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John Allman

If you’ve ever wandered the aisles at the video store or surfed the DVR pay-per-view options and seen a bunch of movies that you’ve never heard of, chances are John has watched them. Why? He loves movies. All kinds of movies. Good, bad, so-bad-they’re good, even the truly unwatchable ones. He mostly loves horror and science-fiction and drive-in exploitation movies that most upstanding model citizens wouldn’t dare watch. Then he writes up his thoughts so you can decide - watch, don’t watch or avoid at all costs. Sometimes he even gets to talk to the cool folks who make some of your favorite films.

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John Allman

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A Perfect Getaway

Posted Jan 27, 2010 by John Allman

Updated Jan 27, 2010 at 07:27 AM

A Perfect Getaway
Genre: Thriller
Directed by: David Twohy
Run time: 108 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: It’s one of the best feelings for an avid movie watcher – that giddiness that comes with being completely surprised by a movie you expected to suck.

Usually, those films are the ones that whisk in and out of theaters so fast that you wonder if they even played for a week. Then they are dumped on DVD or Blu-Ray with little fanfare, which typically spells doom.

Sadly, most of those movies are genre pictures, the quickie horror, action and thrillers that seem modeled after bigger-budget releases, hoping to siphon off some of the money that they attract by offering a similar, if lesser, plot.

“A Perfect Getaway” not only doesn’t suck, it manages to remind you of the brilliance that David Twohy showed with earlier efforts like “Pitch Black” and “The Arrival.”

In short, this is an excellent thriller with a solid, smart script and twists galore to keep you guessing. Even for a die-hard guesser like me, who thought I’d figured it out, “Getaway” still snuck up and impressed me all the way to its close.

There’s not much I can say about the plot particulars because it really would ruin the satisfying way that Twohy manages to frame his scenes, which is a big reason why the movie works so well.

But know this – Steve Zahn, Milla Jovovich and especially Timothy Olyphant dazzle in their respective roles.

It’s a relief to see Olyphant’s edgy charm put to proper use after such script duds as “Hitman.” He’s a rich man’s Billy Zane, which is a compliment, mainly because he always seems to expertly straddle the line between dangerous and dashing without tipping over into cheese.

The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Yes.
Nudity – Yes.
Gore – Yes.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – It keeps you guessing.
Buy/Rent – Buy it.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – Exclusive: The scripted, original ending; BD-Live; Theatrical version.
On the Web – http://www.aperfectgetaway.net/
Release Date – Dec. 27, 2009