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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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Not Forgotten

Posted Dec 7, 2009 by John Allman

Updated Dec 7, 2009 at 11:05 PM

Not Forgotten
Genre: Thriller
Directed by: Dror Soref
Run time: 97 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: La Santa Muerte, literally translated as goddess of death, is worshipped by many in Mexico.

The Mexican saint looms over “Not Forgotten,” a watered-down “Angel Heart”-lite tale of one poor gringo’s downward spiral to atone for his violent past.

Simon Baker, the newly-white-hot star of TV’s “The Mentalist,” but never an A-list Hollywood draw, plays the the main character Jack Bishop unevenly as a cross between naïve parent and bloodthirsty vigilante.

Early on, Bishop’s daughter is kidnapped and Bishop, who happens to be dating the sheriff’s cousin, tries to appeal to law enforcement to help weed through a motley rogue’s gallery of possible suspects, including a pedophilic truck driver and a Santa Muerte follower with a lengthy criminal history.

But Bishop has a past that most don’t know. And whenever he crosses the border and saunters through a dingy Mexican bar, the prostitutes whisper and point. It turns out that Bishop was a bad, bad man and he killed many people.

He sporadically flexes his bad guy muscles, brutally killing a possible suspect and offing his former prostitute squeeze.

Now, years later, someone apparently wants to teach him a lesson.

In the process, they also teach the audience never to trust DVD box art that proclaims a movie is worth watching “for the ending alone.”

This is contrived crap at its finest. Baker spends a good chunk of the film without his shirt on to capitalize on his sex appeal. Paz Vega continues her streak of looking good in movies (also see, The Spirit) without actually getting to act. And the few scenes of suspense are squandered by a lackluster script that seems to exist solely for the twist.

The twist here is so bad, so telegraphed, so unintentionally anticlimactic, that you may literally groan and shout, “Really?” at the screen.

Anchor Bay’s first Blu-Ray title isn’t a complete disappointment. The picture quality in high definition is gorgeous in spots and the scenes representing the hard streets of Mexico just across the border won’t win any tourism kudos but they’re effectively creepy.

If only the story had been better.

The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Paz Vega, latino heat.
Nudity – Yes.
Gore – Yes.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – Trust no one.
Buy/Rent – Neither.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – Director’s commentary, behind-the-scenes featurette, trailer.
Release Date – Nov. 1, 2009