film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997
No movie has ever been higher-concept than this: Today-aged Will Smith versus CGI-young Will Smith! It’s the future of film in an anemic, tedious, ironically dated spy-action shell. Bafflingly awful.
This sci-fi riff on the end of privacy is not as provocative as it would like to be, and its mystery completely falls apart in the end. But its visual worldbuilding is fascinating.
An unnecessary sequel that’s empty and arduous, little more than vignettes on vengeance and cruel parades of sociopathic power.
Or if, ahem, you have a U.S. IP address. First one’s free, kid…
Excellent performances by Clive Owen and Billy Crudup can’t disguise the fact that there’s absolutely nothing here we haven’t seen too many times before.
Great cast, but maybe it’s the same-old sameness that’s keep this from getting a major release? Could that be a reason to hope?
Even the marvelous performances by Clive Owen and Andrea Riseborough are not enough to ratchet up the drama to the level of the totally gripping, which is a damn shame and something of a puzzler…
Alas that Intruders doesn’t seem to understand that movie monsters need something more primally urgent about them than it has bothered to attach to its Hollowface.
Great. Another haunted house flick. Oh, but Clive Owen is gettin’ terrorized? Awrighty, then. I’ll be there.
grunt grunt grunt *glower* [insert mockney swearing] bash crash punch kick [insert closeup of unshaven stubble]
