I have to admit I was
worried when I saw the director’s name was Nimrod. Luckily, he
doesn’t come off like one when
you see Vacancy (When your name is Willie Waffle, you are allowed to
mock other
people’s names. I
live in the glass
house, so I will throw stones).
Luke Wilson and Kate
Beckinsale star as David and Amy Fox – a married, bickering
couple trying to
make it back home in the middle of the night after a family event. While Amy was sleeping,
David decided to get
off the interstate to take a short cut, and you just know that means
trouble. You
guessed it! The car
ends up breaking down on an isolated
stretch of road near a rundown, seedy motel.
They decide to stay for the night, but soon discover
the place is a
house of horrors.
Will David and Amy be able
to escape the people trying to kill them while videotaping it?
Director Nimrod Antal has
made a movie that is OK enough with never being horrible, and never
being
great. In
some ways, Vacancy is a movie
going through the motions. Writer
Mark
L. Smith tries to flesh out David and Amy by providing a backstory
about their
marriage, why they are fighting and decisions they have made before
this
frightful evening, but none of it is all that important to the movie or
understanding the two characters.
It’s
like he includes it because he should, rather than because it will
improve Vacancy.
However, Antal shows he can
provide some decent scary moments, even if he never builds up to them
all that
much. In Vacancy,
the action moves along
quite quickly without much mystery, intrigue or suspense (or ridiculous
twists
and turns that make you roll your eyes or extend the movie past its
natural
ending). It’s
a simple movie about a
series of scenes designed to make you jump during that one individual
scene, rather
than a compilation of moments that crescendo to a massive showdown
between
David, Amy and the people trying to kill them.
Beckinsale and Wilson are
fine as the heroes/victims, but co-star Frank Whaley, as the creepy
motel
manager, goes too far over the top to make this work for the movie. Some of it is the obvious
and hideous
costuming, which makes him look like a porn star straight out of 1975,
but he
doesn’t help the cause as he fails to make us comfortable or
trusting of the
character at any point. It
would be nice
if his intentions were more of a mystery, which would make him scarier,
and
shock the audience when the attack begins, but you know he is trouble
the first
moment he walks on the screen.
Vacancy will entertain and
frighten when you are watching the movie, but you won’t think
much about it
once the credits roll.
2
½ Waffles (Out Of 4)
Vacancy is
rated R for brutal violence and terror, brief
nudity and
language.
Copyright
2007 - WaffleMovies.com