THR3E : Release Year - 2006 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Overall Rating : 3.5/10 Directed By : Robby Henson Marc Blucas (They) Justine Waddell (Dracula 2000) Laura Jordan (The Night of the White Pants) Bill Moseley (The Devil's Rejects) Supplied By : Fox Home Video Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock Date Reviewed : May. 7, 2007 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PLOT Innocent lives hang on the whim of an elusive psychopathic murderer whose strange riddles and impossible timelines force three people into a mission to end the game before one or all of them die. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE REVIEW In the semi-religious Thriller THR3E, a Serial Killer being called "The Riddle Killer is on the lose. He is being called such, because before he commits a crime he gives Police Officials a riddle, and if they should solve it, they just might be able to prevent them from happening. But when her Brother Roy ends up being one of the killers victim, things get personal for Officer Jennifer Peters. When a seminary student named Kevin Parson begins to receive messages from and seemingly stalked by the same "Riddle Killer" Peters and Parsons paths cross and they begin to investigate further into the mystery of the man behind this. It soon leads Kevin to retrace he and his Girlfriend Samantha childhood as they recall a bully they had named "Slater". As more and more is revealed it turns out that it his Slater and he seems to want to make Kevin pay for an incident in which he once left him to die after a scuffle - it is something Slater refers to as a Sin. As the game of cat-and-mouse continues things become more and more confusing and it becomes clear to some that Kevin may just be playing more of a hand in this than he chooses to reveal. *** Contains SPOILERS*** Ok, so as far as I am aware of this film is the first major theatrical release for FOX's new specialty banner FOX FAITH. The label is supposed to produce and run film's that are "faith friendly". and not offensive to any denomination(I am guessing this - I still don't get this whole faith thing they are trying), so going into this I was skeptical at just what it would be like - I knew however it would be tame, whatever it was. I was right as the violence is very subtle and no blood or anything else like that was shown, does this hurt the whole outcome of the film itself? No but there are definitely other things that do. First of all, since this is on the FOX FAITH LABEL, there has to be distinct reason, and there is. Throughout THR3E, there are Bible references and at one point the main character's sins become a focal point. I have nothing wrong, with faith, religion, and everything, but it is as if these elements in the story were purposely put there, and before long the film begins to feel a whole lot gimmicky. In place of the blood and gore, that seems to be purposely omitted here, there are tons of bombs and explosions utilized here, as that is the killer's choice of weapon. This becomes extremely tired after awhile. I mean c'mon, first a car, a dog house(not to mention with the dog in it), a bus and then a warehouse? just how many things can you watch being blown up in a movie? After the first one, the excitement wears thin and after anymore it's just repetitive. Beware because here comes the spoilers as I mention the film's main problems. For one the story tries to be serious and tries to be a real film, such as having a deep investigation and such, but some of THR3E's characters just do not seem to fit in the film at all. First we have Kevin's abusive Aunt, whom is affectionately called "Princess", whom is a haggard old broad who wears a tiara, she is joined by whom I am guessing is his mentally challenged Cousin(Brother?), and his Uncle who wears a Shriners hat, who is just, well...weird, These set of characters are so unrealistic, and they are almost cartoonish up against the backdrop of the serious film it is trying to be. There are also, huge plot-holes that plague this film. In the end of the film it is revealed that this whole Slater thing and everything that happens in the film are in fact a product of Kevin's imagination who has split personalities. It is explained that Kevin developed this characters to cope with the abuse given to him in his childhood by his Aunt Princess, the woman in which he lived with. Slater was the opposite of Kevin's personality - his evil side, while Samantha, who also isn't real served as the friend he never had. In the big confrontation between Officer Peters and Kevin in the end, Peters beaks Kevin's heart when she breaks the news to him that half of his life is a fair tale and not even his love Samantha is real, something just isn't right. She tell's him that she had never spoke to or saw Samantha, but yet, before she arrived at the warehouse, in which this scene was now taking place, just who was she talking to on the phone then, hmm? I suppose she was doing a little "air-phone" communication there.....yeah she's really talented. Also how would they explain Kevin's car and everything else in sight blowing up? Kevin certainly wouldn't blow him self up, would he? Well they chose to tie it up by telling us that a street vendor in which we see in the beginning of the film, is the REAL "Riddle Killer" and he was coming after Kevin in these attacks for copy-catting his crimes, when Kevin was having a bit of split personality. So half of the crimes in the film are done by Kevin's alter-ago while the other half were the other guy trying to punish Kevin for copying him? The whole scenario is just too far fetched and ridiculous to believe. I won't discredit the actors here, because it's not their fault. The actors portrayed the character's as realistically as they could in a plot that was way less than straight. Bill Moseley is just a genius, and you feel sorry for him, because he is one of the only great performances here. And so was Laura Jordan's performance, in which made her character of Samantha, very likeable..... too bad her character was just a figment of some guy's imagination... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GORE METER N/A No gore, just a lot of explosions - too many if you ask me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MUSICAL SCORE 2.5/10 The score is what I like to call, "generic hero music" nothing special, it's the type of music played when someone saves the day so to speak....but White Zombie's "More Human than Human" is played and that was cool. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OVERALL IMPRESSION OF THE FILM What can I say, I liked THE MARINE for what it is, a fun action movie that takes it's inspiration from action of the 1980's, being a fan of those types of films...I liked it, and even better than WWE's last project SEE NO EVIL, which was really nothing more than a paint-by-numbers Horror film, that had some good moments, but that was about it. Again, I don't know where all the film's negativity is coming from but I can only speak for myself here - I recommend! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STILLS