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Overall Rating : 5/10
Directed By : Dror Soref
Simon Baker (The Mentalist (TV) )
Paz Vega (Spanglish)
Chloe Moretz (Let Me In)
Claire Forlani (Mallrats)
Supplied By : Anchor Bay Entertainment
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : November. 10, 2009
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| PLOT Jack Bishop is a picture-perfect husband and father in a peaceful Texas border town. But when his 11-year-old daughter is kidnapped, he’ll hunt her abductors – and unleash his own tortured soul – into a Mexican hell of barrios and bordellos controlled by the mysterious religion of La Santa Muerte. When a man has too much to hide and nothing to lose, should he dare to search for the truth? | ||||
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| THE REVIEW The thriller NOT FORGOTTEN focuses on Robert Bishop and his family. 11 years prior, Robert lost his first wife, and from that marriage survived a daughter, the now 11 year old Toby, and together they live with Robert's new Wife, Amaya. When Toby ends up missing, a victim of an apparent kidnapping, the small Texas town of Del Rio, is seemingly turned up side down. With very few initial clues left to be had, Robert and Police officials uncover a few clues, but when relatively nothing helps to progress the case, Robert sets out alone for answers. Robert heads across the border to Mexico going on each and every lead that he comes across to hopefully find Toby. Going in and out of Mexican barrios and bordellos, he finds himself closer and closer to a resolution, but in the midst of it all, he also finds that a strange religion known as Santa Muerte and his own sketchy past, just might've played a big part in his daughter's abduction, and that somethings he once believed to be true, actually were not. So if you are any kind of avid movie watcher, then i'm sure that you are familiar with plots such as the one presented in NOT FORGOTTEN. The plot on the vey surface is a simple one, a parent has a child abducted and in order to save them, they must tread through an incarnation of a foreign land in order to retrieve their loved one. We have seen this all before, and now that I have seen Director Dror Soref's NOT FORGOTTEN, I can safely say that we have seen it executed better. Film's like the recent TAKEN and a few older entries, such as HARDCORE and NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER have all given us stories of relatively the same nature, and all of the above have common linkage, they all have twists and turns along the way, and end in basically the same fashion. So how does NOT FORGOTTEN differ from the rest? To be honest, it doesn't by much, except that this film sets itself in the middle of two things that conflict with each other, sex, and Mexico's deep religious practices. In the film Robert, weaves his way through all of it, and while doing so, a few clues to a secretive past that he has are revealed to us. This in itself is interesting, because at first Robert is presented as a respected family man, but near the film's end, he's not so perfect anymore, he is a little tarnished. As the film progresses, the reveals are something you might find yourself sticking around for, unfortunately, about half of the film drags on in a not so pleasing manner, and the film that was once moving along quite nicely, just doesn't anymore. I'll admit that for at least the first 45 minutes, I was kind of into, it and being a fan, of the previously mentioned movies, I was eager to see what spin NOT FORGOTTEN had planned to take. After awhile of this, it felt as if I was watching the same out tired film, it got so familiar, that not even the supposed twists were even shocking any longer. To sum it up, when the film was almost to it's end, any previous interest that I had invested in it was dwindling away, it is a decent film, but as I mentioned it's just too repetitive, not mention that it becomes very predictable over time. The film's acting overall is decent, in the lead as Robert Bishop is Simon Baker, who tries his best to Americanize himself here, but none the less, he pulls off a fairly believable performance as a concerned father, who just so happens to have a few secrets buried in his past. Another strong performance comes in the form of young Chloe Moretz as Toby, the character who is essentially at the center of this whole story. The filmmakers refrained from showing the Toby character in many scenes, especially ones with dialogue, but in these scenes that she's in, Moretz shows tons of promise for the future. Paz Vega, who was a last minute replacement for Actress Jordana Brewster for the role of Amaya, the new wife, does little else than just phone her performance in. Honestly I felt, Vega's performance here was the weakest of the bunch, I don't know if it was the lack of time to prepare for the role or not, but the performance was to me, sluggish and uninspired. I would've much rather seen Brewster here(although I don't see her particularly fitting this role properly), but for whatever reason she was replaced. We also have a great Actress here in Claire Forlani, who is sadly underused as Katie, the first wife of Robert and mother of Toby. I won't get into the context of her role, because of fear of spoiling the film for those who have yet to see it, so let's just say that she's good in the film, but she is seen a lot less than I would've liked. In the end, NOT FORGOTTEN is not a terrible film, it's ok, but the problem is, is that many films like it are out there, and a number of them are far more memorable and enjoyable. |
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| GORE
METER 4/10 Most of the backing tracks are Spanish inspired(obviously), while there is at times, booming suspense music thrown in the mix. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 3.5/10 There are a couple strangulations and multiple slashings with a broken bottle, along with gouging, among other things like the sacrifice of a chicken. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM NOT FORGOTTEN, is a religious thriller that is decent and is worth the time spent to watch it as for the most it may keep your interest. However there are more alternatives out there to be found, such as the three I mentioned that are in my opinion, more enjoyable. | ||||
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