Playback (2012)

Playback is one of those movies that should have made us say "Christian Slater's in this, it's going to suck." That's not a rip on Christian Slater; on the contrary, we like him quite a bit. The guy is Kuffs for pete's sake. He's Clarence Worley. He's Happy Harry Hardon! The fact is though, that since the late 90's, he hasn't starred in that many great movies. He's kinda gone down the same road as Ray Liotta or Cuba Gooding Jr... they all had a good career going, and drifted off into B-Movie obscurity. Oh, Wesley Snipes too. What the hell ever happened to that guy?

Anywho, Playback is the story of a creepy rube who knocks up his sister, kills his family, and uses a video camera to transfer his evil soul into some tapes so that he can pass his evilness on to his blood heir at some point years down the road. Ok, so far, not bad.

"I am so in you now!"

Years down the road, another creepy rube finds said tape, and becomes possessed, dragging a group of high schoolers into a web of murder and body-jumping possession, which means of course, blood and death. You know one of the teens is the killers baby all grown up, right? Which one though? Which one...

"Not me!"

This movie is a jumbled mess that never quite finds its footing, or a proper tone. The high schoolers in this movie are all played by actors in their mid to late 20s, one of them in their 30s, and it just felt a bit off. Could they not have made them college kids at least? And as for Christian Slater, the biggest name in the movie, he's relegated to a small role as a pedophile cop who pay the creepy kid of the town to get him spycam tapes of local teens in various states of undress... then he flogs one out to them. That was the entire point of his character, and it was a waste.

Christian, you creeper! Can't you just watch porn like everyone else?

There are twists and turns to be found here as well, but none that you wont see coming from miles away (mainly because they've been done before, over and over.) Cliche and obligatory twists can be tolerated if the movie surrounding them is engaging and entertaining. Aside from a few kill scenes, Playback was neither. Good premise, just sloppy execution and total lack of atmosphere.

The Master Says- D There's really no way for us to recommend this movie to anyone. It's not completely abysmal, but it's far enough removed from good that it's best skipped altogether. Still, for some the gore and hot chicks may be enough for them to love this movie. Had it been a bit less messy, we might have loved it too.

Final Thoughts- At least the chicks were hot. Thank you Alessandra Torresani and Ambyr Childers. Thank you indeed.