolate isolated setting, ably milks plenty of sweat-inducing suspense from the edgy game of cat and mouse between the two central characters, delivers a few jolting moments of raw brutal violence, and tops everything off with a cool surprise twist ending that effectively shifts the viewer's sympathies from one person to another. The strong acting by Goss and Henriksen keeps the picture humming, with Henriksen a particular stand-out throughout as the relentless and determined Jimmy. Popping up in nifty small parts are Dee Wallace as friendly diner waitress Joanne, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister as menacing thug Mitch, and Carl Buffington as eccentric New Age drug dealer Marty. Scott Glasgow's moody score further pumps up the tension. The striking yellow-hued cinematography by John Darbonne and Kevin G. Ellis vividly captures the unsparing severity of the merciless desert heat. A real nice nail-biter.

For western fans who have seen both the maddingly nebulous Gus Van Sant 2002 flick GERRY featuring Casey Affleck & Matt Damon (6.2 of 10 IMDb rating) and the 97th most popular movie of all-time, Ethan & Joel Coen's NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, director\writer\editor Brett A. Hart's BONE DRY will elicit many echoes of recognition. Hart intentionally leaves viewers at sea in an effort to have them misplace their empathy with protagonist\desert torture victim "Eddie" during most of the film. For those not literate enough to sense which way the wind eventually will blow from the opening quotes of Lucretius and Shakespeare's Richard III, the ease with which "Eddie" starts dispatching random drug dealers in BONE DRY's second half is a dead giveaway of the flip-flopping sympathies due before the final credits roll. While "Eddie's" antagonist "Jimmy" suffers more from not being fleshed out in the movie, he does combine NO COUNTRY's Sheriff Ed Tom Bell's practical curmudgeonness with pneumatic bolt toting contract killer Anton Chigurh's aura of inexorable doom. Being called upon to stand in for both Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem in the same movie certainly is a step up in the world from that PUMPKINHEAD crap for Lance Henriksen ("Jimmy").P.S.--Hopefully Brett A. Hart does NOT have to live down being a blood descendant of the infamous sponging, deadbeat-dad, poser, Bret Harte (1836-1902), author of "The Luck of Roarin' Camp" and other "western" stories. (Director Hart's website makes no connection between himself and his literary or wrestler namesakes, but if he later wishes to pick one, he'd be well-advised to take the grappler.) As America's greatest penman Mark Twain observed, the 19th Century writer Harte (born Francis Brett Hart in Albany, NY) started his career making up "news" from the west for East Coast publications, and--in 20th Century terms--played Zane Grey to Twain's Louie L'Amour. This false Harte was a flash-in-the-pan with just one year of real success, soon leaving all of his acquaintances with his unpaid debts, abandoning his wife and kids with no support, and absconding to die in Europe.

This movie is pretty good. It holds you all the way to the very end. It had a small cast, yet it delivered big time. I hope it comes to the big screen soon. It's a must see. Lance is a veteran actor that has done some bad movies in the past, but he redeems himself with this one. It seems that it was shot entirely in the desert and the scenes were beautiful. I gave the movie 8 stars because of it's originality and the fact that you truly don't know what's going on until the very end. That's the motivation to keep you watching. You want to see what's going to happen next and anytime a film holds you like that, it's a good one. I had the pleasure of watching it on a website that happened to have it and boy was I in for a treat. If you haven't seen it yet, go see it. You won't be disappointed.