Resurrection review by Matt Fuerst

@JackassMatt

For some reason Resurrection doesn't have "From the people who brought you Highlander II" slapped all over the front cover. Oh wait, that's right, Highlander II is pretty universally considered one of the worst movies of all time. Still, Resurrection had a surprisingly high rating on Netflix, and the premise sounded pretty intriguing, so I decided to take it for a whirl (and heck, I own Highlander II so I guess that says a lot about me).

Resurrection is the tale of Chicago Detective John Prudhomme (Christopher Lambert). Prudhomme is a bit of a recluse, and has burned through partners in Chicago at an alarming rate, in fact there's only one Detective left in the department willing to work with him Detective Hollinsworth (a Matt Fuerst favorite, Leland Orser). The movie wastes little time getting things rolling, we get some minimal characterizations and then the bodies start dropping. Late at night, Prudhomme gets the call... A rich gentleman happened to have his right arm removed at the shoulder with surgical precision. By itself, a seemingly random act of insanity, but shortly thereafter the next call comes in. Another stiff, this time with the left arm removed. Obviously, there's a pattern here, but what is it, and how can Prudhomme and Hollinsworth stop the murderer? The effects at these scenes are quite outstanding, and really deserve praise. However, the crime investigation itself hits all the Hollywood cliches: murderer left no trace evidence, no finger prints, and messages cryptic enough to entice yet simple enough for a Chicago Detective to be able to crack.

With the help of the FBI, Chicao PD is able to track down the trail of the killer and discern their pattern. The "Numbers Killer" as the press starts calling him has 4 more murders to complete his grand scheme, and the detectives have little time to track him down. The process of the detectives cracking the pattern is simplistic, but presented in a really entertaining way. It's quite possible in a movie like this for the film to get weighed down with the burden of a "code" that's all to clever for the pacing of the film. Instead, we are racing from murder scene to murder scene with some interesting detective work going on in between. It really is all good fun. Thing eventually turn personal between Prudhomme and the "Numbers Killer", with ramifications extending deep into Prudhomme's personal life.

This flick really and truly is enjoyable, it far exceeded my expectations. First let me say the murders are surprisingly grisly and raw. The effects are really first rate, truly up there with the biggest budget Hollywood films. I personally like Christopher Lambert, I think he generally plays his characters well and seems to have fun with his work. There are some scenes here that stretch beyond his normal range, and seeing Christopher Lambert (attempting to) cry isn't something I look forward to repeating. The other gold medal I would award for Resurrection (aside from one to the effect crew) would be to director Russell Mulcahy. Mulcahy certainly has shown some flashes of inspiration in his previous movies, heck there's even some neat crane shots in the aforementioned Highlander II but he injects with Resurrection with as much energy as a hypnotic MTV rave video. Flashy camera tricks, some break neck editing, fittingly bizarre camera angles and some truly excellent lighting make Resurrection really a treat on the eyes.

I'm sure I'm not going to the first guy to make this comparison, but Resurrection drew more than a little inspiration from se7en, and as far as crime thrillers go it would be hard to do better. Heck, both movies even share actor Leland Orser, who delivered my favorite victim speech of all time in se7en ("I f***ed her. I f***ed her." over and over again, you have to see it to "get it"). In comparison, I would say Resurrection takes away much of the suspenseful investigation aspect of se7en, but in it's stead gives the viewer some real visceral, gnarly, in your face murders. It's a surprisingly good tradeoff! In preparation for writing this review, I had to swing by a Jackass Critic fav, boxofficemojo.com to make sure Resurrection really was released Direct-to-Video as I suspected. Yep, sadly Resurrection didn't get any play in the theatres. Really a shame as it would have been better than at least 14 other movies in a 16 movie cineplex and has a budget and look I think people really would taken a liking to. This has been out for a while, so it's probably long gone from the New Release section of your local video store, but I'd suggest checking out the Thriller section and checking this one out.


8 out of 10 Jackasses
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