Trespass

Trespass

Trespass isn’t a bad film overall, but I can see why this Joel Schumacher film didn’t receive a wide release in North America.  The film has some strange characteristics that do not fit with rest of the movie, such as flashbacks.

The movie is about a diamond dealer that finds him and his family thrown into a tense situation due to a brutal home invasion. 

Somewhere, there is a good hostage/heist movie trying to claw its way out.  Some poor decisions force this simple premise into corny and foolish territory

The biggest problem with the movie is the decision to put Nicolas Cage into the leading role.  Cage has been both box office and critic poison for many years now.  Putting him into your movie is guaranteed to harm the movie.  Cage does his usual shouting and grunting that has made him famous.  While Schumacher has toned down Cage’s outrageous mannerisms, Cage’s overacting does bring you out of the movie sometimes. 

Nicole Kidman is plain and boring in the role of the unhappy wife.  I was wondering if she wasn’t just channeling her contempt with the script.  However, Liana Liberato isn’t bad as the “troublesome teenage daughter”, but it is the cliché character that makes that her performance dull. 

There are a couple of twists, but you won’t really care about them because the movie doesn’t give a damn about the characters.  And, to be fair, the movie borrows a bit too much from the better-written film Panic Room.  They even have the looming heavy robber character that takes it too far written into the script.  You can throw in a staple gun weapon scene just like in the action movies from the 90s.

The clichés and the bland script bring this movie down considerably, and that’s sad because there are some good moments. 

Schumacher does an okay job, but it does have a direct to DVD look to it.  He doesn’t seem to have the same intense sense of tension like Phone Booth.  This flawed movie has some interesting moments, but the poor script and bad acting by Cage keep this movie from being good. 

Grade:  C-

 

 Nic Cage:  "Yes, I did star in Season of the Witch and Bangkok Dangerous.  But, don't hold that against me!" 

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 Shirt-less dude: “I'll make you totally forget about that Tom Cruise guy.”

Nicole: “Legally, I can't say anything bad about my batshit crazy former hubby, or his church will come after me.”

Shirt-less Dude: “But you just said...”

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Nic Cage:  "So, you're saying I can star in Ghost Rider III: Ghost Projectile"