Bone Dry (2007)

Perfect cast and a good story

Memorable, crazy movie

The movie's only flaw is also a virtue: It's jammed with characters, stories, warmth and laughs.

Blistering performances.

Bone Dry is fantastic little piece of sun soaked, revenge fuelled melodrama that serves as a glowing showcase for its two leads, Luke Goss and a ferocious Lance Henriksen. Lean, mean, gritty and reminiscent of 1970's revenge outings, it's a bloody delight of a flick. Luke Goss, an actor who can give Henriksen a run for his money in the intensity department, plays Eddie, a well dressed dude with a suspiciously murky past, winding his way through the desolation of the Mojave Desert. After breezing through a lonely cafe run by a girl (always nice to see Dee Wallace) who clearly has eyes for him, he sets out through a particularly lonely stretch of the terrain, and that's where he finds himself in serious trouble. He's soon stalked by a menacing, mysterious man named Jimmy (Henriksen), who is intent on tormenting, taunting and messing him up at every turn. Jimmy is an ex war monster a man whose taken it upon himself to put Eddie through every ring of hell that the Mojave has to offer, all in service of some deeply buried reasons that emerge from the sand late in the third act, shedding scorching light on the two men's character arc, and giving the film quite the emotional boost. When I say hell, I mean it. Eddie suffers through some unspeakably horrific scenarios, including a scene involving a cactus that will induce mass cringing among audience members. Director Brett A. Hart has a heightened, almost Walter Hill-esque style to his film, with the intensity metre ratcheted up past the maximum, and editing trimmed down to whip smart strokes that put you right in the middle of Eddie's clammy desperation and Jimmy's enigmatic fury. Henriksen spends the first half of the film with his face shrouded, adding to the mystery of his character. He's a master of the craft who slowly lets the breadcrumb trail fall with every portentous mannerism and glowering posture until we finally see what Jimmy is really about. One his best performances. Goss doesn't let the energy sag for a single second, something he has always been great at. There's further work from the legendary Tommy 'Tiny Lister' Jr. as well, filling in another subplot stranded out there in the sand. This one is genre bliss, brutal and blistering until it cools off for a conclusion that cuts the viewer some respiratory slack after the breathlessness of its juggernaut setup. Terrific stuff.

"Bone Dry" was recommended to me by a good friend and promoted as a modest but exciting little thriller with an original setting and decent performances. Perhaps I simply wasn't in a very good mood when I watched it, but all I saw was a dire, derivative and overlong cat-and-mouse thriller without any thrills. Lance Henriksen – mainly off-screen but immediately recognizable thanks to his distinct voice – threatens a seemingly innocent guy (Luke Goss) at gunpoint and forces him to talk a long walk in the Mojave Desert. Eddie's journey on foot through the hot sand is inhumanly cruel and full of ambushes and death traps, while his unseen assailant follows him around in a jeep and armed with a sniper rifle. Director Brett A. Hart's script tries very hard to make us believe that Eddie is just a poor traveler at the wrong place at the wrong time, whereas Jimmy – the voice on the walkie talkie – is a sadist and merciless villain without proper motivation for his acts. But it's more than obvious right from the beginning that Eddie isn't a randomly targeted victim and that he probably deserves every humiliating and agonizing thing that overcomes him. Their excursion in the Mojave Desert quickly becomes tedious and repetitive, and personally I felt the urge to fast-forward towards the predictable "surprise ending". There isn't much character study going on and the vile interactions between the cat and the mouse are dull and pointless. Lance Henriksen's voice gives away a terrifically menacing performance and there are notable cameo appearances by Dee Wallace-Stone and Tommy Lister, but otherwise I can't find any good arguments to recommend this mundane and forgettable flick.

Eddie (a fine and credible performance by Luke Goss) gets forced at gunpoint by the ruthless and vengeful Jimmy (superbly played with total conviction and fierce intensity by the always dependable Lance Henriksen) into the Mojave Desert where Jimmy has set up a series of traps and challenges in order to test the limits of Eddie's endurance and survival instincts. Is Eddie just a victim of hapless circumstance? Or does Jimmy have a valid reason for putting Eddie through this punishing ordeal? Director Brett A. Hart, who also co-wrote the crafty and absorbing script with Jeff O'Brien, relates the gripping story at a steady pace, makes the most out of the dusty'n'desolate isolated setting, ably milks plenty of sweat-inducing suspense from the edgy game of cat and mouse between the two central characters, delivers a few jolting moments of raw brutal violence, and tops everything off with a cool surprise twist ending that effectively shifts the viewer's sympathies from one person to another. The strong acting by Goss and Henriksen keeps the picture humming, with Henriksen a particular stand-out throughout as the relentless and determined Jimmy. Popping up in nifty small parts are Dee Wallace as friendly diner waitress Joanne, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister as menacing thug Mitch, and Carl Buffington as eccentric New Age drug dealer Marty. Scott Glasgow's moody score further pumps up the tension. The striking yellow-hued cinematography by John Darbonne and Kevin G. Ellis vividly captures the unsparing severity of the merciless desert heat. A real nice nail-biter.

*SPOILER*The story here is simple. Luke Goss (Blade II, rubbish 80s boy band Bros) is held at gunpoint in the desert, given a compass and map by Lance Henriksen and told to head north. Henriksen turns out to be a very nasty character indeed, torturing Goss with water deprivation, burial in sand, and in one very Saw inspired sequence, a cactus and a pair of handcuffs.The problem is that the film simply doesn't maintain the suspense long enough. The dialogue is uneven and repetitive (amusingly highlighted by Henriksen's character himself at one point) and the addition of three needless characters do nothing but stretch out an already flimsy premise to breaking point. Very early on there are pieces of dialogue dropped in, leading you far too quickly to arrive at the conclusion that Luke Goss may not actually be a very nice chap himself.It's not entirely without it's charms though. Lance Henriksen is on top form (very reminiscent of his Near Dark character at some points), Goss himself is pretty decent, and you really do feel the suffocating desert heat, but by the time the conclusion arrives along with it's glaringly obvious "twist" you're just left with the feeling it was merely a padded out episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.