...another of those films where we just wish the madman would dispatch the leading lady as quickly as possible and be done with it, putting her and us out our misery.
How dumb is the Nicole character? She breaks into the ranger station and finds a two-way radio and a bottle of whiskey on the ranger's desk. After two seconds yelling "Mayday" into the radio, she gives up trying to figure out how to work the thing and drinks the bottle of booze. More satire? I don't know. Later, she finds a crowbar, the only tool approaching a weapon with which to defend herself, and she almost immediately throws it away. Then a motorcycle cop shows up, but she doesn't think to use his gun. Finally, when her situation looks really hopeless, she does the only thing a horror-movie queen could do: She rips her top off. I mean, why didn't she just look for a pen and paper, write "KILL ME" in capital letters, and tape it to her forehead? At least then we'd have known it was being played for laughs.
Should we care about the heroine? We know as little about her as we do the villain, maybe less. Consequently, "Rest Stop" winds up as another of those films where we just wish the madman would dispatch the leading lady as quickly as possible and be done with it, putting her and us out our misery.
To say that watching this film was a most-unpleasant experience would be an understatement. There is no suspense, only grossness; no tension, only mind-numbing perversity; no creativity, only bloodshed and depravity. Even Shiban's filmmaking techniques--close-ups, quick edits, loud music--are stale imitations of trite TV work. In short, "Rest Stop" is a distillation of everything one can think of that's bad about horror movies of the last quarter century. And if it's supposed to be a send-up of fright flicks, you could have fooled me.
Video:
Although the video engineers present the image in a 1.78:1 ratio, anamorphic widescreen, with decent colors, that's about all that one can say for it. Otherwise, it's pretty ordinary in every way. Its visual appearance is rather ragged, grainy, sometimes blurry, and often dark, perhaps done intentionally to complement the film's grisly content.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sonics display a wide front-channel stereo spread but not much rear-channel activity. Surround effects are limited to the barest trace of musical ambience and a couple of noises during an explosion. While midrange delivery is fine, deepest bass and highest treble have gone missing along with everyone else at this rest stop.
Extras:
The regular R-rated edition of "Rest Stop" has only two alternate endings and a trailer as special features, but the unrated edition reviewed here has three alternate endings and several other worthless items. Of the three alternate endings, each one is as muddled as the last. In addition, there is a one-minute segment called "On the Bus," crime scene photos of more gratuitous gore; and "Scotty's Blog Exposé," six minutes of family-album video, culminating in yet more gore. Things wind up with twenty scene selections but no chapter insert (a fancy slipcover but no chapter insert); a non-anamorphic widescreen theatrical trailer; English as the only spoken language; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.
Parting Shots:
Somebody somewhere probably thought the idea for this film had promise. Somebody somewhere will probably enjoy it. I'm thinking the somebodies somewhere are few and far between.
Should we care about the heroine? We know as little about her as we do the villain, maybe less. Consequently, "Rest Stop" winds up as another of those films where we just wish the madman would dispatch the leading lady as quickly as possible and be done with it, putting her and us out our misery.
To say that watching this film was a most-unpleasant experience would be an understatement. There is no suspense, only grossness; no tension, only mind-numbing perversity; no creativity, only bloodshed and depravity. Even Shiban's filmmaking techniques--close-ups, quick edits, loud music--are stale imitations of trite TV work. In short, "Rest Stop" is a distillation of everything one can think of that's bad about horror movies of the last quarter century. And if it's supposed to be a send-up of fright flicks, you could have fooled me.
Video:
Although the video engineers present the image in a 1.78:1 ratio, anamorphic widescreen, with decent colors, that's about all that one can say for it. Otherwise, it's pretty ordinary in every way. Its visual appearance is rather ragged, grainy, sometimes blurry, and often dark, perhaps done intentionally to complement the film's grisly content.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sonics display a wide front-channel stereo spread but not much rear-channel activity. Surround effects are limited to the barest trace of musical ambience and a couple of noises during an explosion. While midrange delivery is fine, deepest bass and highest treble have gone missing along with everyone else at this rest stop.
Extras:
The regular R-rated edition of "Rest Stop" has only two alternate endings and a trailer as special features, but the unrated edition reviewed here has three alternate endings and several other worthless items. Of the three alternate endings, each one is as muddled as the last. In addition, there is a one-minute segment called "On the Bus," crime scene photos of more gratuitous gore; and "Scotty's Blog Exposé," six minutes of family-album video, culminating in yet more gore. Things wind up with twenty scene selections but no chapter insert (a fancy slipcover but no chapter insert); a non-anamorphic widescreen theatrical trailer; English as the only spoken language; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.
Parting Shots:
Somebody somewhere probably thought the idea for this film had promise. Somebody somewhere will probably enjoy it. I'm thinking the somebodies somewhere are few and far between.
![Happy Days [TV Show]](/images/displaymedia.php?id=25233&sizew=70&cat=3)
Average user rating (1-5):
Not yet rated.
Not yet rated.
[release]19502[/release]