It's been a while since I've seen a movie like this. Usually, films set in modern times that represent old characters such as 'O, Brother Where Art Thou' or most vampire films, eschew Biblical characters in favour of fictional ones, not someone from The Book of Genesis like this does. The reason I begin this review with the major spoiler is because other reviews are already revealing who Jack is, so me mentioning this known spoiler is superfluous. What I really want to talk about is the quality of the film.
Henry Rollins as Jack was good. In fact, his acting, as well as the girl who played his daughter and the Marlee Matlin-lookalike waitress, was pretty good. That helped elevate this otherwise non-believable story into the realm of plausibility. I do wish the filmmakers had more money to show us the fighting scenes instead of alluding to it with audio and the aftermath. Still, this device worked on the same level that 'Funny Games' worked - off-screen violence can still have an impact on the viewer.
I liked 'He Never Died'. It only loses points for the bad acting of the secondary characters and the huge hole near the beginning. That's the scene where Jack yanks a mailman out of his truck and follows the goons, who'd kidnapped Jack's friend, to a warehouse. Jack was only about 10 seconds behind those guys, but when we see that, in the warehouse, his friend has already been tied and beaten up, all of that would've had to happen in 10 seconds. The goons were fast but not The Flash-fast. Anyway, I think this movie is worth watching. If you do miss it that's okay, too. It's not a must see film like 'Begotten' but it is a worthwhile little time-waster.
Henry Rollins as Jack was good. In fact, his acting, as well as the girl who played his daughter and the Marlee Matlin-lookalike waitress, was pretty good. That helped elevate this otherwise non-believable story into the realm of plausibility. I do wish the filmmakers had more money to show us the fighting scenes instead of alluding to it with audio and the aftermath. Still, this device worked on the same level that 'Funny Games' worked - off-screen violence can still have an impact on the viewer.
I liked 'He Never Died'. It only loses points for the bad acting of the secondary characters and the huge hole near the beginning. That's the scene where Jack yanks a mailman out of his truck and follows the goons, who'd kidnapped Jack's friend, to a warehouse. Jack was only about 10 seconds behind those guys, but when we see that, in the warehouse, his friend has already been tied and beaten up, all of that would've had to happen in 10 seconds. The goons were fast but not The Flash-fast. Anyway, I think this movie is worth watching. If you do miss it that's okay, too. It's not a must see film like 'Begotten' but it is a worthwhile little time-waster.